Paul Weller’s attempt to write a modern version of ‘Danny Boy’
Everybody has their own distinct music taste and record collection, but there are a select few songs which unite everybody; the folk songs of centuries passed, that have travelled through the generations, beloved by everybody from Primary School music teachers to ‘the Modfather’ himself, Paul Weller.
It was during the age of punk rock that Weller made his first mark on the musical landscape, ushering in the age of 1970s mod revival and offering a sharply dressed alternative to the safety pins and spiked hair of the Roxy Club. During the tenure of The Jam, though, it was from the rock, pop, and soul sounds of the 1960s that the songwriter took the bulk of his inspiration. Other than a sparse few acoustic efforts within The Jam’s repertoire, in fact, the realm of folk music never really entered into proceedings.
Nevertheless, Weller’s solo offerings, stretching back to his first efforts during the early 1990s – Wild Wood being perhaps the most overt example – have long since been indebted to his ever-expanding folk influences. “It’s stuff I only started listening to from the start of my solo career,” Weller admitted to Uncut back in 2008.
Unsurprisingly, the songwriter found an immediate appreciation for folk once he started delving in, finding particular adoration for Nick Drake, for example. “You realise that there’s a whole different world out there that you know nothing about,” he shared. “And there’s been some great folk compilations out in recent years. That’s a definite influence.”
In addition to the likes of Drake, though, Weller also opened his heart to age-old folk songs like ‘Danny Boy’, which, from its early origins back in 1913, has become one of the most universally known songs in the English-speaking world. The former Style Council frontman has such an appreciation for the song, in fact, that he attempted to replicate its universal appeal on ‘Where’er Ye Go’ from 22 Dreams.
“I got a guitarist called John McCusker to play 12-string on a couple of tracks – he’s a top man – and there’s a few tracks where I’m trying to write a folk classic,” Weller explained. “‘Where’er You Go’ is my attempt to write a modern ‘Danny Boy’ or something.”
Although ‘Where’er You Go’ has yet to become quite so universally accepted as ‘Danny Boy’ – it isn’t even among Weller’s most well-known solo efforts, in all honesty – you can certainly hear the sonic similarities between the two songs, separated by nearly an entire century.
With its gentle, orchestral accompaniment and rather memorable, melancholic lyrics, it doesn’t take a musicologist to draw the parallels between Weller’s folk-heavy effort and the timeless sounds of ‘Danny Boy’. While his attempt to modernise the song might not be trotted out at funerals quite as regularly as the original, it does well to encapsulate the constantly shifting sands of Weller’s output.
Throughout his illustrious career, the songwriter has explored a wealth of different artistic avenues, from 1960s mod rock to tropicália, and his more recent devotion to the timeless sounds of folk music have added another captivating string to his ever-expanding bow.
