Gutbrain Records

Tuesday, 13 September 2005

Ever since I heard "The Londonderry Air" played by Sharon Isbin on her outstanding Dreams of a World CD, I've wondered why it's the same song as "Danny Boy". The answer appears to be that Fred Weatherly, the author of "Danny Boy", heard "The Londonderry Air" and realized that the tune would be a good fit for his "Danny Boy" lyrics. Both songs were hits, I think. Ah, those carefree days of music piracy, almost a hundred years ago! More details here.

I'd forgotten about this until the other day when Alice and I watched Pursued, a great Western directed by Raoul Walsh, with cinematography by James Wong Howe, one of the best motion-picture photographers who ever lived.

I had just read Baby, I Don't Care, Lee Server's biography of Robert Mitchum. I'd already seen many classic Robert Mitchum movies — Out of the Past and Cape Fear come to mind — and some negligible Robert Mitchum movies — The Grass Is Greener comes to mind — but since reading the biography, I've felt like I need to see many more.

Walsh's Pursued, like Anthony Mann's The Furies (which stars the great Barbara Stanwyck), is a Western inspired by Greek tragedy, but Howe's camerawork and Mitchum's presence (and writer Niven Busch's use of flashbacks) give the production a film noir identity. The score by Max Steiner incorporates "The Londonderry Air" as a motif.

Robert Mitchum is hardly revealed by his biography. He probably couldn't be. One thing that is revealed is a scatological bent of his, though. The number of stories which involve Mitchum urinating or defecating on someone or something is mind boggling.

In one scene in Pursued, Teresa Wright, who plays Mitchum's love interest, puts on an Edison cylinder of "The Londonderry Air", a song that the two characters have been listening to since they were childhood sweethearts. Mitchum hears it and names it. I'm sure he said "Londonderry Air," but I heard "London Derrière" when he said it.