Today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of singer Luke Kelly. He was only 44 at the time. As a singer, instrumentalist, and a founding member of The Dubliners, Kelly was at the forefront of the re-popularization of traditional ballads of Ireland and the British Isles beginning in the 1960s. His legacy lives on through the musicians he inspired, as well as a few landmarks renamed and (perhaps soon to be) erected in his honor.

Here he is singing the well-known setting of Patrick Kavanagh’s poem Raglan Road in 1979.

Raglan Road

On Raglan Road of an autumn day
I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare
That I might one day rue
I saw the danger and I passed
Along the enchanted way
And I said let grief be a fallen leaf
At the dawning of the day

On Grafton Street in November
We tripped lightly along the ledge
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
The worth of passion’s pledge
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts
And I not making hay
Oh I loved too much and by such by such
Is happiness thrown away

I gave her gifts of the mind
I gave her the secret signs
Known to the artists who have known
The true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint I did not stint
I gave her poems to say
With her own name there
And her own dark hair
Like clouds over fields of May

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet
I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had loved not as I should
A creature made of clay
When the angel woos the clay
He’ll lose his wings at the dawn of day

Read more: http://artists.letssingit.com/irish-music-lyrics-raglan-road-x9mzlqc#ixzz2rtL906ch
LetsSingIt - Your favorite Music Community