Dirty Old Town

"Dirty Old Town" is a song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 that was made popular by The Dubliners and The Pogues.

History

The song was written about Salford, then in Lancashire, England, the area where MacColl was born and brought up. It was originally composed for an interlude to cover an awkward scene change in his 1949 play Landscape with Chimneys, set in a North of England industrial town, but with the growing popularity of folk music the song became a standard. The first verse refers to the gasworks croft, which was a piece of open land adjacent to the gasworks, and then speaks of the old canal, which was the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal. The line in the original version about smelling a spring on “the Salford wind” is sometimes sung as “the sulphured wind”. But in any case, most singers tend to drop the Salford reference altogether, in favour of calling the wind “smoky”. (This is the case in MacColl's own 1983 recording of the song.)

The Pogues version

Released on Rum Sodomy & the Lash in 1985, the Pogues' version reached number 62 in the UK and 27 in the Irish charts when released as a single. It has been certified Silver for sales.

The Pogues' version of the song is played during the team walk-on at Salford City FC.

Reception

John Leland at Spin called the song, "a sparse melancholy reminiscence of love in an industrial sewer. The Pogues are a crudely affecting bunch of romantics." AllMusic said, "while Shane MacGowan may not have written "Dirty Old Town", his wrought, emotionally compelling vocals made [it] his from then on."

Charts

The Dubliners version

Certifications

References

External links

• Discussion of lyrics at The Mudcat Cafe
• Material on Salford Gasworks at The National Archives