'P' stands for Paddy, I suppose...

Given that it is St. Partrick' Day, and only yesterday I decided to return to the subject of live LPs...
Ireland has for centuries, and still continues to be a treasure chest of music of all sorts. I like a great deal of it too. I could certainly name a few (famous) exceptions but to do so would, however, go against one of the very earliest policy statements I made when starting this blog.
This was actually not something I forethought, even yesterday, but if you don't believe me then it really doesn't matter to me or alter the idea here.
If I listened to one band's recordings more often in the late 1980s than those of Thin Lizzy I don't know what it was. If you wish to condense as much of it as possible into just an hour-and-a-half then 'Live and Dangerous' is that which you need. It was recorded over a period of time and at different venues and there are rumours of over dubbing.
Do not worry yourself about any of that for now - just take it as it comes and let it wash over you. In one sense it doesn't matter how it was imagined and then realised given the technology of 1978. It is astonishing even thirty-seven years later because, played loud on decent speakers, and not through even reasonable earphones, it feels real. That is the best that a live recording can hope to do, howsoever it was recorded and mixed. It was and it remains one of the true classics of its kind. In this case P stands for Philip, without a shadow of a doubt.

My 'P' initial does indeed stand for Patrick so, from the more traditional side of Irish music, comes my favourite version of 'P Stands For Paddy I suppose'. It is taken from the 1974 Planxty LP, 'Cold Blow and the Rainy Night', which I also have on original vinyl.

For your convenience here is a link to that version of this classic; also listen to the lyric about what W. stands for.

Of course there is so much more where that came from and this is without mentioning the Irish influence on American music or vice-versa.

Age is not always a bad thing...

I sometimes think that, being the far side of forty, it might seem strange that I should like so much new music but I'm quite able to ignore such things, or even rebut them if that is strictly necessary.
On the other hand things that I'm too young to remember first-hand I am simply never asked about and perhaps the best thing about having a music collection is that in all probability, when the everyday listening seems exactly that, you can always find something strange to listen to that you haven't heard in ages.
I've long had a soft spot for folk music in most disguises and this is one album, certainly not the only one, that has been in my collection for over twenty years now but is actually far older than that:

Planxty - The Well Below The Valley (1973)

This is available on CD from the usual sources but Polydor 2383-232 (the original issue vinyl) might not be. The following year they released 'Cold Blow and the Rainy Night', which is regarded by some as even better. I have that on original vinyl too but I wouldn't care to say I like one more than the other. The one thing I don't have is their eponymous first album, and many regard this at the finest of the lot. It is readily available on CD, of that there is no doubt, but as I have the other two on vinyl there is a certain temptation ...