The Dirty Glass
The Dropkick Murphys were formed in Boston, MA in 1996. Since then, they've been producing a fascinating brand of music that blends traditional Irish instruments with punk rock rhythms and ideas. Although they just started out as another group of kids out to play some music and have a good time, they became fairly well-known and have toured all around the world. The Dropkick Murphys can be compared to Flogging Molly, and have cited the Pogues as one of their musical influences.
Dropkick's lyrics tend to focus on pride in their ethnic background, love of family and friends, and the importance of the working class. However, as one might expect from an Irish punk band, there's also a few songs that involve alcohol. The Dirty Glass, from their CD Blackout (2003), is one such tune. It finds an average joe (Murphy) and a female bartender (Darcy) half-shouting, half-singing the lines of the song back and forth at each other in the form of a barroom argument. Murphy seems to be a man who fell in love with Darcy, the bottle, or both at a young age, and is now past his problem and has returned to rub it in Darcy's face. At the chorus, a group of rowdy voices joins in, and there's even a random drunk guy chiming in for a couple of lines. Add pipes, a lively beat and electric guitars, and by the end of the song you've got the idea of a bar full of drunken Irishmen (and women!) having a grand old time. In Dropkick's own words, The Dirty Glass is about "trying to become a man when you are still just a boy." Without further ado, here are the lyrics to this wonderful song.
Darcy: Murphy, Murphy, darling dear,
I long for you now night and day.
Your pain was my pleasure, your sorrow my joy;
I feel now I've lost you to health and good cheer.
Murphy: Darcy, when I met you, I was five years too young. A boy beyond his age, or so I'd tell someone.
Darcy: Anyone who'd listen, and a few who couldn't care! Still I welcomed you with open arms; my love I did share.
Chorus: Darcy, Darcy, darlin' dear, you left me dying crying there, in whiskey gin and pints of beer, I fell for you my darling dear.
Murphy: You shut me off and you showed me the door - Darcy: But you always came crawling back, begging me for more. I showed you kindness, a stool and a tab - Murphy: Then ya poured me my pain in a dirty glass!
Random Drunk: Yeah, you left him bloody, battered, penniless and poor!
Darcy: You know, I often stopped and wondered how you made it through my door...
Murphy: With my brother's new non-duplicate registry ID.
Darcy: Well you bit off more than you could chew the first day you met me!
Chorus
Darcy: You weren't the first to court me, mister, and you won't be the last.
Murphy: Oh I'm sure I wasn't, Honey! I know all about your past!
Darcy: Listen to the big shot with his pager on call! You spent most of those nights in my bathroom stall.
Random Drunk: Yeah, you got him high, but you left him low.
Darcy: Mind your own business, boy! How was I to know, that he was just a fiend and a no-good cheat?!
Murphy: Well it's all in the past, bitch, 'cause now I've got it beat!
Chorus x3
Darcy: My dear...my dear...!
Murphy: Darcy, Darcy, my darling dear.