The Yellow Bittern
Thursday, RTE1, 10.45pm
This powerful feature documentary from Alan Gilsenan, which was given a cinematic release a few months back, is a revealing and surprising portrait of the last surviving member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, and the man Bob Dylan once called "the best ballad singer I'd ever heard in my whole life" -- Liam Clancy.
Gilsenan's intimate, confessional film mixes interview with archive footage to chart the remarkable rise to fame of these devil-may-care Irish singers, from their small-town beginnings in Co Tipperary to the folk heyday of Greenwich Village in the 60s, where they absorbed black musical influences, played for John F Kennedy and out-sold the Beatles.
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem would go on to influence a host of popular artists, from Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger to The Pogues, and become a powerful iconic presence on the Irish cultural map.
They have garnered worldwide success and huge popular acclaim, but opinions are still divided about them. To many, they are the true embodiment of the Irish popular folksong tradition, while to others they represent the worst excesses of stage-Irishness. Yet, despite this, their songs have remained hugely popular in Ireland, and become part of the inner soundtrack of the nation.
But for all their fame, their story remains largely untold -- or, at least, misrepresented, especially at home. Many myths and legends have grown up around The Clancy Brothers, but the legend of Liam Clancy, the youngest, is perhaps the most potent of all.
In a life packed with incident, Liam Clancy left his native Carrick-on-Suir for New York in the late 50s, where he became part of the emerging Greenwich Village folk movement. With his older brothers Tommy and Paddy and longtime collaborator Tommy Makem, he formed one the most successful folk acts of the 60s, and his dramatic singing style has often been cited by Bob Dylan as an influence. And in this series of candid interviews, he looks back over a bewildering and hectic career.
With their Aran jumpers and hearty come-all-ye's, the Irishness purveyed by the Clancy brothers had more to do with American notions of what constituted our national identity than anything you'd have found at home.
The formula made them hugely successful, but a combination of alcohol and tax difficulties meant that Liam lost most of what they made in the 60s and had to reinvent himself as a performer all over again. In the film's most interesting segments, he talks about his turbulent relationship with Diane Guggenheim, the suicidal heiress and patron of the arts. And Clancy tells his story well.
Drawing on unseen and behind-the-scenes footage of the band at their peak, as well as on Clancy's own personal archive, the film is a compelling look at an iconic and influential life lived to the full.
But this darkly revealing portrait also goes behind the mask of the performer and delves deep into the psyche of Liam Clancy, as well as his troubled personal life, where the excesses of rock 'n' roll found their way in to the world of folk.
He's frank and open about his problems with alcohol and the dark days of the 70s, when he lost everything he'd earned, and for anyone interested in Irish music The Yellow Bittern is a must.
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- Paul Whitington
Irish Independent
