Search/Destroy: The Waterboys

Anyway, the main reason I'm responding is to ask - what does "bunjo" mean? It's a good word...mmmm....bunjo! You bunjo m0+h3rf-ck3r! (etc)

Please enlighten!Allez, on répète encore un dernière fois... GLOUPGLOUPGLOUPGLOUP

Not that I've got a great torch for Simple Minds (although the mmm yeah early krautrock influence revisionism is a bit annoying since "Dont You" is wicked stomping nonsense pop in an 'i dont actually want to hear it again' way) but there's surely no reason to like the Waterboys and not them.

The reverse of the argument does not hold in that "Don't You" is bombastically amusing and "The Whole Of The Moon" is pie-eyed blather and utterly hateable. The one about banging the drum like a monkey is really awful too, that was a biggie at school I recall, though spanking the monkey would have been more apt.

And then they got even worse, although my brother would have you believe that "A Bang On The Ear" is somehow good.

The word comes from the small village of Miltown Malbay in West Clare in Ireland, where the Paddy Clancy Summer School is held (this is a major event in the Irish traditional music calendar). Miltown Malbay folk refer to all people from outside Miltown Malbay as Bunjos. Or Bunjoes, the correct spelling is not clear. Basically a Bunjo is someone who would be considered half civilised even by the debased standards of other people from outside Dublin.

The Waterboys can fuck right off. Mike Scott can fuck right off. Everyone can fuck right off this morning, as a matter of fact.

Ah well. Heigh ho. I don't always jump on these things, you know.

I was listening to Fishermans Blues today, and it sounded great. Am I just a bad person for thinking this? Oh, S/D if I'm not a bad person, please.

I like certain parts of This Is The Sea, especially the title track. Is A Pagan Place worthwhile?

"All the Things She Gave Me" is great.

The Waterboys were great. This is the Sea and Fisherman's Blues are among my favourite albums of the 80s. Very, very odd to compare them to Simple Minds.

Hell, the Waterboys were uncool at the time - they always have been. Unreconstructed hippies (what does a reconstructed hippy look like?) - and proud of it - they were never going to get hipster or ILM love. I love them for their unashamed romanticism, and for the hands-in-the-air (although not quite like ya just don't care) bombast.

"We Will Not Be Lovers" was playing in some shop I was in today and it sounded amazing and terrifying.

i am liking this "best of" that i'm listening to now. i'm american and i don't think they EVER got played here (correct me if i'm wrong)... is there a non-gh album of theirs worth picking up?

LOL, no of course the fucking Waterboys never got played here, are you kidding? LOL fat fucking chance with the college radio in my town, oh no!

Look, I realize The Waterboys probably have a lot of people hating them and maybe a small margin of ILX swearing by them, but the thing is...

there's only one song by them that means anything to me at all, and that's "December".

I had an argument with a friend yesterday, and when it was over, I suddenly heard that song in my head. I remember hearing that on the college radio station when I was about 13, having just heard Echo & The Bunnymen, Smiths, The The, Simple Minds all for the first time at the same time, literally in the same 24 hour period. It was intense. I already knew about The Cure, so I don't include them, but I was just beginning to figure out The Cure's career as well.

oh the unfashionableness of it all. i like the first two albums, 3rd one has some good songs (yes, i like "whole of the moon"), and i still love "fisherman's blues." after that, sketchy as hell.

(in terms of s/d, i think pagan place and fisherman's blues are all i need, but there are tracks from the others -- including "december," sure. and "a girl called johnny.")

the first side of the fisherman's blues album is awesome and pretty much all i need. the only album i own that like as much that is such an out and out van morrison homage would be all fools day by the saints.

that I like as much...

I love This Is The Sea and Fisherman's Blues, and they're such different records. I'd be curious to hear the two-CD reissues, and especially a remastered This Is The Sea.

a friend of mine in college who was a huge fan of broadway musicals and billy joel got totally into "red army blues" (he'd play it over and over) -- which sort of made sense.

the first ep and the first two albums were pretty good, very good in places.

(the comment about all fools day is goes for me too)

i should mention that i WAS a fan of their "big music" phase. or at least a fan of whole of the moon and don't bang the drum and songs like that. but i don't own any of that stuff anymore and i feel no need to buy that stuff again, whereas i did manage to hold on to my copy of fisherman's blues over the years and i still play that first side once or twice a year. (feel bad for the second side a little bit. but that first side, on vinyl at least, works like a suite in some cool way and when it's over i've usually has enough. scratched my waterboys itch, so to speak.)

I don't usually like over the top bombastic stuff, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of This Is The Sea. All you gotta do is surrender.

I'm all for side B of Fisherman's Blues as well -- "When Ye Go Away" and "The Stolen Child" especially.

Fisherman's Blues holds up so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLAPOxpXGkU

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/sep/16/waterboys-mike-scott

Saw these guys in Oslo last night, and having never really known much of their output outside the "hits" I didn't really know what to expect. But damn, did they deliver! That was one tight show.

my lady bought home In A Special Place which is the piano demos for This Is The Sea. never really listened to the band before but this is pretty good and not what i was expecting, I think i'd had them filed in my brain alongside Deacon Blues and Dire Straits where as this sounds more like The Triffids. the demos anyway, maybe the non piano final versions are shite.

it seems to me that Mike Scott's melodies tend to repeat themselves, don't they?

Awww, the nice!

This is the V

I came to the Waterboys completely devoid of any context whatsoever about five years ago, so I was pleasantly surprised by their 80's output. I tried to venture past Fisherman's Blues, but I think that was probably the last hurrah, as I've never really warmed to anything past that.

'Savage Earth Heart' is such a friggin' good song.

I just bought their new one, Out Of All This Blue on Amazon mp3. It would have to be the first Waterboys album I've bought in 30 years. On first listen it is some kind of bizarre classic. Way WAY better than you'd expect.

i didn't hear them until last year because of my ingrained hatred of "celtic soul" so i was kind of surprised at how much i liked "fisherman's blues"

Big Music!

I lost touch with them after Fisherman's Blues but my interest was renewed by the rather wonderful "Long Strange Golden Road", which closes the last Waterboys album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KDFVRVHTLU

Where The Action Is!

+ those This Is The Sea piano demos Jamie_ATP mentioned 7 years ago are GREAT

Posted it last year on the Fisherman's Blues thread, but I love this outtake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBUsj47gAWI

I kinda don't like the studio version anymore after this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZLuIFSuYes

Anybody seen the Waterboys live any time recently? I just realized they're playing at the Odeon near the Acropolis in Athens in a few weeks on a night when we're going to be staying practically around the corner, so I went ahead and got tickets. But no idea who's even in the band these days apart from Mike Scott.

Wikipedia says:

Mike Scott – vocals, guitar, piano (1981–94, 1998–present)
James Hallawell – keyboards (2010–13, 2021-present)
Brother Paul Brown – keyboards, backing vocals (2013–present)
Aongus Ralston – bass (2016–present)
Eamon Ferris - drums (2021-present)

Who mostly seem to be session guys. There's plenty of recent live footage on Youtube, sounds OK if a little on the dad-rock end of their sound (i.e. lots of Hammond).

Conclusion: you could do worse!

lol well it's the Waterboys, the Dad Rock is built in. I recognize none of the rest of the names, but sure, I guess they can find their way around "Fisherman's Blues" and "Whole of the Moon." Plus we get to see it here, so should be fun.

https://whyathens.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Odeon-Herodes-Atticus-Why-Athens.jpg

Just found the (officially released) piano demos for This Is The Sea for the first time. So good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OrACVZedtU

fly onto my carpet
look into my face

Oh fwiw that show I saw in Athens in June was great! A rockin' crew, and Scott sounded terrific. Also apparently the Waterboys are big in Greece, the place was packed and everyone was singing along. It clicked a little bit when they did their two songs about the god Pan back to back.

Interesting!

Our new album: LIFE, DEATH AND DENNIS HOPPER. Out 4 April on Sun Records. Guests include Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, Fiona Apple and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. It's the story of Dennis Hopper's life in songs - and the story of his and our times #TheWaterboys #RockAndRoll pic.twitter.com/IntCd79y8v

— Mike Scott (@MickPuck) January 6, 2025

so predictable

For The Waterboys, or...?

That was just a joke, lol. I did not have the Waterboys doing an album about the life and times of Dennis Hopper on my bingo card.

This sounds ridiculous but what the hell.

hoping this is awesome and becomes the greatest out-of-the-blue album of all time

in any case it had better be big

Looks more like Mike Scott is fully embracing Americana. Will reserve judgement on how well that might work.

Maybe the next album will be inspired by Edward Hopper.

Hmm!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6o9HsvbekQ

Nope

What I made it through of that was pretty terrible, and the song isn't good, either.

I mean, this has gotta be taken as facetious and not at face value, right? Maybe this is Scott just channelling the voice of some sad ass boomer character, in context with the remainder of the alleged concept album. A lyric like "are you ready for like the most creative generation in 2000 years" is so bad that it must be intentional. Also Scott looks bored when delivering these lines in the video.

That said, this is all very unappealing.

That's a Hopper quote. He gave an interview after Easy Rider where he said, "“We’re a new kind of human being. In a spiritual way, we may be the most creative generation in the past 19 centuries."

That said, the song is pretty silly and probably the album will be too.

"Pretty silly" seems like a good way to approach it. It's interesting how The Waterboys have had a reverse path from other bands, "oozing sobriety and wisdom" in their early years and now much more coming up with glam stompers.

Yesterday I dove into a few of their recent albums, which are heavy on arrangements and production but sound like they would be energetic and fun played live (including the new single).

Turns out they already had a song called 'Dennis Hopper' two albums ago. And Where The Action Is is almost a concept album about late-60s Mick Jagger, in a similar vein to the new one.

This Is The Sea and Fisherman's Blues (as well as the box of outtakes, Fisherman's Box) are some of my all-time favorite albums, and then I hopped off at Room to Roam. I can sympathize with a songwriter/musician not wanting to write the same kind of songs for 40 years and have some fun, not so different from 21st-century Paul Weller.

Fiona Apple recorded her own version of the song Mike Scott sent her to play with the band, and that's how it is on the new album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWQWPvnWC1w