In 1994, Dead Can Dance released Toward the Within, and I knew their popularity was sealed because mainstream bookstores like mine at Rizzoli in downtown Chicago were selling it to people who had never twisted a dial to college radio. On the record, DCD did a recording of one of the most famous Irish folk ballads of all time: The Wind That Shakes the Barley.Robert Joyce is one of Ireland's best-loved balladeers, and lived for a time in Boston, Massachusetts before returning to Ireland just before his death in 1883. He taught at Catholic University in Dublin and published many poems, but is best known for this song, which is the tale of a man who gives up his true love for the love of war, and learns what a high price he paid.
Lester Jonze says
I like that celtic balladry style, very mournful, very personal. It fits the weather around here today. Rainy and windy, for once it's not 90 degrees here.
Groon says
I can't tell you how many nights I spent listening to Toward the Within. This song is haunting, and I love how on the album it and the rest of the songs around it are sort of connected in feel, almost like one long song with many movements, culminating in the most excellent "American Dreaming."
Augusts1 says
I have the dvd that the vid is from & adore it. I first saw it in '94 or so at a party & I was so mesmerized by Lisa's vocals & everyone at the party stopped to watch it. So this was my intro. to DCD even though I had heard about them for years before.
In 1994, Dead Can Dance released Toward the Within, and I knew their popularity was sealed because mainstream bookstores like mine at Rizzoli in downtown Chicago were selling it to people who had never twisted a dial to college radio. On the record, DCD did a recording of one of the most famous Irish folk ballads of all time: The Wind That Shakes the Barley.Robert Joyce is one of Ireland's best-loved balladeers, and lived for a time in Boston, Massachusetts before returning to Ireland just before his death in 1883. He taught at Catholic University in Dublin and published many poems, but is best known for this song, which is the tale of a man who gives up his true love for the love of war, and learns what a high price he paid.
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