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about

Years ago some students at Harvard used to have a weekly céilidh (the singing/storytelling kind, not the dancing kind), and there I learned a traditional song called “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya”. It’s very simple and repetitive, yet also very sad. Years later I heard Steeleye Span’s recording of “Fighting for Strangers”, which seems like a more complex variation of the same song. Both “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya” and “Fighting for Strangers” are about a soldier named Johnny who gets mutilated as a young man, fighting in what later seems like a senseless war.

The refrains “Johnny I hardly knew ya” and “Oh poor Johnny what have they done to ya?” kept going through my head making me think of my brother and how we grew together and then apart when faced with severe abuse as children and teenagers.

lyrics

A long time ago you were my closest friend
And I wouldn’t have believed that would ever end
We were like partners trying to get by
In a house full of children with adults who made us cry
With beatings, thrashings, groundings, and more
But when they’d yell they could tear right through ya
We’d fight and we’d shout but we couldn’t get out
Oh poor Johnny what’ve they done to ya

What made you first begin drinking as teenagers?
When we were all trapped in a home – source of all danger

Well the social workers decided to leave us there
And the situation only got worse each year
One time you nearly smashed our sister’s face
Through a window when we’d been left alone in that place
And I thought you were scared and hadn’t known it would break
I didn’t see what was coming through ya
You used to think but how much would you drink?
Oh poor Johnny what has happened to ya?

What made you first begin drinking as teenagers?
When we were all trapped in a home – source of all danger

When I was 17 they threw me out in a fight
And gave you my room to make it look alright
Less than one year later they threw you out too
16 years old and there was nothing we could do
It was hard to find safety or a place to sleep
But other unwanted kids spoke to ya
You’d all spend the night trying to cope with this plight
Oh poor Johnny what’ve they done to ya?

Who left you out all night drinking as teenagers?
Who left you without any home, source of new danger?

Now it’s more than 10 years since we were thrown out
Some would say that’s enough to turn your life about
But you’re still out drinking almost every night
What they did to you was wrong but what you’re doing isn’t right
You can’t hold a job, you can’t hold a drink
You can’t stay sober when your child is coming to ya
It feels like each day you go further away
Oh poor Johnny what has happened to ya?

What makes you spend all night drinking with teenagers
When you could be safe at home, free from all danger?

credits

from Éist le mo Sc​é​al (Listen to my Story), released November 1, 2006
Tune traditional (Fighting for Strangers)
Lyrics, arrangement, and performance by Caera

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Caera Seattle, Washington

From haunting Celtic lullabies, through laments of intense grief and pain, to songs of healing and hope, Caera’s music always contains an authenticity that can be hard to find in today’s music, or even in today’s world in general. Powerful soprano vocals blend with the bell-like tones of her brass-strung Gaelic harp to create music that carries people through life, dreaming or fully awake. ... more

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