Like the Red Sox, the Dropkick Murphys on a winning streak
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press Writer | November 2, 2007
BOSTON --Nora Guthrie was looking for artists to provide the music for some of her father Woody's unpublished lyrics that had been sitting in boxes for 30 years. So she took a tip from her teenage son and called a little known Irish-American punk band in the city.
Without that call six years ago, Boston's World Series victory parade would have sounded a lot different, because closer Jonathan Papelbon might have been dancing to another tune.
The Dropkick Murphys searched through Guthrie's lyrics and found one scribbled on a piece of yellow legal paper. Those words would become "I'm Shipping Up to Boston," the music behind Papelbon's now infamous jig and one of the most popular tunes off the soundtrack to "The Departed," the Oscar-winning, Boston-based mobster film.
"They liked this little ditty, this four-line ditty, not one of Woody Guthrie's greatest lyrics, but it had the word Boston in it," Nora Guthrie said. "They took it and created this masterpiece."
The band -- which started as a group of buddies playing in the basement of a friend's barbershop -- were the only entertainers in the Red Sox parade last Tuesday. Crowds that lined the three-mile route from Fenway Park to City Hall roared as they banged out their frantic, Celtic-tinged music from a slow-moving flatbed truck, with Papelbon providing the fancy footwork.
This wasn't the first time the Dropkick Murphys had connected with their beloved Red Sox: In 2004, the band's "Tessie" was the anthem of the team's championship, when the Red Sox broke an 86-year World Series drought.
But it was Martin Scorsese's selection of "Shipping Up" as the centerpiece for his "Departed" soundtrack that really put the band on center stage.
"Out of nowhere, we're getting a chance to turn this into something bigger," said James Lynch, the band's guitarist, who also sings.
"It opened up doors to us that never would have happened," he said.
Papelbon made the tune his dance song of choice as the Red Sox won the American League pennant and their second World Series in four years -- another big win for a band with humble roots in working class Quincy, a suburb south of Boston.
"It's a slow, steady incline over the 12 years of the band," said Ken Casey, the bassist, vocalist and founding member. "It's a grass-roots kind of thing. It's not a result of radio or MTV or glossy magazines. It's the connection to people."
The idea of the band, Casey explained, was to merge their musical and personal experiences into one sound. That meant bagpipes, tin whistles and accordions mixing it up with punk rock, topped off with lyrics celebrating unions, working-class families, and the occasional drink.
"We've taken a similar approach as the Pogues," Casey said of the seminal Irish punk rock band. "People immediately gravitated to the fusions of music."
The band's latest CD, "The Meanest of Times," is its most successful. It sold 28,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 in late September. It also has earned strong reviews. Spin said the CD "moves beyond connecting the dots between working-class punk and ancient Celtic ditties, with surprisingly thoughtful songs that explore lives shaped by drunken violence and Catholicism."
The single "The State of Massachusetts," about a mother losing her children to state custody, is getting heavy airplay in pockets around the country, including Boston, Providence, R.I., Portland, Maine, and West Palm Beach, Fla.
Their previous CD, "The Warrior's Code," which contains "Tessie" and "I'm Shipping Up to Boston," has sold nearly 200,000 copies.
"Shipping Up" has taken on a life of its own thanks to Papelbon's jigs. Before the start of the parade, the band presented Papelbon with a kilt. Performing at the "rolling rally" gave people a chance to see what the Dropkick Murphys are about, Casey said.
"To really know the band you have to see the band live," he said, as the band prepared to head to the West Coast to start a tour that will move to Ireland and England in January.
"Touring is the only way a band like us can exist. It has to be constant," Lynch said. "We have the most insane, loyal fans. We're a band that's nothing without our fans. Our microphone is yours. Everyone's welcome."
They try not to tour in October, which is playoff baseball time. The band delayed a show for an hour in 2003 when Game 7 of the AL Championship Series went into extra innings, ending badly for the Red Sox at the hands of the New York Yankees.
James Bulger, 22, has seen the band live several times, and celebrated as the band and Papelbon rode by City Hall.
"They have unbelievable energy," said Bulger, who is from Washington D.C. "They embody the Boston spirit. We're an Irish city. They are Boston."
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