Dirty Old Town - Viiden sillan maa

Like daughter like father. Yesterday we had Kirsty MacColl covered, now we have her father. The group Vilperin Perikunta (Heirs of Vilperi) recorded "Viiden sillan maa" (Land of five bridges) on their 1992 debut album "Gloria Vilperum". It was also released as a B-side of their first big hit single "Tervetuloa länteen, Andrej" (cover of "Down Under"). Vilperin Perikunta's name is an obvious tribute to Traveling Wilburys, and - just as in Wilburys - all the band members travel with surname Vilperi. Their songs are usually infested with comic and novelty ingredients, but some are 'almost serious', like this "Viiden sillan maa". The original song "Dirty Old Town" was written by Ewan MacColl, a famous British folk singer and songwriter (and father of Kirsty). The song was written already in the 40's in reference to Salford, a city in Lancashire, and the place where Ewan MacColl was brought up. And a city where both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels spent time, studying the plight of the British working class. It was hard to find an original version of "Dirty Old Town", so we present here a later version performed by Ewan and Peggy Seeger (another British folk legend). Additionally, we give you the perhaps most known version, done by the Irish pop/folk group Pogues.

p.s. Starting tomorrow Finnpicks goes religious (whatever that may mean), for a few days ...

Here's the triplet:


You can see a selection of some hand-picked Youtube videos of today's Finnpick song by playing my shared playlist in tuberadio.fm.