The Decemberists' "The Island"

Because it was St. Patrick's Day a few days ago, I listened to a 2-CD set titled 40 Irish Songs Everyone Ought to Know.  One of them was "Whiskey in the Jar," which reminded me of something I noticed last summer (when I listened to Thin Lizzy's version of "Whiskey in the Jar") and needed to get around to writing about.

Because it's a folk song, there are different versions of the lyrics, but in "Whiskey in the Jar," there are lines where the speaker/singer draws a pistol and then a sword.  In versions I have, this is rendered as "I first produced my pistol / And then produced my rapier" (Thin Lizzy), "I first produced me pistol / And then I drew me saber" (The Original Irish Boys) and "First produced me pistol / I then produced me rapier" (The Countdown Singers).

In "The Landlord's Daughter" section of the Decemberists' "The Island" (on The Crane Wife), there are similar lines:  "Produced my pistol / Then my saber."  I haven't really lookt into the narrative of the songs to see if there are any similarities there, but the resemblance of the lines is indisputable.

A couple years ago, I wrote a post about some similarities between the folk song "Molly Malone" and the Decemberists' "Eli, the Barrow Boy."  I think this is an-other instance of Colin Meloy's interest in folk music making its way into his writing.