Black 47: Danny Boy

Danny came over to old New York
From Bandon town in the county Cork
He got a room on the avenue in Woodside Queens
And a job off the books doin' demolition
He was kind of different than everyone else
Oh he liked to hang out all by himself
Didn't hit those bars in Sunnyside Queens
Went straight into the Village to check out the scene

One day on the job the foreman said
"Hey Danny Boy we think you're a fag
With your ponytail and that ring in your ear
Hey, we don't need no homos foulin' up the air"
Danny just smiled and picked up a 2 by 4
And he split that jerk from his jaw to his ear
Said "you can stick your job where the sun don't shine
But you're never gonna stop me bein' what I am, boy!"

Then he met a man down in Sheridan Square
They moved in together for a couple of years
Said it was the happiest he'd ever been
Doin' what he wanted and livin' his dream
We used to drink together down on Avenue B
One gray dawn he confessed to me
"Love's the only thing that makes the world go round
And I'm never gonna see another sunset over sweet Bandon town"

Last time I saw Dan he was in a hospital bed
Two tubes hangin' out the nose of his head
But he smiled at me with them stone blue eyes
And he said, "hey, how you doin', guy?
I'm history 'round here in a couple of weeks
But I did what I wanted - I got no regrets
So, when you think of me crack a beer and smile
Hey, life's a bitch and then you die"

Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are callin'
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside
The summer's gone and all the flowers are dyin'
'Tis you, 'tis you, must go and I must bide
But come you back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, I love you so
I love you so, Danny Boy, I love you so