Track Listing

1. Fisherman's Blues
2. We Will Not Be Lovers
3. Strange Boat
4. World Party
5. Sweet Thing/Blackbird
6. Jimmy Hickey's Waltz
7. And A Bang On The Ear
8. Has Anybody Here Seen Hank
9. When Will We Be Married
10. When Ye Go Away
11. Dunford's Fancy
12. Stolen Child
13. This Land Is Your Land

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3616 in Music
• Released on: 1990-07-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
When The Waterboys' Irish violinist Steve Wickham suggested to Mike Scott that Spiddal was a great place to get away from it all, no-one could have guessed how Scott would take his advice to heart. Within less than a year The Waterboys were transformed from stadium rock incumbents to adopted Irish folk-rockers. Fisherman's Blues is the entrancing outcome of that transition. If the family snapshot on the cover is to be taken at face value, one might imagine this to be an idyllic time in The Waterboys career. In truth, the sessions were painstaking, with Scott discarding over 50 songs over a two-year process. What remains though, is a classic of its time: from the yearning euphoria of the title track to otherworldly beauty of "When Ye Go Away", lent cohesion by the singularity of Scott's vision. For sheer inspiration and flow, precedents begin and end at Van Morrison's Astral Weeks--a doubly appropriate comparison, this, given Scott's superlative reading of Morrison's "Sweet Thing". --Peter Paphides

CD Description
On their early albums, the Waterboys became known as practitioners of "the Big Sound", an epic, wide-screen musical vision on a par with the contemporaneous offerings of U2 and Big Country, making them the musical equivalents of Cecil B. DeMille. For FISHERMAN'S BLUES, though, they decided to scalethings down considerably, departing for a little while fromtheir outsized pop/rock ambitions to embrace Celtic roots, folk, and heavily Dylan-influenced, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS-likefolk-rock. The gambit paid off better than anyone could have expected, resulting in one of the band's most memorable, moving albums.
Singer Mike Scott emerges here as a gifted troubadour, a mode he'd explore more fully years later in his solo work. Where he once spun grand statements framed by booming drums and echoing guitars, here he makes simple romantic observations backed by fiddles and acoustic guitars. A surprising nod to country roots pops up as well, with "Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?", but, in the end, FISHERMAN'S BLUES is closer to the Celtic soul of prime Van Morrison (whose "Sweet Thing" is covered here) than it is to either the band's rootsier influences or to any 1980s contemporaries.

Customer Reviews

An under-rated classic of folk-rock music
Fisherman's blues is one of the finest recordings of the 80's and one of the most under-rated, as well. Bono Vox of U2 once said this was one of his favourite albums. Released in 1988, this timeless classic succeeds in mixing lots of different influences - such as folk, punk, rock, blues and Irish traditional music - in an extremely personal and cohesive way. In fact, although the different influences are easily detectable still the band sounds unique. Along with the music also the lyrics are worth of praise.
In particular the humourous - and witty - "And a bang of the ear" which is a really original love-song and one of the finest tracks of the album. An absolute must-have.

Essential good time music from the soul and the heart
A perfect blend of Rock and Folk Music - Fishermans Blues may have been a radical departure for the Waterboys but it is a classic. This album needs to be played at full volume for the best effect. From the grand title track to the more sombre final song 'The Stolen Child' there is something for all fans of the band. Stand out tracks are the excellent cover of Van Morrisons 'Sweet Thing', 'World Party' and the sad lament of 'When ye go Away'. Buy it, Play it and Enjoy.

The quintessential Waterboys album
This isn't the best Waterboys album (I'm still in two minds about "Room to Roam" or "This is the Sea" for that accolade), but in many ways this is the quintessential snapshot of the musical pilgrimages of Mike Scott, Anto Thistlethwaite and the gang. It's the point where the musical direction turned, or possibly achieved a sharper focus; without keyboard maestro Karl Wallinger, whose instrumentation defined the grand sound of the early Waterboys, the band were free to travel in a more acoustic, folky direction, aided and abetted by fiddle player Steve Wickham who provides the distinctive sound of this album. That's not to say that the Waterboys have recorded a finger-in-the-ear, Aran-sweater-wearing folk album. The big, post-punk sound of earlier albums is still in evidence here (particularly on the title track and "We Will Not Be Lovers"), just given a new dimension through some perfectly judged fiddle-work. A softer, more whimsical note is provided by "Strange Boat" and the single "And a Bang on the Ear", both of which hint at territory later explored much more thoroughly in "Room to Roam"; a perfect mid-point between all these influences is found in the cover of Van Morrison's "Sweet Thing" (one of those rare things, a cover far better than the original!) which establishes the Waterboys firmly in the canon of folk-rock greats. The hidden gem of the album, though, is the breathtaking setting of the W.B. Yeats poem, "The Stolen Child" - a glimpse of the fairyland which Mike Scott seems to have spent most of his career seeking.