Fisherman's Blues - Songs

Songs

The title track reached third place on Billboard's Modern Rock chart. The single for the song reached position 32 on the UK singles charts in 1989 and position 75, when re-issued in 1991. Country music song "The Lost Highway" was the B-side, and featured Liam Ó Maonlaí on the piano. "Fisherman's Blues" has appeared on the soundtracks of the movies Good Will Hunting and Waking Ned Devine and it was also used on the pilot episode of Lights Out.

"Sweet Thing" is a "surprisingly successful" cover of a song by Van Morrison, originally from Morrison's 1968 album, Astral Weeks. The Waterboys' version on this album is a medley; the song ends with the unplanned addition of verses from The Beatles' "Blackbird", which Scott impulsively sang on the spot. The Waterboy's cover of "Sweet Thing" also appeared on the second compact disc of the re-release of This Is the Sea.

"Strange Boat" lends its title to Ian Abrahams' biography of Mike Scott and The Waterboys, while the song "World Party" was the inspiration for Karl Wallinger's band name. It reached position 19 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and was voted number 69 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Countdown of 1989.

Jimmy Hickey, of the instrumental song "Jimmy Hickey's Waltz", was a member of the album's production crew. The track begins with a recording of some conversation and laughter, which continues in the background as a violin begins to play a short waltz. The recording ends with some applause.

"And a Bang on the Ear", in which Scott summarizes a past romantic attachment in each verse, finishing the song with a current "woman of the hearthfire", was released as the second single from the album. A live version of "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" made up the B-side. A studio version of "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" would appear on The Waterboys' next album Room to Roam. The single was chosen as a Radio One "Single of the Week", but failed to chart. Confusion amongst listeners about what a bang on the ear might be about prompted The Waterboys' Frequently Asked Questions page to note, more than ten years later, that it was "a term of affection". A "bang" means a kiss and this Irish phrase of "bang on the ear" can best be considered equivalent to the more common phrase "peck on the cheek".

"Has Anybody Here Seen Hank" is a country music tribute to Hank Williams, listening to whom Scott described as "a life-changing experience". The Waterboys had previously paid tribute to a different influence on Scott, Patti Smith, with the song "A Girl Called Johnny" on their first album, The Waterboys.

"Dunford's Fancy" was written by Wickham for Steve Dunford, brother to Waterboys producer John Dunford.

"The Stolen Child" was the first William Butler Yeats poem that The Waterboys put to music. Another Yeats poem "Love and Death" appeared on Dream Harder in 1993. "The Stolen Child", spoken by traditional Irish vocalist Tomás Mac Eoin with backup vocals by Scott, remains the group's "most famous poetic rendition".

The final song is only a brief snippet of the Woody Guthrie folk song "This Land Is Your Land" with some of the American place names replaced with Irish ones.