Green Suede Shoes: An Irish-American Odyssey

by Larry Kirwan

This rock 'n' roll Angela's Ashes begins in County Wexford, Ireland, in the late 1950s, a now unrecognizable, priest-fearing backwater suffocating in superstition and strangled by sexual fevers. After an escape to the Bronx, Larry finds himself, like a musical Zelig, side by side with the Ramones and Blondie at CBGBs; the brothers McCourt, Lester Bangs, and Nick Tosches at The Bells of Hell; the Guinness soaked regulars of Paddy Reilly's; Cyndi Lauper while she ascends and burns; Joe Strummer, Rick Ocasek, Neil Young, and Shane McGowan. The shootings at the Academy and the tragic death of soundman Johnny Byrne punctuate the revels and excesses and presage the gloom cast by 9/11 and the loss of Father Mychal Judge and so many friends. Green Suede Shoes remembers three decades of a lost New York, and celebrates the music and song in which it now lives.

Genres: Music, Memoir, Nonfiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 2005

About the author

Larry Kirwan (born 1948 in Wexford, Ireland) is an expatriate Irish writer and musician, most noted as the lead singer for the New York based Irish rock band, Black 47.

Prior to Black 47, Kirwan and fellow Wexfordian Pierce Turner led the new wave band Major Thinkers, based in New York City.

Kirwan has also written and produced several plays which have been performed in the United States and Europe, most of which deal with Irish history and politics, particularly Northern Ireland. He has made statements in support of the Irish Republican Army.

Since April 2005, he has hosted "Celtic Crush," a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio that features Celtic artists from a wide variety of genres.

He is a naturalized U.S. citizen, having emigrated in 1970. He is married to June, and they have two children.

Reviews

[Mich Ael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best music book I've ever read. Equal parts personal memory, gritty New York and Wexford, Ireland history, and philosophical introspection. Good stuff.

[Oriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite a last-minute emergency trip to the Strand, this is the book I wound up taking with me to Mexico. Strange, of course, as I have no recollection of ever acquiring this book; it was just something sitting numbly on my shelf which my eyes passed over myriad times while looking for other things.

Even stranger is that I didn't know a thing about Larry Kirwan before reading this. I'd never heard of the (apparently) seminal Irish punk band Black 47, had no idea at all what I was going to be in for. But he opens each chapter with the lyrics for one of his songs, which both sets up (and sometimes gives away) what will happen in the coming chapter, and also goes a long way toward helping someone with no knowledge of his music become familiar with his themes, his passions, his fears, and his triumphs.

I really enjoyed this book. It's got its flaws – chief among them being that it is, first and foremost, a vanity project – but Larry Kirwan has lived a very interesting, very cool life, and it was terrific to be privy to a sampling of that. It's also one of those book that reminds me how very much I don't know, how very Americentric my life is, despite all my strident dislike for so much about this country and these times.

The first, oh, hundred pages all take place in Ireland, and it's the pre-history-of-the-author stuff, where he goes into detail about his parents and grandparents, about the Troubles and the British vis-á-vis the Irish, and the Catholics vs. the Protestants and all the religious persecution and famine and horror of those times. It was shockingly informative, though also a bit dry, and, as I said, a strong reminder of how little I know about the history of anywhere but here. (In my defense, I don't know all that much about American history either, because I spent most of my school years being a bit of a fuckup, paying more attention to boys and drugs than, you know, learning shit.) So but anyway, I plan to put in some serious Wikipedia time filling in some of those gaps.

Then Larry comes to New York, and, I admit it, this is when the book really came to life for me. I am such a sucker for 'dirty New York' memoirs, for hearing about Alphabet City when it was full of druggies and pimps, Times Square when it teemed with tranny hookers, the Bronx when it was Irish and drunk and mean. I love this stuff, and Larry did a fabulous job of recounting it.

He also did an amazing job of describing the trials and tribulations of making music in the seventies and eighties, the insanity of the record companies, the intimacy and fervor of small shows at bars and huge shows all over the world. His description of playing for tens of thousands of post-Communist agitators in the Czech Republic was astounding and beautiful. He was pals with Lenny Bruce, Cyndi Lauper, David Burns, and a host of others, and it's brilliant to hear their exchanges too.

The reason why I said that I think this is a vanity project is partly because it's so long. For all the fascinating anecdotes and gorgeously rendered passages, there is honestly a lot of fluff and filler too. I suspect this book wasn't that carefully edited, because at times it drags, and there are several sections that could have been cut to maintain the sharpness and tension of the more beautiful and raging parts. But the beauty is there, and on the whole this was a compelling, fascinating, and incredibly informative book.

Now I'm going to download some Black 47!

[Chris Dauten · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best musical autobiography I've ever read. Larry Kirwan's songs are all stories set to music, often humorous, sometimes heartbreaking. His way with words translates well to prose and his stories are imparted with the same measure of humor and emotion one familiar with his songs might expect. He is an easily relatable author, as he is in face-to-face conversation. I met Kirwan briefly...VERY briefly...in 1996 when I bought a Black 47 CD from him at an Irish festival. Ten years later, I spoke briefly to him again, buying another CD at another Irish festival. Twelve years later...last year...I saw him perform solo. As he stood on the stage tuning his guitar, he looked out into the pre-show audience. Our eyes met and he gave me one of those reverse nods...a quick uptick of the chin that is generally reserved as a sign of recognition. When he finished tuning, I went over to the merchandise table and bought this book. When I handed it to him so he could autograph it, he smiled and said, "We've met before..."

[Alex Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was kind of ready to give this book a three stars (or even leave it unrated and move along with my life), but the longer I read it the more it annoyed me. And then the very ending Kirwan went on a strange rant about the modern day and the evils of tv and how music is now a nonessential luxury. It just all seemed very old man shaking his cane at all these damn kids.

And about 350 pages in he said he wasn't one to complain about record labels, even though he'd spent so many pages already complaining about all the garbage his last record label had put him through. Like why bother lying at that point.

I liked the politics and the stories about his family. To be honest, I'd be a lot better off just finding a book about politics. The music industry stories bored me and unfortunately that was a good half the book or more.

So if you're a fan of Black 47 and want a lot of behind the scenes stories about Kirwan's life and the band, maybe give this a go. I will probably just stick with listening to the music.

[Lavender · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book at a Black 47 shows several years ago and I kept waiting to read it. Very well written. It left me teary eyed in several parts. Recommended to those interested in Irish history. music and culture.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at a musician's life in the 70s and 80s Well written and well worth reading.

[Derek Dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest biographies I’ve ever read. It’s up there with a Charlie Chaplin’s My Autobiography as one of my most remembered in detail reads.

[Janellyn51 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always weird to read books written by people you know! My X husband was in Larry's band the Major Thinkers, and for a year, my life revolved around my husband's gigs with them. I thought it was a little funny that there were no photos of The Major Thinkers, or at least Pierce. Larry and Pierce were partners for a long time. Copernicus, he was something like the Wild Man of Borneo, and you didn't want to stand too close to him because you might get your foot smashed by a mike stand...oh, I forgot, that really happened to their roadie. My husband and I sublet Larry's apartment on 9th St. and I thought it was kind of funny, funny odd...that the only time he mentioned the 9th St. apartment was to talk about Johhny Thunders being passed out in the foyer. My bass playing husband and I got divorced and for the last 25 years I've lived with Simon whose band the Daughters toured and played with Johnny. Small world. One thing I thought was odd was the stuff about Eliot Roberts and Rik Ocasek. I've known Rik since before the Cars broke and I've met Eliot a few times over the years, he was the person who told me Bruce Berry, who I fell in love with when I was 20, was dead. My husband and I left N.Y.C. and the Major Thinkers because he thought the Boston band he was in was going to make it. Their EP was produced by Rik and he was trying to get Elliot interested in the band, but he was there when the band opened for the Cars at Boston Garden and he didn't seem all that impressed...oh well. I enjoyed the parts about Ireland, and made me think about when my husband went with Larry and Pierce when they went home back to Wexford, and had organized a tour while they were there. Several years later, I heard that Pete had written I Love Jan Long in wet cement on the Wexford bridge! Peter had dyed his hair yellow and got food poisoning the night before they flew home. He had yellow hair and green skin...I should have known then it was a mistake to marry him....and still I'm sentimental about my year around the Major Thinkers, and I wouldn't trade the two kids we had, and I always enjoy seeing Larry when he comes around with Black 47.

[John P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was predisposed not to like this book but try as I might, I failed. Larry is a good story-teller and, although he seems to try a little too hard at times, his struggles to make it in New York are an interesting read nevertheless.

It's hard for me to reconcile the author as the same Mr. Kirwan who hosts the Sirius radio program Celtic Crush. It's the soft voice I can't overlay with the blaring rocker in the book.

I should say that I had never heard of Black 47 before and so have a more difficult time than a fan might identifying with Larry and his mates.

It seem, too, that Larry has bought into the media stereotype of the American republican conservative political movement. That's unfortunate as he makes little or no mention of the devastation and destruction the democratic liberal side is wreaking on the USA. I can see where some of his views are colored and informed by his background, family, and his homeland's history, but remain disappointed at a few of his blanket statements.

[Todd Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kirwan is a master storyteller, and gives us 36 tales from his childhood up until the the passing of his father. Starting chapters off with song lyrics and seeing how they are tied into life experiences is brilliant. If you are a fan of Black 47, it gives you further insight into the origins of the songs and Kirwan's inspiration. The chapters/stories are long enough to give you the details, yet short enough to be able to move on to the next one and really keep things flowing throughout the book. If you are a fan of Irish-American music, interested in seeing how life is for an emigrant, or the struggles of the music industry, I recommend this book. Being a fan of his show on SiriusXM, Celtic Crush, I found myself hearing his voice in my mind and how he'd actually be speaking the stories.

[Ruthenator · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a library bag sale a few years back. I'm not even a fan of the band Black 47 really but I really enjoyed this (I tend to enjoy biographies or autobiographies or documentaries about people I don't know too much about or am a casual fan of etc.). He's a very good writer with a very interesting and colorful life and career, told with a fascinating and insightful perspective as an Irish American immigrant.

[Steph (loves water) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book! It's a fantastic combination of history and memoir that I found I could not put it down. It also turned me on the the music of Black 47, a band I'd heard of but never really paid attention to until reading the book. I lent it to someone and didn't get it back, I might have to buy another.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry Kirwan's memoir of his life leading up to the formation of Black 47 and the tales which brought us some of that band's most memorable songs was fantastic.

An honest and funny look at the life of one of the greatest Rock-and-Rollers on either side of the Atlantic.

[Barbara Biasiotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book..5 stars for sure!

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great autobiographical journey from Wexford to New York via Dublin and a great insider's look at music as a passion and a pathway