Christy Moore has shared a live video of him performing ‘Quiet Desperation’ alongside regular sideman Declan Sinnott. The recording was made in 2006 at The Point Theatre, Dublin and the concert was released on DVD.
My soul is in the mountains
My heart is in the land
I’m lost here in the city
There’s so much I don’t understand
There’s quiet desperation comin’ over me
Comin’ over me
You could be forgiven for thinking Christy is singing of his homeland until the third verse reveals that the loneliness is not from a longing for Ireland but Dakota.
I long for you Dakota
The smell of sweet grass on the plain
I see too much meanness
And I feel too much pain
The song was written by Dakota (Sioux) musician, political activist, and actor Floyd Red Crow Westerman. Westerman was an established country and western singer, releasing several albums: his first in 1969 titled Custer Died for Your Sins and a year before his death in 2007, he released A Tribute to Johnny Cash. He also collaborated with several artists, including Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson. He took up acting, making his first appearance in Renegades (1989)…other roles included “Chief Ten Bears” in Dances with Wolves (1990) and the “shaman” for the singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991).
Quiet Desperation appeared on Christy’s tenth studio album ‘Ordinary Man‘ which was released in 1985. Enya provided backing vocals on this song as well as “Sweet Music Roll On“, and Hugh MacDonald’s “The Diamantina Drover” (a song that King Creosote also did a brilliant cover of on a Limited Edition Double CD version of Flick The Vs). Enya would release her self-titled debut solo album two years later in 1987, to be later reissued as The Celts in 1992.