I'm Shipping Up To Boston
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"I'm Shipping Up to Boston" is a song by the Celtic punk band
Dropkick Murphys Dropkick Murphys are an American Celtic punk band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996. The current lineup consists of co-lead vocalist and bassist Ken Casey, drummer Matt Kelly, co-lead vocalist Al Barr (on hiatus from the band since 202 ...
, with lyrics written by folk singer
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
. The original version of the song was released in 2004 on ''
Give 'Em the Boot IV Hellcat Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. The label, an offshoot of Epitaph Records, was started as a partnership between Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion, the owner of Epitaph, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid, ...
'' and was re-recorded for their certified gold selling 2005 album, '' The Warrior's Code''. The song gained worldwide attention for its use in the 2006 film ''
The Departed ''The Departed'' is a 2006 crime film, crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both an English-language remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film ''Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-lif ...
'', which boosted the band's popularity. The song's lyrics describe a sailor who lost a prosthetic leg climbing the
topsail A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails. Square rig On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a typically trapezoidal shaped sail rigged above the course sail and ...
, and is shipping up to
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
to "find my wooden leg." These were taken from a fragment of paper that Ken Casey found while looking through Woody Guthrie's archives. The Dropkick Murphys put music to the lyrics as they did with the song "Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight" from the 2003 album '' Blackout''. The single is the band's most successful to date and was certified double platinum. It reached No. 1 on the
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...
chart and sold over 1,044,000 digital copies without ever entering the
Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...
chart. The video features the Dropkick Murphys performing the song on the waterfront in East Boston. The band is also seen "hanging out" with hooligans while being chased by Boston police officers. The "hanging out" parts were later replaced with footage from ''The Departed'' for a second video tying in to the film. During
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
's April 2023 trip to
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, he went onstage for a speech to the song.


Charts


In other media


In sport

At sporting events, the song is often used as a ''de facto'' anthem for Boston.


Rugby

* In
rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
, the song is used as the entrance music for
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
,
Connacht Rugby Connacht Rugby is one of the four professional provincial men's rugby union, rugby teams from the island of Ireland. Connacht competes in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the IRFU Connacht B ...
and formerly
London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...
in their home games.


American football

* The
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
frequently use the song during home games. * The Dropkick Murphys performed the song live during the NFL kickoff game in 2015 in Foxborough. * The
Boston College Eagles football The Boston College Eagles football team represents Boston College in the sport of American football. The Eagles compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of t ...
team is known to play the song before kick-offs at home games. * The
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is a college football team representing the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana (CDP), Notre Dame, Indiana, north of the city of South Bend, Indiana. The team plays its home games at the ca ...
team is also known to play the song before kick-offs at home games. Their men's basketball team also plays it before tip-off.


Association football

* The German team Greuther Fürth frequently play a German language cover version of the song at home games. * The
New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...
of
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
have used it as a goal song.


Basketball

* The
Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...
frequently use the song during home games. * The Maine Celtics of the NBA G-League also use the song to promote their affiliation with the Boston Celtics


Ice hockey

* In the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
, the
Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...
frequently use the song, usually during a break in play toward the end of the game or the start of an overtime period. * In the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
, the song is used by the
Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...
whenever they are about to start overtime at Wells Fargo Center, followed by a brief playing of " Welcome to the Jungle" by
Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...
. *The song is also used by the Finnish elite league team Helsinki IFK whenever they are about to start overtime at Helsinki Ice Hall. *The Boston University hockey team is known to play the song during games. *The song was featured in the
EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...
video game
NHL Slapshot ''NHL Slapshot'' is EA Sports' first ice hockey video game on the Wii, released in 2010. It was the first game in the NHL (video game series), ''NHL'' series since ''NHL 2005'' to receive an Everyone rating from the ESRB, mainly because the game ...
.


Baseball

* The song was used to "pump up the crowd" before
Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...
playoff games during the 2013 season. It was performed on the field by the Dropkick Murphys before game 6 of the 2013 American League Championship Series and game 6 of the
2013 World Series The 2013 World Series was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2013 Major League Baseball season, 2013 season. The 109th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (A ...
. (The band also performed the national anthem on both occasions.) * The song was featured on The Boston Pops Orchestra's 2009 album The Red Sox Album. * Jonathan Papelbon used the song as his
entrance music The use of music at sporting events is a practice that is thousands of years old, but has recently had a resurgence as a noted phenomenon. Some sports have specific traditions with respect to pieces of music played at particular intervals. Others ...
when entering games as a closer in
home games A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...
played at
Fenway Park Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...
. Former
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...
player Daniel Murphy also used it as his entrance music. * The Worcester Red Sox, Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, use the song frequently during home games as a way of hinting at player promotion to the big league club


Darts

* Irish player Brendan "The History Maker" Dolan uses the song as his walk-on theme in
Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...
events.


In film

* It is used heavily in the film ''
The Departed ''The Departed'' is a 2006 crime film, crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both an English-language remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film ''Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-lif ...
''.


In television

*A 2009
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
advertisement, In A League Of Its Own, prominently features the song. * A soundalike version written by James S. Levine is used as the theme for the TV series ''
Rizzoli & Isles ''Rizzoli & Isles'' ( ; stylized in all lowercase) is an American crime drama television series starring Angie Harmon as Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander as Maura Isles. Based on the series of ''Rizzoli & Isles'' novels by Tess Gerritsen, the ...
''. * The instrumental part of the song was used in episode six of ''
Luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at a ...
''. * The song is played in the seventh episode of the first season of '' Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet'' and over the end credits of this same episode. * The song is played in instrumental form in episodes of the Northern Irish comedy series '' Derry Girls''. * The song is played in the thirteenth episode of the nineteenth season of ''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...
''. An a cappella cover of the song was also performed in the third episode of the twenty-eighth season. * The song is played in the first episode of the thirteenth season of ''
King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...
'', "Dia-BILL-ic Shock". * The song is played in the fourth episode of '' Kevin Can F**k Himself'' (as a ringtone). * An instrumental soundalike is played in the twentieth episode of '' Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!'' as chase sequence music. * An instrumental soundalike is played in the DVD version of the ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
'' '' Imaginationland'' as chase music. The song itself was later used in the episode " Credigree Weed St. Patrick's Day Special".


Video games

* The song is provided as downloadable content for the music video games ''
Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series. The game was launched in North A ...
'' and ''
Rock Band 2 ''Rock Band 2'' is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to ''Rock Band (video game), Rock Band'' (2007) and the second installment in the Rock Band, ''Rock Band ' ...
''. * The '' Live on Lansdowne, Boston MA'' version of the song is used in ''
NHL 11 ''NHL 11'' is an ice hockey video game, which celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the NHL (video game series), ''NHL'' series. The game was developed by EA Canada, published by EA Sports, and released in North America on September 7, 2010, wi ...
'' and ''
NHL Slapshot ''NHL Slapshot'' is EA Sports' first ice hockey video game on the Wii, released in 2010. It was the first game in the NHL (video game series), ''NHL'' series since ''NHL 2005'' to receive an Everyone rating from the ESRB, mainly because the game ...
'', where it is used on the menus, when goals are scored, and during faceoffs during the game.


Other versions

* The song was covered by Finnish
melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...
band
Children of Bodom Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of frontman Alexi Laiho, drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, ...
, and appeared on their 2012 compilation album '' Holiday at Lake Bodom''. * The song was covered by
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n
children's music Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has hi ...
group
The Wiggles The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. As of 2022, the group members are Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce, Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, John Pearce (entertainer), John Pearce, Caterina Mete ...
, and appeared on their 2022 album '' ReWiggled''. * The Boston Crusaders of
Drum Corps International Drum Corps International (DCI) is a governing body for drum and bugle corps. Founded in 1971 and known as "marching music's major league," DCI develops and enforces rules of competition and judges at sanctioned drum and bugle corps competitions t ...
included the song as part of the repertoire for their 2023 production, ''White Whale''.


References


External links


Dropkick Murphys Official Site



Midnight String Quartet
{{authority control 2005 songs 2006 singles Hellcat Records singles Dropkick Murphys songs Songs written by Woody Guthrie Songs about Boston Boston Red Sox New England Patriots Culture of Boston