JOHN MACLEAN
(J. S. Clark & Alistair McDonald)

When you've passed your resolutions,
And you feel you've done your bit
And you think there's nothing more that you can do.
Why not act, and in your actions emulate the grit,
Of the man in Peterhead who acts for you.
Of the man in Peterhead who acts for you.

He is grateful for your money,
He appreciates your cheers.
Your sympathy is ample for his needs,
But there are more important things than resolutions, cash or tears
Why not give him just a sample say of deeds?
Why not give him just a sample say of deeds?

'Twas for you he garnered knowledge,
Sacrificed his very youth.
He worked for you until his head was grey.
They are killing him by inches just because he thought the truth.
And having thought it had the guts to say.
And having thought it had the guts to say.

For the truth's the kind of virtue
That the ruling classes fear,
By the foulest means to crush it they have tried.
For truth the stones of hate were hurled at prophet and at seer.
For truth the gentle Christ was crucified.
For truth the gentle Christ was crucified.

He will pay you back in plenty,
It's you who stand to gain.
For his lion heart is yours if he is spared.
Then workers for your own sakes liberate MacLean.
You could do it by tomorrow if you dared.
You could do it by tomorrow if you dared.

Will you suffer his destruction,
On the tyrant's battle ground?
Will you let the cursed wrong defeat the right?
He is one against an army are you going to see him downed?
Are you going to let him die without a fight?
Are you going to let him die without a fight?

He will pay you back in plenty,
It's you who stand to gain.
For his lion heart is yours if he is spared.
Then workers for your own sakes liberate MacLean.
You could do it by tomorrow if you dared.
You could do it by tomorrow if you dared.


Notes:
Hugh MacDiarmid speaks of John MacLean thus: "Scotland has had few men whose names matter- or should matter- to intelligent people, but of these MacLean, next to Burns, was the greatest and it should be of him, to every Scotsman and Scotswoman to the end of time, as it was of Lenin in Russia. When you might talk to a woman who had been a young girl in 1917 and find that the name of Stalin lit no fires, but when you asked her if she had seen Lenin her eyes lighted up and her reply was the Russian word which means both beautiful and red. Lenin, she said, was "krassivy, krassivy". John MacLean too was "krassivy, krassivy". A description no other Scot has ever deserved."

Recorded on "Scottish Battle Ballads sung by Alistair McDonald" Nevis Records (NEVLP014) 1973.