3167)  SIX EGGS IN THE POT

This is another set of several fragmentary variants of a song provided by Murray of Saltspring. While his scholarship is impressive, the DT files unfortunately do not contain a bibliography or any key to the abbreviations he uses, so what might have been an extremely valuable resource is rendered virtually useless.

The notes do not make clear which of several examples of the tune named belong to which text (quite possibly that is unknown) or how far they differ from each other; the most easily-accessible, however, is the last named: "...the vehicle for Burns' song about himself, "There was a lad was born in Kyle".

The tune for this is given with the DT file THERE WAS A LAD Burns' text, with tune.

There is also another DT file without a tune, though as it doesn't appear in the "missing" list I assume that somebody has already pointed out that it is actually a duplicate:

RANTIN' ROVIN` ROBIN Identical to the above, apart from a few minor differences in spelling, the omission of the final verse, and the failure to credit the text to Burns: no tune is given. As an inferior duplicate, this file is an obvious candidate for deletion.

It is worth mentioning that Burns himself (according to James Kinsley) provided a text of the song, as O and ye were dead Gudeman, to the Scots Musical Museum. Murray quotes the text in the Six Eggs file, but doesn't mention Burns.