Tune Req: Sing Me a Song of a Lad That is Gone

Subject: Tune Req: Sing Me a Song of a Lad That is Gone
From: GUEST,alliekiwi (who has lost her cookie)
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 03:50 AM

I'm wanting to sing the Robert Louis Stevenson version of the Skye Boat song at a gathering, but don't want to sing the same tune as the standard version which I think has a melody by Annie Macleod?

I've heard the first of the R.L. Stevenson poem sung to a slightly different tune and then the singer slid into the more well known tune and lyrics. It worked well. However I want to sing the whole thing in the alternative tune, but don't know where to find it - or even if this was a tune that the performers came up with themselves. I only ever seem to find the usual/common version.

The alternative is on youtube here (scroll across to 1:28 as they do a bit of talking first)

The R.L. Stevenson poem/song is sometimes called Sing me a song of a lad that is gone but is also known as Over the sea to Skye which adds to the confusion.

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
   Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
   Over the sea to Skye.
Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
   Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
   Where is that glory now?

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
   Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
   Over the sea to Skye.

Give me again all that was there
   Give me the sun that shone!
Give me the eyes, give me the soul,
   Give me the lad that's gone!

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
   Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
   Over the sea to Skye.

Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
   Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
   All that was me is gone.


Allie

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Sing Me a Song of a Lad That is Gone
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Jan 09 - 04:34 AM

Stevenson's text is quoted here at

Skye Boat Song  2001-2007. Discussion including Stevenson's words, the tune and some debate on its ancestry, various additional words set to it including parodies.
OVER THE SEA TO SKYE (VARIANT)  DT file.
Syke Boat Confusion  2006 discussion, including details of how Stevenson came to write his set of words specifically to the existing tune.

Any variation in the melody is probably a recent innovation; you may just have to learn it from that YouTube clip if you want to use it.