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Lyr Req: You take the high road & I'll take the lo

DigiTrad:
LOCH LOMOND
LOCH LOMOND 2
LOCH LOMOND 3
LOCH LOMOND 4


Related threads:
(origins) Origins: Loch Lomond (77)
Info Req: Loch Lomond/You Take the High Road (52)
Lyr Req: Wedding McPhees of Loch Lomond (7)
(origins) Origin: Loch Lomond variants? (9)
Lyr Req: Loch Lomond - in Irish (12)
Origins: looking for origins of Loch Lomond (10) (closed)
Origin: Loch Lomond (from The Corries) (6) (closed)
(origins) Loch Lomond/Red is the Rose (8)
OTHER Loch Lomond Songs ? (15)
Lyr Add: The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond (6) (closed)
Tune Req: Loch Lomond + The Minstrel Boy (3) (closed)


Carole K. 30 Mar 97 - 03:02 PM
John O'Keefe 30 Mar 97 - 05:19 PM
dick greenhaus 30 Mar 97 - 06:33 PM
Tamara tamarad@dolphin.upenn.edu 31 Mar 97 - 10:53 AM
GUEST,scott/irish swords man 14 Feb 04 - 10:25 PM
GUEST,Ewan McVicar 15 Feb 04 - 11:35 AM
Amos 15 Feb 04 - 12:14 PM
Malcolm Douglas 15 Feb 04 - 01:15 PM
GUEST,info@greatersouthbridge.com 15 Mar 04 - 03:15 PM
Roberto 15 Mar 04 - 05:55 PM
Malcolm Douglas 15 Mar 04 - 07:00 PM
GUEST,Tunesmith 16 Mar 04 - 04:10 AM
GUEST 16 Mar 04 - 10:01 AM
Roberto 16 Mar 04 - 11:49 AM
GUEST,Tunesmith 16 Mar 04 - 01:18 PM
McGrath of Harlow 16 Mar 04 - 01:40 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 16 Mar 04 - 01:57 PM
InOBU 16 Mar 04 - 01:59 PM
KateG 16 Mar 04 - 02:44 PM
Com Seangan 16 Mar 04 - 03:06 PM
InOBU 16 Mar 04 - 06:42 PM
GUEST 04 Oct 04 - 02:02 AM
GUEST,Baillie 04 Oct 04 - 04:40 AM
Geoff the Duck 04 Oct 04 - 04:46 AM
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Subject: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Carole K.
Date: 30 Mar 97 - 03:02 PM

I'd like the title and all the words to that Scottish song, with a famous line that includes "you take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I get (be?) to _______ afore ye" Thanks.-C.


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Subject: Lyr Add: LOCH LOMOND
From: John O'Keefe
Date: 30 Mar 97 - 05:19 PM

Like many tunes coming out of the Celtic tradition the emphasis is on the story. I'm not sure if there are any "true" versions of this song. The name it normally goes by is "Loch Lomond" or "The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond." The words, as such, are not as important as the message of the heart coming home again.

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond

CHORUS: Oh, you take the high road an' I'll take the low road
And I'll be in Scotland before ye
But trouble is there and mony hearts are sair (sore)
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond

We'll meet where we parted in yon shady glen
On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond
When in purple hue the highland hills we view
And the moon coming over the gloamin

CHORUS: Oh you take...

Still fair is the scene but ah how changed
Are the hopes that we fondly cherished
Like a wat'ry gleam like a morning dream
On Culloden's field they hae (have) perished

CHORUS: Oh you...

The wild flowers spring and the wee birdies sing
And in sunshine the waters are sleepin'
But the broken heart it kens (knows) nae (no) second spring
An' resigned we may be tho' we're greetin'

CHORUS: Oh you...

I hope you don't find the translations condescending, I just thought they might be a help as well. Oh, and just so you know...Most people don't know or sing those last two verses, they tend to change the song's intent. Nowadays it is sung as a love lament only, but there was a time when it included the JACOBITE theme as well. I'm sure that's much more information than you needed.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 30 Mar 97 - 06:33 PM

Loch Lomond is, indeed, in the database. Scots, who sometimes have odd ideas about spelling, "tak" the high road; you can find it by searching for [high road] or [low road] or [high road] {and} [low road].


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Tamara tamarad@dolphin.upenn.edu
Date: 31 Mar 97 - 10:53 AM

The story as I heard it:

Two Jacobite soldiers were imprisoned at Carlisle (a castle in the English/Scottish Borders) toward the end of the -- I think -- 1745 rebellion. The next morning, one of the soldiers was to be freed, the other hanged. The condemned man sings of his sweetheart, whom'll he'll never see again, tells the soldier who is to be freed: "You'll take the high road (of the living), and I'll take the low road (of the dead)..." The low road is faster.

The Corries do a slow, lyric version of the song which combines the traditional "Loch Lomond" with the verses sung from the sweetheart's point of view (in the database as "Loch Lomond II"). It's absolutely heart-wrenching.

Tamara
tamarad@dolphin.upenn.edu


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: GUEST,scott/irish swords man
Date: 14 Feb 04 - 10:25 PM

the famous line ya be thinkin of lasses and lads is "Oh you be takin the high road and i betakin the low road but i'll get to scottland before Ye"


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 15 Feb 04 - 11:35 AM

In about 1958 Morris Blythman recorded the following from a traveller.
The hearse took the high road
The ambulance took the low road
And they met on the banks of Loch Lomand
And the groom and the bride
Were cremated side by side
On the bonny bonny banks of Loch Lomond.
That's all he got. Anybody know any more?


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Subject: Lyr Add: LOCH LOMOND
From: Amos
Date: 15 Feb 04 - 12:14 PM

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond

Oh, you take the high road an' I'll take the low road
And I'll be in Scotland before ye
But trouble is there and mony hearts are sair (sore)
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond

We'll meet where we parted in yon shady glen
On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond
When in purple hue the highland hills we view
And the moon coming over the gloamin'

Oh, you take...

Still fair is the scene but ah how changed
Are the hopes that we fondly cherished
Like a wat'ry gleam like a morning dream
On Culloden's field they hae (have) perished

Oh, you...

The wild flowers spring and the wee birdies sing
And in sunshine the waters are sleepin'
But the broken heart it kens (knows) nae (no) second spring
An' resigned we may be tho' we're greetin'

Oh you...


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Feb 04 - 01:15 PM

It is often the case that newcomers manage to find the oldest of many threads on a song, to which they then post information which is available in all the other threads on the subject. Other people, perhaps not noticing the dates that betray the antiquity of the revived thread, then continue the process. This song in particular has been discussed here at great length (see the long list of links above), and with the best will in the world I don't know that it would be terribly productive to go over it all yet again. The myths repeated by earlier contributors have been dealt with elsewhere.

Perhaps Ewan has the right idea; we might devote this thread, since it has been brought back from the dead into a world that has moved on without it, to modern parodies, of which there are probably a fair few.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high rd. - Chords?
From: GUEST,info@greatersouthbridge.com
Date: 15 Mar 04 - 03:15 PM

anyone know the chords to this amazing song?


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Subject: Lyr Add: GEORDIE (from Ewan MacColl)
From: Roberto
Date: 15 Mar 04 - 05:55 PM

The line "I'll tak' the high road and ye'll tak' the low" is not only in LOch Lomond.....


Geordie
Ewan MacColl, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads Vol.2, Folkways FG 3510, 1964

Will ye gang tae the Hielands, my bonnie, bonnie love?
Will ye gang tae the Hielands wi' Geordie?
I'll tak' the high road and ye'll tak' the low
And I'll be in the Hielands afore ye

And
I would far rather stay on the bonnie banks o' Spey
And see a' the fish boaties rowin'
Afore I would gang to your high Hieland hills
And hear a' your white kye lowin'

He hadna been on the high Hieland hills
A week but barely three-O
Before he was cast into yon prison strang
For huntin' o' the deer and the roe-O

His lady, she got ward o' it
And quickly she made ready
And she has rode into Edinburgh toon
To plead for the life o' her Geordie

O, has he killed or has he robbed
Or has he injured ony?
No, he's been a-huntin' the king's ain deer
And he shall be hangit shortly

Will the yellow, yellow gowd buy off my bonnie love?
Will the yellow gowd buy off my Geordie? –
It's five hunder poonds ye maun pay for his life
And ye'll get the hat on your Geordie

She's ta'en the kerchie fae aff her heid
And she's spread it oot sae bonnie
And she's ta'en the hat frae her true love's hand
And she's beggit for the life o' her Geordie

And some gied her croons and some gied her poonds
And some gied her perlins bonnie
And the king himsel' gied a hantle o' gowd
For to get the hat on her Geordie

Then oot and spak' an old Irish laird
A bowdy-legged body
Said – For me, Gighty's laird had lost his heid
If I had but gotten his lady

She turned aboot her high horse heid
And wow! But she was saucy:
The pox be on your Irish face
For you never could compare wi' my Geordie

First I was lady o' bonnie Auchindoon
And then I was lady o' Gartly
But now I'm the wife o' the bonnie bog o' Gight
And I beggit for the life o' my Geordie


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Mar 04 - 07:00 PM

Yes. That has already been pointed out in other, more recent threads than this very old one, and text and tune are in the DT as Gight's Ladye. MacColl got it from Last Leaves, I think. The ascription to William Walker is wrong (see Shuldham-Shaw & Lyle, The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, II, 1983, 549-550).

I know it's a lot to ask, but would people look at the other threads before re-posting the same things to this one? Reviving it was pointless in the first place.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 04:10 AM

Lucy Kaplansky does a lovely live "different" ( sexy, even!)version of this song. Thought I'd just mention that.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 10:01 AM

Sorry, but to do this song "sexy" just sounds wrong. Lucy Kaplansky should stick to singer songwriter stuff - she murders traditional material. She did an awful job on "Mary and the Soldier".


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Roberto
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 11:49 AM

Yes, I think it is a lot to ask, once a thread has been revived, to check and maybe read all releted previous threads before posting a reply, a contribution or something like that to the revived thread.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 01:18 PM

I have to strongly disagree with "Guest's" comment that Lucy Kaplansky did an "awlful" job on "Mary and the Soldier". She sang it as herself - with no phoney folkie affectations - which is to be applauded.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 01:40 PM

I can't see the harm, really in the practice Malcolm deprecates. If the same thing gets said again, and different people who haven't heard it before hear it, or say it, is that something to get too worried about?


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 01:57 PM

Threads should always be checked before posting, as Malcolm suggests, otherwise Mudcat is reduced to the level of a chat site, although it is difficult because of the many threads which are not cross-indexed- I have posted redundant material several times because the thread ties are not always obvious, at least to me.
In this case, "Gight's Ladye" is not noted at the top of this thread nor in the others on Lomond, and appears in Forum threads as "Geordie." Each one of us should try, however, to housekeep in order to simplify cross-checking and eliminate duplication.

Joe Offer has closed off a number of redundant song threads and combined others, but with the volume of material in Mudcat, the task would daunt even the OED staff.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: InOBU
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 01:59 PM

IF you choose to take the low road...SORCHA DORCHA will be at the HALF KING restaurant and pub, this Wends. Saint Patrick's Day on 23rd street between 10th and 11th Ave. from 7 pm to 10 ... As expected Lorcan Otway on vocals uilleann pipes flute whistle bodhran and the great Jane Kelton on flute whistle and key board, Seanin An Fear on Mandolin, Joe Charupakorn on guitar... the joint is already rumbling, so stay from Give us a drink of water to An Phis Fluich, all yer ol' favs...
Cheers, Is mise, le meas, Lorcan Otway


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: KateG
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 02:44 PM

Hey InOBU, where is this HALF KING restaurant you're promoting so effectively.

On the subject of Loch Lomond. I could never understand the last line of the last verse:

"but the broken heart it kens(knows) nae(no) second spring
an' resigned we may be tho' we're greetin' "

until it whacked me upside the head. greetin' is the same as the Swedish "grata" -- to cry or weep. Makes much more sense than saying "hi"


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Com Seangan
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 03:06 PM

Great stuff and big thanks to all the contributors. While I'm nobody's eejit, I hadn't been aware at all of the Jacobite connection. Gives the whole thing a new (or old) dimension. All the tit bits and views even though sometimes a bit repetitive contribute to the pool of knowledge. Leanaigi oraibh, lads and lassies.


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: InOBU
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 06:42 PM

Thanks KateG... In New York City, and in deference to Com... I will sing a Jacobite song in humble penence! Happy St. Pat's to all... Larry


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 02:02 AM

just some info. ac/dc did this song at a concert after their lead singer Bon Scott died. He was scottish


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Subject: Lyr Add: LOCH LOMOND (Bruce Michael Baillie)
From: GUEST,Baillie
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 04:40 AM

...Well, see what you think of this version:

By yon bonnie banks and yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love were ever wont to go
By the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

I well recall the day when my love he marched away,
And I followed in the baggage train behind him,
Wi' Charlie Stuart's men, oh, we left both hill and glen
And we left the bonny loch far behind us.

But oh, the road was hard for a poor young lass to bear
And the battles that we won they hardly cheered us
Till my love he sent me home, never more wi' him to roam
To seek the bonny cottage by Loch Lomond, he said,

(Chorus)
"You take the high road and I'll take the low road
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
And we'll hear the pipes in tune as we dance beneath the moon,
By the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond

The church bells they rang and the small birds they sang
And the rain it poured down on the gloamin'
As with many's the highland yell, upon the bloody ground they fell
And the musket shots rang out around them

(Repeat chorus)

Now there's purple in the heather and there's gold among the trees
And blue in the sky round Loch Lomond
But my heart's black as stone, since I'm left here all alone
To watch the silver moon rise in the gloamin'

(Repeat chorus)
...And me and my true love will never meet again,
By the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond.

That version won't have been posted on Mudcat before because I wrote it!
Bruce Michael Baillie


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Subject: RE: Lyrics? You take the high road & I'll take
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 04 Oct 04 - 04:46 AM

I thought AC/DC's singer was a Geordie?
Quack!
GtD.


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