Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)

Subject: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: GUEST,fi in nz
Date: 09 May 04 - 05:24 PM

Bit of a riddle this one..... Looking for the lyrics of a song with a chorus which begins .....Eh oh me daddy oh and ends...... Whar will we gang? It's all about finding a place to get married, I can hum the tune, but that's not much use here! The only other line I remember goes something like "I've been to Paris and to Rome"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: Celtaddict
Date: 09 May 04 - 06:00 PM

Welcome, guest FI (in New Zealand?)
Battlefield Band recorded "Whaur Will We Gang" on their 2001 CD "Happy Daze." Karine Polwart (now of Malinky) sings it as a duet with original Battler Alan Reid. Their website is www.battlefieldband.co.uk. There is a link to download a fast (i.e. lower quality) version there, and to buy the CD from Temple.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 May 04 - 06:10 PM

But watch out - there is a totally different song going by the same title. It's about the decline of the fishing industry and was recorded by Cilla Fisher on 'Songs of the Fishing'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: Celtaddict
Date: 09 May 04 - 06:47 PM

And "whar (or whaur) will ye gang" will get many Google hits on "The Twa Corbies" but the one on "Happy Daze" is about a couple deciding where to marry. I do not have the CD in front of me so know nothing about the song's origins.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: Celtaddict
Date: 09 May 04 - 06:50 PM

Susanne, I can't make a blicky from work computer; could you link the Band site for Guest FI?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: GUEST,Fi
Date: 09 May 04 - 06:59 PM

Have found the site, but can't find a link to a midi of this song, only to Happy Daze...... Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: Celtaddict
Date: 09 May 04 - 08:25 PM

You are right, I am sorry, evidently there is only one MP3 per CD. I do not have that CD (yet; I am a Battie from way back and have all but one or two) so am unable to transcribe. Any other Batties out there have it? Does the CD perhaps have lyrics in the notes, as some of theirs do?

Subject: Lyr Req: Whaur will ye gang?
From: GUEST,Fi in N
Date: 09 May 04 - 09:39 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur will ye gang?
From: GUEST,fi in nz
Date: 09 May 04 - 09:40 PM

K, now I know the title ..... anyone have the lyrics for this song as sung by the Battlefield Band. The version about deciding where to get married.

Cheers

F

Subject: Lyr Add: WHAUR WILL WE GANG (Polwart/Reid)
From: Cuilionn
Date: 09 May 04 - 11:21 PM

WHAUR WILL WE GANG
(words: Karine Polwart & Alan Reid; music:Karine Polwart)

Note: The following lyrics & notes are transcribed from liner notes of Battlefield Band's "Happy Daze" CD (Temple Records, COMD2085)

Chorus: Ee-oh ma dearie-o, whaur will we tarry-o
    If we are tae marry-o, whaur will we gang?

1) We could walk along the Seine
Paris in the April rain
Say the magic words "Je t'aime"
Monsieur and Madame
I hear what you're sayin' flower
Love below the Eiffel Tower
But I get crabbit in a shower
It's just the way I am
   
2) Let's go tae some Polynesian Island
Where it's never freezin'
Lovers wed there every season
By the coral sea
But I'm a' peely-wally white
And my bikini's gettin' tight
And you are no' a bonny sight
In trunks a size too wee.

3) Maybe we are gonna
Get married in Verona
You can be my Romeo
And I'll be Juliet
It didnae turn oot awfy well
They never heard their wedding bells
For they're the pair that kilt theirsels
Gonnae no' dae that!

4) We maun take the maist and least
Feast or famine tae oor breist
Whether we go West nor East
Matters nocht tae me
The world stretches far and wide
And I don't care whaur we bide
As long as you are by my side
Happy we will be

From liner notes: "Karine and Alan had great fun trying to come up with the daftest line for this song. Which line is it and whose line is it anyway? ...the punchline on verse 4, 'Gonnae no' dae that!' is on everyone's lips in Scotland now as the resut of being used in BBC Scotland's comedy sketch show 'Chewin' the Fat' starring Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill."

Transcriber's note: As ye micht guess, this sang is a dialogue, wi the fairst hauf o ilka vairse sang by ane lover an the second hauf o ilka vairse bein a response o sairts. The timin is a bit o a challenge-- best tae cock yir lugs at the recordin afore ye attempt it yersel. Och, & Ah cannae figger the Scots dialect in this sang-- it seems tae gae rovin aff wi'oot wairnin. That said, tis aye a guid sang an muckle fun tae sing!

   --Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur will ye gang?
From: Celtaddict
Date: 10 May 04 - 12:58 AM

Thanks, Cuilionn; I am going to have to order the CD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur will ye gang?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 May 04 - 01:12 AM

Great. Thanks very much. Gosh that took nearly all day..... longest ever.

Will go off and learn it now.

F

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scottish song - unknown title
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 May 04 - 10:33 PM

As near as I can figure, WHAUR WILL WE GANG is an original song written by band members Mike Katz, Karine Polwart, and Alan Reid.

I found a brief quote in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and I added a few words that I heard myself in a sound sample from Barnes & Noble:

[MALE VOICE:] Let's go tae some Polynesian
Island where it's never freezin'.
Lovers wed there ev'ry season
By the Coral Sea.
[FEMALE VOICE:] But I'm a' peely-wally white
And my bikini's gettin' tight
And you are no' a bonny sight
In trunks a size too wee.
[CHORUS:] Ee-o the heerio,
Whaur will we tarry-o?
If we have to marry-o,
Whaur will we gang?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 04 - 08:46 AM

I would prefer to arrange the lines like this:

2) Let's go tae some Polynesian
Island where it's never freezin'.

--since it rhymes that way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 02:26 PM

This song is amazing.

finally found the lyrics. thanks to whoever posted them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 04 - 04:17 PM

same guest as above. where can i find more songs like this? and what the hell do you guys call them?


As ye micht guess, this sang is a dialogue, wi the fairst hauf o ilka vairse sang by ane lover an the second hauf o ilka vairse bein a response o sairts. The timin is a bit o a challenge-- best tae cock yir lugs at the recordin afore ye attempt it yersel. Och, & Ah cannae figger the Scots dialect in this sang-- it seems tae gae rovin aff wi'oot wairnin. That said, tis aye a guid sang an muckle fun tae sing!


AND WHAT LANGUAGE IS THAT^^^

and i had a hell if a time reading it.


here in the states on the national radio there is a radio show called "thistle and shamrock" and they have celtic folk/ and celtic music but its only for like an hour a day. and i want more!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Dec 04 - 09:51 PM

Guest above: The language is Scots, the traditional language of the lowlands of Scotland. The most readily available examples would be some of the poems of Robert Burns (although Burns often wrote in Standard English, too).

There are many places on the Internet to see and hear Burns' poems and songs, for example, "Is There for Honest Poverty" also known as "A Man's a Man for A' That." You can read the text here, and hear it read as a poem by clicking the arrow on that page. You can also hear it sung by The Old Blind Dogs by clicking here to play an mp3 file. (Click here to see the page where I found it.)

When Burns wrote in Scots, he would use lots of apostrophes to indicate the "missing" letters, for example, "an' a' that" to indicate how the Scots pronunciation differs from the Standard English "and all that." But the letters are only "missing" if you judge Scots by the standard of English. People who want to promote Scots as an independent language, rather than a dialect of English, prefer to omit the apostrophes and instead use spelling to indicate pronunciation, for example, "an aw that" or "an aa that."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)
From: GUEST,CelticMama7
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 12:24 AM

Just dug up this thread, after hearing this song on my Grooveshark lineup. Lots of great Battlefield Band on there, including the whole Happy Daze album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Whaur Will We Gang? (Polwart/Reid)
From: bubblyrat
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 05:31 AM

I cannot speak too highly of "Happy Daze" ; it is a great piece of work ! As well as the brilliant "Whaur will we gang ?", there is the wonderful piping of Mike Katz,and one of my favourite Karine Polwarts songs,"Start It All Over Again",which Wild Flying Dove will be learning soon,I hope !