Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song

Subject: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 10:02 AM

There is a song called 'The Highland Road', in the heather and haggis line which over the years has been on a number of albums and samplers. Another song of the same name exists, written by Ian McCalman - that is totally different in tune and lyrics.
This 'Highland Road' was written and recorded by Stewart Ross in 1965. In 1968 it was signed to a publisher called Robert Halfin of Minch Music. The original song was chopped around a bit, and edited into a two minute belter for a version by a Tartan singer called Dennis Clancy - but the words don't make as much sense as they first did. Recorded and correctly credited it appeared on Emerald Gem's Shamrock and Heather and Welcome To Scotland.
Meanwhile Bob Halfin died and the publishing rights passed on to EMI music. However, whilst the MCPS and PRS registrations are correct, and the record company has licensed the track out on a beautifully packaged compilation and miscredited on this and another album to Bob Halfin or Haffin *sic. [who only at one stage was the publisher and never wrote the song!] This is despite EMI and myself having made phone calls and letters to tell them to correctly credit the release.
My father is now dead, but I am absolutely gutted, depressed and sick - that we are losing the honour of my father's name being on a really nice album - even though royalties will be correctly distributed. This mis-supplying of information by the record company is going to reverbarate for years, but I want it recorded here in case the subject ever crops up.
Current re-issues of the Stewart Ross song and the Dennis Clancy recording are on Welcome to Scotland Musicbank issued 2001, correctly credited to Ross, EMI Music. The Very Best of Scotland Emerald Gem, 2002, spuriously credited on the sleeve to Halfin. 2004 lavish box and brochure with double CD, Auld Lang Syne, the Music of Scotland - DejaVu retro gold lable - spuriously credited to 'Haffin' *sic. It's amazing how a record company can be told that they had made an error, knowing the sheer level of suicidal despair this causes me - and then go and do it again!

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HIGHLAND ROAD (Stewart Ross)
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 10:27 AM

The Highland Road
(Words and Music Stewart Ross, Pub. EMI, c 1965)

Oh! The Highland Road is a long, long road - but it is the road for me.
So I'll travel far by Lochnagar and the valley of the Dee.
Then I'll march on west through Inverness to the Islands of the sea.
And I'll sing this song, as I stride along. It's the Highland Road for me.

Chorus:
Then I'll march along to a Scottish song, on the road that's wild and free.
Thro' the lonely glens by the mighty bens, it's the Highland Road for me.

Now I've travelled far 'neath a distant star and I've roamed the whole world wide.
But my thoughts aye turned and my heart aye yearned, for my own dear countryside.
For the Isle of Skye, with its Coolins high and the tang of bog and peat.
And the summer days on the bonnie braes, where the heather smells so sweet.
Chorus Then I'll march along to a Scottish song...

Now perhaps some day, when I'm old and grey I shall walk that road no more.
But I'll still recall - as the shadows fall, all the things I loved of yore.
All the joys I knew and the hearts so true, that I found along the way.
Till my dying day, how my thoughts will stray for my roads of yesterday.

Last Chorus:
Then I'll march along to a Scottish song, on the road that's wild and free.
Thro' the lonely glens, by the mighty bens, it's the Highland Road for me.
It's the Highland Road for me.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 11:58 AM

This is an excerpt from an article about Stewart Ross, 1929-1993.
"Often I look back on the mistakes I've made - in particular with a song called 'the Highland Road'. The Alexander Brothers, who were riding high at the time, said they liked it and would use it. A year passed - no more was heard - so I let the late Denis Clancy use it.   What next? Yes, you've guessed, the Alexander Brothers phoned from Blackpool asking me to send down the words as they were going to record it. I had to tell them about the other recording and they immediately dropped the whole idea." Stewart Ross, Scots Magazine April 1993.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HIGHLAND ROAD (Ian McCalman)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 02:06 PM

Thanks a lot for posting that information, Alan. Maybe it will help eliminate the confusion if I post the lyrics of the Ian McCalman song in this thread, so people can compare. I found the lyrics at http://www.boroughloch.demon.co.uk/macs/highland.html
It almost sounds as though McCalman is singing about your father's song. Could that be the case? The website where I found the lyrics said the McCalman song was based on a poem by Hilton Brown. Maybe both songs are based on the Brown poem. Next quest is to find the Brown poem, "October Running." Note that Mudcatter Susanne (SKW) has an entry on this song in here online songbook (click). The Ian McCalman song was recorded by The McCalmans.
-Joe Offer-

---

The Highland Road
(Words and Music by Ian McCalman)
(based on a poem by Hilton Brown)

Fife was a shadow across the Forth as the Granton boat pulled out,
over the sea and the solid earth the mist lay all about,
and a rising wind from the Isle of May o'er the ruffled waters strode,
and blew us a clear October day to ride on the Highland Road.

The Highland Road's been sung before and will be sung again,
So long as singers give thanks for good in the way of honest men,
Let him who will be contrary, the wise man will agree,
And sing again the Highland Road, the Highland Road for me.

There's a winding road from Glenfarg to the mouth of the river Tay,
The mountains beckon beyond Dunkeld to lead us on our way,
Now Killicrankie's famous Pass, a battle lost and won,
From the old enchanted Atholl lands, grim heart of Caledon.

The Highland Road's been sung before and will be sung again,
So long as singers give thanks for good in the way of honest men,
Let him who will be contrary, the wise man will agree,
And sing again the Highland Road, the Highland Road for me.

Now the Highland Road is a rugged road, from the Tay to the Northern shore,
A man may rise in Edinburgh town and rest in Aviemore,
Now here's to the railroad running north and the day that gave it due,
From the greying spires of the ancient town to the moon of the Lairig Gru.

The Highland Road's been sung before and will be sung again,
So long as singers give thanks for good in the way of honest men,
Let him who will be contrary, the wise man will agree,
It's the North Road, the Atholl Road, the Highland Road for me.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 02:41 PM

As for Hilton Brown's "October Running," I'm coming up blank. I wonder if Brown is the author referred to in this excerpt from The Hindu:

* Reader D. S. Wilkins wants to know more about Hilton Brown the writer. He adds that he remembers seeing a signpost in the 1940s near the Pallavaram Bus Stand with the words `Hilton Brown Avenue.' "In those days it was an avenue, with beautiful shade trees all the way along GST Road up to Meenambakkam," he recalls. I don't remember the avenue, but Hilton Brown was an ICS officer who wrote a history of Parry & Co, Parry's of Madras, in 1954. A prolific writer between the 1930s and the 1950s, he wrote a dozen novels, including, Dictators Limited, Susanna, Locust Food, That State of Life and Asylum Island, two collections of short stories, Potter's Clay and Maya, three collections of verse, including Both Sides of Suez and The Gold and the Grey, two critical biographies — of Rudyard Kipling and Robert Burns — and what I remember him best by, an anthology titled The Sahibs that he edited and a non-fiction memoir, The Civilian's South India.

S. MUTHIAH

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 04:09 PM

Re the poem. This could be a genuine co-incdence. I don't know if there are any earlier lost songs of the same title. I wonder if it is my father's song the poem was about? At the time my father wrote the 'Highland Road' in 1965, he certainly would not be aware of any poetry, or historical references (not my father's scene). It is freaky.
My father's song was originally recorded on a 1965 LP called 'Music Of The Highlands and Islands; vol.1, on Grampian records, sung by himself. Stewart Ross also made an LP called the 'Highland Road' in 1970 for Thule records. Dennis Clancy's 1969 recording was used on popular heather and haggis compilations on Decca Emerald Gem records.
That type of music was enjoying a last burst of mainstream popularity in the 60's-70's. So this song was performed on TV, Theatre, radio etc. before fading away until the re-issues. Unfortunately the latest CD's credits as I say are misprinted. Strangely, I had also gone down to see the MaCalmans with a demo - which included the song 'Highland Road' - not knowing they had also written a song of the same title! I wondered why they never replied! My father also wrote a locally popular song called 'Home To Inverness', which contains the line in the chorus 'On the Road that leads me 'Home to Inverness'.Some singers have recently got the title wrong and called it 'Road to Inverness' - and there is already another totally different song of that title.
Ironically, I recently found out that there is a fiddle tune called 'Highland Road To Inverness'. Something my old man never knew, as he wrote popular 'Tartan' songs, before moving into country music. He wasn't a folky musician, poetry collector, or music historian. As we are from Inverness it was just the type of local music he fell into.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 06:04 PM

Having looked at the dates of the author, style of poem, locations mentioned in it etc. I am now pretty certain there is no connection between this and my father's song of the same name. 'The Highland Road' by Stewart Ross was too modern [1965] and in the Kenneth McKellar or Andy Stewart style - so would not have inspired the poem. My father would not have been inspired either by the poem, and it seems to be just a co-incidence that one part of a line comes out virtually the same. The Highland Road is a commonly used inspiration in Scotland for music and poetry. It refers to a long road which passes through various parts of the Highlands. It gave my father the chance to throw in numerous references to heather, moor, mountains, glens. place names etc. as he was singing and recording for the tourists - in the cliched style of the time. Corny - but heck it's still on national compilations and was never meant to be high art!

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 06:51 PM

Hello again, Alan - I have an EMI CD called Welcome to Scotland, and I was hoping it would have your father's song on it. Nope, it didn't. Darn.

There's a line in the McCalman song that strikes me:

And sing again the Highland Road, the Highland Road for me.

It seems to me that McCalman is perhaps referring to singing a song called "Highland Road," which contains the phrase "the Highland Road for me." Your father's song has And I'll sing this song, as I stride along. It's the Highland Road for me.That brings up another possibility, that both songs are referring to a third song - or maybe to Hilton Brown's poem. Brown was a Kipling scholar and wrote from the 1930's to the 1950's. I'd guess that Brown wrote in Kipling's popular, storytelling style - a style that may have interested your father.

So, I think the next key to the mystery is Hilton Brown's "October Running" poem. Can anybody find it and post it?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 11:20 PM

Hi Joe! There is no chance that my father's lyrics refer to any other song as he only sang popular MOR Scottish and Country stuff apart from the odd one he wrote. He wasn't a 'Muso', and didn't come from a folk background.    However the poem or Ian MaCalman's lyrics refers to some song, yet it's not this one. Another link about the song says that Ian MaCalman pieced together the chorus to the poem. There are a lot of similar ideas in these things. My father's song is a march a 'step it out through the heather' type of thing very much of it's time. So if you go back to his lyrics and follow it - you've to go from the beginning to end, he is following and celebrating all the things, places etc. he's found whilst following the Highland Road. Which is why 'It's the Highland Road' for me.   The geography in the poem refers to different areas of the same road.    My father certainly was unaware of any other songs of the same kind of title - he wasn't into folk stuff. He certainly didn't read poems, or Kipling *though he did like the film Gunga Din. These heather and haggis songs were contemporary and the popular song around here in the 60's when he wrote it. He would never have heard of Hilton Brown, and the poem appears to be really obscure. I wonder where Mr. MaCalman sourced it - and if he knows what in the heck it's referring to?   I can say categorically that this Stewart Ross song was an original, but on a hackneyed theme - which is why the Alexander Brothers wanted to record it, until they found out somebody else had already brought it out.   If somebody writes a poem about the Highland Road, it's almost certain you'll find some of the same ideas.   So the Ian MaCalaman's song celebrates a poem called 'the Highland Road' and the chorus of the MaCalmans' song celebrates another song of that name, which is not the same one as my father's song, unless Ian MaCalman had heard my father's 1960's song!   The title 'Welcome to Scotland' has been used by umpteen record companies -it was Emerald Gem who issued the Dennis Clancy recording one.   That duplication of the title 'Welcome to Scotland', or 'Highland Road to Inverness', shows why these replicas of ideas happen. This heather and haggis stuff which the likes of my fatherwrote usually have parrallels, in the odd word or line. It's the image of kilts, mountains, glens etc. My father fitted most of them in there, it's the genre. The Dennis Clancy version of my father's song was cut to make it less repetitive, and brought down to 2 minutes. The guy who produced it 'Peter Kerr', is now a successful author - but he used to produce hit Scottish recordings, like Amazing Grace, by the Royal Scots Dragoons. I must set out somewhere the story of 'My Bonnie Maureen' - a Scottish song my father wrote for my brother's fiancee.   That one sold over 400,000 copies. But although the main 1988 recording was by Daniel O' Donnell, it sure isn't an Irish song, as it comes from Inverness and was written and first recorded in 1971.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 11:26 PM

Please excuse my duplication of correspondence. Some new info. came to light, and I didn't realise I already pressed post! The last post is the one which I meant to send - as the bit in the song lyrics about the song 'Highland Road' mentioning "....Highland Road for me.. was according to a previous correspondent created by Ian MaCalman and the verse structured on the poem!   Maybe somebody can get hold of him and ask him what it was all about?

duplicate post deleted.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road (Ian McCalman)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 03:10 PM

This is the info Joe was referring to:

[1986:] Based on the poem October Running by Hilton Brown. (Notes McCalmans, 'Peace and Plenty')

[1995:] The Highland road in question was the old road between Edinburgh and Inverness, when the ferry went from Granton, and
threaded its way through Glen Farg, Dunkeld and onwards through the Grampians. When the poem was written at the beginning of the century the marvel was getting from Edinburgh to Inverness in one day. With the traffic on the A9 these days, nothing has changed.(Notes McCalmans, 'Festival Lights')

[1997:] I found this poem in an obscure collection, the 'Scottish Minstrel', and added the chorus and the tune. (Pr. comm. Ian McCalman)

I've so far not been able to find the book, and I keep forgetting to ask Ian about details (only saw him a month ago, &*%§$*!). The tune is fast and furious and certainly not haggisy-heathery. What I could imagine is that Ian came across the earlier song by Stuart Ross, the phrase in question stuck in his mind and made it into his own song.

Alan, please don't get depressed and discouraged! It's good to see you standing up for your father's reputation, but there are things you can't do anything about, like neglect and indifference, so don't let it affect your own life too much. You've done what you can by putting the info where it can be found - in the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST,Alan Ross
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 10:59 PM

Thanks Susanne. interesting info. and words of wisdom. I was in shock on Friday - going round the record shop buying this beautifully packaged CD with well known names of Scottish music- only to find it was wrongly credited [it's not a dispute - as no song of the name has been written by the other guy, just a repeated admin. error[. I couldn't believe it.   The record company amended their computer but leased out the artwork and details from an earlier wrongly credited release. This sets up a chain which I may never be able to break. Even though one correctly credited budget release using the same recording has sold over 20,000 in the last 2 years .   But this new release which has such names as Andy Stewart, Jimmy Shand jr., and Sydney Devine *No jokes please - is going to affect what I've done to promote my father's Scottish songs. This release will be plugged to ex-pats. all over the world, and they've produced an expensive colour brochure with the Cd, including the words to Burns songs, photos of Scotland.   Not much hope of them reprinting the brochure with a correction. So even though the minor royalties will come through, this new CD will be permanently archived on a world wide basis in radio stations, libraries, private collections etc., and should sell thousands. And if there are any covers, or airplay it's going to be murder to sort out.   All because a record company handed out wrong information and didn't check their own computer. I was heartbroken, as I had an assurance that it couldn't happen again. I've now got to deal with the hassle of copying letters, writing fresh ones contacting MCPS; PRS, EMI, the 2 record companies etc. and battling depression. It is only a song, but my old man has missed out again for something that he wrote the whole of. I was on a high in June, as one of Stewart Ross's songs 'Here's to Scottish Whisky' had just been included on a TV advertised compilation, which made the Charts - 'I Love Scotland' along with Paul McCartney, Andy Stewart, Corries, Runrig etc. on Virgin EMI. So I was really proud that his simple song had reached it's peak.   I couldn't believe that it had gone right, and that there were no miscredits. Then this business over the 'Highland Road' brought me right down - and I feel a failure, even though it's the record company who screwed up.    As to other releases, using the likes of the Highland Road, you see, what's happening with the old recordings made by these lables, is that they've discovered that they can make a lot of money by re-cylcling the old tracks to budget labels - making songwriters next to nothing. So the same recordings are being licensed out to various labels such as Delta Music, Musicbank etc. and fancy covers being put on them. Give it a title like 'Songs of Scotland' 'Scotland's Pride' etc. and hawk it to the worldwide market for the kilted market. One release using one of my father's songs on Delta Music, has sold over 100,000 copies - so heather and haggis music still has a market. None of the budget lables or the likes of Emerald Gem care much about the music, artistes, or credits, as long as they have a few star names and something to hawk with a Piper , Castle or bit of Tartan on the cover. it's all product!   Sometimes you get as little as £2.50 per every thousand sold on a budget release. So, for me it's not really the money - just the pleasure and high I get from seeing one of my father's songs on stuff with the greats of that type of music. The problem with the miscredited stuff is that your constantly reminded of it every time you go round a record store - as the stuff stares you in the face for decades. I'll try and put this one in proportion.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Aug 05 - 10:00 AM

Since my original correspondence on this song - another mistake has been made by a record company.   A new recording of my father's song has been made as an instrumental - but the ccompamy misprinted the credit, transposing it from the song above.

So on the release 'Welcome to Scotland' Musicbank APWCD 1436, it states that the 'Highland Road' is a translation of a Gaelic work taken from the Kennedy-Fraser' collection and published by Boosey and Hawkes.   This is rubbish - and due to a misprint.   The work is the fully copyright 1965 Stewart Ross EMI published song played as an accordion march. The player made it repeat too much without variation, but also altered some of the melody without EMI's sanction or our permission. It is pretty dire performed this way. The 'Highland Road' is not based on any trad. tune, but was an original work   Unfortunately it is now featured on the cover as a 'highlight'.

The record company have diverted royalites and promised to change the covers, but thousands of these cheapo albums will now have gone out wrongly credited.

The record company previously released the same track as a vocal on an album of the same name 'Welcome to Scotland' APWCD 1142 issued 2001. This earlier release by the same company correctly credited the work as Ross/EMI.

So far, 4 out of 5 recent releases have misprinted credits due to pure carelessness by record companies not checking that their copyright paperwork matched the cover on the final release.   Isn't it amazing that a modern song can be botched up again and again, when there was no copyright dispute as to who wrote it and when? It doesn't matter so much that we still get the royalties on these releases - it is the cumulative loss of my ftaher's name on his work that hurts.

I've only found out what's gone wrong when I've gone round record shops - and spent my money on sealed copies of these albums only to find they've screwed up the credit for my father's work and created false information which will filter down over the years. Is this a jinxed song?

I place this information not so much to whine about my father's bad luck - but to resolve any potential disputes/discussion amongst folk musicians as to the origins of this work, now that is has been botched up and played as a tune and associated with a trad. music collection that it is not part of.

Alan Ross

Subject: RE: Origins: The Highland Road - Scottish song
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Aug 05 - 06:27 PM

A google search merely brought up my own notes, and I'm not sure I'm going to see Ian McCalman this year. Maybe he's still got the book!