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Lyr Req: Bennachie (from Old Blind Dogs)

15 Apr 97 - 10:08 AM (#4639)
Subject: lyrics:Bennachie (Old blind dogs)
From: orjan.svensson@gallivare.mail.telia.com

Does anyone have the lyric to the song Bennachie it´s on Old blind dogs first album New tricks.

15 Apr 97 - 12:52 PM (#4645)
Subject: RE: lyrics:Bennachie (Old blind dogs)
From: Ian

A cheerful ditty: The pattern of each verse is ABBABC

A: 0 gin I were whar Gaudie rins, B: whar Gaudie rins, C: At the back o' Bennachie

A: I hae had but twa true loves, B: but twa true loves C: And they lo'ed me dearly

A: The first was killed at the Lowren(?) Fair B at the Lowren Fair C: The other drooned in the Dee

(repeat first verse)

I seem to remember there are other verses, but I can't remember them

01 Jul 99 - 03:51 PM (#91439)
Subject: Help! Old Blind Dogs lyrics: Bennachie
From: Beau

Gosh, the DigiTrad let me down on this one. The lyrics it lists for this really great song are not complete. They attribute it as recorded by the Old Blind Dogs, which tells me they should have the right version. But the lyrics don't match what I am hearing. Rather trying to hear. I can't make out all of the lyrics due to their singer's use of dialect and his accent. Does anybody have the correct lyrics? Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks

03 Jul 99 - 04:06 AM (#91944)
Subject: Lyr Add: BENNACHIE (from Gavin Greig)
From: Murray on Saltspring

I haven't heard the Old Blind Dogs' version, but the one in the DT is not quite accurate even in the verses given. This is the way of it, as given by Gavin Greig (Folk-Song of the North-East, article x):

O gin I were where Gadie rins,
Where Gadie rins, where Gadie rins,
O gin I were where Gadie rins
At the back o' Bennachie.
I wad ne'er come back again,
Come back again, come back again,
I wad ne'er come back again
Fae the fit o' Bennachie.
[Cho., = first 4 lines]

I never had but twa richt lads,
But twa richt lads, but twa richt lads,
I never had but twa richt lads,
And so dearly's they loe'd me.
The tane was killed at Lowrin Fair,
At Lowrin Fair, at Lowrin Fair,
The tane was killed at Lowrin Fair,
The tither drooned in Dee.
[cho.]

Gin they'd gien my lovie man for man,
Man for man, man for man,
Gin they'd gien my lovie man for man,
Or yet a man for three,
He wadna lien sae low the day,
Sae low the day, sae low the day,
He wadna lien sae low the day
At the fit o' yon arn tree.
[cho.]

But they croodit in sae thick on him,
Sae thick on him, sae thick on him,
They croodit in sae thick on him
That he couldna fecht nor flee;
And wasna that a dowie day,
A dowie day, a dowie day,
And wasna that a dowie day,
A dowie day for me.
[cho.]

He bocht for me a braw new goon,
A braw new goon, a braw new goon,
He bocht for me a braw new goon,
And ribbons to busk it wi'.
I bocht for him the linen fine,
The linen fine, the linen fine,
I bocht for him the linen fine,
His windin' sheet to be.
[cho.]

The day they're lyin' aneath the mools,
Aneath the mools, aneath the mools,
The day they're lyin' aneath the mools,
That dearly lovit me.
It's noo that twice I've been a bride,
I've been a bride, I've been a bride,
It's noo that twice I've been a bride,
But a wife I'll never be.
[cho.]

[The above corrects a couple of misprints.] -- Greig assigns this to about the middle of the 18th century (at the latest). There's plenty of other sets of words written later. The tune is evidently "The Hessian's March", presumably brought to Scotland from the continent (at the time of the Marlborough wars?); but it first appears in 1816. Lowrin or Lowren Fair, BTW, is "Lawrence Fair", the name of two fairs, one held in Rayne, Aberdeenshire [which is what is meant here] and the other at Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, in mid-August. The arn-tree is the alder. "Dowie" [rhymes with "Maui"; where did they get that "dewy" from???] = doleful. "The day" = "Today". The rest of it is straitforward. Cheers Murray
^^

03 Jul 99 - 09:03 AM (#91974)
Subject: RE: Help! Old Blind Dogs lyrics: Bennachie
From: dulcimer

Might we get the tune to this.

07 Jul 99 - 05:15 PM (#93220)
Subject: RE: Help! Old Blind Dogs lyrics: Bennachie
From: Beau

Thanks Murray!

That's a lot of new info. Sadly, it still doesn't match what I am hearing on their CD New Tricks (highly recommend it, BTW). I HATE it when groups do non standard versions of songs without including the new lyrics. Your lyrics did help solve at least one riddle. For the life of me I couldn't figure out what "twarick lads" were! If I can find the time, I'll try to post the lyrics as I hear them and maybe you folks can see what you make of it.....

Thanks again,

Beau

07 Jul 99 - 05:29 PM (#93225)
Subject: RE: Help! Old Blind Dogs lyrics: Bennachie
From: Sandy Paton

Murray has it almost exactly as Hamish Henderson sang it for us in 1958 in Aberdeen, Scotland, with the addition of the part about the "mools" (and what are they?), which Hamish did not sing. I sang this out west in 1959, and Bob Coltman picked it up and contributed it to, as I remember, the Coffee House Songbook.

Sandy

08 Jul 99 - 03:04 AM (#93349)
Subject: RE: Help! Old Blind Dogs lyrics: Bennachie
From: Murray on Saltspring

Hi Sandy! Hamish MAY have got it from a "real" folksinger, since he was collecting all the place, but his singer, if he had one, may well have got it from a book. It's the "standard" version, I suppose, and I haven't ever heard it much different. Anyway, the "mools" are "moulds" [in British English spelling; you'll miss out the U I imagine in American]-- = the earth of the graveyard. Example from Stevenson's "Weir of Hermiston": "This life's a' disappointment, and a mouthfu' o' mools is the appointed end." [Grim, hey?] I've seen it in the plural in this sense.