Origins:Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin)

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Origins:Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin)

28 Aug 97 - 11:31 AM (#11360)
Subject: Duncan Campbell
From:

I am looking for a song about Duncan Campbell and the Hieland Brigade. French/Indian war, lake Champlain.

Celtoi@unm.edu

28 Aug 97 - 06:57 PM (#11428)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: Susan of DT

There are two songs (at least). I knew I should have written it down when I got from the Champlain Valley Festival having heard one version three times and margaret MacArthur's once. I will have to think on the words.

It is a wonderful legend. Duncan Campbell is woken one night with a friend at the door asking to be hidden from pursuit and swears Duncan to silence. The search party arrives and says they are looking for the man who killed Duncan's cousin. Since Duncan promised, he says he has not seen him. The cousin's ghost comes and tell him he will die at Ticonderoga. Years later, Duncan and his son are in a hieland brigade in the French and Indian War and are marching toward a fort with a French name (calliot?), "but the Indians call Ticonderoga". They try to keep the name from Duncan (they have heard the tale) and when he finds out, he knows he will die in the battle. He and his son are two of the three casualties that day.

second half of the chorus; "But when they returned, sad was the piper's refrain Oh, how cruel the battle"

Margaret's song starts with the death of the cousin, the other starts in Canada.

29 Aug 97 - 08:09 PM (#11520)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: Barry Finn

There's also "My names' Duncan Campbell from the shire of Argile (sp?) I've wandered this country for manys the mile I've wandered through England & Ireland & all And the name that I go by is Erin Go Braugh" Barry

29 Aug 97 - 08:40 PM (#11523)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: Susan of DT

Barry - Different Duncan Campbell.

30 Aug 97 - 12:37 PM (#11564)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: Susan of DT

Title: The Piper's Refain

Chorus: Down from the Champlain came the Highland Brigade
Scotland the Brave was the tune that they played
But when they returned the piper's refrain
Was Oh, how cruel the volley

I will keep trying to resurrect the verses, but I do not promise success.

31 Aug 97 - 06:22 PM (#11592)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: Barry

I know, just adding to the Duncans' Barry

03 Sep 97 - 05:32 PM (#11756)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: LaMarca

This was recorded by Bok, Muir and Trickett fairly recently. We may have the album at home; if it's on Folk Legacy, there will be a full printed set of the lyrics. I'll check tonight...

03 Sep 97 - 05:34 PM (#11758)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: LaMarca

P.S. I first encountered the story in a Rod Serling collection of ghost stories I had as a kid; it and other stories in the book scared the beJaysus out of me...

04 Sep 97 - 04:37 AM (#11799)
Subject: Lyr Add: PIPER'S REFRAIN (Rich Nardin)
From: Joe Offer

With the clues from Susan and La Marca, I found it: It IS a spooky song, isn't it?

PIPER'S REFRAIN
(Rich Nardin)
Copyright 1983, Bop Talk Music

I'll tell it to you as they told it to me
By the glow of the campfire burning.
By the banks of the water where we sported and played,
They once faced the fury of battle.

[chorus]

And up through the Champlain came the Highland Brigade
The pipes and the drummer played "Scotland the Brave."
But when they sailed home the piper's refrain
Was, Oh, how cruel the volley."

To one Duncan Campbell it came in a dream
That he'd meet his fate where he never had been;
Where the blue waters roll and the stickerbush tear,
It's "Travel well, Duncan, I'll wait for you there.

"For the French and the Indian have challenged our King."
(To a soldier like Duncan, no need to explain.)
"It's many a time I've travelled the waves
To find my fate in the fire."

From Fort William Henry their boats have shoved off
To the North of Lake George in the morning;
To the place the Frenchmen call Carillon,
And the Indians: Ticonderoga.

And the word struck Duncan like a thunderbolt there;
Everyone knew of the warning.
"Oh, give us a tune to remember me by,
For tomorrow I'll not be returning."

When the gunpowder flashed, the Highlanders died,
Never again to walk the hillside.
In the wilderness green, in the sun and the rain,
It's here they're forever remaining.

And I've told it to you as they told it to me,
Of one Duncan Campbell and the Highland Brigade.
When the campfires flicker in the summertime's wane,
through the mist on the water comes the piper's refrain.

Recorded by Bok, Muir and Trickett on "And So Will We Yet"

-Joe Offer-

04 Sep 97 - 07:30 PM (#11838)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: Susan of DT

Thanx Joe. That is more verses than people sang at the festival.

05 Sep 97 - 12:15 AM (#11854)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell
From: BK

I read somewhere that the story behind the song is supposed to be based on an actual event... The Highlanders are said to be very superstitious... Given their grisly history, maybe they should be... Neat song, though! with a good tune...

13 Jul 08 - 04:06 PM (#2387939)
Subject: DT Correction: THE PIPER'S REFRAIN (Richard Nardin
From: GUEST,Richard Nardin

I wrote "The Piper's Refrain" around 1980 while living in Saratoga Springs, NY. The story was first told to me by the Honorable John Driemiller, mayor of Ticonderoga, NY. The first recording of this song is on my 1983 album "The Pencil Line". I taught the song to Margaret MacArthur of Vermont. The MacArthur Family band recorded it on their "MacArthur Road" album. I believe that Margaret taught the song to Gordon Bok who also recorded it along with Ed Trickett and Ann Muir on their "And So Will We Yet" album. All in all there are another 5-6 recordings of this song.

The lyrics listed on this site are slight altered from the original version below:
^^
THE PIPER'S REFRAIN
(Richard Nardin)
Copyright 1983, Bop Talk Music

I'll tell it to you as they told it to me
In the glow of the campfire burning.
By the banks of the water where we sported and played,
They once faced the fury of battle.

[chorus]
And up to the Champlain came the Highland Brigade
The pipes and the drummers played "Scotland the Brave."
But when they sailed home the piper's refrain
Was, Oh, how cruel the volley."

To one Duncan Campbell it came in a dream
That he'd meet his fate where he never had been;
Where the blue waters roll and the stickerbush tear,
It's "Travel well, Duncan, I'll wait for you there.

"For the French and the Indian have challenged our King."
(To a soldier like Duncan, no need to explain.)
"It's many a time I've travelled the waves
To find my fate in the fire."

From Fort William Henry their boats pushed away
To the North of Lake George in the morning;
To the place the Frenchmen call Carillon,
And the Indians: Ticonderoga.

And the word struck Duncan like a thunderbolt there;
Everyone knew of the warning.
"Oh, give us a tune to remember me by,
For tomorrow I'll not be returning."

When the gunpowder flashed, the Highlanders died,
Never again to sit by the Clyde.
In the wilderness green, in the sun and the rain,
It's here they're forever remaining.

And I've told it to you as they told it to me,
Of one Duncan Campbell and the Highland Brigade.
When the campfires crackle in the summertime's wane,
through the mist on the water comes the piper's refrain.

Thanks for your interest in my song,
Richard Nardin

23 Jul 08 - 09:57 PM (#2396469)
Subject: DT Correction: The Piper's Refrain
From: Joe Offer

I received a the above request from Richard Nardin, asking that the Digital Tradition lyrics to his song be corrected. Turns out I'm the one who posted the version above, which now appears in the Digital Tradition. I took the lyrics from the Bok, Muir, Trickett And So Shall We Yet CD. The DT version is my transcription, which is an exact copy of what's printed in the CD booklet. Bok sings "And up to the Champlain," but the CD booklet incorrectly says "through."
On the recording, Bok sings "walk the hillside" - I wonder why he changed it from "sit by the Clyde."
-Joe Offer-

24 Jul 08 - 01:23 AM (#2396541)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: GUEST,Gerry

The BMT album is full of good songs, and this one is superb. My hat's off to Richard Nardin for writing it, and to BMT for their recording.

24 Jul 08 - 08:45 AM (#2396680)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: Susan of DT

Margaret MacArthur's song on this, in the DT, is The Legend of Duncan Campbell.

24 Jul 08 - 11:44 AM (#2396829)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: GUEST,MeadowMuskrat

I saw Gordon Bok perform this story and song, and as a post script he added that there is a Duncan Campbell buried at Ticonderoga, but he was buried with his wife. I guess you can draw your own conclusions.

28 Aug 08 - 07:01 PM (#2424912)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: GUEST,Robert Pell-deChame

Duncan Campbell is, in fact, buried in Fort Edward, NY, in the graveyard directly across the street from the warren County office complex. (look also for Jane McCrea's grave when you are there, another renowned local tale.)

Campbell, whose gravestone indicates that he was indeed from Scotland and had indeed been mortally wounded at the Battle of Carillon, July 1758, died about ten days later on July 17th, 1758, of wounds received at that battle as part of the Black Watch Regiment (who lost about 60% of the thousand they brought with them as part of the largest army ever assembled on this continent up to that time, around 20,000-25,000), led at first by the King's grandson, Lord Howe, who was killed in a skirmish shortly before the battle, and then by the disastrously unprepared and inexperienced bureaucrat, James Abercrombie. The French, with only about 3000 soldiers, won against these overwhelming odds. The Indians chose to stay out of the battle and watch it from afar at the base of today's Mount Defiance.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote what is probably the most poetic treatment of this great American ghost story, "Ticonderoga, A Tale of the Highlands." I've always wondered why Hollywood has not jumped on this story, given its drama and color.

You may wish to check out another early version of this story, recently discovered among the papers of an early Ticonderoga publican, Greenwood Saint-Wicker and to be published in the upcoming Autumn issue of the Ticonderoga Sentinel,and available at this website after its publication: http://www.timainstreet.org/

28 Aug 08 - 07:27 PM (#2424924)
Subject: RE: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: kendall

I sang this one all over Scotland back in 1990. They all knew the story and were very interested in the song.

11 Jun 09 - 12:00 AM (#2653720)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: GUEST,Ryan Casey

Stan Ransom aka The Connecticut Peddler recorded Nardin's song on "Songs of Lake Champlain" (1995). He added the following verse which he put after the first.
^^
'In Scotland an officer decades before
had given a murderer shelter
the murdered man's ghost had promised revenge
at a place called Ticonderoga'

15 Nov 09 - 10:35 AM (#2766406)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell/The Piper's Refrain
From: GUEST,Angie Nardin

my uncle and a few friends wrote all of these songs im sooooooooo proud!!! im only posting this cause he might see it

12 Mar 10 - 06:24 PM (#2863011)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin
From: GUEST,Gabriel Nardin

My father, Richard Nardin, currently plays in a traditional Irish and American Folk band called Barrowburn. They have recently added this song to their repertoire, and it is being enjoyed once again by audiences of all venues. I have just posted a current youtube video of them recently performing it. Hope you enjoy.

21 Sep 10 - 07:31 AM (#2990763)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin
From: GUEST

Having followed Gordon Bok for years, I think I have an answer to why he might have changed the one line of the lyric, as noted above. He is much more of an aural song-learner than a written one, and I would bet that he learned it from Margaret MacArthur herself, not her recording, and that somewhere along the way, he forgot that one line, and duly replaced it with what he thought it might have been...

22 Sep 10 - 06:53 AM (#2991339)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin
From: Susan of DT

I have been singing The Piper's Refrain reciting about half of Margaret's song as an introduction. Maybe I'll use that new verse (three postings up) instead.

22 Sep 10 - 09:53 AM (#2991419)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin
From: dick greenhaus

re:"by the Clyde" and "By the hillside" It's a long way from the Highlands to the Clyde.

03 Sep 24 - 04:31 PM (#4207892)
Subject: RE: Origins:Duncan Campbell / Piper's Refrain (Nardin)
From: Joe Offer

Mudcatter Larry Joba was doing family tree research and found he was a distant relative of Duncan Campbell.