The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #74706   Message #1304901
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
23-Oct-04 - 01:49 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Shuttle Rins (Henry Symes)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the shuttle runs
It's often difficult for people to find Scottish songs, as not only does Scottish spelling vary a good deal, but people who transcribe lyrics by ear from records often have rather odd ideas about what they are hearing and how best to spell it! In this case, searching for shuttle rins would get you better results, but still not many.

The song is originally from Henry Symes's book Poems and Songs Chiefly for the Encouragement of the Working Classes (1849), and the tune is, so far as I remember, one of those associated with the older song The Boatie Rows. The Shuttle Rins appeared in Norman Buchan and Peter Hall, The Scottish Folksinger (1973) and has subsequently been recorded by various people including Gordeanna McCulloch.