The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75823 Message #1338342
Posted By: Bob Bolton
24-Nov-04 - 09:56 PM
Thread Name: Songs you thought were trad
Subject: RE: Songs you thought were trad
G'day Splott Man:
"Wild Mountain Thyme fooled me at first (Rod Stewart made the same mistake when he recorded it)"
This raises another aspect of the Trad - Composed ( - Arranged - 'Family Version') gradient. I know that the McPeake's have sensibly hung onto the copyright of their Belfast family version ... but the song is two centuries of folk transmission and editing-down from Robert Tannahill's song The Braes of Balquither.
Somewhere, way back in the Bush Music Club's Archives (circa 1974 ... ?), I published Tannahill's words against Wild Mountain Thyme and there is a lot of the original still there in the "modern" song. I would describe it as "Trad> - arranged Jimmy McPeake ... and family"!
Regards,
Bob