Clinton, I sent the following to you via email as well, so you ought to get them somehow. I'll try and post some of Archie's own songs in separate threads in the near future (honest!). Oh, and you didn't miss much not getting to that dinner. It wasn't exactly my definition of 'good food'. The after-dinner Bingo was fun, though. - Susanne

THE BOATIE ROWS
(Trad)

Chorus:
The boatie rows, the boatie rows, the boatie rows fu' wheel
And muckle luck attend the boat the marlin and the creel

0 weel may the boatie rows and better may she speed
0 weel may the boatie rows that wins our bairn's bread

I cast my line in Largo Bay and fishes I caught nine
There's three tae boil and three tae fry and three tae bait the line

0 weel may the boatie rows that fills the heavy creel
That feeds and clads our bairn's all and buys us potage meal.

(Roy Palmer, Oxford Book of Sea Songs)

MALLY LEE
(Robert Fergusson)

Chorus:
Oh, we'er a' gaun a' East an' West
We'er gaun aye ajee
Oh, we'er a' gaun a' East an' West
A coortin' Mally Lee

As Mally Lee cam' doon the street her capuchin did flee
She cast a look behind her back to see her negligee

A' doon alang the Canongate were beaux o' ilk degree
And mony an ane turned roond aboot the comely sicht tae see

The lass gae'd through the palace ha', and nane sae braw as she
A prince speired leave tae dance wi' her and earlies twa or three

But Hielan' Brodie fleered them a' wi' prood an' glancin' e'e
He's won for aye the heart an' hand o' bonnie Mally Lee

[1976:] Traditional Edinburgh song, possibly commemorating Mally Sleigh, who married Lord Lyon Brodie in 1725. (Arthur Argo, notes Archie Fisher 'Will Ye Gang, Love')

THE LAIRD O' UDNY'S WA'S
(Trad)

O I'm the laird o' Udny's Wa's
And I've come here wi' richt guid cause
And I've had mair that thirty fa's
Comin' oot owre the plain

O let me in this ae nicht
This ae ae ae nicht
O let me in this ae nicht
And I'll never speir back again

My mother, she does soundly sleep
And my bedroom door does chirrup and cheep
My bedroom door does chirrup and cheep
And I cannae let ye in

So gang ye hame this ae nicht
This ae ae ae nicht
Gang ye hame this ae nicht
And never speir back again

I'll oil your door gin it maun squeak
And it will neither chirrup nor cheep
No it will neither chirrup nor cheep
And I'll get slippin' in

O let me in this ae nicht,
This ae ae ae nicht
O let me in this ae nicht,
And I'll never speir back again

When he's got in he was sae gled
He's taken his bonnet frae off of his head
And he's kissed her on the cheeks sae red
And the auld wife heard the din

O but well she likit that ae nicht
That ae ae ae nicht
O weel she likit that ae nicht
She let her laddie in

When he got in he was sae gled
He's knockit the bottom-boards oot o' the bed
And he stole the lassie's maidenhead
And the auld wife heard the din

O but well she likit that ae nicht
That ae ae ae nicht
O weel she likit that ae nicht
That she let her laddie in

[1995:] Udny is a small village a dozen miles north of Aberdeen, and the song would therefore appear as an entirely local product, except that there are very similar pieces entitled Bonny Portmore, Bonny Yarmouth, Kilkenny, Ury, Paisley, etc. Many of the verses are so called 'floaters' which are found migrating from one song to another. The one beginning 'Over hills and through valleys' is encountered in an English piece of the late 17th century (William Chappell, 'Old English Popular Music'). (Peter Hall, notes 'Folk Songs of North-East Scotland')