The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93653   Message #1806218
Posted By: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
10-Aug-06 - 10:29 AM
Thread Name: Songs & Jingles in Political Campaigns
Subject: RE: Songs & Jingles in Political Campaigns
Secondly, in the late eighteenth century, Robert Burns wrote a few "Election Ballads" for local M.P.s (Dumfries, in southern Scotland). There are a few good satirical points, though of course these would have been more "pointed" for a contemporary audience. However, there's continuing relevance in something like this:

"Here's Freedom to them that would read,
Here's Freedom to them that would write:
There's none ever feared that the Truth should be heard
But them whom the Truth would indite"

(in the original Scots, "would" is given as "wad" - with an "Ah" sound - and "none" is, of course, "nane")

To take this further, into the realms of "general political movements", check out his song "A man's a Man for aa that" (first line, "Is there, for honest Poverty...").
To reel it in a little - to the Europe of the 1790s - contempt for the ruling classes is well leavened with humour in his songs to the air of "The Campbells are coming" (selections):

"When Princes and Prelates
And het-headed Zealots
All Europe hae set in a lowe                  (i.e. "aflame")
The wise man lies down
Nor envies a Crown,
But comforts himself with, a Mowe...

And why shouldna puir folk mowe, mowe, mowe?
And why shouldna puir folk mowe?
The rich folk hae siller, and houses, and land;
Puir bodies hae naethin but Mowe...

When Brunswick's great Prince
Cam a-cruisin tae France
Republican billies tae cowe,
Auld Brunswick's great Prince
Wad hae shown better sense
At hame, wi' his Princess, tae mowe...

And why shouldna, &c

By sea and by shore
The Emperor swore
All Paris he'd set in a lowe;
But Paris, sae ready,
Just laugh'd at the laddie
And bid him, "gae tak a guid Mowe"

And why shouldna, &c

But, Peace to commotions
And new fangel't notions,
One bumper I trust ye'll allow;         
Here's tae Geordie our King,
And Charlotte his Queen,
And lang may they tak a guid mowe"

(Another set of verses to the same air begins:

"When Prose-work and Rhymes
Are hunted for crimes,
And things are, the-devil-knows-how;")

Exits, whistling a jaunty wee Scots Sang.