The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12677   Message #2694660
Posted By: Taconicus
06-Aug-09 - 08:18 AM
Thread Name: Origins: The Gallant Forty-Twa
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Gallant Forty-Twa
This beautiful traditional song from Elizabeth's family repertoire. The 'forty-twa' is the 42nd Highland Regiment, more commonly known as the Black Watch. It was established in 'to be constant guard for securing the peace in the Highlands' and 'to watch upon the braes'. The name comes from the dark tartans it's members wear, which was originally to distinguish them from regular troops who wore red uniforms. Several other traditional songs include the broken token motif but few pack such feeling of loss as this.

Here's a different "Gallant Forty Twa" direct from the folk source (an elderly Scottish woman who still stings it from memory of the past), Elizabeth Stewart: Live from the Fife Traditional Singing Weekend May 2007. On Autumn Harvest ah006: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: Nick-knack on the Waa. Go to this link to see the lyrics and hear the song itself (and the comments printed at the top of this post):

http://www.springthyme.co.uk/ah006/ah006_Pop4.html

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Oh it's six weeks come Sunday since ma laddie's went awa,
He's awa tae join the regiment o the gallant Forty Twa.

Chorus:
Oh broken herted I may wander for the loss o ma true lover,
He's awa tae join the regiment o the gallant Forty Twa.

I haed only one sixpence and I broke it into twa,
An I gaed ma love the half o't afore he went awa.

(Chorus)

I will set at my windae and I'll spin at ma wheel,
An I'll I think aboot ma laddie and the times we haed sae weel.

(Chorus)
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There is, of course, a much better known and more recent song with the same title that was published by The Poet's Box in Dundee in the 1880s.