Shortly after MacColl composed it I began to sing 'Tenant Farmer'. I believe it to be one of his best - he wrote it after a discussion with a group of Border farmers at a Hogmanay party outside Lockerbie.
I Anglisised it, but was never happy at losing some of the Scots words, particularly, "coulter" and "roup", but it still worked for me.
When I started to re-sing twenty-odd years later here in Ireland I put it back in my repertoire but this time I included the Scottish words I had omitted.
It now works like a charm; so much so that when I sang it earlier this year I choked on it - I find it very emotionally involving and anger provoking.
I stopped worrying about the Scots words altogether when, while singing the eviction sale (roup) verse a local elderly farmer standing next to me at the bar shouted in my ear "The feckin' bastards" - worth a thousand good reviews.
Jim Carroll