The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #81903 Message #4151987
Posted By: GUEST,email from Freeman Taylor
05-Sep-22 - 12:50 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Battle of Falkirk Muir/Up&Run Awa, Hawley
Subject: RE: Origins: Song on the Battle of Falkirk Muir
To: joe@mudcat.org Cc: max@mudcat.org, dick@camscomusic.com Subject: Small error
? a charaidh choir,
Chunnaic mi mearachd beg air do “website” ann “Up and Run Awa, Hawley” Oir tha mo Ghaidhlig a-mach à cleachdadh, ’s cha neil mi cinnte ma gum bidh Gaidhlig agat, bidh mi a’scriobhadh as Bheurla anois.
( Noble friend, I saw a small error on your website in “Up and Run Awa, Hawley.” Because my Gaelic is out of practice, and I don’t know if you speak it, I will write in English now. )
One of the downsides of the Net is that mistakes tend to spread and proliferate due to cutting and pasting w/o proofing or prior knowledge or research. In this instance, your lyrics (and many others!) have an error I have seen time and again. In verse 2, the song refers to “General Hurst that battle busk that prime o' warriors a’”
This was probably a typo someone made in the process of copying the lyrics. The officer in question was actually Major General John Huske, General Henry (“Hanging”) Hawley’s deputy at Falkirk Muir. He led 4000 men of the Government forces. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Falkirk_Muir#Background )
Brian McNeil (of Battlefield) did a great job, but he did not know the tune for the song, so he substituted a Breton tune he had picked up from a Breton band he was playing with at the time. The tune he used is called “Le Corsair’s” (The pirate), but it was originally sung to the tune of “Up and Waur A’ Willie” or “Cameron’s Got His Wife Again.” Le gach durachd math,