The Jeely Piece Song by Adam McNaughtan

I'm a skyscraper wean
I live on the nineteenth flair
But I'm no gaun' oot to play ony mair
Since we moved to Castlemilk
I'm wasting away
Cos I'm gettin'one less meal every day

Oh ye cannae fling pieces oot a twenty-story flat
Seven hundred hungry weans will testify tae that
If it's butter, cheese or jeely
If the breid is plain or pan
The chances of it reaching earth are ninety nine tae wan

The Yellow on the Broom by Adam McNaughtan

Betsy Whyte’s book about her childhood, Yellow on the Broom, inspired me to write this song with the same title. Betsy’s mother, accustomed to travelling all the year round, married a man who wintered in town. She disliked the life among scaldies (hostile townsfolk) who would sconce (mock) her children, and she longed each spring to see the bloom on the broom, the sign that it was time for the ganaboot folk to be on the road. Now read the book! (The tune is The Female Drummer as sung by Harry Cox.)

I ken ye dinnae like it, lass, tae winter here in toon
For the scaldies ay miscry us and they try to bring us doon
And it’s hard to raise three bairns in a single flea-box room
But I’ll tak’ ye on the road again when yellow’s on the broom

Chorus:
When the yellow’s on the broom, when the yellow’s on the broom
I’ll tak’ ye on the road again when yellow’s on the broom