The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #40229   Message #575190
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
18-Oct-01 - 09:12 PM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Bonnie Fisher Lass
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Bonnie Fisher Lass
So far as I can tell, this particular song hasn't been posted here before.  If memory serves, I think the set given below is pretty much as Isla sings it.

THE BONNIE FISHER LASS

(From The Scottish Folksinger, Norman Buchan and Peter Hall, 1973; collated from set[s] in Gavin Greig's Folk Songs of the North East and "oral versions".)

'Twas in the month of August,
One morning by the sea,
When violets and cowslips,
They so delighted me,
I met a pretty damsel,
For an Empress she might pass,
And my heart was captivated
By the bonnie fisher lass.

Chorus:

Her petticoats she wore so short
They came straight below her knee;
Her handsome leg and ankle
They so delighted me.
Her rosy cheeks, her yellow hair,
For an Empress she might pass,
And wi' her creel she daily toiled,
The bonnie fisher lass.


I stepped up beside her
And to her I did say,
"Why are you out so early,
Why are you going this way?"
She said "I'm going to look for bait,
Now allow me for to pass,
For our lines we must get ready,"
Said the bonnie fisher lass.

"When Father's out upon the sea
We're out upon the pier,
For we must dread in terror
And we must dread in fear,
Lest he should meet a watery grave
And be snatched from our grasp,
And we'd wander broken-hearted,"
Said the bonnie fisher lass.

A midi of the tune as given in the above-mentioned book goes to  The Mudcat Midi Pages;  meanwhile, it can be heard via the  South Riding Folk Network  site:

The Bonnie Fisher Lass

Suggested guitar chords are given (in each case matched to the syllable following) , as follows:

'Twas [D] in the month of [A7] August,
One [D] morning [A7] by the [D] sea,
When [G] violets and [C] cow [A7] slips,
They [D] so delighted me,
I [G] met a pretty [C] dam [A7] sel,
For an [D] Empress [C] she might [A7] pass,
And my [D] heart was captiv [A7] ated
By the [D] bonnie [A7] fisher [D] lass.