O'Hanrahan ...of both Irish and Scottish heratage, but then we all know the Scots are just an Irish tribe.

Cheers,
Jane

catspaw (multi-ethnic based cheering section)

Herge

Up The Celts.. Orange or Green !!!!

I think Big Mick has a point...Just cary on dancing 'round your May -pole with ribbons on your hair and beating sticks off each other..

..sorry brother..but your just providing fuel for the fire that dos'nt warm us to you. You wanna ask a question about a song..do it.. but excuae this..Drop the typical English approach!!!

Lighten up xxxx

Sorry..(I'm I barred after this ?)

Colin Ballygally

Tannahill's song is in "Pocket Encyclopedia of Scotch, English, and Irish Songs', II, 1818. Four of Tannahill's song are in 'The Little Warbler', 1804, but not this one. However, most of his songs were first printed in magazines, not songbooks. (Before he died in 1810, obviously.)

P.S. writing the lyrics on paper and scanning them usually makes them easier to understand

thanks to anyone who can

That's what happened to this, with the McPeake version. One parent was the old song, the other parent was Francis McPeake. And it was a new song.

And the process still goes on. I've always loved the cynical/ realistic verse "If my own true love won't come, there will surely be another" - but then yesterday I heard a friend sing it in a session for the first time, and he had it "I will surely find no other", which completely changes it round.

But watch it Colin the Whistler - the one thing that means that at the end of the day you have to forgive England a lot of things is Morris Dancing. And the people who despise Morris Dancing most of all are the kind of English who it is hard to forgive anything. (BY that I don't mean folkes being rude about the Morris. We all know we have to say rude things about the dancers on principle, as a way of keeping them in check. But it's like being rude about banjos and bodhrans and squeeze boxes. Or step dancers.)

And the Kipper family did a version of WMT with the chorus 'Do you go, lassie, go?' and called it the 'Wild Mounting Time'. Will attempt to post if anyone wants....

LTS

Way back in my dancing days, I was quite happily step hopping around to a TedII gig, when I realised they were playing 'Montego Bay'!

LTS

Like busses, there's always another one just down the street... but if yer gonna play this song at a wedding, go for the former version.. the mother of the bride will like it much better!! Believe me!!!

Now there's a gig from HELL!!!

Why some people invite a pagan folk singer into a church, I'll never know!

--Mbo

Bob Lusk

I am making this up?

Ed

Craig Cockburn has dealt with "Auld Lang Syne". "The Wild Mountain Thyme" was claimed as original by Francis McPeake; in fact he did no more than slightly adapt "The Braes of Balquhidder", a song by Robert Tannahill from the first decade of the 19th century using a tune called "The Three Carles o' Buchanan". That song was repeatedly anthologized throughout the next 150 years. *But*, what nobody seems to have noticed is that Tannahill's song is an adaptation of one in John Hamilton's "24 Scots Songs" published by Watlen in Edinburgh in 1796.

Hamilton doesn't say outright that he wrote it himself, either; his more than usually muddled notation suggests he didn't and was transcribing someone else's work. So my guess is that it started out as a Scots folk song of the late 18th century by a now-unknown composer from somewhere in Stirlingshire not so very far from where Craig hails from.

Here's a warts-and-all transcription of Hamilton's version:

X:1
T:The Braes o' Bowhether
S:John Hamilton, 24 Scots Songs, 1796
N:H is not standard ABC yet; it means a fermata
N:sic - bars 6 and 8 are too long (2nd to last notes length 2 instead?)
Z:Jack Campin
M:C
L:1/8
K:F
"Slow"
A/ c/|d2 F> G A A> z c| d2 F> G A c/|\
d2 F> G (AG) A> c|(d>e) f> d (c/A/ A2)
||
c |d> e f d c> A Ha> g| f d c> A (A/G/) G3

c/|\
d> e f d c> A Ha> g| f> e (d/e/) (f/d/) (c/A/) A3
c/|
d> e f d c> A Ha> g| f> d (d/c/) (B/A/) (A/G/) G2 A/
G/|\
F> D C> D (F>G) A> c|(d>e) (g/f/) (e/d/) (c/A/ A2)
|]

Now the day's growin' lang lass,
an' sweet shines the weather,
an' we'll owre a' the hills,
to the Braes o' Bowhether.
Amang the Glens an' Rashy dens,
I'll prize thee without measure,
Within my arms, wi' a' thy charms,
I'll clasp my lovely treasure,
In sweetest Love, our time will move,
wi' mair than earthly pleasure;
By the little limpid streams,
On the Braes o' Bowhether.

An' I'll ay loe thee dearly,
Ilk day wes' forgather,
Syne we'll row on the fog,
By the Braes o' Bowhether;
To Pipe or Flute, when time will suit,
We'll dance like ony feather,
An', skip the knowes where Claver grows,
Or stray amang the Heather;
Ay free frae strife in sic a life,
There, weary shall we never,
By the limpid little streams,
On the Braes o' Bowhether.

Go back and read what Roddy has said. He's totally correct. As also is Bruce O.

Thinking won't make it so.

Annraoi

Here's how my parody goes. I have had the pleasure of hearing sung back to me by people who had no idea I was the author.

---- Steve

DOGGONE IT!
Lyrics: Stephen L. Suffet © 1997, 1999
Muse: "Wild Mountain Thyme" (McPeake Family)

Oh, I walked my dear old collie,
Across the blooming bower,
But she never stopped to piddle,
Though I walked her half an hour.
Will you go, Lassie, go?

And we'll all go together,
As we walk our bloody dogs,
Regardless of the weather.
Will you go, Lassie, go?

:-D

Joerg

I don't really care if McPeake wrote it, stole it, changed it - changing words is part of folk music and hopefully will continue. This is a great song and will be around for many years to come.

Lets be thankful for Tannahill, McPeake and others like them who continued to write, collect, sing and play traditional songs and tunes even when it was not the in thing to do. Look at the treasure they left all of us.