Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo (Jim Malcolm)

Subject: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: GUEST,murrbob
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 09:49 PM

The McCalmans and several other groups sing a very lovely song entitled "Battle of Waterloo." Anyone have the lyrics?
Thanks, Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: GUEST,murrbob
Date: 15 Dec 09 - 10:21 PM

OK, I did what I should have done before -- I googled. Jim Malcolm wrote the lyrics and set the music to a "traditinal tune." Anyone know the original tune and, hopefully, the chords.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 07:03 AM

Jim adapted a traditional Scottish bagpipe-march,unsurprisingly titled "The Battle of Waterloo". It's a very close relative to several other tunes "Bonapart Crossing The Rhine", for instance, or the melody used for several songs such as "The Hot Ashpelt". Which came first, I don't know.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 01:55 PM

The earliest forms of the tune are for a Scottish Gaelic song, "Mor nighean a Ghiberlain" (Morag the beggar's daughter) from the 18th century (printed and written in manuscripts with at least as many spellings as there were copies). It was also used around 1800 for a song by Tannahill, "My Braw Highland Laddie", which survives as a ceilidh-band tune, perhaps thanks to its anthologization in Kerr's Merry Melodies around 1880 - this form is unusual for a Scottish tune in only having one strain. My guess is that the pipe tune derives from Tannahill's song rather than directly from the old Gaelic one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 03:05 PM

Lyrics at Jim Malcolm's website.
Jim Malcolm

The Bodleian Collection has many copies of an early "Battle of Waterloo," the earliest, I think, dated 1817; but very different lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 09:06 PM

Thanks to Q's find, I was able to locate the sheet music. Notes, chords to Jim Malcolm's lyrics. I don't read music but perhaps someone who does could say what the melody is.

http://www.sffmc.org/archives/nov08/song.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Dec 09 - 09:32 PM

And thanks to 999, I looked through the folknik sections and found other interesting songs. Just cut the date from the link by 999 and check folknik contents.

Subject: Lyr Add: BATTLE OF WATERLOO (Jim Malcolm)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 08:29 AM

BATTLE OF WATERLOO
Words, Jim Malcolm. Tune, trad.

Spring comes to Kirrie. All the world's in bloom.
Winter is forgiven now, fooled by April's broom.
Kirrie, oh Kirrie, you were aye my hame
Till Napoleon's bloody cannon hit their aim.

Jeanie, oh Jeanie, I am surely done,
Stricken down in battle, at the mooth o' Boney's guns.
Jeanie, oh Jeanie, aye sae dear tae me,
Let me hold you in my mind afore I dee.

CHORUS: For the cold returns in autumn when the wind rakes the trees,
And the summer lies forgotten in a cold bed of leaves.
As winter begins, aye mind Boney. it wasn't only you
Who was broken on the field of Waterloo.

Surgeon, oh surgeon, leave me wi my pain.
Save your knife for others, who will surely rise again.
Surgeon, oh surgeon, leave my blood to pour.
Let it drain into the bitter clay once more.

Daughter, oh daughter, listen dear tae me.
Never wed a sodger, or a widow you will be.
Daughter, oh daughter, curse your lad to die
Ere he catches the recruitin' sergeant's eye.

Boney, oh Boney, war was aye your game,
Bloody field your table, cannon yours to aim.
Boney, oh Boney, we aye lived the same,
Drillin' laddies not to fear the muskets' flame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z076GSUaBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Ns_DMIzig

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo (Jim Malcolm)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 02:46 PM

The rhythm of Jim Malcolm's song tune is weirdly distorted from the pipe tune version, if that notation is accurate. I can't see it as any sort of improvement.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Battle of Waterloo (Jim Malcolm)
From: GUEST,murrbob
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 07:59 PM

Thanks to all for the information;guest 999, the sheet music was great.