favorite version yellow on the broom

Subject: Review: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 08:10 PM

opposite problem of raglan road...i have not heard the definitive version on you tube. most i would not listen to again and again although some are quite nice...

but yellow on the bloom...song after song is just perfect. it will be so hard to choose and my only criterion is how many times in a row i would listen to it. an embarrassment of riches.

Subject: RE: Review: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 08:54 PM

Well..I wish I could get my wife to record it and upload it. She does a moderately slow (slower than many) version.. with lots of expression and 'presence'.. as if she were telling the story from experience. (not as much accent as the original, but still true to the dialect.)

I'd love to have her heard doing it.

We'll see sometime..(this is crazy craft season here.)

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 08:57 PM

sounds like a good plan. I say bloom and broom interchangeably which I probably should not...we never know if it is scotch broom or scotch bloom but we are not fond of it here..noxious weed, flammable etc. maybe not talking about the same bush..

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 13 Nov 14 - 09:32 PM

My favorite version is Ed Miller. But I've only heard him sing it live or on his recording. Don't know if there's a youtube version or not.

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: GUEST,anne neilson
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 02:30 AM

Guest mg -- the word you're looking for is BROOM (a hardy shrub whose yellow flowers brighten many a Scottish hillside -- but not to be confused with the fearsomely prickly gorse!).

I think that you'll find it if you search for plant genista (it was the symbol of the Plantagenet royal family in England in the early Middle Ages).

When Adam McNaughtan wrote the song, it was in response to a request to review the book of the same name by the late Betsy Whyte, a Scottish traveller who was a fine singer and story-teller. The focus of the book is Betsy's mother, who belonged to a travelling family accustomed to being on the road throughout the year -- but she married a traveller whose habit was to rest up over the winter, and she hated the confinement of a house, always yearning for the sign that it was time to take to the road again "When the yellow's on the broom."

Hope this helps.

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 08:08 PM

I was just going to ask what you were doing up at 02.30am on mudcat- - then I realised that is isn't - 2.30 here yet, must be US time! Silly me- - - !

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: BobKnight
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 08:33 PM

As I think you already know, I have a version at Youtube.com/bobknightfolk
I have, I must admit, changed a few of the words, my family are Stewarts and Robertsons, travellers from Aberdeenshire, and I know how we would say things. So, I changed "meet up with oor kin folk" to "meet up wi oor ain folk," for instance.

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: mg
Date: 14 Nov 14 - 09:45 PM

Your version is probably perfect although all i have heard are just lovely. Can you tell us more about your family..

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: BobKnight
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 06:20 AM

My mother's maiden name was Stewart. My grandfather's sister was Maria Stewart, mother of Jeannie Robertson, so also Lizzie Higgins, Stanley Robertson. One of my grandfather's brothers was Jock Stewart, father of Alec Stewart, (Stewarts of Blair) married to Belle Stewart, mother of Sheila, etc. My grandmother was also a Stewart, on her side of the family my mother's cousin was Lucy Stewart, and Elizabeth Stewart. That about covers it.

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: kendall
Date: 15 Nov 14 - 07:51 PM

There was an old man and he lived in the west, and his trade was the cutting of broom; he had but one son, and his name it was John, and he laid abed 'til 'twas noon, bright noon, and he laid abed 'til 'twas noon.........
If anyone wants the rest of the song, I'll post them.

Subject: RE: favorite version yellow on the broom
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 16 Nov 14 - 02:34 AM

Mg - try googling Stewarts of Blair.

Kitty