Lyr Req: Dreg Song (from Archie Fisher)

Subject: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: Anna Root
Date: 22 May 97 - 03:44 PM

A friend taped Archie Fisher's wonderful "Will Ye Gang Love?" for me, but didn't write down the song names, so I can't tell you the name of the song I'm looking for. It's the one that's between the "Corpus Christi Carol" and "Adam Camroon." The first verse semms to go: "The herring loves the moonlight, the mackerel loves the wind. But the oyster loves the dredging sound when there comes a gentle kind." It's a very beautiful song and seems to be very old, like the songs around it. Can't find it in the database, though. If anyone here knows the title or the lyrics, I'd be much grateful. Thanks in advance!

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From:
Date: 22 May 97 - 04:38 PM

I think its the Dreg Song which has no author credited. I will check the lyrics.

Frank Phillips

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From:
Date: 22 May 97 - 05:16 PM

Turns out I don't have a printed copy of the lyrics. The blurb in the CD has only the first verse which is quite clear on the record. As for the rest-- well perhaps one of the many Scots who frequent this site can help.

Frank Phillips

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: Susan of DT
Date: 22 May 97 - 07:33 PM

Yes Frank, the missing track is called the Dreg Song, which does not ring any bells with me. I'll have to go back and listen.

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From:
Date: 23 May 97 - 08:19 PM

Susan

Hope you have a recording in which the first 2 lines of the chorus and the whole second verse is a lot clearer than my CD re-issue.

Frank Phillips

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: Murray
Date: 24 May 97 - 02:01 AM

The "Dreg Song" in DT I sent to DG myself, as one of a number of "bairnsangs" I had edited; tho' it's not a kid's song at all, really. As the note in DT says, it's in David Herd's great collection of folk stuff,1776, and has the line about the oyster; but that's all there is. The 4 lines quoted are (as far as I remember) just that, a fragment, and I'd be interested in knowing the others. The lines are sung by old Elspeth in Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Antiquary", chapter 41: "The herring loves the merry moonlight, The mackerel loves the wind, But the oyster loves the dredging song, For they come of a gentle kind." [My copy of the novel has "sang" and "from a gentle kind" The variants are in a copy of Scott's complete poems.] Anyhow: I've always thought that this, like much in Scott, was really made up by the author himself; and maybe some enterprising fellow has completed it. Have you got any more words, however fragmentary??

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: anna root
Date: 27 May 97 - 03:00 PM

Thanks for all of your help! I got the three versions off the database and should be able to cobble Fisher's version (you're right, Frank, it does sound a bit slurry on the recording. But still wonderful.))

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: Murray
Date: 29 May 97 - 11:48 PM

Can you identify the three (!!) versions in the database? And let me know the rest of the words?? This is new to me.

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From:
Date: 30 May 97 - 01:30 AM

Murray

Search DT for the word "dreg". You should get 3 entries all of which have haddocks, skates and eels communicating in some permutation at some point in the song. Archie Fisher's song seems to use the last lines of the Dreg Song as a chorus and the bit just before that as a second verse.

Frank Phillips

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:30 AM

I see this thread was posted 13 years ago so this is a bit behind-hand, but Jean Redpath sang a version of this song circa 1979 for a TV series, of which I still have a very elderly audio tape somewhere. I've always understood her to be singing "The oysters love the dredging sand".

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: whitehound
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 12:00 PM

Further to my post above, thinking about it I reckon I can still remember this song, or quite a lot of it anyway, without fishing out the tape. It went something like this:

Oh the herring loves the moonlight
And the mackeral loves the wind
But the oyster loves the dredging sand
For they come o' a gentler kin/kind

Djey-ee-oorie-addie
Weel rowed five men
As good as your ten
The oysters are a gentle kin
And they willna 'ttack unless you sing
'Come buy my oysters: that's the thing
To serve the sheriff and the king
And the commons o' the land,
And the commons o' the sea'.

Subject: RE: Req: The herring loves the moonlight..
From: Jack Campin
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 12:56 PM

With the tune, on my website:

The Herring

Follow the "Back to Chapter" link for more info.