Lyr Req: Laird of Udny

Subject: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: GUEST,sylvia herold
Date: 07 Jun 04 - 07:40 PM

Hello, Mudcatters,

I'm trying to figure out the first verse of "The Laird of Udny" from Archie Fisher's album w/ Garnett Rogers "Off the Map." It goes something like this:
I am the laird of Udny's wa's (walls?)
And I've come here with richt good cause
I've offered mair that thirty (fa's??)
Come (?????????) the plain

I e-mailed a note to Archie via his folk radio show a few days ago and, so far, no response. So, I'm hoping someone out there may be able to help me out. Thanks!

Sylvia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 07 Jun 04 - 11:07 PM

I don't know what Archie sings, but his sister Cilla had it thus:

Noo I'm the laird o' Udney's Wa's
And I've come here withoot guid cause
And I've had mair than thirty fa's
Comin oot owre the hill.

(Ailie Munro, The Folk Music Revival in Scotland, Norwood Editions 1985, 170-173).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: GUEST,Billy
Date: 07 Jun 04 - 11:41 PM

Malcolm, doesn't Cilla's voice just give you an instant boner? It does for me!
(Sorry for that outburst - and now back to our regular programme.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 12:14 AM

She's a damn good singer, but that's all I'll say on the subject.

On reflection, I'm sure that I've heard something closer to the words Sylvia mentions; can't place them at the moment, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: GUEST,sylvia herold
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 02:06 PM

Thanks, Malcolm, for the Cilla version. I still can't make much sense of the last two lines. I've gone to the Scots glossery. They say "fa's" is either "falls" or "claim, or to get." That second definition makes more sense to me in the context of the song but I still can't quite figure it out. Any thoughts?
I appreciate it.

Sylvia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Julia
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 02:47 PM

This song is actually "This Ae Nicht"
and the verse goes

I am the Laird o' windy wa's ("windy walls"- all outdoors)
An' I cam here wi' richt gude cause
For I hae gotten many fa's
Upon a naked wame, Oh

Let me in this ae nicht
this ae, ae, ae, nicht, oh
Let me in this ae nicht
An' I'll ne'er speir back again , oh

It means he has laid lots of women
and to "let him in" this one nicht and he'll never ask again

It's very old
It appears on Ord's Bothey ballads among other collections
Robert Burns has a version of it

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Dita
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 02:54 PM

It's a night visiting song, the laird is doing a bit of nocturnal courting,
            " I've had mair than thirty fa's,
             Coming out ower the plain"

I've fallen more than thirty times, on my way here across the plain.

The reason he's fallen is the night is dark and the ground uneven, he has not travelled by road but across the plain.

The chorus then goes "Let me in this ain night
                            or I'll no be back again"

If memory serves the next verse goes on to describe how he's cold and frozen, so he got muddy and soaked to the skin as he fell the thirty or more times and is now begining to freeze.

Not a pritty picture perhaps, but if it gets him over the door, (or through the wimdow), I'm sure he'll think of somthing to warm him.

cheers, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Dita
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 03:13 PM

Just hearing Archie singing this in my head, (I'm not at home so can't check till tomorrow), as sung by him it goes

"I'm the laird of Undy's Wa's
I've come here wi' right good cause
I've suffered mair than thirty fa's
Coming oot ower the plain"


Julia's is an older variant, but not the one Archie recorded.

Shows you the folk process at work.

Cheers, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 04:14 PM

Cilla learned the song "from Jimmy Hutchinson around 1973, when he lived in Kirkcaldy". It's very close to Jeannie Robertson's set, which however has the more usual "Windy Wa's".

Although the meaning of the first verse is innocent enough here, it was not always so. David Herd's MS contains a text, as Let Me in this ae Night, which contains the verse

I am the laird of windy-was,
I come na here without a cause,
And I hae gotten mony fa's
Upon a naked wame o!

The full text (spelling altered in places, and with a couple of lines apparently introduced from Burns' genteel re-write of it) is quoted in the DT: Let me in this ae nicht.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 04:29 PM

Ah; I see that Julia has already quoted a form of that verse. I'll just add that the song is listed under number 135 in the Roud Folk Song Index, which has a number of references to variants from print and from oral currency, under various titles. Mainly Scottish, but there is also a fair sprinkling of examples of the English form, Cold Haily Rainy Night.

Subject: Lyr Add: LAIRD O' UDNY'S WA'S (from Archie Fisher)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 07:10 PM

This is what Archie sings on 'Will Ye Gang Love' (1976):

LAIRD O' UDNY'S WA'S
(Trad)

O I'm the laird o' Udny's Wa's
And I've come here wi' richt guid cause
And I've had mair that thirty fa's
Comin' oot owre the plain
O let me in this ae nicht
This ae ae ae nicht
O let me in this ae nicht
And I'll never speir back again

My mother, she does soundly sleep
And my bedroom door does chirrup and cheep
My bedroom door does chirrup and cheep
And I cannae let ye in
So gang ye hame this ae nicht
This ae ae ae nicht
Gang ye hame this ae nicht
And never speir back again

I'll oil your door gin it maun squeak
And it will neither chirrup nor cheep
No it will neither chirrup nor cheep
And I'll get slippin' in
O let me in this ae nicht,
This ae ae ae nicht
O let me in this ae nicht,
And I'll never speir back again

When he's got in he was sae gled
He's taken his bonnet frae off of his head
And he's kissed her on the cheeks sae red
And the auld wife heard the din
O but well she likit that ae nicht
That ae ae ae nicht
O weel she likit that ae nicht
She let her laddie in

When he got in he was sae gled
He's knockit the bottom-boards oot o' the bed
And he stole the lassie's maidenhead
And the auld wife heard the din
O but well she likit that ae nicht
That ae ae ae nicht
O weel she likit that ae nicht
That she let her laddie in

Jeannie Robertson called itThe Laird o' Windywa's. One comment as yet missing from My Songbook:

[1995:] Udny is a small village a dozen miles north of Aberdeen (Peter Hall, notes 'Folk Songs of North-East Scotland')

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: Julia
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 09:00 PM

Steeleye Span does a great version of "Cold haily windy night"

"Let me in the soldier cried,
On the cold haily windy night
Let me in the soldier cried,
For I'll not go back again, oh"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Laird of Udny
From: GUEST,morgan and folk
Date: 17 Apr 16 - 02:03 AM

I sing:
I'm the laird of Udny Wa's (walls of the Lairds house)
And I'ev come here with rightful cause
And I'ev tain more than thirty fa's (meaning he's fallen of his horse more than thirty times because he's so drunk)
Riding ore the plain o