Lyr/Tune Req: Wild Mountain Thyme

Subject: Wild mountain thyme/blooming heather?
From:
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 09:00 AM

hi Would anyone have the ABC music and words to ( I think the correct name is) Wild mountain thyme.

The chorus has 'will you go lassie go in it' and it's difficult to get the correct name. Is it - 'go lassie go', or 'blooming heather' etc.

Thanks

Mike

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Dale Rose
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 09:25 AM

For the words, that is simple enough. Just go to the blue Search The DigiTrad Database box which always appears in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Enter [wild mountain thyme], hit search, and there you have it. The brackets are important. They restrict your search to just that phrase.

Subject: Lyr Add: WILL YE GO, LASSIE?
From: Frank Howe
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 09:36 AM

This song has several names and sets of lyrics. Here it is as:

WILL YE GO, LASSIE?

Oh, the summer time is comin'
And the trees are sweetly bloomin',
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the purple heather;

Will ye go, lassie, go?
And we'll all go together,
To pluck the wild mountain thyme
All around the bloomin' heather;
Will ye go, lassie, go?

I will build my love a bower
By yon pure, crystal fountain,
And it's there I will bring
All the flowers of the mountain;

Will ye go, lassie, go? ...

If my true love she were gone
I would surely find another
To pluck the wild mountain thyme
All around the bloomin' heather

Will ye go, lassie, go? ...

Oh, the autumn-time is comin'
And the leaves will soon be fallin',
And the blossoms o' the summer
Will soon wither on the mountain;

Will ye go, lassie, go? ...

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 3-Feb-02.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: DonMeixner
Date: 20 Nov 98 - 10:20 PM

I like the verse below which I've only heard from the Corries.

I will range through the wild,
and the deep glens sae' dreary
And return with my spoils,
Tae the bower o' ma dearie.

Will yea go, lassie go.

Don

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Bruce O.
Date: 20 Nov 98 - 10:55 PM

DonM's verse is the last half or the 2nd verse of Robert Tannahil's original. See thread Braes o' Balquidder, for all of it.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Nov 98 - 11:00 PM

Try the forum search, put in Wild Mountain Thyme & you'll come up with quite a few threads of this & under the names, Will Ye go Lassie Go & the Braes O' Balquidder. Barry

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: DonMeixner
Date: 21 Nov 98 - 09:15 AM

Hello All,

As I'm completelly unfamiliar with The Braes O' Balquider I must ask if it is the same melody as Wild Mountain Time.

Don

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 21 Nov 98 - 05:00 PM

No. Not the same tune but you can certainly hear a relationship.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Bruce O.
Date: 03 Dec 98 - 07:52 PM

There's an American sheet music copy, c 1820, of Tannahill's song on the University of North Carolina sheet music website, www.lib.unc.edu/music/eam.html. Click on 'View a list', then scroll down to 'Old Series #83'. It's in that, under 'Balquither'.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Harry O
Date: 04 Dec 98 - 07:52 PM

Could someone clarify the position vis a vis the composer of "Will You Go, Lassie, Go ?" The Mc Peake Family of Belfast claim the song as their's having been composed by the old Grandfather Frank Mc Peake. Any thoughts out there ?

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Ewan McV
Date: 05 Dec 98 - 06:12 AM

As I recall from the time the song first became popular, 'Old Francie' himself claimed more to have remade it from an older song (The Braes of Balquidder, or some interim song?) than created it holus bolus. For intermediary songs, e.g in 1924 Sam Hendry collected The Flower of Glenleary, which uses the Balquidder tune and some vaguely familiar line construction. As for the family now making larger claims than the originator himself did - what's new? Families (nearly) always do that.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Alice
Date: 05 Dec 98 - 11:05 AM

Bruce, thanks for that link. The 'Balquither' verses deserve to be sung more. I'm memorizing them now. Wild Mountain Thyme is beautiful as it is, but lyrics that have been rarely heard these days will be appreciated.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Hielo
Date: 07 Dec 98 - 09:17 PM

Who are the Mc Peakes? The Wattersons and Chapins I have heard of but not these guys.Come back.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Dec 98 - 10:25 PM

I have sung 'Balquidder' off & on for several years....I sort of like the McPaeke tune...but the older version 'moves' me more...

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 08 Dec 98 - 01:30 AM

Hi Hielo!

To give you the short version...

The McPeakes were a singing family from Belfast. They were popular in the 1960s. They played the Irish uilleann pipes and harp.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 08 Dec 98 - 07:25 AM

G'day,
I've just downloaded a version of this from MP3 from an album called "Slainte". They seem to have made several tracks available for download. Get onto this - it's CD quality, I'm listening to it as I type, simultaneously downloading "The Star Of The County Down".

Takes about half an hour to download a song.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Dec 98 - 08:09 PM

Several songs of the McPeakes, recorded in the 1950's and 60's, including "The Wild Mountain Thyme" were re-released on a CD: SAYDISC CD-SDL 411, in 1992.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: GUEST,G. Smith
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 03:21 AM

Is this commonly sung as a slow, moony love ballad? I'm of the mind that it's about a guy that, if his true love takes off, he'll just get another, so what the heck. I also believe that thyme is symbolic of virginity, so plucking wild mountain thyme seems rather randy to me. Am I totally off base? I've been accused of that by a bandmate.

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: woodsie
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 04:17 AM

Purple or blooming? that is the question!

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: GUEST,G. Smith
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 10:26 PM

Purple base, blooming bandmate (in an overripe sort of way).

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: GUEST,Rumncoke
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 10:37 PM

I have never mastered the dots for reading music, but this has led to some interesting juxstapositions over the years.

I sing Braes of Baquidder to the tune of 'Will you come to the Bower' - try it - it fits perfectly well.

I use Will you go lassie go to the Braes of Balquither as the chorus.

It serves to wake up an audience.

Anne

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 12:50 AM

Wild Mountain Parsley, Wild Mountain Sage, Wild Mountain Rosemary are the other three song in the quartet.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 01:21 AM

Hi Seamus,

Up late and no place to go?

Don

Subject: RE: Wild mountain thyme
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 19 Jan 06 - 01:25 AM

Just took a break from getting my income-tax shit together, Don.
But you were close.
Say Hi to the new Lowdwen owner for me.

Seamus