Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)

Subject: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Roberto
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 09:04 AM

Pleae, help me complete and correct this transcription. The Lowlands of Holland, as sung by Dave Burland, on Benchmark. No information about the source in the inner sleeve. Thanks. Roberto

New Holland is a barren place, in it there grows no grain
... habitation wherein for to remain
Where the sugar canes are plenty, the wine drops from the trees
The low low lands of Holland has twined my love and me

My love he built a bonny ship and set her on the sea
Four score twenty crewmen to keep her company
There's a score is lost, a score is drowned, there's a score is dead at sea
The low low lands of Holland has twined my love and me

So my love he built another ship and set her on the main
Four and twenty crewmen for to bring her home
But the raging seas began to roar, the wind began to rout
My love and then his bonny ship turned withershins about

Then shall not a quaff go on my head nor comb go through my hair
Burning coal nor candlelight shine in my bower more
Nor will I love another one until the day I die
The low low lands of Holland has twined my love and I

Hold your tongue, dear daughter, be stil and be content
There are more lads in Galloway, you need not so lament
There is none in Gallow, there's none at all for me
The low low lands of Holland has twined my love and me

New Holland is a barren place, in it there grows no grain
... habitation wherein for to remain
Where the sugar canes are plenty and the wine drops from the trees
The low low lands of Holland has twined my love and me

Subject: Lyr Add: LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND (from Dave Burland)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 10:36 AM

Roberto

I haven't got the exact version (I thought I had a transcript from Dave's solo singing in one of my folders, but my database says no). But here is an almost identical version from his singing with Hedgehog Pie.

The missing words at the start are:

Nor any habitation

which from memory is what he always sang.

There are a couple of spelling changes you need to make:
coif (type of cap) rather than quaff and widdershins rather than withershins

He also sings in the last line of every verse is 'twine (=is between) rather than the more usual has twined (=has separated).

Other than that there are a few word changes in the verses (eg crewmen/mariners, dead/drowned), but mainly introductory Oh, And, For etc.

I've put the full transcript below. I hope this is enough to fill out your version.

Mick

PS. My interest in ballads and traditional song remains undiminished.

---

LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND

New Holland is a barren place, in it there grows no grain
Nor any habitation wherein for to remain
Where the sugar canes are plenty, the wine drops from the trees
And The low low lands of Holland is twine my love and me

So my love he built a bonny ship and set her on the sea
With Four score twenty mariners to keep her company
There's a score is lost, a score is dead, there's a score is drowned at sea
And The low low lands of Holland is twine my love and me

So my love he built another ship and set her on the main
Four score twenty crewmen for to bring her home
The raging seas began to roar, the wind began to rout
My love and then his bonny ship turned widdershins about

Then shall neither coif go on my head nor comb go through my hair
Nor any coal nor candlelight shine in my bower more
Nor will I love another one until the day I die
For the low low lands of Holland is twine my love and I

Oh, Hold your tongue, dear daughter, be still and be content
There are more lads in Galloway, you need not so lament
Oh, there is none in Gallow, there's none at all for me
For The low low lands of Holland is twine my love and me

New Holland is a barren place, in it there grows no grain
Nor any habitation wherein for to remain
Where the sugar canes are plenty and wine drops from the trees
The low low lands of Holland is twine my love and me

Source: LP just act normal by Hedgehog Pie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Roberto
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 11:46 AM

Thank you very much, Mick. R

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: GUEST,Ingrid Frances Stark
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 10:57 PM

Steeleye Span did a version of this, without the New Holland verses. I don't remember the album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 11:11 PM

I do, though! There are many recordings by revival performers, almost all of which are completely irrelevant to Roberto's question.

You have to bear in mind that Burland has a very laid-back singing style, and is inclined to slur and elide syllables. I think I can promise that "is twine", as quoted above, is just the way "has twined" sounds when he sings it. He probably doesn't remember where he learned the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 03:56 AM

Malcolm

Despite having heard Dave dozens and dozens of times over the last 40 years or so and being fairly familiar with his singing style, you could be right about is twine being has twined. I might have been mislead by the sleeve insert which has a transcription which does have is 'twine and is correct in all other respects bar introductory (and often very elided) And, So, For etc. (My transcription above was from listening to record not the insert). The first word could easily be has not is, the second could be twined, but the final d never sounds in any verse. I'll have another listen later in the day when my ears have woken up properly.

One other possible change is Gallow to Gallowa' (which I think might be a more usual contraction) - I couldn't decide when I made the transcription it there was a final a there or not and in the end went with the word as on the insert.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 04:28 AM

I hear Burland singing 'has twine' on 'Benchmark'. The 'has' is particularly clear in the last stanza. On the 'Benchmark' track, I can hear no 'd' sounded on 'twine'. Also on 'Benchmark', he clearly sings 'there is none in Gallow'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 10:04 AM

Oh, I think the final -d is omitted altogether as he sings it. The word should probably still be written "twined", though, as the exact pronounciation would really only matter to an ethnomusicologist; in cases like this it's the meaning that's important. My own recording is on vinyl (a sampler, so no transcription) so I can't listen to it just at present to check, mind.

Dave is a nice man and a fine singer, but he can be a bit vague about the words sometimes. His "tribute album" of Richard Thompson songs contained some rather strange mishearings if memory serves, and it's certainly possible that he intended to sing "twine", though I doubt if that's what the person he learned it from sang. At any rate, we don't need to look for a new meaning for the words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 04 Apr 05 - 03:58 PM

Ingrid the Steeleye Span version was on their first album, Hark the Village Waits. I like Burland's version of Lowlands of Holland as well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: GUEST,Paul Burke
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 03:41 AM

The actual words would be something like:

"New Holland is m' barren place, in it there grows no m'grain
Nor any habitation m'wherein for m'to remain..."

Is this a Yokshire thing, or just him?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dave Burland's Lowlands of Holland
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 05 Apr 05 - 04:41 AM

Nice characterisation! It's part of Dave's singing style - he often nasalises the note he's about to sing just before vocalising the word. I think I've heard Irish traditional singers do this kind of thing on decorated syllables eg My-y-y-y yo-o-o-ung lo-o-o-ve where all the extended, decorated vowels were nasalised.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 10:32 AM

Hi,
I am currently translating this song into Dutch. I am stuck at 'twine'.
Some lyric suggestions above say: 'is twine', which I assume means 'is between' my love and me. But some versions (including the Penguin book of folksongs) say 'has twined my love and I. Now normally to twine would be to twist together, but I am inclined to think that on this occasion it means 'to make two out of us' i.e. to split us up? any views/opinions on this, anyone?
Many thanks,
An

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 10:46 AM

I've sung this ballad since the 60s and whatever the glossaries say I've always assumed it meant separated i.e., 'gone between'.

Just checked in my Child Ballads glossary and you are absolutely correct. 'Twine' has several meanings in Scots ballads and one is a form of 'twain' i.e., to make two/ separate.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 11:39 AM

http://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/lowlandsofholland.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: Reinhard
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 01:36 PM

Thanks, but this doesn't have Dave Burland's version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 01:41 PM

You're right.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 06:51 PM

The Lowlands of Holland, I always understood to be the drowned lands now forming places like the Dogger Bank: she's in need of another because he's drinking with Davy Jones. If so, the the seas are indeed between, or 'twine, her love and her.
In terms of naval history, I'd put it at the tail end of the Commonwealth, when Tromp sailed the seas with a broom at his masthead, as a symbol of his determination to brush the English fleet aside. There were ships enough sunk in the Lowlands Low, and in the Medway, during those years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lowlands of Holland (from Dave Burland)
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 06 Oct 14 - 06:57 PM

And having sometimes played at putting it into Flemish (which is halfway back to the Dutch of the day already), of course the correct word is then "tussen mijn man en ik". Can you put it up it here once you have it? I'd love to see a decent edition.

And the next step would be to invert the Nations, to show the other side of the story...