Lyr Req: Bonnie Brier Bush

Subject: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: GUEST,Jed on a borrowed PC
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 07:09 PM

I am looking for lyrics and info on this great old Scottish song. It starts something like this:

There grows a bonnie briar bush in our kail yard
There grows a bonnie briar bush in our kail yard
And beneath that bonnie briar bush was a lassie and a lad
rich ans busy coortin' in in our kail yard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: masato sakurai
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 07:51 PM

See Broadside ballad entitled 'Bonnie Brier Bush' at The Word on the Street. It also at The Traditional Ballad Index (Bonnie Brier Bush, The). It seems to be a variant of CUCKOO'S NEST.

Subject: Lyr Add: BONNIE BRIER BUSH
From: Jeri
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 08:07 PM

From this page at The Word on the Street. There are notes here.

BONNIE BRIER BUSH.

There grows a bonnie brier bush in oor kail-yard;
An' sweet are the blossoms on't in oor kail-yard,
An' abint that brier bush a lad and lass were heard,
Rich busy, busy cootrn' in oor kail-yard.

In days o' mair simplicity sic things were aften dared,
An' mony a heart's been lo'ed an' won in some kail-yard,
But noo they're a' sae pridefu' grown their beauty needs a guard,
An' lassies thraw their mou's at love in oor kail-yard,

There's some wha, think wi' pen an' ink true love can be declraed:
They'll find shat passion wi' a pen is uncolly impaired;
I dinna like the love, my lads, that's written on a card—
No! I'd rather hae't by word o' mou' in some kail-yard,

When Adam in a singles tate of blessedness despaired,
His coortn' was begun, I ween in his kail-yaird,
We'll follow thee first o' men, nor be by fashion scared,
As ye began we'll end the plan in some kail-yard,

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 08:39 PM

The erotic form persists (Jeannie Robertson had a version) but the song has been much re-worked over the years. Robert Burns, Carolina Nairne, Charles and others all set new(ish) lyrics to it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 11:16 PM

Let's not call this a "variant" of "The Cuckoo's Nest." Except for the one shared stanza and a general similarity of subject, the two are quite different songs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Nov 05 - 11:41 PM

Just so. They overlap, but are not the same.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 12:15 AM

Most of the mixtures seem to be fairly recent except, possibly, the one from Buchan and Hall, in the DT and linked by Masato. It is really a mess.
The Bodleian has a "Cuckoo's Nest" (Firth b.25(339), that is straightforward. It may be in one of the "Cookoo's Nest" threads, but it would take time to sort through that tangle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail y
From: Paul Burke
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 06:37 AM

The Victorians coined a category of "Kailyard poetry", named after this very song. The definition is roughly "poetry whose only interesting feature is the dialect". They obviously cleaned up all the dodgy bits and found nothing left.

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THERE GROWS A BONIE BRIER-BUSH
From: masato sakurai
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 08:53 AM

There Grows A Bonie Brier-Bush In Our Kail-Yard (Burns)

X:1
T:There Grows A Bonie Brier-Bush In Our Kail-Yard
M:C
L:1/8
K:Ab
B:Donald A. Low, ed., The Songs of Robert Burns (Routledge, 1993), no. 340
S:SMM no. 492 (1796), singend Z; Hastie MS, f. 156
N:Fairly slow
(c/A/)|E3/2E/ E3/2F/ E3/2F/ A3/2E/|F2 (B3/2c/) B3 c|
w:There_ grows a bon-ie bri-er-bush in our kail - yard, There
E3/2E/ E3/2F/ E3/2F/ A3/2E/|F2 (A3/2B/) A2 A(B/c/)|
w:grows a bon-ie bri-er-bush in our kail - yard, And be -
d3/2e/ fd c3/2d/ ed/c/|dcBA B2 A(B/c/)|
w:low the bon-ie bri-er-bush there's a las-sie and a lad, And they're_
E/E3/2 E3/2F/ (E3/2F/) A3/2E/|F2 (A3/2B/) A3||
w:bu-sy, bu-sy court - ing in our kail - yard.

There grows a bonie brier-bush in our kail-yard,
There grows a bonie brier-bush in our kail-yard;
And below the bonie brier-bush there's a lassie and a lad,
And they're busy, busy courting in our kail-yard.

We'll court nae mair below the buss in our kail-yard,
We'll court nae mair below the buss in our kail-yard,
We'll awa to Athole's green, and there we'll no be seen,
Whare the trees and the branches will be our safeguard.

Will ye go to the dancin in Carlyle's ha',
Will ye go to the dancin in Carlyle's ha',
Where Sandy and Nancy I'm sure will ding them a'?
I winna gang to the dance in Carlyle-ha'.

What will I do for a lad, when Sandie gangs awa?
What will I do for a lad, when Sandie gangs awa?
I will awa to Edinburgh and win a pennie fee,
And see an onie bonie lad will fancy me.

He's comin frae the North that's to fancy me,
He's comin frae the North that's to fancy me,
A feather in his bonnet and a ribbon at his knee -
He's a bonie, bonie laddie, and yon be he.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: GUEST,Jed on a borrowed PC
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 05:36 PM

thanks for all the info.

Masato Sakurai these last lyrics are the ones I've heard. Apparently this is the Robert Burns set of lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: michaelr
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 08:36 PM

The term "kail yard" also appears in the song "Mount and Go". What exactly is it?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 08:48 PM

A kailyard is a small garden (used to grow kail).

The kailyard novelists (Ian Maclaren et al) postdate this song by 100 years. I hadn't heard of a genre of "kailyard poetry" before, did it actually exist? Most of the cliches of the novels (which are highly specific) wouldn't transfer to verse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Nov 05 - 09:16 PM

Quite. "Kailyard" was a term used specifically of a prose phenomenon of the late 19th century. MacLaren, Barrie, Munro and others. I should probably have another go at reading John Splendid; but also George Douglas (Brown)'s The House with the Green Shutters, which, I gather, nailed shut the coffin of that particular genre.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 05 - 03:20 AM

MacColl recorded Jeannie Robertson's fragment under the title 'The Cuckoo's Nest' on MacColl & Seeger 'The Wanton Muse' Argo LP ZDA 85. It consists of 2 stanzas and a chorus. I can type it out if anyone wants it.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Nov 05 - 08:22 PM

The DT file indicated above is Jeannie Robertson's set, though she is not credited for it; Buchan and Hall's book, from which it was copied, does give source information (twice); unfortunately, that was omitted here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: bonnie briar bush in our in a' kail yard
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Dec 05 - 09:18 AM

From The Oxford Companion to English Literature:

Kailyard School, from 'Kail-yard' (cabbage patch), a term applied to a group of Scottish writers who exploited a sentimental and romantic image of small town life in Scotland, with much use of the vernacular; the vogue lasted from about 1888 to 1896. Leading writers in this vein were J. M. Barrie, 'Ian Maclaren' (John Watson, 1850-1907), and S. R. Crockett (1860-1914).... See G. Blake, Barrie and the Kailyard School (1951).