Origins: Will Ye Gang Love

Subject: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,john mc
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 10:34 AM

Thanks to the contributor of these lyrics. since it is such a lovely song, I have been puzzling over "lenten main". I think it should be "lang toon's end".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Peace
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 10:42 AM

And as I cam in by yon Lenten main,
I saw another my love attend,
I bowed my head and I cried, "Ochone!"
The best of my good days are done.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Paul Burke
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 10:49 AM

Possibly Mains of Linton , Aberdeenshire. You might have to zoom to see it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 11:06 AM

In the Black Family, it is 'lentin wend.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 11:35 AM

DT says here Makes sense to me.
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Noreen
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 12:17 PM

What does "lenten main" mean please, Giok?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 12:23 PM

Wend rhymes. I believe the noun refers to an irregular path.
Main (usually mains in southern Scotland- see Burke post above) does not rhyme. The mains is the farm (formerly) attached to a mansion house (word descended from demesne lands).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 12:41 PM

It is spelled with a capital L in the example I quoted, and when used with as capital it it means pertaining to Lent and it can mean meagre according to Webster, as in Lenten fare. However used in conjunction with main has me puzzled. The term mains is used for the inbye land of a farm and may be a corruption of mansion More possibles for Lentren here , again odd if used in conjunction with main, could be a misprint for manse which could come over as mainse to a listener.
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,Scotus (minus cookie)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 02:12 PM

I've heard Archie sing this many times and it's definitely 'lang toun end'. Archie lived in Fife when he started singing it and my understanding is that this is a reference to Kirkaldy (the 'Lang Toun').

Jack

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,Scotus (minus cookie)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 02:29 PM

I'm fairly certain that the words for this are either in '101 Scots Songs' or 'The Scottish Folksinger' - however, I'm a days drive from my copies. Can anyone check?

Jack

Subject: Lyr Add: WILL YE GANG LOVE (Black Bros.)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 03:16 PM

Lyr. Add: WILL YE GANG LOVE
Trad., arr. Black Brothers

As I came in by yon rushy wood
What spied I at my true love's door
My heart stood still, my eyes grew blind
For to see my bonnie lad leave me behind.

Chorus:
And will ye gang love and leave me now
Will ye gang love and leave me now
Will ye forsake your own true love
And gang wi' a lass that you never knew.

As I came in by yon lenten wend
I spied another my love attend
I bowed my head, I cried ochón
The best of my good days are gone.

And I will tell you the reason why
Because she's got more gold than I
And I will tell you the reason true
The sweeter taste of a love that's new.

I leaned my back against an oak
Thinking it was a trusty tree
But first it bent and then it broke
And so has my love done unto me.

And if you love me we'll never part
And instead of gold you can have my heart
You can have my heart with a right good will
You're a bonnie laddie, I love you still.

"The Black Family," Dara Records, CD 023, track 6, 1986.

http://www.black-brothers.com/songs/6htm
Black Brothers

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 03:41 PM

The 101 Scots Songs version is the Love is Teasing variant.
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 03:51 PM

1. Archie Fisher album- "Will Ye Gang, Love." Topic 1976, track 5. Re-release 1993, Green Linnet.
2. Frances Black, with the Black Family. Daracd 023, as noted above.
3.The Browne Sisters and George Cavanaugh, West of Home, Woodenship Records, 1996.

Any more available?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,Scotus (minus cookie)
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 07:47 PM

A fine singer from Kirkcaldy (Irene Riggs) also sang this and she also sang 'lang toun end'. Rashie Moor and Will ye Gang Love are both in 101 Scots Songs and I think at least one of the sets of words above are an amalgam of both.

Jack

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 08:48 PM

Place no trust in the words of songs sung by the Black family. I am fond of their recordings, but they are full of mis-hearings. Always go to whoever they learned the song from for a reading that will make sense. They learned this one from, as they put it, "the Fisher family of Glasgow".

There are several sets of this song in the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, but that's volume 6 which I don't have. I'd guess that Archie Fisher got his set from the earlier selection from Greig, Folk-Song of the North-East.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 12:02 AM

So-
lang toon's end, which rhymes- main seems a stretch (and doesn't)
Lenten wend seem unlikely, since 'lenten' for spring hasn't been used for a long, long time and wend for path is too poetic for the song.

Subject: ADD: The Rashy Muir
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 02:43 AM

The Rashy Muir
Greig-Duncan #1215A

As I came through yon rashy moor
How spied I in my true love's door
My heart grew sair an my eyes grew blind
To think my bonnie love left me behind.

As we came through the water wan
The brig's being broken at yon mull dam
I boued my body an took her through
But alas she's gone an she's left me noo.

As we came our yon hill sae high
The nicht wis dark an my love took fleig
I took her in my arms twa
An we lay there till it wis day.

And in the morning when we arose
I helped her on wi her clothes
First her stockings an then her sheen
It was bit my duty when a wis dene.

But when I came in at yon town end
I saw another did my love attend
I took aff my hat an I said Hough hon
The best o my weel days are done.

O are ye gone lovey are ye gone
O are ye gone an left me noo
Wid ye forsake a' yere former vows
An break the heart o a lover true?

I lent my back against an oak
I thought it was a trusty tree
But first it bowed an then it break
And so has my false love to me.

Now since all my days are done,
I'll have it written on my grave stone,
Here lies a young man that died for love
Because his mistress wid not approve.

noted by George F. Duncan from his mother's singing in 1875

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Click to play (1215A)

Subject: ADD: The Rashie Moor (Will Ye Gang, Love)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 02:53 AM

The Rashie Moor
Greig-Duncan #1215D

As I cam' thro' yon rashie moor
Fa spied I in my true love's door?
My hairt grew sair, and my eyes grew blin',
To see my bonnie love leave me ahin'.

Oh, are ye gyaun, love, to leave me noo,
Oh, will ye gyang, love, and leave me noo?
Wid ye forsake your former vow,
And go wi' the one that ye never knew?

As I gaed in by yon water wan,
The brig was broken at yon milldam;
I bent my body and took her through,
But alas, she's gone and she's left me noo.

But as I gaed in by yon toon-en',
I saw another did my love atten',
I took aff my hat, and I said, Ochon,
The best o' my weel days is done.

But I will tell you the reason why,
She's got another and that's the wye;
And I will tell the reason tee,
He has got more gold than me.

But if ye love me, love, we'll never part,
And instead o' gold ye will get my heart,
Ye'll get my heart wi' richt guid-will,
You're a bonnie lass and I love ye still.

I bent my back into an oak,
I thocht it was a trusty tree;
But first it bent and then it broke,
And so has my love done to me.


Singer: Mrs. Grieve - collected by Greig
no tune

Subject: Add: The Rashy Moor
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 02:59 AM

The Rashy Moor
Greig-Duncan #1215E

9. Now all ye people that stand aside,
Woe be to this false woman's pride;
She is stubborn-hearted and would not bow,
She's been the death of her lover true.

10. Now when I am dead and gone,
You'll write this on my burial stone, —
She is stubborn-hearted and would not bow,
She's been the death of her lover true.

8. Ye'll bring to me my honey sweet,
And she'll put on my winding sheet;
And bring to me my darling doo,
And she'll lay me in my coffin too.

These additional verses for 1215D furnished by Mrs Cruickshank, Greciehill, New Deer - collected by Greig
no tune

Subject: ADD: The Rashy Muir
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 03:25 AM

The Rashy Muir
(Greig-Duncan #1215B)

Will ye gang, love, and leave me noo?
Will ye gang, and me sae true?
Will ye forsake a love sae true,
And gae wi' the lad ye never knew?


Singer: Mrs. Lyall - collected by Duncan (1907)

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Click to play (1215B)

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Click to play (1215C)

Singer: Sam Davidson - collected by Greig

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 05:00 AM

I like the #1215D Joe, that has the right 'sound' in my ear.
G.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 05:58 AM

Tyhe funny thing is that I really liked the sound of "lenten main" -mysterious and poetic- but, after such scholarly debate, in which I've learned of a song
which might have been mixed in, "lang toon" seems to be what I heard Archie singing in Glasgow recently, as our Latin friend, Scotus, affirms.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,Scotus (minus cookie)
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 08:25 AM

Latin Friend?

Jack

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 08:40 AM

John Duns Scotus
G.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 09:26 AM

No offence, Jack. Just a wee jest on the "-us' ending (e.g. equus) which I remember faintly from my school days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: GUEST,Scotus (minus cookie)
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 01:58 PM

I mistook 'latin' as reference to my geographic situation - no offence taken johnmc.

and, yes, Giok that's correct and I should haved twigged - mea culpa :-)

Jack

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Will Ye Gang Love lyrics as audible
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 02:16 PM

Thanks, Joe. Nice to have some reliable starting points.