Songs Notes.Pdf
A’ ADAM’S BAIRNS
1. HAWKS AND EAGLES Tich Frier 2. YELLOW ON THE BROOM Rod Paterson 3. ERIN-GO-BRAGH Ross Kennedy 4. THE SLAVE’S LAMENT Emily Smith 5. WE’RE A’ JOCK TAMSON’S BAIRNS Ian Bruce 6. SCOTLAND’S STORY Nick Keir 7. THE DESTITUTION ROAD Dave Taylor 8. INDIAN DEATH SONG Gillian Mcdonald 9. DOOMSDAY IN THE AFTERNOON Steve Byrne 10. WHY DAE THEY SAY I’M ONLY A JEW? Wendy Weatherby 11. RIVONIA Steve Byrne 12. THE SUN RISES BRICHT IN FRANCE John Morran 13. BOTH SIDES THE TWEED Emily Smith 14. I AM THE COMMON MAN Ross Kennedy This CD has been produced as part of a partnership project developed 15. LARKHALL Dave Taylor by the National Library of Scotland, Scotdec and Dr Fred Freeman. 16. A MAN’S A MAN Wendy Weatherby It has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National 17. FREEDOM COME ALL YE Jim Reid Library of Scotland. The CD is supported by a teachers’ resource pack, and a programme of workshops and training events for pupils and 18. COMIN HAME Ian Bruce teachers. For further information about the project, please contact the Education & Outreach Officer at the National Library of Scotland Produced by Dr Fred Freeman. Engineered by Richard Werner (www.nls.uk) or the Coordinator, Scotdec (www.scotdec.org.uk). Mixed by Fred Freeman and Richard Werner Recorded at B & B Studios, Edinburgh
For 3 Education Officers who have made quite a difference: John Wilson (E. Ayrshire), Maggie Singleton (Glasgow) and
Design: www.contextdesign.org Scotdec Catriona Henderson (Inverclyde) 1
© front cover image: scotsman publications brethren. In 1964 Hamish Henderson himself would compose and record Rivonia, with INTRODUCTION by Dr Fred Freeman its compelling refrain ‘Free Mandela, Free Mandela’, for the freedom fighters of South Africa. The song was taken up by the anti-aparteid movement – in fact, by the soldiers in the field – and inspired Nelson Mandela within his prison cell on Robben Island. Mandela would thank Henderson years later, when South Africa was a free country.
Like the names of the streets, our place names; the names of our national heroes; the names we call one another; the very words we use to describe our surroundings: t was that great patriot Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun who once reflected that ‘if all reveal so much about ourselves. Take that famous Scottish maxim, ‘We’re a’ Jock a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make Tamson’s bairns’: we are all children of one family – mankind. For all time it stands as the laws of a nation’. Certainly Scotland’s songsters, more than her legislators, have a social measure of our behaviour towards one another in Scotland. What is culturally remindedI us of our moral imperatives. With men of conscience like Robert Burns and significant is that it is a moral value which we as a nation espouse, whether we live up Hamish Henderson in the vanguard of Scottish song writing, the strength of the tradition to the measure or fall far short of it; and our song-writers, like the voice of a national cannot be denied – nor should it be. conscience, have always been quick to remind us of that fact.
1807 marks the end of the slave trade, but it was 1838 before slavery itself was wholly It is no mere accident that Burns should have penned A Man’s A Man For A’ That; that outlawed from the British Empire. Moreover, as late as 1993, ex-pat Scots, and people Hamish Henderson should compose a modern equivalent with his Freedom Come All of Scottish extraction, were denying basic human rights to black people in South Africa Ye; or that an Irish immigrant to Scotland should write We’re A’ Jock Tamson’s Bairns. under the iniquitous system of aparteid. In a poignant song, Hawks and Eagles, Ian All remind us in characteristically Scottish turns of phrase of our moral imperatives: Walker describes the struggle of the oppressed blacks of South Africa as a pitched battle respectively, that we must all unite so that ‘man to man the warld o’er (we) shall brithers between birds of prey and birds of peace, and, in a vision that has now been fulfilled, be for a’ that’; that in oor ‘hoose a’ the bairns o’ Adam / Can find breid, barley –bree and asserts that ‘hawks and eagles will fly like doves... one day’. painted room’; ‘that there’ll ne’er be peace till the warld again has learnt tae sing wi’ micht and main that we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns’. What names tell us ‘Hawks’ and ‘doves’. We have been both in our long history, and all the names round us SCOTLAND THE ‘HEALTHY HYBRID’ tell us as much about ourselves. Those West Indian street names in Glasgow – Jamaica The names of our ancient heroes – Wallace who was thought to be of Welsh extraction Street, Tobago Street, the Kingston Bridge, are reminders that, for a long period, many and Bruce who was indeed of Norman extraction – remind us that Scotland has never of us were hawks, involved in the black slave trade which sustained the lucrative cotton, been a homogeneous nation but a mix of tribes and peoples; what Hamish Henderson sugar and tobacco industries that made much of Glasgow’s wealth in the 18th and 19th described as a ‘healthy hybrid’. The song, Scotland’s Story, says it so well when it refers centuries. On the other hand, Nelson Mandela Place reminds us of the doves amongst to ‘the Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane’ and to the many others in Scotland whose us who voluntarily entered the anti-aparteid struggle on behalf of their oppressed black 2 story is ‘all worth just the same’. 3 All these tribes are still with us today if we bother to look. Driving up and down the Apropos of the Norse connection, virtually every school in Scotland teaches about the country one cannot help but notice all the place names that begin with ‘pit’: Pitlochry, Viking raiders who settled in Scotland in the 900s; but little is taught of our obvious Pitscottie, Pitsligo, Pitlowie and so many more. They tell us that the Picts were settled in linguistic connections with them. To a great degree, Scots is a Scandinavianised Anglian these areas in our early history as do the haunting standing stones left behind by them. tongue. The Vikings brought us words as mundane as ‘kirk’ and ‘dyke’, ‘birk’ and ‘breeks’. And one could go on, delineating the contributions to Scotland of the Flemings and the The Brythonic tribes, or ancient Welsh, have left us with names beginning with Dun or Dutch, the Northern French and the others. Dum, like Dumbarton, one of their ancient capitals, or Dunedin, Edinburgh’s original name, as well as the Scottish place names we notice beginning with Pen or Eccle, like For a long time the various tribes fought against one another and, then, forged alliances Pencaitland or Ecclefechan. Glasgow itself is an ancient Welsh name, and Strathclyde which are celebrated in our history; the most famous being that of the Picts and the was one of the ancient Welsh kingdoms. One of our oldest pieces of so-called Scottish Scotti who defeated the Romans. After a time, Scotland made peace with itself, and, literature, The Gododin, was actually written in ancient Welsh. in its declaration of independence, the Declaration of Arbroath (6 April, 1320), formally expressed the egalitarian ideals of its folk maxim, ‘We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns’, when Scotland itself derives its name from an Irish tribe, the Scotti, who, it is thought, began it recognized that in the eyes of God there is ‘No difference between Jew or Greek, travelling across to Scotland from the north of Ireland as early as 290 AD. In time, the Irish Scot or Englishman’. James Hogg underlines this very point and extends it to its natural would bring us St Columba and Christianity; one of our national languages – Gaelic; and conclusion, mutual respect between Scotland and England, in his refrain – ‘Let friendship powerful traditions of poetry, song and instrumental music that are still with us in the and honour unite, / And flourish on both sides the Tweed’ Both( Sides the Tweed). present day. Geographical names, like ‘loch’, ‘ben’, ‘kyle’, and ‘strath’, attest to the Irish connection. THE SECTARIAN DIVIDE Nonetheless, much of our history is not about mutual respect but about bigotry and If the Scotti brought us one of our national languages, the Angles of Bernecia in the north discrimination - especially sectarian division - that has plagued Scotland since the of England brought us the other – Scots, when, in 638, they captured Dunedin, changed Reformation: initially, John Knox and Presbyterianism on one side of the divide; Mary its name to Edinburgh, and established their language in much of Lowland Scotland. By Queen of Scots and Catholicism on the other; then, two centuries of strife between an accident of history, the Anglian tongue would flourish in Scotland, as a courtly, civic Covenanter and Royalist, Whig and Jacobite. It is well to reflect that for centuries politics and literary tongue, as it declined in northern England under the domination of London and religion were wholly intertwined. With the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, king and Cambridge. Anglian words like ‘brig’ and ‘rig’, ‘dug’ and ‘hoose’, and so many more, and country became Protestant. Presbyterianism became for many an integral part of are common currency in much of Scotland. Moreover, there are still very strong cultural Scottish national identity as the ‘Kirk’ was, officially, the national church of the land. All links with Northumberland if we consider the musical traditions of the Scottish and English others were, somehow, outside the pale and, in some instances, would even be classified Borders: the music of the Border Pipe and Small Pipe, Border Fiddling and dance tunes. It is as ‘aliens’. For example, in 1923 the Kirk published a document entitled The Menace of high time that we had the cultural maturity to recognize this Anglian or northern English the Irish Race to our Scottish Nationality. The crux of the argument centred round connection alongside that of the Irish, Norse and other Scottish traditions. religious difference; never mind the fact that the Irish had been here for nearly 2,000 4 years and had brought Christianity to the country in the first place. 5 This ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality is apparent in so many of the hostile names that have to Scotland – and, with a slump in the linen industry, settled in the country as handloom emerged in Scotland over the centuries: ‘Patlander’ or ‘Pape’ for the Irish; ‘Teuchter’ for weavers. In the 19th-century they undertook the heavy, undesirable work as navvies, Highlander; ‘Darkie’ or ‘Nigger’ for negro; ‘Dirty Jew’ for Jewish person and so on. These labouring in the mines and on the roads, canals and railways. The horrible conditions of names too tell us much about ourselves. their work in the mines is vividly portrayed in songs like I am the Common Man. They provided much of the cheap, back-breaking labour that made the Industrial Revolution in THE HIGHLANDERS Scotland possible. Yet their contribution was hardly appreciated or recognized. Scotland’s The Highlanders, for the most part having been loyal to their Catholic or Episcopal beliefs treatment of the Irish over the 19th and 20th centuries is, frankly, appalling and shameful. and, thus, to the House of Stewart, suffered proscriptions, after the second Jacobite Rebellion, against their Gaelic language, the wearing of Highland dress and playing of The tens of thousands who traveled across to Scotland, often from Belfast, were jeered the bagpipes: that is, against so many aspects of their heritage that we now celebrate at; spat at as they came off the ships and subjected to horrendous days of ‘baiting the as most characteristically Scottish. Exile, as the song The Sun Rises Bricht in France so Barney’, beating-up the Irish. Described in the press as ‘locusts’, the Irish were blamed poignantly reminds us, and The Destitution Road, enforced emigration, were the lot of for spreading disease and corrupting the morals of the nation; notwithstanding the fact the Highlander for over one hundred years. that they were cheated by the evil ‘truck system’, which forced them to pay unjust prices for their daily necessities, and shepherded it into some of the worst housing in Scotland. The song, The Destitution Road, paints a very grim, but accurate, picture of the Highland Donegal born Patrick MacGill documents all this in his autobiographical novels, Children Clearances: the mass evictions and house burnings which made way for the new of the Dead End and The Rat Pit. Like the blacks under aparteid, the Irish Catholics had landlords and sheep farming, the disease and starvation and, gradual, enforced migration no rights to vote or hold office; no rights of education until the Catholic Emancipation of the Highlanders to the New World. Some of the 18th-century poems of Dougal Graham Act of 1829; and it was decades later before educational authorities treated them and Robert Fergusson as well as the song sheets that sold at The Poet’s Box in Glasgow with anything like evenhandedness. In its own unique way, the song Erin-go-bragh and the weekly magazine, “The Bailie”, attest to the Highlander’s emergence, quite documents the horrifying degree of discrimination experienced by the Irish in Scotland. generally within Scottish society, as a popular figure of ridicule.W hat a double standard obtained that allowed for the Highlanders to be recognized, on one hand, as valiant and Nonetheless, the Irish not only kept themselves going but encouraged the Highlanders effective British soldiers and, on the other, as worthless buffoons. How could any society to preserve their Gaelic language and culture. Moreover, if one considers the great that has produced its Sorley Macleans, Ian Crichton Smiths or Donald Macleods – one of contribution of writers like Arthur Conon Doyle or William McIlvanney to Scottish the richest and most varied cultures in Europe – ever be perceived as such? literature; the influence of men like the Belfast born Francis Hutcheson on the Scottish Enlightenment; the many musicians of Irish extraction who have contributed to Scottish THE IRISH traditional music, then ‘the so-called “Irish invasion” , as Hugh MacDiarmid averred, was In many respects, the Irish, the near cousins of the Highlanders, who were descended ‘destined..to be the best thing that happened to it (Scotland) for over 200 years at least.’. from the Scotti, suffered the same fate. From the 18th-century they regularly came across as seasonal workers on the farms – have, in fact, been credited with bringing the potato 6 7 Thankfully, there were other Protestants, aside from MacDiarmid, like John Ferguson and Something of the beauty of the travellers’ life is depicted in Yellow on the Broom and Oliver Brown, who defended the Irish immigrants of the 19th and 20th-century. As Oliver their tenacity of spirit represented by Doomsday in the Afternoon – ‘Aye the travellers Brown, the Protestant socialist, so aptly put it: will be wi’ us till Doomsday in the afternoon’. These people are no longer to be reckoned as Irish except in origin…it is now as absurd to describe a McGinty or a Reilly as necessarily Irish as to proclaim that an Inglis must be English, Historically, the travellers and gypsies have been linked with the Jews as wandering a Fleming must be a Belgian or that a Wallace must be be Welsh. tribes who were persecuted and, ever, told to ‘move on’. Strangely, the Jews of Scotland, who settled in small numbers in the 18th-century and, with the Russian pogroms, in tens of thousands at the end of the 19th-century, were well received here. Scotland is, THE TRAVELLERS Another group, the travellers, who are descended from ancient metal workers, have perhaps, the only country in Europe that neither banished the Jews nor ever marshalled been fighting for their rights in Scotland for over a thousand years. ‘Dirty tinks’ is what them to live in squalid ghettos. The many positive accounts by Ralph Glasser, Evelyn they have always been called; yet they are merely a community of people who travel up Cowan and so many successful writers, artists and politicians, like David Daiches, Chaim and down the country, living in wagons, tents and caravans with so many other groups, Bermant, Benno Schotz, Manny Shinwell and others, attest to Scotland’s measuring-up to like the gypsies, for example, who have taken to the road. They are often compelled its espoused ideal, ‘We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns’. to live fenced off near railways or hazardous pylons and sometimes occupy disused factories or motorways: what has been described as ‘the worst housing in Britain’. THE JEWS Cynics would say that Scotland was too involved in its age-old sectarian strife to worry Craftsmen, story-tellers and musicians, the travellers carry a wholly unique and much about Jews. Be that as it may, Jews did experience a degree of discrimination as irreplaceable variant of Scottish culture; speak a dialect of Scots called ‘cant’ and a form of ‘aliens’ in the 1930s and 40s; and, those fleeing from pogroms in the early 20th-century Gaelic mixed with Romany. The School of Scottish Studies has spent decades recording must have attracted uneasy attention because of their strange customs, appearance and all aspects of travellers’ culture: what Hamish Henderson referred to as Yiddish speech. The touching song, Why dae they say I’m only a Jew?, which dates from the early period, reveals as much. It is, in fact, about a Jew who feels that he is not ...the colossal wealth of folk tradition of every conceivable kind which had remained hidden regarded equally in Scotland. In essence, it poses the ironical question: why do you, as a in tents…the very centre of a way life which, although profoundly alien to most industrialized society, say that a man’s not a man for a’ that; ‘why dae you say that I am only a Jew’ and Western society, has a permanent appeal, validity and attractiveness of its own. not, simply, a man like all other men.
Henderson would spend a lifetime bringing to light superb traditional singers like Others seeking refuge have made their way here over the centuries and enriched the Jeannie Robertson and Lizzie Higgins; story-tellers like Duncan Williamson and Stanley cultural patina of Scotland: Italians, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Poles and so many more Robertson. As the song says, ‘A’ Jock Tamson’s bairns / Are comin hame’ (Comin Hame); and the onus is on us, more than ever before, to welcome, as equals, ‘a’ Adam’s bairns’.
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�� Hawks and Eagles
As I was walking down the road, It’s ’85 and I’m walking still, I met my brother with a heavy load Across the Uitenhaage Hill. I said to him what have you seen, Saw a crowd set off at dawn of day, He said to me The soldiers said don’t come this way. I have a dream. Then somebody threw a stone as they In 1960 I thought I’d died in Sharpeville’s walked up the track bloody town, A boy on a bike was the first to fall with But I got up, I walked on tall nobody’s a bullet in his back. goin’ to put me down. Chorus HAWKS AND EAGLES – Ian Walker Chorus Hawks and eagles fly like doves It’s been a long, long hard road, Tich Frier – voice Hawks and eagles fly like doves Three hundred years since settlers strode Stevie Lawrence – dulcimer, log drum Hawks and eagles fly like doves Into that Southern land, Gillian Mcdonald – harmony vocals Hawks and eagles fly like doves Now they rule with an iron hand. Low pay, no vote and passbook laws, Whilst the song arose as a protest to the massacre at Uitenhaage, South Africa in 1985, it As I walked out along the way Don’t talk back they say. commemorates two of the most important battles in the black struggle against apartheid: the I saw my sister bend and pray, But the hawks and the eagles will fly resistance at Sharpeville on March 21, 1960 and at Soweto on June 16, 1976. In both theatres I said to her why do you kneel, like doves, of civil war, large numbers of women and children were brutally murdered as they marched She says you don’t know how I feel. When the people rise one day. in peaceful protest against ‘pass book laws’, the necessity of carrying passports limiting their I had a little boy and a little girl, movement within their own country, and the imposition of Afrikaans language in their And I loved to watch them grow Chorus schools: what Desmond Tutu rightly called ‘the language of the oppressor’. Like Bannockburn, But they were butchered on the streets Sharpeville and Soweto were turning points in the liberation struggle which saw the non- in the blood of Soweto. racialist ANC rise to prominence under the leadership of one Nelson Mandela. The song’s vision and message that birds of prey, ‘hawks and eagles’, will one day fly like birds of peace, Chorus like ‘doves’, gives it a timelessness and universality.
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�� Yellow on the broom
Well, I ken ya dinna like it, lass, tae winter Nae sales for pegs and baskets noo, so just here in toun to stay alive For the scauldies they all cry us, aye, and We’ve had tae work at scauldy jobs frae they try to put us doon, nine o’clock til five. YELLOW ON THE BROOM – Adam McNaughtan And it’s hard to raise three barnies in a But we call nae man oor master, and we single flea-box room, own the world’s aroon, Rod Paterson – voice But I’ll tak’ ye on the road again when the And we’ll bid farewell to Brechin, when Sandy Brechin – accordion yellow’s on the broom. the yellow’s on the broom. Steve Byrne – cittern, harmony vocals
When the yellow’s on the broom, when When the yellow’s on the broom, when Betsy Whyte’s autobiography, The Yellow on the the yellow’s on the broom, the yellow’s on the broom, Broom, the memoir of a travelling woman who I’ll tak’ ye on the road again when the We’ll bid farewell tae Brechin, when grew up in the 1920s and 30s, is here finely distilled yellow’s on the broom. the yellow’s on the broom. into flowing pastoral lyrics. Written from Betsy’s mother’s point of view, the song reflects upon the Oh, the scauldies call us tinker dirt and I’m weary for the springtime, when we’ll adversity the travellers endure: the poverty of their they sconce our bairns at school, tak’ the road aince mair cramped housing whilst wintering in Brechin, But who cares what a scauldy says for a Tae the plantin’ and the pearlin’, aye , and the discrimination against their children in the scauldy’s but a fool. the berry fields o Blair, town, the inability to sustain themselves with their They never hear the yorlin’s sang nor see We’ll meet wi all oor kinfolk there, frae a’ traditional occupations as basket-makers and the flax in bloom, the country roon’, door-to-door peddlers. That said, it still conveys For they’re aye cooped up in hooses when When the gang-aboot fowk tak’ the road, something of the freedom and joy of the travellers’ the yellow’s on the broom. and the yellow’s on the broom. life as they take to the road with the first yellowing of the spring broom and earn their livelihood as When the yellow’s on the broom, when When the yellow’s on the broom, when planters, tattie howkers, berry pickers and pearl the yellow’s on the broom, the yellow’s on the broom, fishers right across Angus and Perthshire. They’re aye cooped up in hooses when When the gang-aboot fowk tak’ the road, the yellow’s on the broom. and the yellow’s on the broom. 12 13 Scauldies – towns folk / Sconce – cheat / Aince – once / Gang-aboot fowk – travellers �� Erin-go-bragh
Ma name’s Duncan Campbell fae the shire I know ye’re a Pat by the cut o yer hair Sae I cam tae a wee boat that sails in Sae come O Argyll Bit ye aa turn tae Scotsmen as sune as the forth Aa ye people I’ve traivellt this country for mony’s the mile ye’re here An I packed up ma gear an I steered whairever ye’re from I’ve traivellt thro Scotlan, Irelan an aa Ye’ve left yer ain countrie for brakin the law for the North I don’t give a damn tae whit place An the name I go under’s bauld We’re seizing aa stragglers fae Fareweel tae Auld Reekie, yer polis an aa ye belang Erin-go-bragh Erin-go-bragh An the devil gang wi ye, says Erin-go-bragh I come fae Argyll in the Hielans sae braw One nicht in Auld Reekie as I walked Tho were I a Pat an ye knew it wis true Bit I’ll ne’er take it ill bein caad doun the street Or were I the devil, then whit’s that tae you? Erin-go-bragh A saucy big polisman I chanced for Were it not for the stick that ye haud in ERIN-GO-BRAGH – Anon tae meet yer paw He glared in ma face an he gied me I would show ye a game played in Ross Kennedy – voice, guitar some jaw Erin-go-bragh Chris Agnew – acoustic bass Sayin “Whan can ye ower, bauld Marc Duff – whistle, bouzouki Erin-go-bragh Then a lump o blackthorn that I held John Martin – fiddle in ma fist Well, I’m not a Pat tho Irelan I’ve been Aroun his big bodie I made it tae twist This is a 19th-century song which was written in direct response to the Nor am I a Paddy tho Irelan I’ve seen The blude fae his napper I quickly shameful abuse of Irish immigrants in Scotland. It reminds us that, for a Were I a Pat, that’s naethin ava did draw long time, institutional discrimination against the Irish was the norm. The For there’s mony’s a bauld hero in An paid him stock-an-interest for song is, quite simply, about a Highlander in Edinburgh who is mistaken for Erin-go-bragh Erin-go-bragh an Irishman, mercilessly heckled into fighting a policeman to defend his self-esteem and driven off from the town by a bigoted rabble. In essence, bauld – bold / nicht-night – one night An the people cam roun like a flock the Highlander’s acerbic and defiant message is that, if this is what Auld Reekie – Edinburgh / polis – policeman o wild geese Scottish society is all about – bigotry and contempt for one’s fellow man, gied – gave / Paddy – Irishman mony’s – many a Sayin “Stop the daft rascal, he’s killt haud – hold / napper – head freen – friend he would rather be taken for Irish. Appropriately, Erin-go-bragh is not shair – sure / twa – two / paid him stock-an- the police” Irish Gaelic but Scots Gaelic for ‘Ireland forever’. In the late 19th-century it interest – paid him back fully with punches and For every freen I had I’m share he was, significantly, emblazoned on the shirts of Hibernian F. C. which was strikes / sae – so / gang – go / belang – belong had twa founded by Edinburgh Irishmen and the local Catholic church. Hielans – Highlands It wis terrible hard times 14 for Erin-go-bragh 15
�� The slave’s lament It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral For the lands of Virginia, -ginia O: Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more, And alas! I am weary, weary, O. Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more. THE SLAVE’S LAMENT – Robert Burns And alas! I am weary, weary O! Emily Smith – voice All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost, Aaron Jones – cittern Like the lands of Virginia, -ginia O; Frank Mclaughlin – small pipes There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, Richard Werner – djembe And alas! I am weary, weary O! There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow, One might view the song as an early attempt to articulate the feelings of those who felt, like And alas! I am weary, weary O! Jackie Kay centuries later, that the practice of slavery and concomitant brutality were ‘anti- Scottish’. In its own modest way, the Burns song reminds us of Kay’s painful descriptions: ‘A The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear, people being cleared off their land, and taken from the Slave Coast, the Ivory Coast, the Guinea In the lands of Virginia, -ginia O; Coast to a new land. Forced to board a ship and taken on a nightmare journey from Hell. And I think on friends most dear with the bitter, bitter tear, One third of African people did not survive the journey on ship where they were packed more And alas! I am weary, weary O! tightly than in a coffin. One African woman in three did not survive the first three years in her And I think on friends most dear with the bitter, bitter tear, new country. The death toll is inconceivable, the great black missing population thrown to the And alas! I am weary, weary O! sharks at sea’. In many respects Burns gave voice to overwhelming public opinion in favour of banning the slave trade: the men of the Scottish Enlightenment, like William Robertson, John Millar of Glasgow and Adam Smith, who wrote and spoke out against slavery; the principled judges of the Court of Session who, like Lord Auchinleck, ruled in favour of Joseph Knight, an escaped slave; valiant abolitionists like William Dickson of Moffat and over 60 anti-slavery societies in Scotland; the 40 synods and Presbyteries of the Kirk of Scotland who petitioned parliament against the heinous practice of slavery.
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�� WE’RE A JOCK TAMSON’S BAIRNS
Jock Tamson was a merry auld carle, Since Adam fell frae Eden’s bower, And reign’d prood king o’ the Dee; And pit things sair ajee, A braw laird, weel-to-dae in the warl’, There’s aye some weakness tae look owre, For mony a fairm had he, And folly tae forgie And mony a servant-maid and man, And Jock would sit and chat sae prood, Wham he met aft a year; And just afore he’d gang, And fu’ prood and jolly he wav’d his haun He’d gie advice and blessings gude While they sang wi richt guid cheer. Till the roof and rafters rang
We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns, Chorus We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns, There’ll ne’er be peace till the warld again Then here’s tae you, and here’s tae mysel’, WE’RE A JOCK TAMSON’S BAIRNS – Joseph Roy / Fred Freeman (tune) Has learned tae sing wi’ micht and main Soond herts, lang life, and glee; O! we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns! And if ye be weel as I wish you a’, Ian Bruce – voice, bodhran Gude faith, you’ll happy be. Aaron Jones – cittern Jock Tamson sat at the table heid, Then let us dae what gude we can, Richard Werner – djembe And sipp’d the barley-bree; Though the best are whiles tae blame, And drank success tae the honest For in spite o’ riches, rank, and lan’, There is probably no more archetypal or popular saying in Scotland to represent democratic and gude, Losh man! We’re a’ the same. sentiments, the belief that we are all God’s children, all part of the human race. The Scottish And heaven when they would dee. Gaelic version of the saying is extremely terse: ‘Clan MhicTamhais’. As to the derivation of ‘We’re But the tyrant loon, the ne’er-dae-weel, For, we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns, A Jock Tamson’s Bairns’, Rev John Thomson of Duddingston Kirk (1805-40) was widely known The leear, the rake and the knave We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns, to have referred to his congregation as ‘ma bairns’; but, that said, John Thomson is such a The sooner they a’ were hame wi’ the deil, There’ll ne’er be peace till the warld again common name in Scotland that it would have naturally lent itself to the expression. The song Lod! The better for a’ the lave. Has learned tae sing wi’ micht and main itself was, appropriately, written in the later 19th-century by an Irish immigrant to Scotland O! we’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns! who, given his Scottish parentage, felt compelled to remind Scots of their democratic values. Chorus
carle – fellow / braw- fine / warl – world / prood – proud / barley-bree – whisky / loon – rogue 18 leear – liar / lod – lord / lave – rest / ajee – awry / owre – over / Gude faith – In truth / Losh - Lord 19
�� Scotland’s story
Michael McGrory from West Donegal Joseph d’Angelo dreams of the days So in the old story I’ll bet that I came All through the story the immigrants came You came to Glasgow with nothing at all When Italian kids in the Grassmarket From Gael and Pict and Angle and Dane The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane You fought the landlord and the played And a poor migrant girl who could not From Pakistan, England and from the Africa Korps They burned out his shop when the boys write her name Ukraine When you came to Glasgow with went to war It’s a common old story but it’s mine just We’re all Scotland’s story and we’re all nothing at all But auld Joe’s a big man and he forgave all the same worth the same Your Scotland’s story is worth just the same Abraham Caplan from Vilnius you came In Scotland’s story I’m told that they came Your Scotland’s story is worth just the same You were heading for New York but The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane Leith’s where you stayed But where’s all the Chinese and Indian You built a great business which names? benefits all They’re in my lands story and they’re all When you came to my land with worth the same nothing at all SCOTLAND’S STORY – The Proclaimers Christina McKay, I read of your name In Scotland’s story I read that they came How you travelled south from Delny Nick Keir – voice The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane one day Chris Agnew – acoustic bass But so did the Irishman, Jew and Ukraine You raised a whole family in one room Marc Duff – whistle, bodhran We’re all Scotland’s story and we’re all they say Frank Mclaughlin – guitar worth the same And the x on the line stands in place of Richard Werner – djembe your name This Proclaimers’ song is unique in viewing immigration as, fundamentally, part of the Scotland story, from the Picts and the Gaels through to the Chinese, Indians and Ukrainians. It is yet another version of Hamish Henderson’s argument that Scotland is a ‘healthy hybrid’, and we have only to appreciate the worth of all of its peoples.
20 21
�� The Destitution Road
In the Year Of The Sheep and the The plague and the famine they dragged burnin’ time ye doon They cut oor young men in their prime As ye made yer way tae Glesga toon THE DESTITUTION ROAD – Alistair Hulett The auld Scots way was a hangin’ crime Where ye’d heard o’ a ship that was For the Gaels of Caledonia sailin’ soon Dave Taylor – voice There’s a den for the fox, a hedge for For the shores of Nova Scotia Stevie Lawrence – dulcimer, bodhran, cittern the hare And ye sold yer gear, ye paid yer fare A nest in the tree for the birds of the air Wi’ yer heid held high though yer hert To a degree the song is merely a potted history of the clearances: But in a’ Scotland there’s no a place there was sair the clearing of the land to make room for more extensive for the Gaels of Caledonia And ye bid fareweel forever mair sheep farming; the bailiffs writs enforced by the 42nd Highland Tae the glens o Caledonia Regiment and subsequent burnings of house and holding; Chorus poverty and disease; the large waves of emigration to Nova But there’s no use gettin frantic Chorus Scotia which, from 1773 onwards, saw thousands of Highlanders It’s time tae hump yer load settling in places like Pictou and Cape Breton; the intrusion of Across the wild Atlantic The land was cleared and the deal foreign lords who would use the depopulated landscape for On the Destitution Road was made hunting and other frivolous purposes. What is quite different, Noo a fremit lord in a tartan plaid however, is the emphasis on the Highlanders’ pride – the heid’s The bailiff came wi’ the writ and a’ He struts and stares as the memories fade ‘held high’ – and the pertinacity of those who refused to be And the gallant lads of the Forty Twa O the Gaels of Caledonia defeated, even under hopeless circumstances. Hence the refrain: They drove ye oot in the sleet and snaw And he hunts the deer in the lanely glen The Gaels of Caledonia That yince was hame tae a thoosan men ‘But there’s no use gettin’ frantic / It’s time tae hump yer load’. In When yer hoose was burned and yer And the wind on the moor sings a sad this regard the song resembles Anne Home’s ‘Indian Death Song’ crops as well refrain with its depiction of native pride in adversity. Ye stood and wept in the blackened shell For the Gaels o Caledonia And the winter moor was a livin hell For the Gaels o Caledonia �� Chorus snaw – snow / Glesga toon – Glasgow / heid – head hert – heart / sair – sore / fremit – foreign 22 lanely – lonely / yince – once / thoosan - thousand 23 Indian death song
The sun sets in night, and the stars shun I go to the land where my father is gone, the day, His ghost shall rejoice in the fame of But glory remains when their lights fade his son. away. Death comes like a friend to relieve me Begin ye tormentors, your threats are in from pain, vain, And thy son, O Alknomook! shall never For the son of Alknomook will never complain. complain. INDIAN DEATH SONG – Anne Hunter / Fred Freeman (tune) The sun sets in night, and the stars shun Remember the arrows he shot from the day, Gillian Mcdonald – voice his bow, But glory remains when their lights fade Sandy Brechin – accordion Remember your chiefs by his hatchet away. laid low. Now the flame rises fast; ye exult in Historians like Tom Devine and Neil Davidson are now beginning to aver what Hamish Do you wait till I shrink from the pain my pain, Henderson’s moving “Freedom Come All Ye” underlines: that Scotland has been both a victim once again? But the son of Alknomook will never of imperialism and an imperialist power. Davidson argues cogently that ‘unless we look ‘the No! the son of Alknomook shall complain. Dark side’ full in the face we will fail to understand what needs to change in Scottish society’. never complain. The abuse of the Native Americans in the USA and Canada is just another case in point. Tribes like the Micmac in Nova Scotia were mercilessly displaced for capitalist gain; ironically, by Remember the wood where in ambush Highlanders who had themselves been displaced within living memory. Oppression breeds we lay, further oppression. It is the lesson of history. Perhaps there is something of this message in And the scalps which we bore from Anne (Home) Hunter’s moving, if dated, account of the American Indians and their stoical your nation away: pride. Hunter was an 18th-century poetess with Berwickshire connections; and, though, like Now the flame rises fast; ye exult in Burns, would have been influenced by ideas of ‘the noble savage’, she does bring feelings my pain, of sympathy and protest to bear in her portrayal of the Indians’ last stand; especially if we But the son of Alknomook will never consider that the song was published in 1784. Hunter herself says that ‘We look upon the fierce complain. and stubborn courage of the dying Indian with a mixture of respect, pity and horror.’.
24 25
�� doomsday in the afternoon
They traivelled the country aroond, each Chorus season had its place Then the walls and ditches came, behind The Queen welcomed Belle tae the Palace, each a hostile face in her local she can’t get a hauf Like the natives o the Amerikays piece by We don’t serve dirty tinks in here, we soon piece their land was lost see that lot aff The settled folk made their own laws tae In her local supermairket she heard twa say what they did was just women say I don’t know what the Queen was thinkin’, Chorus gien a tink a medal onyway What you don’t realise or refuse tae understand Chorus Once it was the Travellers who had all the land The Travellers were at Auschwitz, there You can move them on from lay-bys was Travellers at Belsen too You can chase them frae your toon The Nazis treated the Travellers the same Doomsday in the afternoon – John McCreadie But the Travellers will be wi us till doomsday way as the Jews in the afternoon But history turns a blind eye and Steve Byrne – voice, guitar remembers what it will Chorus And for the Travelling People there is Belle Stewart, the traveller mentioned in the song, was the recipient of the British Empire Medal no Israel in 1981 for her outstanding contribution to culture. When asked, in 1986, when the travellers There’s been meetings in Milngavie and would ‘cease to wander’, she replied: ‘Travellers will aye exist to the end o’ time, and you’ll never everyone agrees get them to change their ways.. They’ll be there till doomsday in the afternoon. Her account Keep it well away from hooses and screen of the travellers is well documented in Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger’s ‘Til Doomsday in the it well with trees Afternoon and in her daughter Sheila’s Queen Amang the Heather: the life of Belle Stewart.� As And in case it should bring doon the price o surrounding property the singer, Arthur Johnstone, states, the song relates true events – like the infamous meetings in Pit the Travellers’ site anywhere you like Milngavie in 1990 where people protested against council plans for a local travellers’ campsite. – as lang as it’s no’ near me hauf – half measure of whisky tink – a derogatory term for a traveller 26 27
�� why dae they say i’m only a jew?
Why dae they say I’ve got a dad Christian or Jew Why dae they say Wi’ a hert pure as gowd They’re baith jus the same Why dae they say And a mither Though they hae What they say? Wi’ love sae divine A different creed
Why dae they say So why dae they say Why dae they say What they say That I’m only a Jew Why dae they say That they say When I’m yin o’ Gods Why dae they say WHY DAE THEY SAY I’M ONLY A JEW? Why dae they say Ain man kind What they say? – Anon / Fred Freeman (tune) What they say? Why dae they say Why dae they say Wendy Weatherby – voice, cello Why dae they say Why dae they say What they say Fred Freeman – backing vocals That I’m only a Jew Why dae they say That they say And despise me What they say? Why dae they say This is a prime example of how much can be expressed in a simple Because o’ my breed? What they say? question. The song was often sung at the Palace Theatre, Glasgow Why dae they say in 1905 by a Jewish comedian from the Gorbals. Whilst Jewish Christian or Jew What they say people over the centuries were generally welcomed by the Scottish They’re baith jus the same That they say populace, the large wave of Jewish immigration to Scotland after Though they hae Why dae they say the Russian pogroms, at the turn of the 19th-century, obviously A different creed What they say? caused a degree of unease amongst the local population. The same unease emerged in the 1930s with the influx of European Why dae they say Why dae they say refugees who fled to Scotland for resettlement. What they say That I’m only a Jew That they say And despise me Why dae they say Because o’ my breed? What they say? �� baith – both / gowd – gold / mither – mother / yin – one / ain – own 28 29 Rivonia
They have sentenced the men of Rivonia, Set free the men of Rivonia RIVONIA – Hamish Henderson Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala The comrades of Nelson Mandela Break doon the walls o their prison Steve Byrne – voice, guitar, cittern Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Wendy Weatherby – backing vocals He is buried alive on an island Freedom and Justice, Uhuru Free Mandela, Free Mandela Free Mandela, Free Mandela Rivonia is the name of a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa which lent its name to a He is buried alive on an island Freedom and Justice, Uhuru notorious trial that took place between 1963 and 1964. Ten leaders of the African National Free Mandela, Free Mandela Free Mandela, Free Mandela Congress were tried for endeavouring to overthrow the iniquitous apartheid system. Several of them are mentioned in the song - Govan Mbeki, Dennis Goldberg, and Walter Verwoerd feared the mind of Mandela Power to the heirs of Luthuli! Sisulu; and it is noteworthy that standing trial alongside the condemned black people Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala were several white Jews and an Indian. The refrain, ‘Free Mandela’, refers, of course, to He was stifling the voice of Mandela The comrades of Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC, who served 27 years imprisonment on Robben Island. Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Mentioned also is Hendrik Verwoerd who was Prime Minister during the Rivonia Trial. As Free Mbeki, Goldberg, Sisulu Spear of the Nation, unbroken! the song says, the struggle was against ‘baaskap’ (white supremacy) and the instruments Free Mandela, Free Mandela Free Mandela, Free Mandela of torture: ‘sjambok and keerie’. In the forefront of the battle were the ‘Spear of the Nation’ Free Mbeki, Goldberg, Sisulu Amandla Umkhonto we Sizwe (‘Umkonto We Sizwe’), the military wing of the African National Congress, and the ‘heirs of Free Mandela, Free Mandela Free Mandela, Free Mandela Luthuli’: Chief Albert Luthuli, a former president of the ANC, and leader of the non-violent protest against the pass laws (see ‘Hawks and Eagles’). ‘Amandla Umkhonto we Sizwe’ The crime of the men of Rivonia means power to The Spear of the Nation; and ‘Uhuru’ refers to The International People’s Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala Democratic Uhuru Movement which was created for the self-determination of Africans. In Was to organise fairmer and miner 1964 Hamish Henderson sent this song, ‘Rivonia’, to the freedom fighters of South Africa; it Rumbala, rumbala, rumbala was adopted by them and, in fact, fully acknowledged by Nelson Mandela himself. Against baaskap, sjambok and kiri Free Mandela, Free Mandela Against baaskap, sjambok and kiri Free Mandela, Free Mandela
30 31 �� the sun rises bricht in France
The sun rises bricht in France, The sunrise in Bordeaux And fair sets he, Is fair, fair tae see, But he’s tint the blink he had, But it’s fairer yet by far In my ain country. In my ain country. THE SUN RISES BRICHT IN FRANCE – Alan Cunningham / Anon edit It’s nae my ain ruin Oh pleesure comes tae mony, That blins aye my ee, But sorrow comes tae me John Morran – voice, bouzouki, guitar But the bonny lass I left, Oh I left aa my hert Shona Mooney – fiddle In my ain country. In my ain country. Richard Werner – djembe
Fu beinly lowed my ain hearth, After the unsuccessful 1715 and 1745 Rebellions, commissioners were appointed And smiled my ain Marie, in parliament to dispose of the estates of attainted Jacobites. It often took a whole Oh I left aa my hert, generation for the attainted to buy back their land, if they found themselves in a In my ain country. position to do so. Many lived permanently in exile in France, Italy and Spain, the three I’m leal tae high heaven, most devoutly Catholic countries of Europe, where they were reasonably well received. It’s aye been leal tae me, Whilst these countries were, for many, quite familiar as places where Highland children And it’s there I’ll see ye aa were often sent for education in Roman Catholic traditions, exile was never going to Frae my ain country. be a happy condition. It was a constant reminder of the denial of individual freedom. To my mind, this song brilliantly conveys the Jacobite’s despair in terms of a wholly fresh image: the sun - which simply does not shine as brightly in the land of exile. It is a colourful illustration of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s anti-Romantic assertion that ‘nature always wears the colours of the spirit’. One’s mental and spiritual condition determine his or her perception of the world.
bricht – bright / blins – blinds / fu beinly – abundantly / lowed – flamed 32 hert – heart / leal – loyal pleesure – pleasure / mony – many 33
�� Both sides the tweed
What’s the spring-breathing jasmine Chorus and rose, What’s the summer wi’ all its gay train; Let virtue distinguish the brave, Or the plenty of autumn to those Place riches in lowest degree; Who’ve barter’d their freedom for gain? Think him poorest who can be slave’ Him richest who dares to be free. Chorus Let the love of oor king’s sacred right, Chorus BOTH SIDES THE TWEED – James Hogg / Fred Freeman Tae the love of oor people succeed: (adaptation Hogg tune) Let freenship and honour unite, Let us think how our ancestors rose Emily Smith – voice And flourish on both sides the Tweed. Let us think how our ancestors fell; Marc Duff – recorder The rights they defended, and those Aaron Jones – cittern Chorus They bought with their blood we’ll Gillian Mcdonald – harmony vocals ne’er sell. Frank Mclaughlin – guitar No sweetness the senses can cheer, Which corruption and bribery blind; This original setting of the song, by James Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd, No brightness that gloom can e’er clear is probably the most direct reaction to anti-Englishness in the entire For honour’s the sun o’ the mind. Scottish musical canon. As a Scottish Border shepherd, fiddler, song- writer and poet, Hogg was well aware of the cultural traditions shared on both sides of the Scottish and English border. The song reminds us that, whilst we must not forget the bravery of our ancestors in battle and the loyalty of Scottish patriots over the centuries, it behooves us as a nation to uphold the ultimate value of mutual respect. Dick Gaughan restated this message in his modern re-working of the song. Here we perform an adaptation of Hogg’s original melody.
34 35
�� I am the common man
I am the common man I am the common man I AM THE COMMON MAN – Joe Corrie / Alan Reid (tune) I am the fool, the despised I am the builder of halls I am the brute and the slave I am the dweller of slums Ross Kennedy – voice, guitar I am the tool in their eyes. I am the filth and the scourge Chris Agnew – acoustic bass John Martin – fiddle From the cradle to the grave When depression comes From the cradle to the grave When winter depression comes For centuries Scottish miners were virtual slaves. They were bound to their masters for life by a Scots law of 1606 and even excluded from the protection of the Scottish I am the common man I am the fighter of wars Habeas Corpus Act of 1701. It was also common for their children to be bound for life I am the hewer of coal I am the killer of men to the master at baptism by a practice known as arling. As a community, the miners I am the tiller of soil were socially ostracized; often shunned by the local church; prevented from even I am the serf of the seas Not for a day or an age having a Christian burial. It was not until a law of 1775 that men could legally enter But again and again and again the mines as free men and, perhaps, not until the 19th-century that the full letter of Born to bear and to toil And again and again and again the law was implemented. It is no wonder that, given their history, miners’ conditions Born to bear and to toil remained appalling for more than a century after they had been declared free. Their I am the common man plight is graphically depicted in the poem by Joe Corrie (1894-1968), a Fife miner, I am the common man Born to bear and to toil poet, playwright and journalist who took up the cause of the miners through his But masters of mine take heed writings. Recognised by T.S. Eliot as ‘the greatest Scots poet since Burns’, Corrie was For you have put into my head condemned in many literary circles for his socialist leanings. The Joe Corrie Centre at Many wicked deeds Cardenden, Fife continues to pay homage to his memory.
36 37
�� larkhall
The trees grow tall abune the wall that Drums and flutes, mairchin’ boots, purple The grass is green but it’s always been keeps oot all the killjoys, and keeps in suits and banners, and that’s jist the and even the Queen of England cannae all the cowboys, toon planners, change it, but ye can always paint it, The main street winds roon narrow minds Songs are sung of battles won by every The pavement too would look bran’ new but it takes all kinds of people, some Loyal son and daughter, lambs tae the red white and blue, just like the pailin’s even go tae chapel, slaughter, aroon the playground, LARKHALL – Peter Nardini Bigotry pours oot the drains like blue When everybody walks in pairs and every Where children learn what’s richt an blood runs through the veins of princes, step they take declares their hatred, wrang frae the words they see spray Dave Taylor – voice, guitar and on Sundays, naethin is sacred, painted on the buildings, John Martin – fiddle Everybody goes tae church, it disnae cost God wears a fitba’ scarf and the sun sets and then their ain children, grow up jist them very much tae worship, when the like an orange sash in the distance, but the very same wi an attitude that’s never It was the historian, Neil Davidson, who pubs shut. they’re aa good Christians. changed for decades, it’s jist a wee place. recently said that we could not hope to And they tell me that yince you’re ower And they tell me that yince you’re ower But they tell me that yince you’re ower progress as a society without looking at the the wa, the wa, the wa, darker side of life in Scotland. In recent years It really isnae a’ that bad at aa, and a Free It really isnae a’ that bad at aa as long as It really isnae a’ that bad at aa and the greater openness has led to artists like Jackie Mason can really have a baa, in Larkhall, yer name’s no John Paul, in Larkhall, up distance tae the moon is very sma, in Kay, James McMillan and others not only up in Larkhall. in Larkhall. Larkhall, up in Larkhall. expressing their commitment to Scotland abune – above / mairchin’ – marching / toon – town / naethin – nothing / fitba – football and Scottish culture but their dismay at aroon – around / richt – right / wrang – wrong / ain – own some of the ills of our society that still persist. Peter Nardini is a very accomplished Scottish artist and song-writer of Italian extraction who here gives us a testimonial in song based upon his growing-up in Larkhall, Lanarkshire. Nardini is one of our great song-writers who should be far better known and appreciated.
38 39
�� a man’s a man
Is there, for honest poverty A prince can mak a belted knight, That hings his heid, an a’ that; A marquis, duke an’ a’ that! The coward-slave, we pass him by, But an honest man’s aboon his might We daur be poor for a’ that! Gude faith, he mauna fa’ that For a’ that, an’ a’ that, Oor toils obscure, an’ a’ that, Then let us pray that come it may The rank is but the guinea’s stamp As come it will for a’ that, A MAN’S A MAN – Robert Burns The man’s the gowd for a’ that. That Sense and Worth o’er a’ the earth Shall bear the gree an’ a’ that. Wendy Weatherby – voice What though on hamely fare we dine, For a’ that, an’ a’ that, Sandy Brechin – accordion Wear hoddin grey, an’ a’ that. It’s comin yet for a’ that, Nick Keir – harmony vocals Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, That man tae man the warld o’er A man’s a man for a’ that. Shall brithers be for a’ that. This is both a revolutionary song, which might have seen Burns arrested for sedition, and a restatement of that more Ye see yon birkie ca’d a lord, generalized Scots saying, ‘We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns’. Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that, Certainly, the egalitarian values expressed for a multicultural Tho’ hundreds worship at his word, Scotland are what was behind its singing at the reopening He’s but a coof for a’ that. of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. In a letter to George Thomson, Burns himself claimed that the lyrics amounted to ‘two or three pretty good prose thoughts, inverted into rhyme’. The song is a great deal more; its prophecy of universal brotherhood is yet to be fulfilled.
hings – hangs / gowd – gold / hamely fare – homely foods / hoddin grey – coarse woollen cloth �� birkie ca’d – fellow called / coof – fool / aboon – above / gude – good / mauna fa’ that – must not be like bear the gree – win the day / warld – world / brithers – brothers 40 41 The freedom come all ye
Roch the wind in the clear day’s dawin So come all ye at hame wi Freedom Blaws the cloods heelster-gowdie owre Never heid whit the hoodies croak the bay for doom THE FREEDOM COME ALL YE – Hamish Henderson But there’s mair nor a roch wind blawin In your hoose a’ the bairns o’ Adam Jim Reid – voice, moothie Through the Great Glen o the warld Will find breid, barley-bree an painted Frank Mclaughlin – guitar, small pipes the day room Rod Paterson – harmony vocals, guitar It’s a thocht that will gar oor rottans When MacLean meets wi’s friens in A’ they rogues that gang gallus, fresh Springburn This has long been considered a candidate for Scotland’s national anthem and has, in fact, an gay A’ thae roses and geens will turn tae taken its place alongside Burns’s “A Man’s A Man” as an international anthem of universal Tak the road, and seek ither loanins bloom brotherhood and peace. Widely sung in France, Italy, Ireland and America, it has been For their ill ploys tae sport an play And a black boy frae yont Nyanga acknowledged as a major inspiration by the great song-writers of the 20th-century, men like Dings the fell gallows o the burghers Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. The song is hardly a Romantic picture of Scotland. It is, rather, Nae mair will the bonnie callants doon. a vision of a small country that can maturely recognize its past failings, its responsibility for Mairch tae war when oor braggarts the ‘lands we’ve herriet’ as oppressors ourselves, and, at the same time, realize its potential, crousely craw with its great leadership, men like John Maclean, taking a leading role in the struggle for
Nor wee weans frae pit-heid and clachan ‘Freedom’. The song is pregnant with rich imagery: the ‘roch wind’ of change that is blowing
Mourn the ships sailing doon the � through the ‘great glen o the warld’, the dividing lines between the races and religions; Broomielaw ‘Maclean wi’s freens in Springburn’, an image of industrial workers uniting in the struggle Broken faimlies in launs we’ve herriet for peace; the ‘hoose’ of freedom with its ‘breid, barley-bree and painted room’, offering Will curse Scotland the Brave nae mair, hospitality to all mankind – ‘a’ the bairns o Adam’; ‘a black boy frae yont Nyanga’, the nae mair black South African township which was a centre for resistance in the 1960s, destroying the Black an white ane-til-ither mairriet oppressors’ ‘gallows’. As Henderson himself said, it expresses ‘my hopes for Scotland, and for Mak the vile barracks o’ their maisters bare the survival of humanity on this beleaguered planet’.
roch – rough / dawin – dawning / cloods – clouds / helster-gowdie – head over heels NOTE : This track appears by kind permission of Greentrax Recordings. It was first released on the ‘Hamish mair nor – more than / thocht – thought / rottans – rats / they – those / gallus – arrogantly Ioanins – roads, paths / callants – youths / mairch – march / crousely craw – boldly croak Henderson Tribute Album : A’ The Bairns o’ Adam’ (CDTRAX244, 2003, Greentrax Recordings Ltd) clachan – village / ane-til-ither mairriet – married to one another / maisters – masters 42 hoodies – scavengers / breid – bread / barley-bree – whisky/ friens – friends / geens – wild cherries 43 yont – beyond / dings – smashes
�� comin hame
Pit a light in the windae He’s been angry and afraid Bring her in frae the cald Chorus Yer brither’s comin hame Yer faither’s comin hame Yer mither’s comin hame Comin hame tae a place they’ve never been Set a meal on the table He’s been hounded and betrayed Sit her doon by the fire Comin hame tae a land they’ve never seen Yer brither’s comin hame Yer faither’s comin hame Yer mither’s comin hame Comin hame tae a femlie they have never He’ll be tired and weary And wi every act o kindness Mak her warm, mak her welcome known Efter all these years alane A seed o hope is sown Afore the chance is gone A’ Jock Tamson’s bairns He’s comin hame, yer brither’s He’s comin hame. Your faither’s She’s comin hame. Your mither’s Are comin hame. comin hame comin hame comin hame
Tak the chain frae the door Chorus Frae Iraq and Zimbabwe COMIN HAME – Steven Clark Yer sister’s comin� hame Comin hame tae a place he’s never been Yer femlies comin hame Edit by Ian Bruce & Fred Freeman Open wide yer airms Comin hame tae a land he’s never seen And frae Turkey and Somalia Yer sister’s comin hame Comin hame tae a femlie he has never Your femlies comin hame Ian Bruce – all voices Don’t leave her staunin there known Seekin rest, seekin refuge Stevie Lawrence – log drum Efter all the pain she’s known A’ Jock Tamson’s bairns They have never known She’s comin hame, your sister’s Are comin hame They’re comin hame. Your femlies This contemporary song marks a fitting close comin hame comin hame for the album with its call for a more� inclusive Scotland that lives up to its belief that we are indeed ‘A’ Jock Tamson’s bairns’, all one family. The song-writer, Steven Clark, avers ‘that some branches of the family are getting a distinctly frosty welcome’.
A note on the arrangements – The musical arrangements throughout represent a dialogue between the producer, Dr Fred Freeman, and windae – window / brither’s – brother’s / efter – after / airms – arms / alane – alone / staunin – standing the players. faither – father / femlie – family / cald – cold / mither’s – mother’s / afore – before 44 45
�� THEY’RE COMIN HAME. YOUR FEMLIES COMIN HAME
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A very special thanks is due to The Heritage Lottery Fund and to The National Library of Scotland, without whose foresight, persistence and support this CD would never have seen the light. Amongst the staff at the NLS I would especially like to thank Beverley Casebow, Nat Edwards and Jackie Cromarty who assisted me at every turn. Laura Murphy helped in the early stages of the project. Thanks too to Susan McIntosh of Scotdec; Richard Nicodème of Context, the graphic designer; Bruce Blacklaw of the Library’s marketing department. Thanks too to Ian Green of Greentrax Recordings for generously granting permission to use the Jim Reid ‘Freedom Come All Ye’ track which was first released on the Hamish Henderson Tribute Album (“A’ The Bairns o’ Adam, CDTRAX244,2003, Greentrax Recordings Ltd). As always, I owe a very special thanks to Richard Werner of B & B Studios, Edinburgh for his meticulous recording and editing; above all, for his informed musical opinion.
A NOTE ON THE CONTENT AND ARRANGEMENTS From The National Library of Scotland’s extensive archives, particularly the collection of broadside ballads, chapbooks and song-collections, I was able to carry-out the necessary research for the project and to draw upon a considerable number of texts: amongst them, Robert Burns ‘A Man’s A Man’ and his ‘The Slave’s Lament’; James Hogg ‘Both Sides of the Tweed’; Joseph Roy ‘We’re A’ Jock Tamson’s Bairns’; Anne Hunter ‘The Indian Death Song’; the anonymous ‘Why Dae They Say I’m Only A Jew’ and ‘Erin-go-bragh’. Most of the remaining material is drawn from the splendid songs of the contemporary Scottish folk movement. The musical arrangements represent a dialogue between the producer and the players.