Monday 15 March 2010

A WEE MAUDLIN SONG!

It's 2 in the morning and I've had a good night.  I'm half pished and I've been having a laugh and a good argument with my Brother-in-Law, whose Scottish and proud but has stayed in England for 40 years.  He's unfortunately forgotten his passion  IMO in that time.


This is a wee indulgence from me.  To all my many English friends, I'm sorry about this, but just think what it would be like to have your young people THIS engaged for a Jacobite folk song!  And to all you Scots people, I don't have to explain MAUDLIN!

17 comments:

I dreamed a dream said...

ha ha good song DL

Try this one.
Made famous by a Scot but song by a New Zealander !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucX5DolkfEc

McGonagall said...

Is this the English version?

Dark Lochnagar said...

Dreamers, Absolutely beautiful! A lovely girl, a lovely song. But, I prefer SuBo, an ugly bastard but a lovely singer. I don't watch any of these shite talentless comps BTW.

Dark Lochnagar said...

Scunnert, don't be an eejit! :-)

banned said...

I'm quite fond of some Scotch ditties, notably Flower Of Scotland, but not Loch Lomond. "MAUDLIN" indeed, the Irish have a better word for it, stotious/stoshus(sp?). Mind you this version did improve when punked up @3:35.

Dark Lochnagar said...

Banned, you misunderstand the meaning of the word 'maudlin'. Stoshius, (a scot's word) just means drunk. Maudlin doesn't always involve strong liquor although it has been known! I suppose the nearest you would get to the meaning of the word is a sort of sad moody sentimentality when a tear is often shed in memory of a person, a song, your country or something that's passed. Difficult to define but most Scots would know what it is. I suppose it's in the true sense a particularly Scottish thing. At least I've never known any other race that can do it properly!

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Is there a version with English subtitles? Couldn't understand a word of it!

Dark Lochnagar said...

Fred, c'mon it's surely not that difficult to understand, it's not in Gaelic. Listen to it again, the chorus goes, "for you'll take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll be in Scotland before you". It's supposed to be a Jacobite song about Jacobite exiles coming back to Scotland after Culloden, but I don't think anyone is entirely sure. In my day it was a song you learnt when you were a kid. I remember singing it in the car with my mother and father when I was about 6 or 7.

banned said...

DL. I'm pissed right up just now but will attempt to respond in the morning.

McGonagall said...

I accept I may be an eejit but I think the lyrics as sung have been anglosized to some extent. The original is mostly in standard English anyway - typical of most Scottish literature.

I once asked a fairly well known Scottish musician why Scottish rock bands wrote songs in standard English and sung them in American accents. His reply was that: "it would sound funny if they sung in Scots".

And yet hip hop "artists" have no hesitation in using "Ebonics" as their language of "communication" and have accrued broad international popularity while doing so. They don't seem to find using their particular dialect to be "funny".


By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.

Chorus

O ye’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye.
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.

‘Twas there that we parted in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side o’ Ben Lomond.
Where in deep purple hue, the hieland hills we view,
And the moon comin’ out in the gloamin’.

The wee birdies sing and the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping:
But the broken heart, it kens nae second spring again,
Tho’ the waefu’ may cease from their greeting.

Dark Lochnagar said...

Banned, Ok!

Dark Lochnagar said...

Scunnert, I think you're probably right, but as they are, or rather were a Gaelic band they tend to be true to the lyric. I have heard differentb recordings when they have used the lyric you have given. Perhaps they bastardised it for that particular occasion. I was reading an article this morning on the Scots language and I think it may interest you.

http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2010/03/14/useful-scots-word-swither/00281

CrazyDaisy said...

DL

An over played piece of Runrig, massive massive fan try something a bit more modern like Clash o the Ash! Shinty yeeeeha!

CD

Dark Lochnagar said...

Daisy, aye but it was one that I remembered from my childhood. You know how it is when you get pished and maudlin. You are fucking embarrassed in the morning. You should never commit anything to paper!

banned said...

Stoshius, may be Scotch to you DL but is most certainly also Irish and fits your definition; maudlin sentimentality coupled with feelings of cultural impverishment augmented by alcohol induced stupor.

Or 'feeling sorry for yourself' as we say in the old country.

Dark Lochnagar said...

Banned, it might also be an Irish word but it fits the definition I gave earlier in Scotland not just feeling sorry for yourself. Cultural impoverishment certainly does not enter the equation.

Dark Lochnagar said...

Banned, I knew you would eventually!