The Banks O Airdrie

On Springthyme SPRCD 1043
Shepheard, Spiers & Watson: Over the High Hills

Tom Spiers: Tom heard this sung by Jeannie Robertson and by Norman Kennedy before Norman left for North America, and remembers it as one of the first ballads he learned in the 1960s and reckons this was probably because the repetitions in the story made it easy to pick up. The ballad has survived in the oral tradition of many in the Scottish traveller community. The robber’s name in this version - Bubblin Jockie - is presumably related to the name Baby Lon in the Perthshire version published by Motherwell in 1827 and taken by Child as his A version with the ballad name Babylon. (Child 14, Greig Duncan 2:199, Roud 27)

Ingmar Bergman's 1960 film The Virgin Spring (Swedish: Jungfrukällan) is based on Töres döttrar i Wänge, a Swedish version of the ballad.

Tom (lead vocal) with Pete (vocal) and Arthur (vocal)

1: Three bonnie sisters gaed oot for a walk,

Eechan aye say bonnie O,
They’ve met wi a robber on the road,

By the bonnie banks o Airdrie O.

2: He’s taen the first yin by the hand,
He’s birled her roon an bid her stand.

3: "Will ye be a rank robber’s wife?
Or will ye dee by my penknife?"

4: "I’ll nae be a rank robber’s wife,
I’d raither dee by your penknife."

5: He’s taen the next yin by the hand,
He’s birled her roon an bid her stand.

6: "Will ye be a rank robber’s wife,
Or will ye dee by my penknife?"

7: "I’ll nae be a rank robber’s wife,
I’d raither dee by your penknife."

8: Then he’s taen the third yin by the hand,
He’s birled her roon an he’s bid her stand.

9: "Will ye be a rank robber’s wife,
Or will ye dee by my penknife?"

10: "I’ll nae be a rank robber’s wife,
Nor will I dee by your penknife."

11: "For in this wid I’ve a brither true,
An gin ye kill me syne he’ll kill you."

12: "Come tell me fit is yer brither’s name."
"It’s Bubblin Jockie they cry him."

13: "Oh my God, fit hiv I din!
I’ve killed my sisters, aa but yin."

14: "Then he’s picket them up an he’s cairried them hame,
Eechan aye say bonnie O,
A-robbin, a-robbin I’ll niver gang again,
By the bonnie banks o Airdrie O.