Bonnie Laddie Ye Gang By Me
Jill Pidd from Yorkshire: On Autumn Harvest ah010: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: Hurrah Boys Hurrah! Live from the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2010.
When a girl is rejected by her young man who has been courting another young lass, she holds her head high, for she can court another lad, while her old love will soon be forgotten. The song was recorded in the 1970s by Heather Heywood who sourced the song from a version collected by Francis Collinson in 1942 from James Grant of Aberlour and published under the title It Happened On A Day in the EFDSS Journal 4:5 (1944) pp 183-184 (Roud 1526).
1: Oh it happened on a day in the merry month of May,
I went out tae meet me bonnie lad, he promised to come this way;
I went out tae meet me bonnie lad and he promised to come this way,
But me bonnie laddie never yet come by me.
2: "Oh what have I said, love, or what have I done,
And what objections to me have you found?
Or have you been a-courtin another pretty maid,
Is that the reason, bonnie laddie, you gan by me?"
3: "Oh nothing have ye said, love, or nothing have ye done,
For no objections to you have I found;
But I have been a-courting another pretty maid,
And that's the reason, bonnie lassie, I've gan by ye."
4: "Oh ye might have courted six or ye might have courted seven,
Ye might have courted eight, nine, ten or eleven;
Ye might have courted dozens ower and ower again,
And been kinder to your old love for all that."
5: "Oh the hills they are high and the leaves they are green,
Many were the happy hours you and I had seen;
But there's another lassie dancin in me old sheen,
And that's the reason, bonnie laddie, you've gan by me."
6: Well she thinks she's done me muckle ill, but she's far mistaken,
For she's only dancin in me old sheen;
And if she likes tae please herself, well, she can dance them done,
And sae neatly, bonnie laddie, I'll gan by ye.
7: "Oh the hills they are high and the leaves are na rotten,
Though I be forsaken, I'm not heartbroken;
I can court another lad and you'll soon be forgotten,
And sae neatly, bonnie laddie, I'll gan by ye."
|
Springthyme Home
c p 2011 Autumn Harvest : www.springthyme.co.uk
|