Oor Goodman
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1961.87.A3
Original Tape ID
Summary
In this comic song, a man arrives home on several different nights, each time finding another man's horse, boots, etc. where his own should be. When he asks to whom they belong, his wife scolds him, saying he has blindly mistaken a cow for a horse, milk stoups [buckets] for boots, and so on. When he discovers another man in his bed, his wife tells him it is her grandmother come to visit them; the singer has never seen a grandmother with a black beard.
Henrietta Groundwater mentions that the song has a Jacobite origin.
Item Notes
3 verses of 10 lines; fifth and eighth lines spoken.
See:
'Tocher' 19 (1975) p. 102
Greig-Duncan vol. 7, pp. 322-326, no. 1460
'Scottish Ballads' (E. Lyle, 1994) pp. 173-177
'Come Gie's a Sang' (S. Douglas, 1995) pp. 18-19
'Scottish Ballad Book' (N. Buchan, 1973) pp. 177-179
'Book of Scottish Song' (A. Whitelaw, 1845) pp. 46-47
'Scotish (sic) Songs' vol. 2 (J. Ritson, 1794, 1869) pp. 296-301
'The Scottish Folksinger' (N. Buchan & P. Hall, 1973) p. 44
'Vagabond Songs & Ballads' vol. 1 (R. Ford, 1899) pp. 31-36
'Ballads of Scotland' vol. 1 (W. E. Aytoun, 1858) pp. 124-129
'Scottish Songs Ancient & Modern' (J. Gilchrist, 1865) pp. 340-344
'Sam Henry's Songs of the People' (G. Huntington, 1990) pp. 508-509
'Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs' vol. 2 (D. Herd, 1869, 1973) pp. 172-175
'The Scots Musical Museum' vol. 5 (J. Johnson, R. Burns, 1853) pp. 466-467, no.454
'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads & Songs' vol. 2 (E. Lyle, 1996) pp. 148-151
Recording Location
County - Orkney
Island - Orkney Mainland
Parish - Kirkwall and St Ola
Village/Place - Kirkwall
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good