Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie

Original Track ID

SA1979.30.A+B7

Original Tape ID

SA1979.030

Summary

In this song, the singer invites a young woman to leave with him and go to Glenisla. He points out to her the shepherds with their plaids and the soldiers marching with their broadswords, and the mountains that have parted other lovers.

Item Notes

4 verses and choruses of 4 lines; track ends abruptly in verse 4 as the tape runs out. The melody belongs to a tune family including 'The Bloody Fields of Flanders', which Hamish Henderson used for his 'Freedom Come-All-Ye'.

While this performance generally follows the narrative found in most versions of this invitation song, there are also residual elements of the progenitor song 'Oh, No, No' (which features a soldier explaining to his sweetheart why she cannot follow him when he goes away - hence his drawing her attention to the soldiers, telling her that they must be parted, etc.); the line 'fain I would bide wi ye' in 'Oh, No, No' has become 'Fain I would gang wi ye' in this song.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 5, pp. 494-498, no. 1053
'Bothy Songs & Ballads' (J. Ord, 1930) pp. 136-137
'The Scottish Folksinger (N. Buchan & P. Hall, 1973) p. 111
'Jeannie Robertson' (J. Porter & H. Gower, 1995) pp. 173-174
'Till Doomsday in the Afternoon' (E. MacColl & P. Seeger, 1986) pp. 207-208
'Folk-Song of the North-East' (G. Greig, K. Goldstein, A. Argo, 1963 reprint) art. CVII & CXLI

Recording Location

Item Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R832 GD1053

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good