Piper MacFarlane
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1954.123
Original Tape ID
Summary
In this music-hall-style song, Piper MacFarlane recounts his adventures in courting a grocer's daughter from Gourock, saying he has proposed to her and bought an engagement ring, and hopes to marry her in the spring, but dislikes having to ask her father's permission.
Item Notes
4 verses with chorus after each. Usually called 'The Bonnie Wee Lassie frae Gourock', in relation to Belle Stewart's performances on disc and in print, this is actually Harry Lauder's 'Piper MacFarlane'. The words were written by Lauder and Gerald Grafton, to music by Lauder, published and recorded for Pathé in 1906. Both MacColl & Seeger (in 'Till Doomsday in the Afternoon', 1986, pp. 262-264) and Geordie McIntyre (in his notes to 'Belle Stewart: Queen Among the Heather' CDTRAX9055, 1998) note that Belle learned the song from a broadsheet, from The Poet's Box in Dundee.
See also:
'Francis & Day's 2nd Album of Harry Lauder's Popular Songs' (no date, sometime between 1909 and 1912) pp. 44-45
Recording Location
County - Perthshire
Parish - Blairgowrie
Village/Place - Blairgowrie
Item Location
County - Renfrewshire
Parish - Inverkip
Village/Place - Gourock
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Classification
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good