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A Pair o Nicky Tams

Date October 1953
Track ID 26554
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1953.235.A6

Original Tape ID

SA1953.235

Summary

A comic song in which the singer celebrates his nicky-tams, which are not only very useful at work, but also admired by the woman he is courting.

Preceded by a brief introduction from Hamish Henderson.

Item Notes

7 verses. A song by the famous bothy balladeer G. S. Morris. 'Nicky Tams' were leather thongs (or sometimes pieces of cord) tied below the farmworker's knee in order to keep the trouser legs from trailing in the mud (and allegedly to prevent rats and mice from crawling up the legs). The name derives from 'Nicky' as an allusion to 'knicker-bockers' (which were fashionable at the tim) and 'Tams' from 'Taum', meaning 'cord'.

See:
'101 Scottish Songs' (Buchan) pp. 48-49
'Kerr's Buchan Bothy Ballads' 2 (1957) pp. 2-3

Recording Location

County - Midlothian

Parish - Edinburgh

Village/Place - Edinburgh

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R1875

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Fair