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Amang The Whinny Knowes

Date 25 August 1952
Track ID 4331
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1952.53.A2

Original Tape ID

SA1952.053

Summary

A song of love and courtship, with celebration of the pleasures of rural life; the singer describes how he courted his sweetheart: "We sought for joy and found it / Whaur yon we burnie rowes / Whaur the echo mocks the corncraik / Amang the whinny knowes." He chides women who pay dearly for perfume in town, saying "rural joy is free to a'". The song ends with the onset of winter, but the singer looks forward to welcoming back the corncraik in summertime.

William Milne learned the song from his mother.

Item Notes

Text transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 4 verses of 4 lines. Also known as '(The Echo Mocks) The Corncrake(aik)'. The folk-song scholar Gavin Greig did not consider this song to be traditional, but rather well-composed in a traditional style by an unknown author.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 5, pp. 23-24, no. 945
'Come Gie's a Sang' (S. Douglas, 1995) p. 107
'Vagabond Songs & Ballads' vol. 2 (R. Ford, 1901) pp. 244-246
'Sam Henry's Songs of the People' (G. Huntington, 1990) p. 272
'Till Doomsday in the Afternoon' (E. MacColl & P. Seeger, 1986) pp. 201-202
'Folk-Song of the North-East' (G. Greig, K. Goldstein & A. Argo, 1963
reprint) art. no. CLXXV

Item Location

County - Ayrshire

Village/Place - River Ayr

Language

Scots

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R2736 GD945

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good