Freedom Come-All-Ye
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1968.312.A7
Original Tape ID
Summary
This song opens with the imagery of a great wind blowing away the rogues who plague mankind. Young men will no longer be sent to war on the orders of jingoists, children will not suffer the anguish of lost fathers, and those in other lands will no longer curse invading Scots. The singer closes with a call to ignore doom-mongers and instead welcome all peoples; hope will bring a just future, when the oppressed will defeat their oppressors.
Item Notes
3 verses of 8 lines. Melody is an adaptation of the pipe march 'The Bloody Fields of Flanders'.
Written by Hamish Henderson (1919-2002) in 1960 for anti-Polaris protestors, this song is regarded by some as an unofficial alternative national anthem owing to its broader, forward-looking themes of anti-imperialism and multi-culturalism.
Vocabulary:
heilster-gowdie: head-over-heels
rottans: rats
callants: young men
geans: cherry blossoms
dings: hits
See:
'Collected Poems and Songs' (H. Henderson, ed. R. J. Ross, 2000)
Recording Location
County - Perthshire
Parish - Blairgowrie
Village/Place - Blairgowrie
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Fair