Busk, Busk, Bonnie Lassie
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1979.30.A+B7
Original Tape ID
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
7 verses and choruses of 4 lines; 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
County - Aberdeenshire
Parish - Aberdeen
Village/Place - Aberdeen
Item Location
County - Angus
Parish - Glenisla
Village/Place - Glenisla
Language
Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good