tartan top ten

If you’ve ever heard bagpipes, you’ve probably heard “Scotland the Brave”. One night I left a showing of The Seven Samurai, whistling the song of the peasants planting the rice; started to improvise on it, and soon found that it had mutated into “Scotland the Brave” but on the Japanese scale. Couldn’t do that again if you paid me!

Only once before tonight had I heard words sung to that tune, and somehow I suspected that “bring me my sheep / I’m so lonesome tonight” might not be quite right.

Well, anyway, just now this bloke John McDermott was on telly singing “Scotland the Brave”. But apparently the words are original with him, as Google finds them only at his site and at those of his fans. (I’d never have heard of him if it weren’t pledge season at KTEH, and he has multiple fan sites?)

The quest continues. Heck, if anyone knows the rest of the other version, I’ll take that. Hm, maybe it’s on one of Michael Longcor’s tapes?

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3 Responses to tartan top ten

  1. Anton says:

    In the movie Tunes of Glory someone offstage is heard singing, “I saw a lassie in a big golden hayfield . . . .”

  2. Anton says:

    Found what purports to be a canonical version.

    Hark when the night is falling, I hear the pipes are calling,
    Loudly and proudly calling down thro’ the glen.
    There where the hills are sleeping, now feel the blood a-leaping
    High as the spirits of the old Highland men.

    Towering in gallant fame, Scotland my mountain hame,
    High may your proud standards gloriously wave:
    Land of my high endeavour, land of the shining silver,
    Land of my heart forever, Scotland the Brave.

    High in the misty Highlands, out by the purple islands,
    Brave are the hearts that beat beneath Scottish skies.
    Wild are the winds to meet you, staunch are the friends that greet you,
    Kind as the love that shines from fair maidens eyes.

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