"Malcolm has one of those pure, warm folk voices (two parts Archie Fisher,one part Dick Gaughan) that one never tires of listening to."-- Dirty Linen.................... "One of the finest singing voices in Scotland in any style." -- The Living Tradition ................

Rohallion - Lyrics
Battle of Waterloo Words Jim Malcolm; tune trad
Spring comes to Kirrie, all the world's in bloom,
Winter is forgiven now,
Fooled by April's broom,
Kirrie, oh Kirrie, you were aye my hame
Till Napoleon's bloody cannon hit their aim,

Jeanie oh Jeanie, I am surely done,
Stricken down in battle, at the mooth o' Boney's guns,
Jeanie oh Jeanie, aye sae dear tae me,
Let me hold you in my mind afore I dee

Chorus
For the cold returns in autumn
when the wind rakes the trees,
And the summer lies forgotten
In a cold bed of leaves,
As winter begins aye mind Boney,
It wasn't only you,
Who was broken on the field of Waterloo.

Surgeon oh surgeon, leave me wi my pain,
Save your knife for others, who will surely rise again,
Surgeon oh surgeon, leave my blood to pour,
Let it drain into the bitter clay once more,

Daughter oh daughter, listen dear tae me,
Never wed a sodger, or a widow you will be
Daughter oh daughter, curse your lad to die,
Ere he catches the recruitin' sergeant's eye,

Boney oh Boney, war was aye your game,
Bloody field your table, cannon yours to aim,
Boney oh Boney, we aye lived the same,
Drillin' laddies not to fear the muskets' flame,

Amulree (J Malcolm)

Goodbye Amulree, goodbye Amulree, goodbye Amulree,
Don't cry Amulree, you'll fly Amulree, they'll buy Amulree,
You love someone, and you can't carry on, with me any more,
You love someone, he is the one, to open the door,
To your destiny, to your destiny
Someone from yesterday,
Someone from your childhood,
Clutching the Holyrood,
Clutching the Holyrood.

Goodbye Amulree, goodbye Amulree, goodbye Amulree,
You'll find Amulree, our kind Amulree, don't bind Amulree,
You love someone, and you can't carry on, with me any more,
You love someone, he is the one, to open the door,
To your destiny, to your destiny,

Someone from yesterday,
Someone from your childhood,
Clutching the Holyrood,
Clutching the Holyrood.

Goodbye Amulree, goodbye Amulree, goodbye Amulree,
We tried Amulree, but lies Amulree, ran dry Amulree,
You love someone, and you can't carry on, with me any more,
You love someone, he has begun, to open the door,
To your destiny, to your destiny,
Someone from yesterday,
Someone from your childhood,the Holyrood,
Clutching the Holyrood,
Clutching the Holyrood,
Clutching the Holyrood, Holyrood, Holyrood, Holyrood

Gorbals Melody (J Malcolm)

A raw night in January,
Soot fills a dark leaden sky in the Gorbals,
A neighbour knocks angrily,
As above rings the wail of a new baby's cry,
The bookmaker's boarding,
A fortyfive bus to his house up in Shawlands,
The advertise hoarding,
Sells a popular dram from the fairytale land,
Where they all live in castles.

Chorus
Sweet Angela Brown,
home you were born in's pulled down,
Moved to a muddy new town miles away,
School milk every day,
Till Thatcher snatched away,
But you still shone like a rose through the grey

The shipyards are closing,
The busy folk in the Far East build them cheaper,
A mother is walking,
Her bonny wee yellow-haired girl in a pram,
They're pulling down Cumbie Street,

Dust fills the little girl's lungs and she's crying,
They're off to the council,
To sign for a flat in a skyscraper block,
Many miles from the Gorbals.

The top floor is windy,
Damp stains the living room walls and the carpet,
The lift smells of urine,
The old folk are shy to go out after dark,
Wee Angela's growing tall,
Her long golden hair is the joy of her mother,
She plays in the underpass,
Till the boys pull her hair, or the big dog is there,
Or a van for an ice-cream.

Angela's moved away,
She met an American soldier at a night club,
He thinks she's a princess,
They live on a military base near Chicago,
Her mother's in Anderston,
She never felt that she belonged far from Glasgow,
She saw Angie's father once,
At the back of a bus, but he didn't see her,
And she felt nothing for him.

Skye Cuckoo Rag (J Malcolm)

My baby's living on the dole, waiting for,
Life's sweet mystery to unfold,
She likes to live here by the sea,
I think that's where she'll always be,
There's a little brown bird on the wire, whose song,
Begins to turn my head on fire,
Woke me up at 5am this morning,
All I could hear was cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo

I used to think that sound was quaint,
Quaint is something that it ain't
Just like my auntie Mary's tablet,
Good couple pieces then you've had it,
That little brown bird on the wire,
Begins to turn my head on fire,
Woke me up at five again this mornin'
All I could hear was cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.

Sierra Whoosh (Hitching Out Of Oban) (J Malcolm)

Hitching out of Oban,
If we don't get home it's another wild night in a tent,
Because the fly sheet's ripped and the poles are bent,
Had to do some walking,
'Cause the road's so twisty that the cars just can't pull in,
And you don't get lifts if they can't pull in,
Then before my eyes,
A lay-by hitch-hiking paradise,
Stuck out a thumb like bait,
Just to succumb to the same old fate,

Chorus:
Sierra whoosh, Lochaber no more,
Sierra whoosh, foot to the floor,
Sierra whoosh, try to ignore me,
Big fast empty cars full of busy people,
Look at me as if I was something evil,
Just for hitching a ride

 

Hitching out of Oban,
Hopes are raised by a Geordie boy and girl,
But the lift's so short and the road's so long,
Had no trouble talking,
Trading off tales of travel with the thumb and the tent,
Of the sights we'd seen and the folks we'd met,
But they can't take us far,
Soon they're helping us out the car,
Stuck out a thumb like bait,
Just to succumb to the same old fate,

Hitching out of Oban,
Life looks black as the night draws slowly in
On a bed bend thumbing in the drizzling rain
Looking for a saviour,
Came in the shape of a rented dormobile
Trundling along like a house on wheels
Two good folks from Oz
Slowed right down and took the time to pause
Though it was getting late
Rescued us from the same old fate.

Vinney Den (Jim Reid; pub Springthyme Music)

As I gaed ower by Bractley Brig,
'Twas on my way tae Bowrie Fau'd;
I met wi sic a bonnie lass,
Wad turn the een o ony lad.

Said I,"Ma dear it's gettin late,
The sun's lang drapped ower Lownie Hill.
Have you got very far to go?"
She said, "I bide at Idvies Mill."

"My faither he's the miller there,
An honest man ye'll shairly ken;
He'll treat ye fairly if ye'll see me
Safely through the Vinney Den."

I took her hand and we set aff,
Tae struggle doun the burnside;
The lengthenin shadows grew sae dark,
My growin fear I tried tae hide.

I said tae her, "Let's sing a sang,
The tune will help us on oor way."
She sang sae sweet I lost ma fear,
She fairly stole ma heart away.

But when we cam tae the Feuar's Inn,
Efter we'd won through dark Vinney Den;
Ma bonnie lass was taen awa,
By four an twenty angry men.

But she broke loose, cam rinnin back,
When she saw they'd tied me tae a tree,
Sayin, "Is this the thanks a laddie gets,
For aa the help he's been tae me?"

They listened tae her story then,
They took a knife and cut me loose;
They set us baith upon a horse,
And led us tae her faither's hoose.

Her faither was sae glad tae see,
That she was safe and free from harm;
And I was asked if I wad fee,
As horseman on Auchterlownie fairm.

I coorted her from that day on,
An tae wed wi me she did agree;
Tho auld an grey we aye will mind
When she cam through the Vinney Den wi me.

Tam o' Shanter: Part One (Words Robert Burns; music J Malcolm; pub Grian Music)

When chapman billies leave the street,
And drouthy neibors neibors meet;
As market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate,
While we sit bousing at the nappy,
An' getting fou and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,
The mosses, waters, slaps and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like a gathering storm
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.

This truth fand honest Tam o'Shanter,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter:
(Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonie lasses).

O Tam! had'st thou but been sae wise,
As taen thy ain wife Kate's advice!
She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum,

A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum;
That frae November till October,
Ae market-day thou was na sober;
That ilka melder wi' the Miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;
That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on
The Smith and thee gat roarin fou on;
That at the Lord's house, ev'n on Sunday
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday;
She prophesied that late or soon,
Thou wad be found, deep drown'd in Doon,
Or catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk,
By Alloway's auld, haunted Kirk.

Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet,
To think how mony counsels sweet,
How mony lengthen'd, sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises!

Dream (J Malcolm)

I fell in love with you, we were both at school,
You seemed so far above me,
I never got the chance to talk to you,
I remember the afternoon,
Down by the music room,
You running by,
We were singing Old Zip Coon,
You were the one even then but my fate,
Was to leave and go chasing a musical dream,
And for ten years I wandered through the wilderness,
Till a dream told me what I had to do,
Unite your people, unite your people,
Lead your people to the garden of Eden,

Chorus
And you'd be my queen,
My sweet Christine,
You'd be my queen,
My sweet Christine,
But it was only a dream,
Dope-smoking, whisky-drinking dream,
It was only a dream,
And the dream soon ran out of steam

Chorus

One day you reappeared, love of my old friend,
He really cared about you,
You were unhappy it was doomed to end,
I remember the starry night,
Camped round the fireside,
You caught my eye,
We were singing Ticket to Ride,
You were the one once again but I still had to,
Wait for the time when you'd be through with my friend,
And for ten months I waited for the dust to clear,
Till I just couldn't hold out any more,
And I told you I loved you, crazy about you,
You didn't want me after all of the years,

Chorus


Cycles (J Malcolm)

People get bored with peace looking for action,
People get bored with peace split into factions,
Muscle men looking for someone to kill,
Not a lot, not a lot, not a lot of love there,
Then people get bored of war go looking for olive branches,

Chorus:

Like the cycles in the moon,
Like the cycles in the sea,
You and I will ebb and flow,
Maybe you will bore of me,
If I feel you ever do,
I will ebb away from you,
Give you all the time you need,
To work that feeling through

People get bored with good, dabble with evil,
People get bored with good, something medieval,
Voodoo men looking for someone to pin,
Not a lot, not a lot, not a lot of love there,
Then people get scared of evil, look to the holy bible,

Chorus


Billy Won't Come Back To Edinburgh (J Malcolm)

Chorus:
Billy won't, Billy won't, Billy won't,
Come back to Edinburgh,
Billy won't, Billy won't, Billy won't,
You listen to your brother

Rent too high,
Too far to drive,
Winter too cold,
Zoo too far to go,
Too many memories,
Folks you couldn't please
Busking in the streets,
And so did I Bill.

Maybe I'm a lot like you, Bill
I think Im a loser too,
Losing you is more than I can answer for,
Maybe you're a lot like me Bill,
Never knowing what to do,
Got that sorry look still in your eyes, Bill

Chorus
Pipes too loud,
Sky full of cloud,
Clouds full of rain,
Missed that gravy train,
Too many troubled times,
When money was hard to find,
You were paying your crimes
And so was I, Bill.

Maybe I'm a lot like you, Bill,
I've been in the cooler too,
But there comes a time when things begin to fall together
Come and have another try, Bill,
Everybody misses you,
And you know a losing streak just can't go on for ever.

Chorus

Billy come back to Edinburgh, we love you.