Sconeward
Sconeward (1995)
- Scotch Blues
- Neptune
- Losin’ Auld Reekie
- The Wild Geese
- Scotlandshire
- Achiltibuie
- Lochs of the Tay
- The Wisest Fool
- Up the Noran Water
- Barrenlands
- Grandfathers
- The Party
- Flowers of Edinburgh
Scotch Blues
(J Malcolm MCPS PRS)
One part of me loves you,
but the rest of me don’t
One part of me holds you,
but the rest of me won’t
You’re a very determined lady,
I’m an easy-going man,
But you’re ruining my baby, baby
With your privatisation plan
You’ve made him so greedy
He doesn’t care about the needy
That’s your child, backward child
Thatcher’s child
Twelve years in the back seat
I watched you driving the nation
Giving to your rich friends
What you stole from my poor relations
You’ve made them all greedy
Nobody cares about the needy
That’s your child, backward child
Thatcher’s child
There’s a feeling I get when a BBC voice says Brechin
Like a feeling I get when Jim Leighton lets one in
There’s a shop in the Kyle of Lochalsh
selling Hong Kong tartan
Scotch blues, it isn’t only you
Scotch blues, I’m feeling it too.
There’s a feeling I get when Scotland loses an election
Like the feeling I get when they vote Mad Nicky back in
Then they let someone buy a whole
Hebridean island without question
Scotch blues, it isn’t only you
Scotch blues, I’m feeling it too.
Neptune
(Jim Malcolm MCPS PRS; pub Malcolm)
Neptune, I think I’m in love with the sea
How do I woo you and make you love me
I’m drenched by your passion
Enthralled by your anger
Becalmed by your beauty
How do I make you love me?
But when he spoke, it was a plea not a roar
If you want my love, then go and tell them all:
Don’t oil my beaches, don’t slaughter my whales
Don’t cross me with diesel, cross me with sail
Give me some time to heal up my wounds
Give me more poison and I will die soon.
Neptune I don’t understand what you fear
Here round my island the waters are clear
I live from your riches, your birds and your fishes
I never would choke you, what do you need from me here?
But then he spoke of all the change caused by me
Your damage seems small, but let me recall
That in your grandfather’s day there ran salmon
You could walk on their backs
Now what’s left of great shoals
Those that slip through the cracks
Now the salmon’s in cages, gorged on fishmeal
Sucked from some other sea by cruel profiteers, so…
Don’t oil my beaches, don’t slaughter my whales
Don’t cross me with diesel, cross me with sail
Give me some time to heal up my wounds
Give me more poison and I will die soon.
Losin¹ Auld Reekie
(Jim Malcolm MCPS PRS; pub Malcolm)
Forty pence in tens, I can¹t wait to spend
Gets me north across the Forth Road Bridge,
Winding down my window, reaching out to pay the man,
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie
Chorus:
Singing though there¹s no-one there to hear me
A good old tune of which I never weary
No city critics to cramp my style or jeer me,
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie
Turn off for Dunfermline, the motorway¹s gey boring
Going to treat myself the long way home
Motorways are faster, but that¹s not what I¹m after
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie.
Trucking on through Dollar, Castle Campbell o¹er my shoulder
Glen Devon is the passage that I¹m seeking
And my motor¹s working harder, as it climbs tae Auchterarder
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie
Fields are full of action, wi¹ the farmers in their traction,
Tattie pickers bending over baskets.
Gulls ahint the tractor as it rips the grun¹ wi clatter
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie.
Not that far from Crieff, Comrie tries to tempt me,
With the finest chip shop in the county
But I¹ve vowed to keep my hunger for a bridie o¹er in Forfar,
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie
Chorus
Sma Glen, Amulree, Dunkeld, Blairgowrie
Hurtling through Blairgowrie, sun¹s shining but it¹s showery
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie
Skiting into Angus, via Kirrie and Padanarum,
Stopping on the other side of Forfar
Well I could have got there quicker
But I¹m fed up cutting corners
Cruisin¹, losin¹ Auld Reekie
Chorus
The Wild Geese
(Words Violet Jacob; music Jim Reid; pub Springthyme Music)
³Oh tell me fit was on your road
You roarin Norlan wind,
As ye cam blawin¹ frae the land
That¹s never frae my mind,
My feet they traivel England
But I¹m deein for the North.²
³My man I¹ve seen the siller tides
Run up the Firth o Forth.²
³Oh wind I ken them weel eneuch
And fine they fall and rise,
And fain I saw the creepin mist
On yonder shore that lies,
But tell me as ye passed them by,
What saw ye on the way?²
³My man I rocked the rovin¹ gulls
That sail abune the Tay.²
³But saw ye naething, leein wind
Afore ye cam tae Fife?
For there¹s muckle lying yont the Tay
That¹s mair tae me nor life.²
³My man I¹ve swept the Angus braes
Ye havna trod for years.²
³Oh wind, forgi¹e a hameless loon
That canna see for tears.²
³And far beyond the Angus straths
I saw the wild geese flee,
A lang, lang skein o beatin wings
Wi their heids towards the sea
And aye their cryin¹ voices trailed
Ahint them on the air…²
³Oh wind, hae mercy, hud yer whisht,
For I daurna listen mair.²
Scotlandshire
(J Malcolm MCPS PRS)
Scotlandshire, a name that the cynical use
If it’s not easy to swallow just follow the news
Twelve union yes-men who do just as Westminster says
Where do you stand on this?
Scotlandshire, think of your Highlander’s fate
When a home county semi can pay for a Highland estate
Properties needed to gi’e folk a place of their own,
Sell for holiday homes.
Scotlandshire, don’t kid yourself that you’ve tried,
In ’79 your chance of home rule was denied.
Not by Westminster, where lies the false Stone of Destiny
But by our apathy.
Achiltibuie
(Jim Malcolm MCPS PRS; pub Malcolm)
When the springtime comes
I get hungry for the north
Like the geese I want to fly
Make an arrow in the sky
I want to travel like a salt sea tinker
Round the Hebridean Isles
Cos I’ve fallen, hook, line, sinker
For a bonny McKenzie child
And I’ll be waiting for you in Achiltibuie.
When the primroses grow by the roads
To the mountains of Skye
I’ll be shedding my clothes
Cause if feels like the fourth of July
I want to truck along a hundred B roads
See the Hebrides in style
But I’ll be sailing the way that the wind blows
To my bonnie McKenzie child
And I’ll be waiting for you in Achiltibuie.
I want to travel like a salt sea tinker
Round the Hebridean Isles
Cos I’ve fallen, hook, line, sinker
For a bonny McKenzie child
And I’ll be waiting for you in
Achiltibuie.
Lochs of the Tay
(Jim Malcolm MCPS PRS; pub Malcom)
From Forfar the Dean Water,
Drains the Vale of Strathmore
Doon the lazy looping Isla,
To the Tay by Meiklour,
Now the Isla¹s early roaming,
Is in Highland no¹ in Lowland
Where the Ardle and Shee,
Twine in Ericht¹s company
Chorus:
For the lochs o the Tay,
Are the jewels in the crown
Of a Scone coronation
And the streams of the shire
Course the county that¹s dearest tae me.
Now the Garry never tarried
in a melt-swollen spring
With the Bruar, Tilt and Erochty
leaching Atholl¹s high grun¹
From the moors o lonely Rannoch
Trickles peat frae many dark loch
Through the Tummel¹s cleft braes
By the northern highways.
Chorus
Doon the Dochart and the Lochy,
spillin doon tae Loch Tay
Killin tae Kenmore tae Aberfeldy,
just a raft race away
Up the pools o high Breadalbane
slip the sleek Lyon salmon
As they funnel their way
Atween Schiehallion and Tay
Chorus
As the Bran pours by Loch Freuchie
doon the braes tae Dunkeld
So the Almond hurries Sconeward,
aye the Tay¹s eldest child
But the Earn will run her own way,
giving way to Tay only
Ere she flows tae the tide,
wi¹ the Farg on her side,
For the lochs o the Tay
Are the jewels in the crown
Of a Scone coronation
And the streams of the shire
Course the county that¹s dearest tae me.
For the lochs o the Tay
Are the jewels in the crown
Of a Scone coronation
And the streams of the shire
Course the county that¹s
dearest tae me.
The Wisest Fool
(J. Malcolm MCPS PRS)
Murray bowed to Charlie
Yokin Atholl tae the plough
O the settin sons of Stewart kings
and princes since the Bruce,
Rode to Perth to muster
all who hailed the rover king
and wi’ weary work and bluster
hewed an army frae his kin
Chorus
If only the wisest fool,
had followed the golden rule
If only the wisest fool,
had followed the golden rule.
Henry’s for England, Charles for Spain
Seamus is Alba’s name.
Johnny held a tinchel as the
crystal turned to steel
And the heroes o the Heilans
filled the Marrie wi their zeal,
Johnny hummed and hawed and
let the loyal Lowlands spile,
Back to France The Rover
sailed afore the army of Argyll
Chorus
Clavers slipped the council
as they offered Will the crown
Climbed the law to find an army
turned and pulled the Orange down
Though the Heilan’ targes
were enough to cow McKay
To the death of Bonnie Dundee
loyal men had no reply
Chorus
Up the Noran Water
(Words Helen Cruickshank; music Jim Reid; pub. Springthyme Music)
Up the Noran Water
Roon by Ingle’s Maddie,
Annie’s got a bairnie
That hasna got a daddie,
Who the bairnie’s faither is,
The lassie winna say,
An nobody expected it
Wi Annie’s quiet ways.
Up the Noran Water
The bonnie little mannie
Is dandled and cuddled close
By Ingle’s Maddie’s Annie
Who the bairnie’s faither is,
The lassie never says,
But some think it’s Tammas’s
And ithers think it’s Chae’s.
Up the Noran Water,
The country folk are kind
And who the bairnie’s faither is
They dinna muckle mind
But oh the bairn at Annie’s breast,
The love in Annie’s e’e
Wid mak me wish
Wi all my micht,
That the lucky lad was me.
Barrenlands
(Words J. Malcolm MCPS PRS,based on Barnyards of Delgaty trad)
Coffee table conversation, posing as a caring green
Amazon deforestation, greatest threat the world has seen.
Though they chop and burn the jungle,
making way to grow some food,
Who are we to point the finger, in a land devoid of wood.
Chorus
Linten adie, tourin adie, linten adie too rie ae,
Lilt a lowrin, lowrin, lowrin
Barren lands are Alba’s shame.
Once we had a mighty forest
lowland oak and Highland pine
Binding earth and draining water
full of life of every kind
Then demand for fuel and timber
cleared the woods of every tree
Any sappling making show
strippit bare by deer and sheep.
Chorus
Now there is a boom in planting
monoculture evergreen
Dark, depressing, lifeless lumber
nothing else can grow between
Slow return the native timber
so they plant the sitka spruce
Only good to wipe your bottom
so damn good to build a hoose
Chorus (twice)
Grandfathers
(J. Malcolm MCPS PRS)
My grandpa taught PT in the army
My other grandpa was a farmer in Glen Artney
Both of them had died before I was born
I feel like I’m still in mourning.
St Valery shell, life over in an instant
Pride of my family lies in a French cemetery,
With kids too young to remember him
And a wife left to fend for them
I feel like I’m still in mourning.
Chorus
Who took these precious men away from me
The man of courage and the man of peace
Left holes and shadows in my family
In 1959 my mother’s dad died peacefully
After a life in the hills
Stories of his life are my earliest memory
I feel like I’m still in mourning.
Chorus
The Party
(J. Malcolm MCPS PRS; pub Malcolm)
Well I tanned my father¹s whisky
When he went away on holiday
Oatcakes, my mother¹s sherry
She got frae Jean in Broughty Ferry
And then I threw a party
But you should have seen the carpet
Knew my ma would have a hairy fit
Time for a sharp exit.
I thought I¹d join the Foreign Legion,
Just to get me oot the region,
But I didn¹t have a passport
And my sister wouldn¹t hold the fort.
Why did I throw another party?
I was the victim of flattery
My mates said my party was the best
Could they come back and drink the
booze that¹s left?
Word spread around the neighbourhood,
Soon every room was full of drunken youths,
Along came the local skinheads
Docs bouncing up on my ma¹s Slumberland bed.
The gay abandon of the mindless few
Put courage in the others too,
Soon all the things they wouldn¹t do at home
Surged over like the brimy, brimy foam.
Thank goodness for the boys in blue,
My sister phoned them when they smashed the loo,
Soon all the underage drinkers,
Were diving oot the kitchen windows.
And very soon I found I was alone
In the middle of a battlezone
My sister¹s picking through the rubble,
Calculating my trouble.
I filled a trolly full at B&Q
But the mess was beyond paint and glue
The lovely home that was my mother¹s pride
I had damaged more than I could possibly hide.
My sister¹s sitting in her bedroom
Waiting for the folks to come home
She wants to see me getting slaughtered
She is the goody goody daughter.
She says I¹ll have to face the music
I wasn¹t worried about the music
I was feart to get a doing
My faither¹s size 10 shoe in.
I even phoned up the Samaritans
But they just told me:
³Tell it as it stands²
So now I brace myself for aggro
From my suntanned daddio.
Flowers of Edinburgh
(Tune trad; words Jim Malcolm MCPS PRS; pub Malcolm)
You will find on the road
From the castle down to Holyrood
A funny little stone set in the cobbles of St Giles
If you stand for a while you will surely see a local
Passing by and spitting at it in a practised style.
If he wears the maroon he is showing his allegiance
To the Heart of Midlothian, a loyal Proddy man,
If he¹s wearing the green he is spitting disobedience
As a duty-bound supporter of Hibernian.
I can tell you that the flowers of Edinburgh
Aren¹t in the floral clock in Princes Street
They¹re the quirky little things
That Auld Reekie often brings
Tae remind you of the history
Beneath your feet
I can tell you that the flowers of Edinburgh
Aren¹t just the girls at university
They¹re the quirky little things
Auld Reekie often brings
Tae remind you of the history
Beneath your taes.
If you¹re strolling along on the quiet side of Princes Street
Admiring the castle with an ice-cream in your hand
all around are the splendours of Scotia¹s bonnie capital
The Walter Scott memorial, the Ross Bandstand
There¹s a loud sudden bang as your heart ceases beating
As your ice-cream is flying as you¹re diving tae the grun
But you¹re helped to your feet by a dear old local lady
who will tell you you¹ve been startled by the one o¹clock gun
I can tell you that the flowers of Edinburgh
Aren¹t in the floral clock in Princes Street
They¹re the quirky little things
That Auld Reekie often brings
Tae remind you of the history
Beneath your feet
I can tell you that the flowers of Edinburgh
Aren¹t just the girls at university
They¹re the quirky little things
Auld Reekie often brings
Tae remind you of the history
Beneath your taes.
