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The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond

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Traditional Scottish folk song

View of Loch Lomond, December 2005
"Loch Lomond" Performed by Southern Aire of the United States Air Force Reserve Band
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"The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond", or "Loch Lomond" for short, is a Scottish song (Roud No. 9598). The song prominently features Loch Lomond, the largest Scottish loch. In Scots, "bonnie" means "fair" or "beautiful".

Lyrics

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

Chorus:
O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond,
Where in soft purple hue, the highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.

Chorus

The wee birdies sing and the wildflowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping.
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,
Though the waeful may cease frae their grieving.

Chorus

Interpretation

Historian Murray G. H. Pittock writes that the song "is a Jacobite adaptation of an eighteenth-century erotic song, with the lover dying for his king, and taking only the 'low road' of death back to Scotland." It is one of many poems and songs that emerged from Jacobite political culture in Scotland. It has been said that there are melodic phrases within the music which are similar to phrases in the song The Bonniest Lass In A' The World. It has been described as a folksong.

Andrew Lang

About 1876, the Scottish poet and folklorist Andrew Lang wrote a poem based on the song titled "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond". The title sometimes has the date "1746" appended—the year of the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion and the hanging of some of his captured supporters. Lang's poem begins

There's an ending o' the dance, and fair Morag's safe in France,
And the Clans they hae paid the lawing,

Morag—great one in Gaelic—referred to Bonnie Prince Charlie, who fled to France after his forces were defeated. Lawing means reckoning in Scots. The poem continues:

And the wuddy has her ain, and we twa are left alane,
Free o' Carlisle gaol in the dawing.

Wuddy means hangman's rope, according to Lang's own notes on the poem; dawing is dawn. The poem continues with the song's well-known chorus, then explains why the narrator and his true love will never meet again:

For my love's heart brake in twa, when she kenned the Cause's fa',
And she sleeps where there's never nane shall waken

The poem's narrator vows to take violent revenge on the English:

While there's heather on the hill shall my vengeance ne'er be still,
While a bush hides the glint o' a gun, lad;
Wi' the men o' Sergeant Môr shall I work to pay the score,
Till I wither on the wuddy in the sun, lad!

"Sergeant Môr" is John Du Cameron, a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie who continued fighting as an outlaw until he was captured and hanged in 1753.

Irish variant

The Irish variant of the song is called "Red Is the Rose" and is sung with the same melody but different (although similarly themed) lyrics. It was popularized by Irish folk musician Tommy Makem. Even though many people mistakenly believe that Makem wrote "Red Is the Rose", it is a traditional Irish folk song.

Arrangements and recordings

"Loch Lomond" has been arranged and recorded by many composers and performers over the years, in several genres ranging from traditional Scottish folk to barbershop to rock and roll.

Loch Lomond (Runrig cover)

Runrig released a cover version of "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" titled "Loch Lomond" in 1982. The song received significant airplay on Scottish and English radio, including on Radio 1, by the disc jockeys Simon Bates and Terry Wogan. Based on data from the music streaming service Spotify, The Scotsman ranked "Loch Lomond" as one of the top five Runrig songs of all time. The song has been described by the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame as a "rocking anthem" and by The Herald as one of Runrig's best known songs. The song is the anthem of the German football team FC Köln; its supporters sing a song to the tune of "Loch Lomond" before each match the club plays. It is also regularly played as the last song at Scottish weddings. A remix was recorded in 2007 with 50,000 Scotland national football team supporters for the BBC's Children in Need fundraiser in Scotland. "Loch Lomond" reached a peak position of number 86 on the UK Singles Chart. The 2007 version peaked at number 9 on the UK Singles Charts and number 1 on the Scottish Singles Charts.

1982 release

Chart (1983) Peak
position
UK Singles (OCC) 86

2007 remix

Chart (2007) Peak
position
Scotland (OCC) 1
UK Singles (OCC) 9

Classical music

Ralph Vaughan Williams made an arrangement for baritone solo and unaccompanied male choir in 1921. It has been recorded several times, notably by the tenor Ian Partridge and the London Madrigal Singers for EMI in 1970.

Popular music

Chinese singer-songwriter Li Jian used the melody with Mandarin lyrics of a similar theme in his self-titled 2015 album.

Australian rock band AC/DC covered this song, titled "Fling Thing", as the B-side to their single "Jailbreak". They also covered it (as "Bonny") in Glasgow on the collector's edition of their 1992 album AC/DC Live. "Fling Thing" was later remastered and released on the compilation album Backtracks.

Jazz

The Jazz Discography, an online index of studio recordings, live recordings, and broadcast transcriptions of jazz – as of May 22, 2019 – lists 106 recordings of "Loch Lomond" and one recording of "Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond".

A notable big band version of "Loch Lomond", arranged by Claude Thornhill, was recorded in a live performance on January 16, 1938, by the Benny Goodman and His Orchestra on the album, The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, on January 16, 1938, featuring Martha Tilton on vocals (Columbia SL 160).

Jazz singer Maxine Sullivan, for whom it was a career-defining hit, recorded it at least 14 times:

TV and film

The song is frequently used in TV and movies to convey a sense of Scottish story setting and/or character identity.

In Our Gang Follies of 1938, an American short musical film by Hal Roach, Annabelle Logan sings a rendition of "Loch Lomond" at the local talent show. The song features in the 1940 American musical It's a Date.

In the 1945 Sherlock Holmes film Pursuit to Algiers, starring Basil Rathbone, Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) sings a rendition of "Loch Lomond" accompanied by Sheila Woodbury (Marjorie Riordan) on the piano.

In the 1955 Disney animated classic Lady and the Tramp, one of its characters, Jock, a Scottish terrier, sings his own version of "The Bonnie Banks Of Loch Lomond" when he buries a new bone "in bonnie, bonnie bank in the back yard".

In the 1958 Tom and Jerry short Robin Hoodwinked, Nibbles sings the first half of the chorus of "Loch Lomond".

The song is heard in the 1963 Disney film The Three Lives of Thomasina.

The Marcia Blane music class is heard singing the song in the background in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

A recording of a Scotsman singing the song in captivity during the First World War featured in the 2007 BBC documentary How the Edwardians Spoke.

In the children's cartoon, Animaniacs, it is heard in "Ups and Downs" as Wakko and Dr. Scratchansniff ride the elevator. It is also heard in the Animaniacs feature film Wakko's Wish.

In the 2021 film A Castle for Christmas it is sung by the cast during a pub scene.

In the American TV series The Simpsons, Groundskeeper Willie whistles the melody in the episode "Lard of the Dance".

In the Hal Roach short comedy film Tit for Tat, Stan Laurel sings a verse of this song after Oliver Hardy declares in a verbal altercation with his neighbor that he will take the "high road" and walk away.

In Smallville Season 7 Episode 19, the tune is featured under the title "The Birks of St Kilde." It is played by a grandfather clock and later by Lex Luthor on the piano as he quotes alternative plot-important lyrics: "On the shores of St Kilde, birks sway in the wind from the left to the right again."

In the 2000 movie Prince of Central Park J.J. Somerled, played the song in keyboard while Jerry Orbach as a businessman, sang the song.

In The Office Season 8 Episode 20 "Welcome Party" Andy sings an excerpt from the song.

References

  1. Vocal Melodies of Scotland
  2. ^ Fuld, James Jeffrey (1966). The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk. Crown. pp. 336 & 337. OCLC 637942931.
  3. "Dictionars o the Scots Leid". Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  4. ^ Murray G. H. Pittock, Poetry and Jacobite Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 136–137.
  5. Fuld, James J. (1 January 2000). The Book of World-famous Music. Courier Corporation. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-486-41475-1.
  6. Hirsch, Eric Donald; Kett, Joseph F.; Trefil, James; Trefil, James S. (2002). The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-618-22647-4.
  7. "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" see also; from The Poetical Works of Andrew Lang, ed. Mrs. Lang, four vols. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1923): I, 55–56
  8. Andrew Lang (1844-1912) -- The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond
  9. Poems of Andrew Lang: THE BONNIE BANKS O' LOCH LOMOND
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  11. Am Baile – The Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands. Part II Song 5
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  14. "Irish love song Red is the Rose". Irish Music Daily. Archived from the original on 11 February 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2024. Makem said he learned the song from his mother, Sarah, who was a well known singer and folk song collector from Armagh in Northern Ireland. ... A recording of Red is the Rose that was made in 1934 by Josephine Beirne and George Sweatman under the title, My Bonnie Irish Lass
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