“Where the Gadie Rins (II)”
Description
Singer finds that his girl's "kilt (is) short and I could see." She tells his he's being unfair; she's going home to her mother. He muses that when her mother finds out what he's done, he'll have to fly. He laments that he can't go and see her.
Long description
Singer takes his girl on his knee; "her kilt was short and I could see." She tells his he's being unfair; they've slept together, but he doesn't care, so she's going home to her mother. If her baby's a boy, she'll call him Jock. He tells her to go home, and muses that when her mother finds out what he's done, he'll have to fly. He laments that he can't go and see her, and says he'll live with his mother until he dies "at the back o' Bennachie." Chorus: "There's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins/At the back o' Bennachie."
Notes
The melody "Where (the) Gadie Rins" is said to be a common pipe tune in Scotland. (MacColl and Seeger date it to 1815; Ord suspects the eighteenth century.) Like some other pipe tunes (e.g. "The Flowers of the Forest), it seems to have picked up various texts.
One may suspect that, like some fiddle tunes, it had a mnemonic verse or two. All the texts seem to have a lyric similar to:
Oh, gin I were whaur the Gadie rins,
The Gadie rins, the Gadie rins,
Oh, gin I were whaur the Gadie rins
At the back o Bennachie
or
But there's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins,
The Gadie rins, the Gadie rins,
But there's meal and there's ale whaur the Gadie rins
At the back o Bennachie. - RBW
I was tempted to use "The Back o' Bennachie" as the title for the main entry; however, there seem to be several songs under that name (including versions of "Locks and Bolts") whose plots are quite different from this one, and from each other. So I stuck with Maggie McPhee's title. - PJS
References
- MacSeegTrav 46, "Where Gadie Rins" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Roud #(5404)
- BI, McCST046