The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond

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"The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond" is a traditional Scottish song. It was first published in 1841 in Vocal Melodies of Scotland.[1]

Loch Lomond is a large Scottish lake to the north of Dumbarton and north-west of Glasgow.

Contents 1 Interpretation 2 Andrew Lang 3 Recordings 4 Lyrics 5 External links

[edit] Interpretation

There are many theories about the meaning of the song. One interpretation is that it is (apocryphally) attributed to a Jacobite Highlander who was captured after the 1745 rising while he was fleeing near Carlisle and is sentenced to die. The verse is his mournful elegy to another rebel who will not be executed. He claims that he will follow the "low road" (the spirit path through the underworld) and arrive in Scotland before his still-living comrade.

Another interpretation is that the song is sung by the lover of a captured rebel set to be to be executed in London following a show trial. The heads of the executed rebels were then set upon pikes and exhibited in all of the towns between London and Glasgow in a procession along the "high road" (the most important road), while the relatives of the rebels walked back along the "low road" (the ordinary road traveled by peasants and commoners).

It captures some of the romantic spirit of the lost cause of Bonnie Prince Charlie.[2]

[edit] 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[3]--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.[4] Lawing means reckoning in Scottish dialect. The poem continues:

And the wuddy has her ain, and we twa are left alane,

Free o' Carlisle gaol in the dawing.

Wuddy means gallows, according to Lang's own notes on the poem; dawing is dawn. [5] 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 hanged in 1753.[6]

[edit] Recordings

"Loch Lomond" has been recorded by many performers over the years, in styles ranging from traditional Scottish folk to barbershop to rock and roll. In 1957, Bill Haley & His Comets recorded a popular rock and roll version retitled "Rock Lomond".

The Australian rock group AC/DC performed it as "Bonny", in which the band plays the music while the crowd sings the verse.

The lyrics are parodied by Tenacious D at the end of their song "Wonderboy".

[edit] Lyrics

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes

Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond

Where me and my true love will never meet again

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 deep purple hue, the hieland hills we view

And the moon comin’ out in the gloamin’.

The the wild flowers spring and wee birdies sing

And in sunshine the waters are sleeping

But the broken heart, it kens nae second spring again

Tho’ the waefu’ may cease from their greeting.

[edit] External links

[7] video with song and historical background

[8] midi