Farewell to the tartan...

[Blu (Ontario)]

I've started another thread in the Off Topic section dealing with things Scottish, but one of the pages included the words to a song (author unknown) written sometime after the Dress Act. I felt that these lyrics touched on several topics of interest here and warranted a thread of its own.

Farewell to the (new) tartan,
it is my fairest choice,
pleasingly set above the knee,
tightly pleated all around

the curse of all the Gaels,
upon King William and his kind,
who insisted we wear the grey breeks,
and took the kilt away from us
I pulled on the grey breeks,
instead of the kilt,
in order to be like the Lowlander,
on the far side of the Clyde

I clad myself in the grey breeks,
I must have looked foolish!
no young lass will look my way,
since I got the new uniform

but when I get to the army,
I'll sport a kilt and a rough-haired sporran,
a shaggy blue bonnet with a yard of ribbon,
the storm of battle all around!

Farewell to the (new) tartan,
it is my fairest choice,
pleasingly set above the knee,
tightly pleated all around

Is anyone familliar with this song or know if there is any surviving music for it?

Cheers,

blu

[Shay]

This has a source for it:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/10266...7/gaelic+words

Here's the album that has it in Gaelic:
http://www.footstompin.com/music/sco...n_nan_gaidheal

Looks like it's originally in Gaelic, unsurprisingly.

[Blu (Ontario)]

Thanx, Shay!

[An t-Ileach]

It's called Soraidh leis a bhreacan ùr, and there's a version on a recording by Anne Lorne Gillies.

[eighties]

I actually have a copy of that. Bought the cassette on a whim five years ago while in Edinburgh. The name of the album is O Mo Dhuthaich which I think means "Oh my land". Maybe that'll help you too.

80s

[Blu (Ontario)]

Thanks for all the info!

I'm going to check this out with a nearby music seller as they have an extensive database in the store. If it's available, they can usually get it.

[An t-Ileach]

I've just remembered that there's a slightly quirky version, called "Soiridh leis" on the Putumayo disc Dublin to Dakar - A Celtic Odyssey sung by the vocalist Kate Hardy with the group Baka Beyond.