Loch Lomond

traditional

 

I remember this song from my early childhood: my father brought a small, filthy book "The Liberated Norway's Singing" back home from the second world war, and it included two verses which I later met printed in the bloody school songbook, and appeared as a plague to teenagers with cracking voices. Shit, I refused to sing a note until my baritone was stable.
The last of these "verses" was in fact a refrain. The song has various verses from various unknown writers. I practise the three most common, added two from a paraphrase by Andrew Lang, written hundred years after the original saw the sunrise.
The tune may have been hummed around the celtics' campfires way back in the stone ages, and is the same as the irish folk song "Red Is the Rose". The lyrics date back to the Jacobite Uprise of 1745, when Charles Stewart attempted to reestablish The House of Stewart for England, Ireland and Scotland. The rebellion reached Carlisle, but finally failed in the Battle of Culloden 1746, and no further attempts were made. There are several interpretations and several versions, but it is quite clear that it's not only a hymn to the highlands, but has a tragic background: sung by a man on the scaffold with his head in the nooze or on the block, to a fellow rebel who managed to escape. "The hie road" is the main road linking London and Edinburgh, and "The low road" refers to the mythic fairy road, leading straight through mountains and above valleys, and thus is faster.

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 won't to gae
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 hieland hills we view
and the moon comin' out in the gloamin'

the wee birdies sing and the wild flowers spring
and in sunshine the waters are sleepin'
but the broken heart it kens : nae second spring again
though the waeful may cease frae their grievin'

«there's an ending o' the dance and fair Morag's safe in France
and the Clans they hae paid for the lawin'
and the wuddy has her ain and we twa are left alane
free o' Carlisle gaol in the dawin'

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!» [-andrew lang-]

o ye'll tak' the hie road and I'll tak' the low
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

For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.

G              Em           C           G
by yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes
           G   [G/Gb]  Em            C  D
where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
       C         Em            Am             C
where me and my true love were ever won't to gae
        G             C             D  G
on the bonnie bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond

[alternate chords]

G                Em7           C+9            G
o ye'll tak' the hie road and I'll tak' the low
    G   [G/Gb]   Em7      C+9  Dsus4
and I'll be in Scotland afore ye
     C        Em7             Am7         C+9
but me and my true love will never meet again
        G             C+9         Dsus4 G
on the bonnie bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond