Note this tune may have a few mispelled words
or missing words
If anyone knows them please e-mail.
This is a sad tune in a happy key, the bubbly (and fiddle friendly) key of A major. This tune is sometimes called Pretty Peggy O'
It's a traditional Bothy ballad. Bothy ballads originated in the Aberdeen area in the Bothy, a place where farm workers stayed while working (I believe this is also called as feeing, or working for a fee which you'll sometimes hear mentioned in other ballads such as Barnyards O' Delgaty...also a place in Scotland) on a farm from Spring through Autumn. Bothy ballads are sometimes humourous, sometimes long but always entertaining.
As many of these tunes predate lights and electricity and even machinery, many of these ballads captured current events, historical events, popular stories and legends and events which and then shared to pass the time... Alas, long before there was electricity, and no doubt way before Edison (An American inventor who it is said also had some Scottish ancestestry) built his telegraph, phonograph -- anmost famous for his first lightbulb which was patented in 1879... Well, it wasn't actually the first... ;)
A wee tangent here...Edison actually didn't invent the lighbulb, but instead improved upon an existing design which Joseph Swan, and inventor from Newcastle England who had debuted a lightbulb almost 10 years earlier. Edison learned of Swan's work which was published in scientific journal. Of course, according to a Scottish newspaper article published in 1835, electric lighting was actually invented close to a half century earlier by a teacher from Dundee named James Bowman Lindsay (1799-1862). Lindsay, who obviously must have had a very short attention span when it came to inventing, gave a lecture on September 25, 1835 where he debuted a newfangled form of continuous electric light. In the article (which I have to research and find which paper it was published in) the writer described Lindsay's invention and the light it cast. Sadly, Lidsay got distracted and wound up going off on a tangent and shelved the project to write 50 translations of prayers instead. Today, save for the article, no physical model of Lindsay's model exists.
So... it would be another 44 years into the future before Edison's improvements on Swans design would rock the planet and change the way we read, and even entertained ourselves. Eventually Edison invented the first phonograph as well as the telegraph -- and today, thanks to his first invention of recording technology, and advances over the years we have Bothy Ballads that flitter upon an illuminated screen and MIDI files where we can hear them with the touch of a button...Anywhoo, long before any of these inventions, came the invention of the Bothy Ballads...
Though it would be cool to have a time machine to go back, and hear these sung by the tired farm hands as they relaxed after a long hard day's work, after a simple meal, and relaxing with a dram in hand. The din illuminated by flittering candle (or oil lamp) light, the ingle, bleezin' awa finely...
This is another tune that I first heard learned of via an Old Blind Dog CD called New Tricks on the Lochshore label.. The melody is treated a little differently in Ian Benzie's rendition on their CD, but I learned the chords from the CD. I then learned this variation/version of the melody from a fiddle orchestra recording that is often played at the local Scottish Country and Celidh dance sessions and then transcribed it from memory when I got home one night...
This is about a Soldier from Ireland who falls in love with Peggy, a girl from
Fyvie.
Not sure but some say our our hero died in battle and others say it was of a
broken heart...
Some words are in Doric, a dialect of the North East of Scotland (Doric meaning old and not to be confused with Greek Doric which is totally different and unrelated language).
MIDI
A major D major, E major A major.
(Amaj) There once was a troop of Irish dragoons
Cam' marching down thru (E maj) Fyfie, O
And the (A maj) captain feel in love wi' (D maj) anither bonnie quine (Doric
for girl)
And the (A maj) name she (D maj) had was pretty (E maj) Peggy-o
A major, D major, E major, A major. (Fiddle interlude)
O come rinnin doon the stairs, Pretty Peggy, my dear
Come rinnin doon your stairs, Pretty Peggy-o
Come rinnin doon your stairs, tie back your yellow hair
For yer last farewell tae your Daddy-o
Chorus
It's braw, aye it's braw, a captain's lady for to be
And it's braw to be a captain's lady-o
It's braw to ride around aye tae follow 'wi the camp
And tae march when your captain he is ready-o
Chorus
Now the colonel he cried "mount boys, mount boys mount"
For the captain he cried "tarry-oh!"
Tarry for awhile, for anither day or twa
Just tae see if this bonnie lass will marry-o
Oh but syne ere we got tae Bethelnie toon,
Our captain we hae for to carry-o
And syne ere we come up tae bonnie Aberdeen
Oh oor captain we had for tae bury-o
We'll there's monys a bonnie lassie in the howe (glen/hollow) of Auchterlass
There's monys a bonnie dear in Gairioch-o
There's mony a bonnie Jean in the toon o' Aberdeen
But the floo'er o' them all bides (lives) in Fyvie, O.
Green grows the birks on bonny Ythanside
And low lies the lowlands of Fyvie o
Our captain's name was Ned and he died for a maid
Oh he died for such a lass O' Fyvie!
Aye, there once was a troop of Irish dragoons
Cam' marching down thru Fyfie, O
And the captain feel in love wi' anither bonnie quine
Ah, the name she had was pretty Peggy-o
Fyfie--- oh!
Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie or information about Scots/Doric on other websites:
Scottish Parodies
http://scottishparodies.tripod.com/lyricsandfreesonglyrics/id19.html
Elphinstone Kist
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/kist/search/display.php?trad19.dat
Links to learn about Scots, Doric and Gaelic from Rampant Scotland website
http://www.rampantscotland.com/gaelic.htm
Scots-online.org (Wir Ain Leid)
http://www.scots-online.org/