Re: Bogie's Bonny Belle

LouisB wrote:
David

I am definitely missing something in your response.

"David Kilpatrick" <iconmags3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:LbmdnTrTI4Z5weDZRVnyhw@xxxxxxxxx

Entire post - Greig not Grieg for Greig-Duncan collection



You must have missed the entire original reply. Here is what I sent first, only this time, I have corrected the spelling:

>

It's one of those bothy-ballad style songs which certainly belongs in the commercial age. The rather commercial tune I use doesn't sound Jansch-like to me at all, and I bet Bert doesn't go there - it's one of his recordings I do not have.

I play this in F, which is unusual for me but works vocally, and handle the shift from Bb to Eb by sliding a shape:

x1303x slides up to x6808x


As /ah cam' /in by /Huntley Toon

/F /Dm /Bb6

One /mornin' /for tae /fee

/F /C /F

Ah fell /in wi' Bogie o' /Cairnie

/Bb6 /Eb

And /wi' him did a/gree

/F /C

I'm pretty sure there are earlier recordings than 1952. The Greig-Duncan collection (dating from around 1900) recorded enough different versions to place it well before 1900, in terms of variation, and looking at them I'd say the modern version is based on a late 19th century original, tidied up for the music halls. The GD tunes have just a slight hint of the modern tune, all with the same Scots 'dropped' ending which keeps the song rolling on by demanding a new verse. GD gives the full account anyway, and the modern tune 'Erin's Lovely Home' attributed - 'The Plains of Waterloo' being an earlier one. That sounds more Jansch-ian.

The song was possibly 'written by John Geddes, foreman at Boghead of Cairnie, fifty-four years ago' (this note appeared in 1913, dating the song to 1859). Isobel Morison, born 1823, was the daughter of Bogie - Morison of Boghead - and was courted by her father's farmhand James Stephen from the Parish of Glass. A son, James, was born illegitimately on June 16th 1843 when Isobel was only 19; in 1851, the census recorded that the child was being looked after by James Stephen's brother in Glass, and that Isobel was no longer at Boghead. It seems in fact that James Stephen took the child after Morison had refused to let his daughter marry, but Isobel later married a tinsmith called Bowman.

This from Greig-Duncan Vol 7, with some interpretation of the notes.

David
.

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