Does a city get the songs it deserves? I don't know. Folklore and history buffs may do well to skip this article, as I feel myself teetering on the edge of a whimsical abyss. I don't mean here to survey all the wide range of songs about Dundee, just the ones which have strayed across my consciousness fairly recently.
Bonnie Dundee
Putting The Road and the Miles to Dundee to one side (reluctantly, because it is achingly beautiful), I suppose the most famous title we should consider is Bonnie Dundee - not just as a song, but as a title. John Graham of Claverhouse was either the very Devil to Covenanters or the primal hero to Jacobites. It can't be doubted that he was actually beautiful, in the sense of being physically attractive and also having the kind of innate magnetism which attracting followers to his cause. No mean feat. To the Highland Gaels he was Dark John of the Battles, a prestige that was not accorded to his kinsman, James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose.
But Bonnie Dundee was originally applied to the burgh and not the man, hard as that is to imagine with images of the town in its full industrial pomp. The transfer of the title to the man was begun as a poem in the 1820s, which became attached to a pre-existing tune. The poem was written by Sir Walter Scott, as follows, and grafted onto an older tune which honoured the place Dundee.
To the Lords of Convention 'twas Clavers who spoke.
'Ere the King's crown shall fall there are crowns to be broke;
So let each Cavalier who loves honour and me,
Come follow the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle your horses, and call up your men;
Come open the West Port and let me gae free,
And it's room for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!
Dundee he is mounted, he rides up the street,
The bells are rung backward, the drums they are beat;
But the Provost, douce man, said, 'Just e'en let him be,
The Gude Town is weel quit of that De'il Dundee.'
Come fill up my cup, etc.
As he rode down the sanctified bends of the Bow,
Ilk carline was flyting and shaking her pow;
But the young plants of grace they looked couthie and slee,
Thinking luck to thy bonnet, thou Bonny Dundee!
Come fill up my cup, etc.
With sour-featured Whigs the Grass-market was crammed,
As if half the West had set tryst to be hanged;
There was spite in each look, there was fear in each e'e,
As they watched for the bonnets of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, etc.
These cowls of Kilmarnock had spits and had spears,
And lang-hafted gullies to kill cavaliers;
But they shrunk to close-heads and the causeway was free,
At the toss of the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, etc.
He spurred to the foot of the proud Castle rock,
And with the gay Gordon he gallantly spoke;
'Let Mons Meg and her marrows speak twa words or three,
For the love of the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.'
Come fill up my cup, etc.
The Gordon demands of him which way he goes?
'Where'er shall direct me the shade of Montrose!
Your Grace in short space shall hear tidings of me,
Or that low lies the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, etc.
'There are hills beyond Pentland and lands beyond Forth,
If there's lords in the Lowlands, there's chiefs in the North;
There are wild Duniewassals three thousand times three,
Will cry hoigh! for the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, etc.
'There's brass on the target of barkened bull-hide;
There's steel in the scabbard that dangles beside;
The brass shall be burnished, the steel shall flash free,
At the toss of the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, etc.
'Away to the hills, to the caves, to the rocks
Ere I own an usurper, I'll couch with the fox;
And tremble, false Whigs, in the midst of your glee,
You have not seen the last of my bonnet and me!'
Come fill up my cup, etc.
He waved his proud hand, the trumpets were blown,
The kettle-drums clashed and the horsemen rode on,
Till on Ravelston's cliffs and on Clermiston's lee
Died away the wild war-notes of Bonny Dundee.
Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle the horses, and call up the men,
Come open your gates, and let me gae free,
For it's up with the bonnets of Bonny Dundee!
Both the tune of Bonnie Dundee and lyrics featuring the title crop up throughout the 17th century. The Skene manuscript, dating to around 1630, details a simplified version of the tune called they Adew Dundee. An English version - Bonny Dundee, or Jocky's Deliverence (included at the bottom of this post) - is a rather coarser ballad which Robert Burns, in his turn, altered for his own ends. Ironically, poor deluded William McGonnagall, when he alluded to Bonnie Dundee in his verse, knew full well that the attribution belonged rightfully to the town and not to the cavalier. As memory of the cavalier Claverhouse began to fade from the public consciousness, so the appellation has reverted back to the city, albeit in a slightly ironic way, as the illustrations here demonstrate.
The Piper o' Dundee
The piper came to out toun, to our toun, to our toun
The piper came to our toun, and he played bonnie-lie
He play'd a spring the laird to please,
A spring brent new frae yont the seas
And then he gae his bags a squeeze
And play' d anither key
And was-na he a rogie, a rogie a rogie
And was-na he a rogie the piper o' Dundee
He play’d the welcome o er the main
And 'ye see be fou’, ‘and I'se be fain'
And Auld Stewart's back again
Wi' muck-le mirth and glee
He play'd "The kirk he play'd ‘'The Queen’'
The ’Mull - in Dhu’, and ‘Chevalier’,
And 'Lang a wa’, but welcome here,
Sae sweet sae bonnie lie
Chorus
It's some gat swords and some gat nane
And some were dancing mad their lane
And mony a vow o'weir was ta’en
That night at Amulrie
There was Tullibardine and Burleigh
And Struan, Keith and Ogilvie
And brave Carnegie, wha but he
The piper o' Dundee
But there is darkness at the heart of this song. Many sources name the 'piper' himself as James Carnegie of Finavon (Finhaven), and the tune a kind of propaganda for the rebels of 1715 trying to rouse anti government support. According to George Farquhar Graham (in Popular Songs of Scotland, 1887) :
The piper is said to have been Carnegie of Finhaven, who changed sides during the contest in 1715. He was a great coward, if we may believe the Jacobite writers; he certainly ran away at Sheriffmuir, but so many on both sides did the same, that his should not count for much against him.
Carnegie's propensity to changing sides earned him the enmity of Jacobites. At a funeral in Forfar in 1728 he was goaded by a certain Lyon of Brigton and calamitously lost his temper. In his rage he murdered Lyon's kinsman the Earl of Strathmore who tried to intervene between the two men. He was tried for murder, but was reprieved. The whole sorry story can be read in my other blog here: Ghosts of Glamis.
Other Dundee Songs
Due to the allusive dissemination of music, especially in earlier times, it is difficult to pin down songs to precise times, places, and titles, let alone determine who the original composer was. Take, as a case point the Dundee Hornpipe. This is alternatively known as Brown's Hornpipe, Cincinnati Hornpipe, Cliff Hornpipe, Harvest Home, Higgin's Hornpipe, Kildare Fancy, and in fact many more.
Another example is The Bonnet Makers of Dundee. The burgh of Dundee apparently had an incorporation of Bonnetmakers before any other Scottish burgh. Blue bonnets were worn by the hoi-polloi, with black ones for the more affluent. Sadly, no known ancient example of a Dundonian bonnet is known to survive. The tune itself is otherwise known as The Burnt Leg, Sweet Molly, Corby and the Pyett, and is first recorded in the middle of the 18th century.
Those who wish to delve even further into the dizzying work of Dundonian songs can consult The Songs and Ballads of Dundee by Nigel Gatherer (1986). His book contains more than a multitude of tunes and lyrics, not all of which contain Dundee (or even areas/neighbours like Lochee) in their titles. The author's website is http://www.nigelgatherer.com/
And, To End With... almost
Mentions of Dundee are few and far between in modern popular music, it seems to me, though I have not conducted in depth research in this area. Two examples have recently intrigued/haunted me. The first is from John Cale's song Half Past France, contained in his 1974 album Paris, 1919 (1973). The nameless traveller in this song is stuck in a landscape somewhere between Dunkirk and Paris. He ponders that things are so much different here than in Norway, though obviously not so cold. Then he had cause to 'wonder when we'll be in Dundee'. I have absolutely no idea why.
More recently, equally intriguingly, is the glimmer contained in a song from Scotland's own Belle and Sebastian. The song Seymour Stein (from the 1998 album The Boy with the Arab Strap) evokes memories of a real life meeting between the band and real life music legend and label head Seymour Stein. The disparity between the American dream and Scottish down to cundie level reality is summed up fine in the line where the band plaintively wonder, 'Has he ever seen Dundee?' Enough said.
Appendix
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