Things you probably didn't know...
So in a fit of randomness truly befitting my personality, I found myself on youtube looking for recordings of the Scottish folksong "Loch Lomond"
See, I love most all music, but I'd be lying if I tried to claim that to be true at all times. No, I love all music but in order to really appreciate a given song it has to be what I'm looking for at that very moment. Sometimes Celtic music is exactly what I'm looking for, and that was the case tonight.
Anyway, I found myself looking up the backstory of Loch Lomond and it's actually quite interesting.
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 wont to gae,
On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
Oh! Ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
'Twas then that we parted, In yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond,
Where, in purple hue, The highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.
The wee birdies sing, And the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters sleeping.
But the broken heart it kens, Nae second spring again,
Though the waeful may cease frae their greeting
So it turns out that as the legend goes, during the 1745 Jacobite Uprising two Jacobite soldiers were captured by the British. One was sentenced to death while the other was set free. This song is written from the point of view of the dead soldier, with the 'low road' being the road of the underworld and the 'high road' being the high, rugged terrain of the living world. His true love would never see him again because he's dead. The rest is the soldier waxing poetic about his homeland.
There are one or two other interpretations of the lyrics (such as with the highroad/lowroad line), but they all link back to the story about the two soldiers. In the end I like this one the best. I like the idea that even in the afterlife the soldier returned to the land he loved.
Now don't you feel smarter having read this?
Also, gloaming is a cool word.
See, I love most all music, but I'd be lying if I tried to claim that to be true at all times. No, I love all music but in order to really appreciate a given song it has to be what I'm looking for at that very moment. Sometimes Celtic music is exactly what I'm looking for, and that was the case tonight.
Anyway, I found myself looking up the backstory of Loch Lomond and it's actually quite interesting.
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 wont to gae,
On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
Oh! Ye'll take the high road, and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
'Twas then that we parted, In yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond,
Where, in purple hue, The highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.
The wee birdies sing, And the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters sleeping.
But the broken heart it kens, Nae second spring again,
Though the waeful may cease frae their greeting
So it turns out that as the legend goes, during the 1745 Jacobite Uprising two Jacobite soldiers were captured by the British. One was sentenced to death while the other was set free. This song is written from the point of view of the dead soldier, with the 'low road' being the road of the underworld and the 'high road' being the high, rugged terrain of the living world. His true love would never see him again because he's dead. The rest is the soldier waxing poetic about his homeland.
There are one or two other interpretations of the lyrics (such as with the highroad/lowroad line), but they all link back to the story about the two soldiers. In the end I like this one the best. I like the idea that even in the afterlife the soldier returned to the land he loved.
Now don't you feel smarter having read this?
Also, gloaming is a cool word.