LL-L: "Songs" LOWLANDS-L, 16.OCT.1999 (01) [E/S]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 16.OCT.1999 (01) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Songs"

> From: $ Elsie Zinsser [ezinsser at simpross.co.za]
> Subject: LL-L: "Songs" LOWLANDS-L, 12.OCT.1999 (03) [E]
>
> I think it was more than titillating to the target audience. The songs
> were probably sing-alongs by mostly drunk and lewd tavern guests who
> fall into the category of "all worked up but nowhere to go". Hearing the
> object of desire's words being sung as if coming from her very own lips
> must be the nearest and cheapest substitution available. Fantasy and
> wishful thinking are at play here. Remember those guys did not have the
> pouting mouths of Playboy core pieces to ogle at and drool on.

This would be more convincing if these songs weren't so discursive on the
idea of pregnancy. I've been wondering if in fact this is a completely
different genre - songs based on the tradgedy of a young woman accidentally
getting pregnant, perhaps composed as a warning to others. The verses then
might be added to by the gentlemen, expanding on the suggestive subject
matter?

In my edition of the Merry Muses, the verses I gave earlier for Wap and Rowe
seems to describe how the girl got into "rantie tantie" then the chorus
describes the consequences (NB "feetie" - diminutive of "feet"), but the two
other verses, which are much cruder, were "interpolated" into the
manuscript:

Lang kail, pease and leeks
They were at the kirstnin o't
Lang lads wantin breeks
They were at the getting o't

(plus one other which I won't type out here). Those "interpolated" verses
completely change the ethical slant of the song.

Incidentally, "Wap and Rowe" is accompanied by two unrelated anecdotes, one
of which is very enlightening of the times, if it's true:

Tibbie Nairn's exclamation, coming in one Sunday evening from hearing Mr
Whitefield: "G-d's mercy! No a c-ndum in this hoose for the gentlemen! God
help me, what'll come o this hoose when I'm in the airms o the blessed
Jesus!"

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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