20/04/2012

Waverley Steps


A previous column, North Wales, mentioned the ambiguous relationship Wales and England have had in pop music. The same could be said of Scotland. As with the British Labour Party, Scotland has played a significant role in British pop from Lonnie Donegan through Marmalade, to the Rezillos, to K T Tunstall. However, songs with a Scottish theme in the early days of pop  floated a caricature of bonny Scotland. Like the 1958 Number One Hoots Mon, by Lord Rockingham’s X1, a group of session players. Later covered by Bad Manners, this was an instrumental  with a few vocal interjections that distil Scotland down, like a Readers Digest Condensed Classic, to these well-known Scottish conversation pieces: ‘Och aye’, ‘Hoots mon there’s a moose loose aboot the hoose’ and ‘It’s a braw, bricht moonlicht nicht’.   (To make a rather obscure but satisfying link with another column: Lord Rockingham X1’s bandleader Harry Robinson later did the string arrangement on Nick Drake’s River Man. Hoots Mon  also featured what must be one of the first examples on a pop hit of the Hammond organ, played by Cherry Wainer.) Or like Andy Stewart singing Donald Where’s Your Troosers, a UK hit twice, in 1961 and 1989. Or Jackie Dennis, touted as the UK’s Ricky Nelson, who scored a 1958 Top Ten  hit , La Dee Dah, at the age of 15, six years before another Scot, Lulu, achieved the same feat. As with the Dubliners mentioned in a previous column as looking just like Dubliners should, Jackie Dennis looked just as a Scots lad should.


This obviously changed, though in the first beat boom in the wake of the Beatles one of the few Scottish groups to be successful in England -the Poets - dressed up like Robert Burns. However, there became something apparent  that has cropped up before: that songs about Scotland - as with Wales, or America or Australia -  can get away with a sense of nationalist pride and patriotism that songs about England cannot, or at least in the context of pop and rock music. Take the two in the links below. The first is Runrig’s rollicking version of Loch Lomond that turns into an audience sing-along,  a version of which was a UK hit in 2007. (Bill Haley and the Comets did a version called, inevitably,  Rock Lomond in 1957). It is difficult to imagine such an emotion-charged  crowd pleaser about, say Lake Windermere or Chesil Beach. 


The second is  a version of  Robert Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss by Eddi Reader of Fairground Attraction and Perfect fame. Again, I am not sure an English poet could translate into such a musical idiom  in quite the same way. A comparison might be Cleo Laine singing Shakespeare’s  Shall I Compare Thee but this remains in the genre of jazz and also lacks the nationalist resonance of Burns’ work. The differences perhaps here lie in England’s past as the coloniser of these other countries. There wasn’t here  the loss of a country or independence ` to mourn. What had been lost, instead, were the voices of ordinary people  over the centuries as the ruling culture took hold. Hence whilst the unofficial national anthem of Scotland is Flower of Scotland or Scotland the Brave and of Wales is Land of My Fathers, in England it is God Save the Queen -an institution, not a country. Yet Pop and rock has not been the best medium to find those voices.

The capital city,Edinburgh, has been one of those places that seemed familiar before ever going there from dint of images over the years, though oddly few of these came from songs about the city itself. There perhaps isn’t  a really well-known one, though The Proclaimers did Sunshine on Leith, the portside settlement a bus ride to the North; and The Fall did Edinburgh Man, a very un-Fall like ode to Edinburgh (It’s got a tune and everything).  Instead the mental  picture of Edinburgh came from other sources.  From seeing Edinburgh Castle on TV in the New Year celebrations or on the tins of Scottish Shortbread that would get given as gifts at Christmas; the pictures on the sticks of Edinburgh rock.; or Edinburgh in countless films from Greyfriars Bobby to Journey to the Centre of the Earth to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to Trainspotting (You couldn’t run down Princes Street like that now, it’s all dug up with an ill-fated tram project. You would fall over). In these expectations it didn’t disappoint. The  Castle looked just as it had been in my mind’s eye. Walking down Heriot Row where Robert Louis Stephenson lived and  had watched as a child the lamplighter working his way down the street, or going through the  big old-fashioned department store of Jenners,  you got a sense of the  genteel Edinburgh, of the town of Jean Brodie. Yet it also seemed a very European city - walking down Thistle Street with its cobbled road, lamplights, cars haphazardly parked and small cafes you could be in Paris.

The song here, Waverley Steps from 2006 by Roddy Woomble of Idlewild (harmonies by Kate Rusby), captures some of this mixture of the place. Waverley Steps are the steps coming down from Edinburgh’s main station but the precise  lyrics aren’t the most important part.  (I’m not actually sure what Kate Rusby is singing in the chorus. One theory is ‘You wont be molested’ but that can’t be right). It is the mood and tone that resonates more with my experience of Edinburgh. There is something a bit undefinable about the place, something just round the corner, just at the edge of the eye, and ,as with the photo above of a figure vanishing into early morning steam, something slightly mysterious - even when the light won't fade away.

39 comments:

  1. I just tried to listen to that chorus, and it definitely sounds like "you won't be molested"! There doesn't seem to be another option for what she is saying........!

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  2. This is a beautiful song - I'd never heard it before.....

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  3. The album this comes from - My Secret Is My Silence - is superb; definitely recommended.

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  4. Thanks so much for this Geoff! As a Scotsman, it has long been frustrating when people only know those songs that are a "caricature of bonny Scotland" - that "distil Scotland down, like a Readers Digest Condensed Classic, to these well-known Scottish conversation pieces: ‘Och aye’, ‘Hoots mon there’s a moose loose aboot the hoose’ and ‘It’s a braw, bricht moonlicht nicht’." Brilliant to read this very different account - thank you!

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  5. Ha ha yes, Jackie Dennis does look just as a Scots lad should in that photo - a little bit manic, in a kilt..... Ah, stereotypes!

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  6. I liked this column. One thing though, a lot of people thought the kilt was a gimmick but I was just proud to be Scottish, and I was excited, I was this wee laddie plumber and suddenly I was in the same charts as Elvis Presley. It was unbelievable, and the Scottish thing was all part of it.

    I did tartan trousers too you know - here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-in2ZJOG3o0

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  7. Donald Where’s Your Troosers is a beautiful song, here is my acoustic version of it. I had a friend by the name of Donald. I never saw him wear a kilt, but he was a sergeant-major in a highland regiment during WWII and so was frequently regaled with a chorus of this song

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZysJojc0g0

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  8. Here's Bill Haley and the Comets, Rock Lomond, that Geoff mentioned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4GS90Sddlc

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  9. Ha ha - "a very un-Fall like ode to Edinburgh (It’s got a tune and everything)."

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  10. The tram project is a nightmare. Construction is more than three years late and almost £300million over budget, at more than £830million. And the obstacle course that we have been scrambling through on Leith Walk was entirely pointless – they don’t now plan to build tramlines any further than St Andrews Square. The route will run in parallel with the trainline from Haymarket all the way to Edinburgh Airport, where it would have been entirely possible to build a halt, a connecting bridge, lifts, and a feeder road to the airport buildings with a fleet of accessible buses, in half the time and for a fraction of the cost. Since 2007, I don’t believe there’s been six months at a time when there haven’t been maximally disruptive roadworks along the originally-planned route from Shandwick Place to the foot of Constitution Street. That is four years and two and half miles of the busiest roads in Edinburgh. Ewan Spence worked out last year that it would have cost less to cover Princes Street with gold. And that is not even counting the number of businesses that have closed down due to lack of foot traffic and the businesses now appealling for a reduction in the rates due to the damage to their business the tramworks are causing. Then in a piece of chutzpah, at the end of January it was claimed the tramworks project was ahead of schedule – according to the revised schedule from September 2011, not the original plan from 2007. The Mound should be open again to buses, taxis, and bikes from 3rd March instead of July, and the Princes Street tramworks are supposed to be done and dusted by June 2012, in time for the Festival. The last time they announced that the tramworks would finish in time for a big street festival was December 2010. We’re still paying for that mistake. Meanwhile, what are Edinburgh Council doing to make people feel better about the trams project? Why, they’re going to erect a giant ferris wheel in Princes Street Gardens for the summer. In June 2012, Princes Street should be open again, Edinburgh Council will be looking at the Leith Biomass plant’s planning permissions, and we can all ride on a giant wheel.

    Yay?

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  11. I have only been to Edinburgh once, but I absolutely agree with this: "it also seemed a very European city - walking down Thistle Street with its cobbled road, lamplights, cars haphazardly parked and small cafes you could be in Paris."

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  12. I love the photo you posted - and agree that is sums up Edinburgh really well - a bit undefinable, something just round the corner, just at the edge of the eye, something slightly mysterious....

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  13. Here's The Proclaimers' Sunshine on Leith that Geoff mentioned - fantastic song!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmELS03_4So

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  14. Here's The Fall's Edinburgh Man, and the video has some good Edinburgh footage too......

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbMG1v7qDqs

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  15. Great column Geoff - made me suddenly very eager to visit Edinburgh.

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  16. I used to love the Poets, especially how they dressed - here is a shot of them all dressed up like Robert Burns:) - http://www.kinemagigz.com/images/The%20Poets%202.jpg

    I remember that they adopted their clothes image of high-necked jackets and ruffled fronted shirts from a portrait of Robert Burns - possibly this one: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Robert_Burns_1.jpg/280px-Robert_Burns_1.jpg

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  17. I read that Roddy Woomble naming the band Idlewild for the quiet haven featured in his then-favourite book, Anne of Green Gables - which is interesting in the context of songs about places, when you think about the band's early punk-fuelled sound which made the quiet haven part seem initially somewhat ironic, but then it gradually came closer as Idlewild progressed through sweeping melodic rock to rootsy, melodic sparseness.....

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  18. Geoff, if you don't know it, "When I Argue I See Shapes" is arguably the best Idlewild song of all and one of my favourite songs. Not only breaking the top 40 at last, but the top 20. The video accompanying the single featured a jumping salamander every time the backing vocals shout "Shapes!". It makes me jump in the air every time it happens:)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPNFApou5_4

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  19. Thanks for the song-I hadnt heard it before.
    Thanks for the 6.5 Special clip, Jackie..

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  20. There is also "Caledonian Road" by The Shop Assistants. Lovely deeply jangly guitar-driven pop from a band that straddled the twee-feedback divide. I take a slightly perverse pride in owning their album, which spent 1 week at number 100 in the album charts, which makes the Shoppies the least successful act that actually made the charts. And when I was in Edinburgh I took a pic of said location. Short cul-de-sac off the Gorgie Road...not as impressive as the song.

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    1. The song was actually about Caledonian Road in London. The lyrics are from the point of view of someone from Scotland ending up there, looking for a better life...

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  21. Great column Geoff! Although I think there is a dearth of songs about Edinburgh compared to the large number turned out by Glasgow songwriters about their city.....

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  22. Remember the Edinburgh Eurovision in 1972? The 3,000(ish) capacity Usher Hall on the Lothian Road was chosen as the venue. Katie Boyle was the stock BBC Eurovision hostess at the time, but having a very English lady acting as announcer would doubtless rub the hometown audience up the wrong way, so actress, dancer and wife of Ludovic Kennedy, Moira Shearer was persuaded to do the job. Edinburgh Castle played a big part in this Eurovision. A military tattoo was staged in the grounds to keep the viewers entertained while the judges sorted out their scores. And those juries were locked away in the castle's Grand Hall, with their scores relayed to a seated Moira - who looked ever so regal - on a huge screen at the Usher Hall.

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  23. For another Scotland-themed song, there is Caledonia by Frankie Miller (Caledonia is the Roman word for Scotland).....

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  24. And Polmont on My Mind by Glasvegas - who are a band from Glasgow. Polmont on My Mind is a track from their debut and self-titled album. Polmont is a town between Edinburgh and Glasgow and the title refers to a Polmont prison, one of many prisons that Glasvegas has performed at.

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  25. How about Mull of Kintyre by Paul McCartney? Not Edinburgh, but Scotland at least.....

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  26. Geoff, I was fascinated by your observation that unlike England, songs about Scotland or Wales can get away with a sense of nationalist pride and patriotism - I've thought a lot about this since you raised it briefly in an earlier column. I think you're right that it is all about England’s past as a coloniser (reflected in the fact that the national anthem is about an institution, not a country). I imagine for a related reason, there are fewer songs about Germany that tap into national pride than Austria, for example.

    I also think there might be another reason, which is that the English like to think of themselves as self-effacing / humble, averse to displays of nationalist pride except during sporting events and royal weddings!

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  27. "It is difficult to imagine such an emotion-charged crowd pleaser about, say Lake Windermere or Chesil Beach" - ha ha, yes.

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  28. Geoff, I was intrigued by your mention of the role of Scotland in the British Labour Party - are there any books you'd recommend about this, some kind of history of the Labour Party that does a good job talking about Scotland?

    Wonderful column; I have only visited Edinburgh once but thought it was the most fascinating place.

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  29. There is also "The Royal Mile" (Gerry Rafferty) and "Autumn in Edinburgh" (Nick Keir)......

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  30. You might like my collection/website. Some time in the mid-1990s, I thought it would take me a few weeks to bang together a compilation of the hidden history of Edinburgh in its music. Five years later, having trawled most of the libraries in Scotland, done a week in the Bodleian and had stuff sent me from Wales, France, Germany, Canada and the US, I decided that I could kinda stop at 750 tunes and about 300 song texts and say I had a representative sample. With the historical explanations as well, it ended up far too big for print, it would weigh as much as a phonebook. So I went for electronic publication and found that although I had what was probably the most comprehensive survey of the topical music ever made of any place anywhere, just about nobody was interested.

    I intend to do a revised edition someday but I'm not naive enough to think it'll be a commercial proposition.

    http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/embro/

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  31. There's also 'The Auld Toon Shuffle and the New Town Slide' by Rod Paterson - beautifully observed, witty, affectionate and very accurate.

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  32. Oops, the name of the song is of course 'The Auld Toon Shuffle and the New Town Stride'. Apologies.

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  33. for Edinburgh songs, there's also the excellent poem "Capernaum" set to music by Ed Miller.

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  34. On a more lighthearted theme, how about the classic John Milligan song?

    "No one ever reads the Evening News"

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  35. An honourable mention to Tom Clelland's "The Grassmarket Butchers". Although, did it have to use a tune which was (a) so American-sounding and (b) so goddamn chirpy? You expect it to break out into "yippie-yi-yo!" any minute. It could be a damn good song with a more appropriate tune.

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  36. I have written a couple of songs about Edinburgh, it is a very interesting city, it is also - people feeling very attached to it, it is a good subject for songs. People sit up and listen; it is a very old town and has a great deal of history. One of the songs I wrote was also based on a famous tune, 'The Flowers of Edinburgh', which is my favourite tune. Although the trouble with tunes is that they are fast, the words have to come out very quickly. I have also written songs about my - although I live in Edinburgh, I was brought up in the countryside, and I have written songs about the area, Perthshire and Angus, which is a part of the country I was brought up in. I also like to sing songs that other people have written from that area.

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  37. Thanks for these suggestions
    Most histories of the Labour Party in the UK cover Scotland, Martha -the first Party leader was a Scot, Keir Hardie. You could always look up a PhD thesis, The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918–29, by a certain Gordon Brown!

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  38. What about Fish's 'Internal Exile'/'Exile On Prince's Street'?

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