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NEFA
1994.008.01 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Scarborough's Banks
FL: She loved a sailor [On Scarborough's banks a fair damsel
did dwell]
S: [Recording comes in part way through.] He would have to go
over the song to be able to sing it properly. [Sings song again.]
"On Scarborough's banks a fair damsel did dwell…" He will practise
those songs, probably at work. WM does not know how he ended up
with his siblings' song books.
NEFA
1994.008.02 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: About Newton's Hash
FL: They hiv a gey young foreman chiel, McKinnon is his name
S: Bothy song by WM's sister Jean Mathew to the tune of 'Drumdelgie'.
NEFA
1994.008.03 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Newton's Hash
FL: They hiv a gey young foreman chiel, McKinnon is his name
S: Bothy song by WM's sister Jean Mathew to the tune of 'Drumdelgie'.
Newton's was the home farm of Kinmundy, between Longside and Aden.
[Gives directions.] Though his brother's name is in it, WM thinks
he probably never knew he was in a song. WM had five brothers[?]
and three sisters. All of them sang, but only Jean Mathew made songs.
She made up a poem about the Women's Rural Institute [see next track].
NEFA
1994.008.04 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Tae Ken the Way
FL: ????
S: Song has sixteen verses. When WM was in the army, his sister
Jean wrote to him in the Doric. None of the other soldiers could
read them. Jean (McKinnon) says she wrote as she spoke, full of
the minute to minute details of her life. 'Tae Ken the Wey' may
be a song, or may be a poem.
NEFA
1994.008.05 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: The Fair Maid of Kenmore
FL: The moon glimmers pale on the lovely Loch Tay
S: Song is from Perthshire; it must be old. WM used to hear
his father sing it.
NEFA
1994.008.06 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Singing in competition
S: WM sang in a competition this year for the first time, on
Jean's insistence. He went to make up numbers, but then Joe Aitken,
Tom Reid, et. al., entered.
NEFA
1994.008.07 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Remembering songs
S: WM remembers 'Can I Sleep in the Barn Tonight Mister?'. They
used to learn 'Down By the Greenwood Side' at school. Singing and
pumping water were the only things for which WM ever got praise
in school. [End of Side A.]
NEFA
1994.008.08 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Can I Sleep in the Barn Tonight Mister?
FL: One night it was dark, it was stormy
S: WM likes sad songs best, always has. JM: They attended Gaelic
classes in Peterhead.
NEFA
1994.008.09 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Notebooks of songs
S: The notebooks are full of sad songs.
NEFA
1994.008.10 Transcription
P:
Bill McKinnon
T: ????
FL: Sadly I've been thinking tonight
S: Not all that sad. The Irish and Scottish always sing sad
songs about their countries when abroad. 'Bogie's Bonnie Belle'
is sad; she ended up marrying a Traveller.
NEFA
1994.008.11 Transcription
P: Jean McKinnon
T: Raising children
S: The mother and child would not have gotten much from the
father in the way of support. WM was making seven Pounds a week
when he and Jean first got married. Jean feels it may not have been
a good thing to have done away with the class system. This makes
contrasts between rich and poor more obvious. Now people have to
steal just to keep up with the Joneses. Some children are going
to school in the most expensive fashions. WM was brought up in a
four roomed house, eight children, two parents, two grandparents.
Three nails on the door held WM's entire wardrobe when they were
first married. The kilts take up more room. New houses have bigger
rooms, but the old have more character (colder though). Their new
house is easy to heat. Jean would like to stay in Towie Barclay
castle as there is no wallpaper. Marc Ellington restored it after
two hundred years of lying empty. He was a folk singer and is reprinting
some old books. 'The Bonnie Lass o Fyvie' and 'The Bonnie Ship the
Diamond' are his favourite songs.
NEFA
1994.008.12 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: It is hard to remember songs
S: WM has a terrible time remembering songs. Used to sing with
the Longside British Legion, but they started reading off papers.
Now he cannot remember words. WM used to sing to himself all the
time, without written words. Better to sing than greet.
NEFA
1994.008.13 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Few people sing in the streets
S: Fewer people sing in the streets now, and no one while they
work. All the music is prerecorded now. WM recorded some of his
songs and used to listen to himself on tape; now that is laziness.
NEFA
1994.008.14 Transcription
P: Bill McKinnon
T: Nephew plays guitar
S: WM's nephew plays guitar, but never sung, except on a tape
for WM. His niece plays melodeon and organ; she used to play out
and about a lot. WM has a melodeon, but will not play it in front
of anyone. WM has a banjo and a trumpet. At times the house has
been full of instruments. [End of Side B.]
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