Ewan MacColl - Scots Drinking Songs (1956)

Of the songs he has included in this album, MacColl writes: "I can remember as a child being allowed to stay up at Hogmanay parties when a dozen Scots iron-moulders and their wives would settle down to serious drinking. A Wee Drappie O't would be sung with everyone joining in the chorus with maybe a few English friends looking a bit embarrassed at this display of Celtic emotion and the beer jugs would be circulating freely and whiskey bottles would empty at an alarming rate. In between the songs the company would argue the merits of Edward Clod's 'History of Creation' and Volny's 'Ruins of Empires' and then as the singing became more and more rough I would be sent off to bed. As these junketings often lasted for a whole week I had plenty of opportunities to learn the songs."

1 We're A' Jolly Fu'

2 The Calton Weaver

3 When She Came Ben She Bobbit

4 The Laird Of The Dainty Doon Bye

5 Blow The Candle Out

6 Donald Blue

7 The Brewer Laddie

8 We're Gayly Yet

9 A Wee Drappie O't

10 The Cuckoo's Nest

11 Green Grow The Rashes, O

12 The Day We Went To Rothesay

13 The Bonnie Lassie Who Never Said No

14 The Muckin' O' Geordie's Byre

15 Jock Hawk's Adventures In Glasgow

16 The Brisk Young Lad

17 I Wish That You Were Dead Guidman

18 The Wind Blew The Bonnie Lassie's Plaidie Awa'

19 Andro And His Cutty Gun

link to the free album

Ewan MacColl - Scots Drinking Songs