Will Ye Gang Love? Andrew Robbie (Aber) 1960 Goldstein
[From: School of Scottish Studies. Original Tape ID - SA1960.150.151. Their notes follow. This is similar to "For Love" by Willie Mathieson. This version has been widely printed including Soodlum's "100 Great Scottish Songs" and Norman Buchan's "101 Scottish Songs."
R. Matteson 2017]
Summary - The woman sees her lover combing his hair and speaks of her longing for him. She rebukes him for his desertion and wishes she were still a maiden. She wishes her baby was born and on its father's knee and that she were dead and in her long deep grave with a turtle dove on her stone.
Will Ye Gang Love? sung by Andrew Robbie of Strichen, Aberdeenshire on February 3, 1960. Recorded by Prof. Kenneth Goldstein
My love he stands in yon chaumer[1] door
Combing doon his yellow hair
His curly locks I love to see
I wonder if my love minds on me.
Chorus: Will ye gang, love, and leave me noo
Will ye gang, love, and leave me noo
Will ye forsake your ain love true
And gang with a lass that ye never knew?
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I were a maid again,
But a maid again I'll never be
Till an apple grows on an orange tree.
I wish, I wish my babe was born
I wish it sat on daddy's knee
And I myself were deid and gone
And the wavin' grass all o'er me growin'.
As lang as my apron did bide doon
He followed me frae toon tae toon
But noo it's up and above my knee
My love gaes by but kens nae me.
CHORUS
Make my grave baith lang and deep
Put a bunch of roses on my head and feet
And in the middle put a turtle dove
Let the people know I died of love.
CHORUS
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1. chaumer= "chamber" door from old French chaumere, a little hut. This chaumer, or chammer, was a kind of detached room of the farm-houses of yore: here slept all the young men belonging to the family [The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia].