The Brewer Laddie
[
Roud 867
; Master title: The Brewer Laddie
; G/D 4:916
; Ballad Index FVS095
; Bodleian
Roud 867
; Wiltshire
1051
; trad.]
Frank Kidson printed The Brewer Laddie in his 1891 book Traditional Tunes. He commented:
The air for this ballad was communicated to me by my friend, Mr. Washington Teasdale, who heard it with a fragment of the words something like forty years ago, at a harvest-home supper at Brough, in Westmoreland.
Since Mr. Teasdale gave me the air, I have found the whole ballad in a reprinted old Glasgow chap book, the original dating perhaps from the last century. The air appears of fairly early date, but is more suggestive of an English military marching tune than that to a Scottish ballad. One can almost fancy the shrill notes of the fifes ringing in the ears.
Ewan MacColl sang Brewer Laddie in 1951 on a 78” Topic shellac record (TRC49). This recording was included in 1954 on the very first Topic LP, the untitled album TRL1. He also sang The Brewer Laddie in 1961 on his Folkways album Bothy Ballads of Scotland where he commented:
The forsaken and jilted heroes (and heroines) of the bothy ballads rarely die for love; instead, they meet misfortune head on and, with a good deal of sound sense, start looking around for another sweetheart. It has been suggested that The Brewer Laddie is a bothy adaptation of an older song and this may well be the case.
Learned from my father and collated with versions in Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads and Kidson's Traditional Tunes.
Laurence Platt sang The Brewer Laddie in 1972 on Notts Alliance's Traditional Sound album The Cheerful 'Orn. Their sleeve notes commented:
A song of many variants and many names—this is Laurence's. He didn't learn it from any other source but put it together to suit his own taste from the versions of several singers. In many songs the rejected lover wanders away to lonely valleys or across oceans. The philosophy of this song is far more realistic!
Sylvia Barnes sang The Brewer Laddie in 1985 on Scotch Measure's eponymous Topic album, Scotch Measure. They learned the song from Jez Lowe.
Back of the Moon sang Brewer Lad on their 2005 album Luminosity. They explained:
A girl from Perth runs off with a man from Edinburgh, leaving her brewer lad behind.
Cara sang Brewer Lad on their 2010 CD Long Distance Love. They noted:
Learnt from [band member] Jeana [Leslie], this Scots song has a very useful moral—never slight your own true love, for fear you get a worse one!
Lyrics
The Brewer Laddie in Traditional Tunes | Cara sing Brewer Lad |
---|---|
In Perth there live'd a bonny lad, |
In Perth there lived a bonnie lad, |
Chorus (repeated after each verse): |
Chorus (repeated after each verse): |
He courted her for seven long years, |
He courted her for seven lang years, |
“O, wilt thou go along with me, |
It's, “Will ye gang alang wi' me, |
“O yes, I'll go along with you, |
“O I will gang alang wi' you, |
The brewer he came home at e'en, |
The brewer he cam' hame at e'en, |
Oh, wasna that an unco ploy, | |
“Be it not, or be it so, |
“O, be it so and let her go, |
“There is as good fish in the sea |
“There's as guid fish intae the sea |
She's rambled up, she's rambled down, |
She's rambled up, she's rambled doon, |
He's ta'en his course and away he's gane, | |
The brewer he set up in Perth, |
The brewer lad set up in Perth, |
Ye lovers all, where'er ye be, |
Ye lovers a', where'er ye be, |