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Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin

[ Roud V28828 , V43015 ; DT WASALAD ; Robert Burns]

Battlefield Band sang Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin on their 1980 EP Preview, and Alan Reid returned to it in 1997 on his solo album The Sunlit Eye. They noted on the first album:

A well-known autobiographical song by Robert Burns in which he admits that he was ‘a bit of a lad’. Tony Cuffe of Ossian first had the idea of using the melody of another Burns’ song, Dainty Davie, and this is the one we use here.

Ian Campbell sang Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin in 1968 on his Transatlantic album of songs and poems from Robert Burns, Tam o’ Shanter. He noted:

It goes without saying that the roving boy of this song is the poet himself, and so that there should be no doubt about it he identifies himself firmly in the second verse by giving his birthday. Bless him, the lad did not underestimate himself, and neither did he have any illusions nor make any excuses. Though many have tried I doubt that anyone will ever write him a finer epitaph.

Andy M. Stewart sang Rantin’ Rovin’ Robin on his 1989 album Songs of Robert Burns. He noted:

This song commemorates an incident which occurred when Robert Burns was only a few days old:

Our monarch’s hindmost year but ane
Was five-and-twenty days begun,
’Twas then a blast o’ Janwar win’
Blew hansel in on Robin.

The incident is best described in a letter by Gilbert Burns (Robert’s brother) first printed in “Dr. Currie’s Edition of 1803”:

When my father built his ‘clay biggin’, he put in two stone jambs, as they are called, and a lintel, carrying up the chimney in his clay-gable. The consequence was that as the gable subsided, the jambs remaining firm threw it off its center; and one very stormy morning when my brother was nine or ten days old, a little before daylight, a part of the gable fell out and the rest appeared so shattered that my mother, with the young poet, had to be carried through the storm to a neighbour’s house, where they remained a week till their own dwelling was adjusted.

(From the third edition of The Burns Encyclopedia by Maurice Lindsay, published in 1980, St. Martin’s Press, Inc., New York)

Sheena Wellington sang There Was a Lad (Rantin Rovin Robin) on her 1990 album Clearsong. She noted:

Dainty Davie was a favourite tune of Robert Burns—he wrote at least eight sets of words for it, from the tender to the bawdy—and it was for this melody that st he wrote his gently ironic self portrait. The verses are usually sung to the rumbustious O Gin Ye Were Deid Guidman but the poet’s choice is, I think, a better one.

Hector Gilchrist and Liz Thompson sang There Was a Lad Was Born in Kyle in 1996 on their WildGoose album of songs of Robert Burns, The Lea Rig. Hector Gilchrist noted:

It is said that Burns’ father, on the way to fetch the midwife, assisted a gypsy woman across a storm swollen burn. She, in turn, was present soon after the poet’s birth and in the custom of the day, read his palm and told his fortune. It is commonly sung to a more modern air.

Alan Reid sang Rantin’, Rovin’ Robin in 1996 on the Linn anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 2.

Jim Malcolm sang Rantin Rovin Robin on his 2007 album of songs of Robert Burns, Acquaintance, and in 2010 on his Robert Burns DVD Bard Hair Day. He noted:

There are two recognised melodies to this song. I chose the more uptempo one as it gets folks singing along. It is a simple autobiography of Burns’ highly charged yet tragically short life. He ranted and roved both physically and intellectually until almost every aspect of his contemporary world was touched by his greatness. I often wonder what further magical works would have come had we been blessed with a few more years of his genius.

This video shows Jim Malcolm singing Rantin Rovin Robin in the show The Story of the Scottish Traditional Music in 2010:

Robyn Stapleton sang There Was a Lad on her 2017 album Songs of Robert Burns. She noted:

Robert Burns was born amidst a winter storm and 28 years later he wrote this autobiographical poem, which is sung here to the tune of Dainty Davie.

Lyrics

Andy M. Stewart sings Rantin Rovin Robin

There was a lad was born in Kyle
But what’n day o’ what’n a style
I doubt it’s hardly worth the while
To be sae nice wi’ Robin.

Chorus (after each verse):
Robin was a rovin’ boy,
Rantin’ rovin’, rantin’ rovin’;
Robin was a rovin’ boy,
Rantin’ rovin’ Robin.

Our monarch’s hindmost year but ane
Was five-and-twenty days begun,
’Twas then a blast o’ Janwar win’s
Blew hansel in on Robin.

The gossip keekit in bis loof
Quo’ scho: “Wha lives will see the proof,
This waly boy will be nae coof,
I think we’ll ca’ him Robin.

“He’ll hae misfortunes great and sma’,
But aye a heart aboon them a’;
He’ll be a credit till us a’,
We’ll a’ be proud o’ Robin.

“But sure as three times three mak’ nine
I see by ilka score and line,
This chap will dearly like our kin’,
So leeze me on thee, Robin!

“Guid faith,” quo’ scho, “I doubt you gar
The borne lasses lie aspar;
But twenty fauts ye may hae waur –
So blessins on thee, Robin.”

Jim Malcolm sings Rantin Rovin Robin

There was a lad was born in Kyle,
But whatna day o’ whatna style,
I doubt it’s hardly worth the while
To be sae nice wi’ Robin.

Chorus (after each verse):
Robin was a rovin boy,
Rantin, rovin, rantin, rovin;
Robin was a rovin boy,
Rantin, rovin Robin.

Our monarch’s hindmost year but ane,
Was five-and-twenty days begun,
‘Twas then a blast o’ Januar’ win’
Blew hansel in on Robin.

The gossip keekit in his loof,
Quo’ she: “Wha lives shall see the proof,
This waly boy will be nae coof:
I think we’ll ca’ him Robin.

“He’ll hae misfortunes great an’ sma’,
But ay a heart aboon them a’.
He’ll be a credit tae us a’,
We’ll a’ be proud o’ Robin.

“But sure as three times three mak nine,
I see by ilka score and line,
This chap will dearly like our kin’,
Sae leeze me on thee, Robin!

“Guid faith,” quo’ she, “I doubt you gar,
The bonnie lassies lie aspar,
But twenty fauts ye may hae waur –
So blessings on thee, Robin.”