"The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" (or "Loch Lomond") is a traditional Scottish folk song (Roud No. 9598)."Loch Lomond", The Traditional Ballad Index. Edited by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. 2018. Its origins are thought to date to the Jacobite rising of 1745.
Loch Lomond is the largest Scottish loch. In Scots, "bonnie" means "fair" or "beautiful"."Bonny adj., adv., n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.
Lyrics
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes, Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond, Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae, On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
Chorus: O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road, And I'll be in Scotland afore ye, But me and my true love will never meet again, On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen, On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond, Where in soft purple hue, the highland hills we view, And the moon coming out in the gloaming. (Chorus)
The wee birdies sing and the wildflowers spring, And in sunshine the waters are sleeping. But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again, Though the waeful may cease frae their grieving. (Chorus)
Interpretation
The song has often been dated to 1746, and it has long been associated with the Jacobite rebellion. In December 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie retreated to Scotland, and the lyrics have been interpreted as a lament of the march.Greig, John. Scots Minstrelsie: A National Monument of Scottish Song, Volume III. Edinburgh: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1892. xxv, 352. One of the soldiers rues his sacrifice for the king.Pittock, Murray. Poetry and Jacobite Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press, 1994. 136–137. In Celtic mythology, the "low road" was a fairy route for a soldier's soul to return home when killed abroad.Douglas, Ronald Macdonald. Scottish Lore and Folklore. Crown Publishers, 1982. 148–9.
Another common interpretation is that the chorus are the final words spoken by one of the Jacobite rebels prior to his execution, perhaps in Carlisle, where dozens of rebels were executed."The Dark Tale of Bonnie 'Loch Lomond'", Morning Edition. July 24, 2005.Ford, Robert. Song Histories. Glasgow & Edinburgh: William Hodge, 1900. He sees his lover at the gallows and tells her they will meet again in Scotland, albeit by different routes.Ford, Robert. Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland. Alexander Gardner, 1904. 145–8. Ironically, the song became one of a handful of folk signifiers for British unity as the nation expanded its empire.Banfield, Stephen, and Ian Russell. "England (i)." Grove Music Online. 2001. Oxford University Press.
One of the earliest sheet music printings of the ballad was in 1840 by Paterson and Sons in Edinburgh. It was titled "Bonnie Loch Loman" and credited to "a lady" with arrangements by Finlay Dunn and John Thomson. Lady John Scott was often cited as the composer of "Loch Lomond", but she only transcribed the melody and lyrics after hearing it sung by a boy in the Edinburgh streets.Moffat, Alfred. The Minstrelsy of Scotland: 200 Scottish songs adapted to their traditional airs. London: Augener, 1920. 34. In his 1898 novel Wild Eelin, William Black has the title character, Eelin MacDonald, directly refute the idea that a street urchin in Edinburgh would ever sing the song, dismissing it as "spurious".Black, William. Wild Eelin: Her Escapades, Adventures, and Bitter Sorrows. Harper & Bros., 1898.
The actual composer is unknown. Precedents for the tune have been found in several other folk songs, such as the Danish/Faroese tune "Dankonning lod gribe en havfrue fin" (The Dane-King Captured a Mermaid).Gilchrist, Anne G. "Reviews", Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 4, no. 1, 1940. 32. "Loch Lomond" along with "The Oak and the Ash" also bear a resemblance to "Godesses", a tune in John Playford's 1651 compilation The Dancing Master.Gilchrist, Anne G. “Some Additional Notes on the Traditional History of Certain Ballad-Tunes in the ‘Dancing Master’ (1650).” Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 3, no. 4, 1939. 277.Playford, John. The Dancing Master. London: Thomas Harper, 1651. 52.
There are also similar melodic fragments in "The Bonniest Lass In A' The World" and "The Bonnie House of Airlie". "Loch Lomond" has often been described as sharing a melody with "Kind Robin Loes Me" and all its variants like "Robin Cushie".Scott, James E. "Tune of the Month: Robin Cushie", Piping Times, Volume 24, No. 1. October, 1971. 22–26.
Variants Both the 1840 sheet music and Lady John Scott's lyrics differ significantly from the most common form of the song today. An 1849 broadside called "Flora's Lament for Her Charlie" largely parallels the lyrics of "Loch Lomond". Flora MacDonald was a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and she was imprisoned for helping Charles escape his pursuers."Flora's Lament for Her Charlie", The Word on the Street. National Library of Scotland. There are even hyperlocal variants like the one that changes "'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen" to "We'll meet whaur we parted in bonnie Luss glen".Colquhoun, F. Mary. "The Traditions of Colquhoun Country", The Celtic Monthly: A Magazine for Highlanders, Volume IV, No. 8. May, 1896. United Kingdom, A. Sinclair, 1896. 147.
The song is often misattributed to Scottish poet and folklorist Andrew Lang. In 1876, he wrote a poem called "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond, 1746".Lang, Andrew. "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" in The Poetical Works of Andrew Lang, Volume I. ed. Mrs. Lang. Longmans, Green & Co., 1923. 55–56.
THERE's an ending o' the dance, and fair Morag's safe in France, And the Clans they hae paid the lawing, And the wuddy has her ain, and we twa are left alane, Free o' Carlisle gaol in the dawing.
So ye'll tak the high road, and I'll tak the laigh road, An' I'll be in Scotland before ye: But me and my true love will never meet again, By the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
For my love's heart brake in twa, when she kenned the Cause's fa', And she sleeps where there's never nane shall waken, Where the glen lies a' in wrack, wi' the houses toom and black, And her father's ha's forsaken.
While there's heather on the hill shall my vengeance ne'er be still, While a bush hides the glint o' a gun, lad; Wi' the men o' Sergeant Môr shall I work to pay the score, Till I wither on the wuddy in the sun, lad!
So ye'll tak the high road, and I'll tak the laigh road, An' I'll be in Scotland before ye: But me and my true love will never meet again, By the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.
"Wuddy" is a euphemism for a noose. "Morag" refers to Bonnie Prince Charlie who was defeated in 1746.MacBean, Lachlan. The Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands with translations and music and an introduction. Part II, No. 5. Edinburgh: MacLachlan & Stewart, 1888. "Sergeant Môr" is John Du Cameron, a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie who continued fighting as an outlaw until he was captured and hanged in 1753. Several Scots terms are used like "lawing" (reckoning) and "dawing" (dawn).Lancashire, Ian. "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond", Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto. 2008.
In William Black's novel, Eelin MacDonald sings her own version of "Loch Lomond". She wrote the new lyrics because she views the popular ones as "rubbish".
The Irish variant of the song is called "Red Is the Rose" and is sung with the same melody but different (although similarly themed) lyrics.Duncan, Craig. Beautiful Airs & Ballads of the British Isles for Cello. Mel Bay Publications, 2023. 2. It was popularized by Irish folk musician Tommy Makem. Even though many people mistakenly believe that Makem wrote "Red Is the Rose", it is a traditional Irish folk song."Red Is the Rose", Mainly Norfolk.
Legacy "Loch Lomond" has been arranged and recorded by many composers and performers over the years, in several genres ranging from traditional Scottish folk to barbershop to rock and roll.
Classical music Ferdinand Thieriot wrote a symphonic fantasy on the tune in 1868.De Bekker, Leander Jan. De Bekker's Music & Musicians: An Encyclopædic Dictionary of Terms and Biographies. United Kingdom, N.L. Brown, 1925. 678.
Charles Ives quotes "Loch Lomond" in "The Alcotts" movement of his Concord Sonata.Cowell, Henry and Sidney Cowell. Charles Ives and His Music. Oxford University Press, 1955. 198.
In 1921, Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged "Loch Lomond" for baritone solo and male choir.The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan Williams. Edited by Aidan J. Thomson, Alain Frogley. Cambridge University Press, 2013. 141. It has been recorded several times, notably by the tenor Ian Partridge and the London Madrigal Singers for EMI in 1970.The Spring Time of the Year: 16 Folk Songs arranged by Vaughan Williams. London Madrigal Singers, Christopher Bishop. His Master's Voice – HQS 1215. 1970.
Jazz The Jazz Discography, an online index of studio recordings, live recordings, and broadcast transcriptions of jazz – as of May 22, 2019 – lists 106 recordings of "Loch Lomond" and one recording of "Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond".
Jazz singer Maxine Sullivan recorded "Loch Lomond" on August 6, 1937 (matrix 21472-1; Vocalion-OKeh 364). Sullivan's version was arranged by Claude Thornhill. It inspired countless other acts to start swinging folk songs.Archetti, Enzo. "Swing Music Notes", American Music Lover. April, 1938. 477. It was a career-defining song, and she recorded it 14 times in total. Her last recording was a live performance at the Fujitsu-Concord Jazz Festival in Tokyo, on September 28, 1986, with the Scott Hamilton Quintet.
When Benny Goodman and His Orchestra started performing "Loch Lomond", they made sure to imitate Claude Thornhill's arrangement for Maxine Sullivan.Tackley, Catherine. Benny Goodman's Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert. Oxford University Press, 2012. 76. Martha Tilton fronted the song when the band included it in the January 16, 1938 set that was immortalized on their live album The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (Columbia SL 160).
Popular music
Marie Narelle recorded "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" for Edison Gold Moulded Records. She sang the song with an orchestra, and her performance was released in August 1906 as cylinder 9325."COMMENTS ON EDISON GOLD MOULDED RECORDS FOR AUGUST, 1906." Edison Phonograph Monthly, volume 4, no. 1. March 1906–February 1907. 8.
Internationally famous, Scottish performer, Sir Harry Lauder, recorded "Loch Lomond" for RCA Victor Records, with an orchestra, in 1926, released on a 78 record in 1929."https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b16773782?originalUrl=https%3A%2F%2Flegacycatalog.nypl.org%2Frecord%3Db16773782
Australian rock band AC/DC recorded a version of the song as "Fling Thing" and released it as the B-side to their 1976 single "Jailbreak".Wall, Mick. AC/DC: Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be. St. Martin's Press, 2013. 170. The song underscored the band's Scottish ancestry, and they played it at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow during the recording of their 1978 live album If You Want Blood You've Got It.Popoff, Martin. AC/DC at 50. Motorbooks, 2023. 50. On their 1992 album AC/DC Live, the cover is simply listed as "Bonny". "Fling Thing" was later remastered and released on the 2009 box set Backtracks.
Rod Stewart's "Rhythm of My Heart" (1991) reworks the tune's melody into the chorus, turning "On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond" into "Where the ocean meets the sky I'll be sailing".Stewart, Rod. Rod: The Autobiography. Crown, 2012. 301. The song was written by Marc Jordan and John Capek and first recorded by René Shuman in 1986.
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