“Freedom Come-All-Ye” is a song written by Hamish Henderson, the Scottish poet, songwriter, and intellectual. It is written in the Scots Language. “Freedom Come-All-Ye”, one of Henderson’s most important songs, gives a non-romantic, revisionist view of the role of the Scots in the world at the time it was written. It describes a wind of change blowing through Scotland and the world at large, sweeping away exploitation and imperialism. It renounces the tradition of the Scottish soldier both as imperial cannon-fodder and colonial oppressor, and ends with a vision of a future global society which is multiracial and just.<\/p>\n
The song was written in 1960, to an adaptation of the First World War pipe march “The Bloody Fields of Flanders”, which Henderson first heard played on the Anzio beachhead. The lyrics were written following a visit and discussions with Ken Goldstein, an American researcher at the School of Scottish Studies, who had enjoyed Henderson’s rendition of the tune. It was subsequently adopted by Glasgow Peace Marchers CND demonstrators, and the anti-Polaris campaign. A product of the Scottish Folk revival, and originally a sixties protest song, it is still popular in Scotland and overseas. Henderson described it as “expressing my hopes for Scotland, and for the survival of humanity on this beleaguered planet.”<\/p>\n
It is viewed by many as Scotland’s ‘alternative’ national anthem (although there is no ‘official’ Scottish anthem). However, Henderson never wanted it to become as he felt that part of its strength lies in the fact that it is an alternative, an “International Anthem”.
\nLyrics<\/p>\n
The lyrics are written in the Scots language (not misspelled words).<\/p>\n
\nRoch the wind in the clear day’s dawin
\nBlaws the cloods heilster-gowdie owre the bay
\nBut there’s mair nor a roch wind blawin
\nThro the Great Glen o the warld the day
\nIt’s a thocht that wad gar oor rottans
\nAa thae rogues that gang gallus fresh an gay
\nTak the road an seek ither loanins
\nWi thair ill-ploys tae sport an play<\/p>\nNae mair will our bonnie callants
\nMerch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw
\nNor wee weans frae pitheid an clachan
\nMourn the ships sailin doun the Broomielaw
\nBroken faimlies in lands we’ve hairriet
\nWill curse ‘Scotlan the Brave’ nae mair, nae mair
\nBlack an white ane-til-ither mairriet
\nMak the vile barracks o thair maisters bare<\/p>\nSae come aa ye at hame wi freedom
\nNever heed whit the houdies croak for Doom
\nIn yer hoos aa the bairns o Adam
\nWill find breid, barley-bree an paintit rooms
\nWhen Maclean meets wi’s friens in Springburn
\nAa thae roses an geans will turn tae blume
\nAn the black lad frae yont Nyanga
\nDings the fell gallows o the burghers doun.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe phrase “come aa ye” is the “come all ye” of the title. Some words are similar (blaws, mak, tak, sailin, blume for: blows, make, take, sailing, bloom). However, other words are more obscure (owre, nae, frae, tae, thae, an, yer, thair, doun, wi, merch, mair, hoos for: over, no, from, to, thy, and, your, their, down, with, march, more, house).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Freedom Come-All-Ye” is a song written by Hamish Henderson, the Scottish poet, songwriter, and intellectual. It is written in the Scots Language. “Freedom Come-All-Ye”, one of Henderson’s most important songs, gives a non-romantic, revisionist view of the role of the Scots in the world at the time it was written. It describes a wind of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}