| Author | Topic: Add: The Wark O' the Weavers | |
| dmcg | Posted - 05 Jan 05 - 09:52 am | |
We're a' met thegither here to sit and to crack, Wi' oor glasses in oor hands and oor wark upon oor back; And there's no' a trade amang them a' can either mend or mak' If it was-na for the wark o' the weavers. (Chorus) If it wasna for the weavers what would we do? We wouldna ha'e claith made o' oor woo', We wouldna ha'e a coat, neither black nor blue, Gin it wasna for the wark o' the weavers. The hireman chiels the mock us and crack aye aboot 's, They say that we are thin-faced, bleached like cloots, But yet for a' their mockery the canna do withoot 's Na! They canna want the wark o' the weavers. There's oor wrichts and oor slaters and glaziers and a' Oor doctors and oor ministers and them that lives by law. And oor friends in South Americay, though them we never saw But we ken they know the wark o' the weavers. There's oor sailors and oor sodjers, we ken they're a' bauld, But if they hadna claithes, faith, they couldna fecht for cauld; The high, the low, the rich, the puir, a' body young and auld, They winna want the wark o' the weavers. There's folk that's independent o' other tradesmen's wark, The women need nae barbers and the dyker needs nae clerk; But nane o' them can dae withoot a coat or a sark, Na! They canna want the wark o' the weavers. The weaving is a trade that never can fail, As lang's we need ae cloot to keep anither hale; SO let us aye be merry ower a bicker o' guid ale, And drink tae the wark o' the weavers. Source: Singing Together, Autumn 1974, BBC Publications Notes: This song is perhaps as well known now for the Billy Connelly parody 'If it wasna for your Wellies." | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 07 Jan 05 - 09:52 am | |
I should have pointed out that the song came from The Singing Island, Mills Music Ltd. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 08 Jan 05 - 04:31 am | |
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, London, 1960. Note (p 37): "Once popular in Forfarshire and other centres of the handloom weaving industry, this song is now widely known throughout Scotland. Its author was a Forfarshire weaver, David Shaw, who published two small collections of poems. Shaw and his two daughters attended Chartist meetings in the 1840s, where they were favourite singers in the interludes between orations." Note, p 110: "From the singing of the Reverend David Johnson of Cupar, Fifeshire." | ||