Piper MacFarlane

AKA Bonnie Wee Lassie frae Gouroch, The
First Published 1906
Writer/composer Harry Lauder and Gerald Grafton Roud RN5212

Music Hall Performers Harry Lauder
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Stewart, Sheila; Scotland : Perthshire; 1954
Stewart, Belle; Scotland : Perthshire; 1976

From Francis & Day's 2nd Album of Harry Lauder's popular songs

O! A'm Piper MacFarlane and A’m on the beer
But still A’m in love wi’ a  bonnie  wee dear
Ye’d like her yersel’ if ye only could see her
Her faither’s a grocer in Gourock
The first time I met her I’ll never forget
The rain it was raining the weather was wet
I kiss'd her and told her that she was a pet
This bonnie wee lassie frae Gourock

O! she’s a bonnie wee beautiful thing;
I’ve popp’d her the question and bought her the ring
A’m goin’ tae get married sometime in the Spring
But I dinna like to askin’ her faither

O! I took her tae London I did by-the-by
Tae spend a few days wi’ my auld freen’ Mackie
Mac “Who’s the lady?” “D’ye no ken?” said I
“That’s the bonnie wee lassie fra Gourock”
Mac started tae tickle her under the chin
When who but his wife, Missis Mac, should come in
She shifted his whuskers and half o’ his chin
Thro' this bonnie wee lassie fra Gourock

O! I borrow’d twa pounds frae my auld freen Mackie
And I took my wee sweetheart to dine at the Cri
When a masher he started a winkin’ his eye
At my bonnie wee lassie frae Gourock
Her temper it rose - she fair played the deuce!
She walloped his neck wi’ the leg o’ a goose
She hunted the masher all over the hoose
Twas a glo-rious vict’ry for Gourock

O! I bought my wee lassie a nice bit of lace
And a hat and some powder tae puff on her face
We caused a sensation all over the place
Me and my lassie frae Gourock
I treated her handsomely just like a swell
Took her roon’ tae the back o’ a first class hotel
Put her nose tae  the window to smell the nice smell
She’d ne’er smelt a smell like it in Gourock

A Harry Lauder song which was later sung by traditional singers in the Stewart family.

Steve Byrne points out that finding snatches of Lauder songs in the Scots Traveller repertoire is not unusual occurrence… Belle Stewart’s repertoire contained the Harry Lauder piece “Piper MacFarlane” long misidentified as “The bonnie wee lass frae Gourock“.

I am compiling a list of Music Hall songs and song fragments that have ended up in the Scots Traveller repertoire here .

You can hear Jeannie Robertson sing it at Tobar an Dualchais / Kist o Riches

Sources: