Bonnie Banks o Fordie- Gaughan; Lochaber c.1930s
Biogrpahy: Dick Gaughan is a Scot, from Leith on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. Leith, once a separate port, has been part of Edinburgh since the 1920s but has retained a distinct identity.
Born Richard Peter, the eldest of three children, in 1948. By a sheer accident of timing, this event took place in Rottonrow Maternity Hospital in Glasgow while his father was temporarily working as an engine driver at Colville's Steelworks and so Gaughan spent the first year and a half of his life in Rutherglen, a period of which he swears he has no recollection at all, not even of being knocked down by a bus. This must have had a profound effect, however, because immediately after this he went to Leith to his paternal Irish grandparents with whom he lived until his own parents returned to Leith some months later and he has never been back to Rutherglen since!
His mother, Frances MacDonald, was a Highland Scot, originally from Bohenie in Lochaber, whose first language was Gaelic. She was a singer in both Gaelic and English and won a silver medal at one of the Gaelic Mods as a child in the 30s while at school in Arisaig.
His father, Dick, was born in Leith of an Irish father, also called Dick (Gaughan's grandfather) an Irish speaker and fiddle player, from Doohoma in Iorrais, Co Mayo. Gaughan's grandmother, Bridget Madden, born in Glasgow of Irish parents from Killala, played button accordion and was also a singer, in English only.
Gaughan was brought up immersed in the musical traditions and culture of the Gaels, both Scots and Irish, which naturally, therefore, provide the foundation for everything he does.
Bonnie Banks o Fordie- as sung by Dick Gaughan: "I learned this song from my mother who had learned it as a skipping rope game as a child in Lochaber."
There were three sisters lived in a bouer
An they aa went out for tae pu a flouer
They aa went out for tae pu a flouer
Doun by the bonnie banks o Fordie-o
An they hadnae pu'd a flouer but ane
Whan up thair steppt a banisht man
Whan up thair steppt a banisht man
Doun by the bonnie banks o Fordie-o
An he's taen the first ane by the haun
An he's turnt her roun an he's made her staun
etc.
Oh it's will ye be a robber's wife
Or will ye dee by my penknife
Oh it's A'll no be a robber's wife
But A will dee by your penknife
So it's he's taen out his wee penknife
An thair he's twined her o her life
An he's taen the saicant ane by the haun
An he's turnt her roun an he's made her staun
Oh it's will ye be a robber's wife
Or will ye dee by my penknife
Oh it's A'll no be a robber's wife
A'd raither dee by your penknife
So it's he's taen out his wee penknife
An thair he's twined her o her life
An he's taen the third ane by the haun
An he's turnt her roun an he's made her staun
Oh it's will ye be a robber's wife
Or will ye dee by my penknife
Oh it's A'll no be a robber's wife
Nor will A dee by your penknife
For A hae brither in yon tree
Gin ye kill me then he'll kill ye
Come tell tae me yer brither's name
My brither's name it is Babylon
Oh sister hae I dune this ill tae ye
Hae A dune this dreadfu ill tae ye
An it's he's taen out his wee penknife
An it's thair he's taen his ain life