Bluegrass Messengers

Love is Bonnie- Willie Mathieson (Aber) 1952 Henderson

[From School of Scottish Studies; SA1952.04.B5 (B10). Their notes follow. Listen: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/play/2963;jsessionid=1C4C81736E7156DDE9806817C824057D

R. Matteson 2017]

She has been abandoned by her sweetheart since she fell pregnant by him, and now wishes that she were dead. She tells young women: "You're like dew on a summer's morning / That will never appear again," and warns them against "false young men".

Love is Bonnie - sung by Willie Mathieson of Aberdeen shire in January 1952. Recorded by Hamish Henderson; incomplete transcription (last stanza) R. Matteson 2017.

I left my father I left my mother,
I left my brother and sisters too,
I left my home and kind relations
For the sake to go with you.

 CHORUS: Love is bonnie, bonnie, bonnie
A little whilie when it is new
As it grows older it aye grows colder
Fades away like the morning dew.

I wish my parents never whistled,
I wish my parents never sung;
I wish the cradle had never rocked me,
I wish I'd died when I was young.

CHORUS

I wish, I wish, but in vain,
I wish I was a maid again,
A maid again I never can be
Till the orange grows on the apple tree.

CHORUS

O lassies, lassies, heed my warning,
Never gae with  false young men
They're like the dew on a summer morning
That will never appear again.

CHORUS

If I think . . . . .me
If I think to change my mind
And never mind what young men tell ye,
For they be hopin' I'll change my mind.

CHORUS