Volume IV, song 357, page 368 - 'Hey how Johnie Lad' -...
Volume IV, song 357, page 368 - 'Hey how Johnie Lad' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'Hey, how my Johnie lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been Gin your voice I had na kent, I cou'd na eithly trow my een. Sae weel's ye might hae touzled me, and sweetly prie'd my mou bedeen; Hey how, my Johnie lad, ye're no sae kind's ye sud hae been.' 'Trow' means 'to roll', 'een' means 'eyes', 'touzled' means 'ruffled', 'prie'd' means 'tasted', 'mou' means 'mouth' and 'bedeen' means 'forthwith'.
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
Glen (1900) says that, according to Stenhouse (1853), this light-hearted, rural song was acquired by Herd and included in his Collection of 1776. The song appears under a number of titles, including 'The Lassies of the Ferry' and 'Lad of Saltcots'. The song is listed in Stewart's Collection of the Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances (1762), and is also included in Walsh's 'Country Dances Selected'.
Volume IV, song 357, page 368 - 'Hey how Johnie Lad' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)