Volume I, song 077, page 78 - 'Green grows the Rashes' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'There's nought but care on ev'ry han', In ev'ry hour that passes, O: What signifies the life o' man, An 'twere not for the lasses, O' Chorus: 'Green grow the rashes, O; Green grow the rashes, O; The sweetest hours that e'er I spend, Are spent amang the lasses, O'. 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. Robert Burns wrote this set of lyrics which have over time become one of Burns's most famous folksong. The lyrics may have been influenced by earlier songs like 'Cow thou me the Rashes green' (1549) and the melody by two different tunes, one a Strathspey reel, called by the same title. These songs, however, do all differ from one another.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503272

Title

Volume I, song 077, page 78 - 'Green grows the Rashes' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 130 x 211 mm