Constantly playing it. The tune is implanted on my brain like at tattoo, for good or bad. (Check out Ivan Drever's original)
I don't even think the version I got down on video was close to the place I wanted to take the tune.
(You can play something as perfect as heck but then when that camera goes on sure as hack it comes out different; sometimes better, sometimes worse! Any one else feel this? Is it stage fright? Answers on a postcard to the usual address!)
But leave it (Leaving Stoer) I must, and learn new tunes. In the pipeline is a bothy ballad from Turrif (barnyards of dalgetty) among other trad tunes, and a slow air Betty Corrigal's Lament by Murray Grainger (correct this if it is wrong, he is the dude that plays all the musicroom online accordions by the way). In anyway enough about the accordion dude and back to Betty Corrigal. Now I think if ANYBODY deserves a lament I think Betty Corrigal's ghost deserves one...
Now read on...
Betty lived on the island of Hoy in 1770's. When she was 27 she became pregnant to her sailor boyfriend. The young man however abandoned her and fled without her away across the foam to god know's where land. Back in those days medals and houses were not handed out to single mothers. Her own people castigated her for the shame she had brought upon the community, and I guess the pressure was unbearable for the outcast Betty.
One day she attempted to kill herself by walking into the sea. But a local fisherman came to her rescue. The next day she was found hanging from a tree. And the Church refused to bury her, as did the Lairds of the land. And so Betty was buried on unconsecrated land, at peace.
If only her troubles ended with earthly existence...
In 1933 her coffin was discovered by two turf diggers who consulted the local postmaster. Her body had been preserved by the boggy conditions. The Kirkwall police where then called. The body was examined and then laid to rest in the same spot she was originally buried.
But her misery still wasn't over. In 1941 the British Army was stationed on Hoy. Some young recruits found the coffin, and brought poor Betty back to their Quarters as a morbid joke. In the fresh air she rapidly deteriorated. When officers found out about these activities she was duly returned to her place of burial, this time hopefully for good.
A fibreglass cross was erected to mark her resting point in 1976.
lovely tune though...
regards
bob
PS pop songs are off the menu for atleast a month as I left all my sheet music for such songs in Scotland before leaving for work
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