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Commentary on
BONNIE ANNIE AND ANDREW LAMMIE (interview) As befitted a ballad singer, Jeannie was also renowned as a storyteller. Her gifts in this regard are apparent as she takes pains to ensure that Lomax fully understands her song. As Allie Munro noted, "Jeannie's spellbinding gift for storytelling would have to be heard and seen to be believed." Jeannie Robertson: Come o'er! Alan Lomax: Jeannie, when you sang that song at the campfires in the old days, did people weep? Did you make people cry? Jeannie Robertson: Well, it was a song that was sung long afront of my time. Yes. Lots of people that's very sensitive natured. Some people they canna help for feeling a bit sad when they hear a sad song. But that's not all the song. Alan Lomax: Not all the song? Jeannie Robertson: That's about half. Alan Lomax: You left out parts in the middle? Jeanie Robertson: No. There's lots more in there. She dies there, and Andrew Lammie came home from Edinburgh town. And when her mother said to her, "O Annie dear, I hear your cowie lowin'," she was lying dying - and it was Andrew Lammie blowing his trumpet. And it was heard at the mill of Tiftie. And she was lying dying. So her mother heard the trumpet blowing. You see, he'd alway been away and was letting her know he was home. But he didn't know that she was back home. So her mother heard and she said, "O Annie dear, O Annie dear, I hear your cowie lowin." Well, that was his trumpet, and she said, "I wouldna gie that cowie low for all your kye in Fyvie!" Well, she died. Alan Lomax: Well, what went on then? Jeannie Robertson: Well she died, you see. Alan Lomax: Is that the part you left out? Jeannie Robertson: No, of course, there's a lot more to come about Lord Fyvie coming past, and he did see her lying dying. And he was also broken hearted, because over it he did love her, Lord Fyvie did. And he said, "The fairest flower was cut down by him that ever sprung in Fyvie." Because he wanted her, but she didn't want him -- that she was killed. And of course, his own trumpeter, Andrew Lammie, was his rival for her. Alan Lomax: And their ghosts are still seen, aren't they? Jeannie Robertson: Well, they say so — at the place where they'd always been away a-meeting, "Up and down in Tifty's Glen, where the burn runs clear and bonnie, L often went to meet my love, my ain true Andrew Lammie." Well, long, long ago I've heard old people saying that there was something there that wasn't right, and they always said it was. Alan Lomax: It seems like the worst thing people can do is to cross true lovers. Jeannie Robertson: Yes it is. It's a sin. If people loves each other so much, it's a terrible sin! Because ye may finally in the long run separate them, but ye only will break |