This week I've heard the song 'The Wild Geese' sung twice here in Montrose – once sung by Gary Anderson (at the Pushing Out the Boat event on Sunday – more on that another time perhaps... it was a great night out) and then last night by local singers Phil Smith and Marjorie Hughes at the folk club. The words to the song were written by Angus writer and poet Violet Jacob (1863-1946) and the tune by Jim Reid (1934-2009). Many of the people at our folk club knew and liked Jim Reid (there's an obituary for him here) and I did hear him sing and play at the club and at other local events in recent years. At one of these events I bought his CD 'Yont the Tay' and it really is very lovely (and still available). Here's Jim Reid (recorded in 1997, so it says) singing two sings tied in a mini-medley - first 'The Greylag Geese' and then 'The Wild Geese'. I haven't heard the geese overhead yet this season but it can only be a matter of days now... we get a lot of geese round these parts!
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9 comments:
The song is so very evocative for me of Autumn Rachel - we get many geese flying over here - any day now.
Hello. Have put up the posters and read your poems to my family and we all LOVE them.
Yes, Weaver...we're waiting.
Thanks for calling in Heather...and for the poster work!
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Altogether lovely, Rachel...
Sad song, to me, I liked it.Love to see geese flying but not so keen on what it signifies.Last year walking in the dark I heard them overhead but could barely see them.Was magical.
It is a homesick song (for Angus - the place), as far as I understand it, so sad would be right in some ways.
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Made me want to cry but in a nice way; good sad.
Oh, and I was going to add, I haven't seen a goose the entire three years I'vfe been in NZ - but there are ducks which swim in the sea - a very funny/odd sight!
'The Wild Geese' is popular in Scotland as the poem on its own too. It often comes high in lists of favourite Scottish poems. The poem is here.
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