Scottish question time!

saltwater_gypsy

saltwater_gypsy

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Here is a fine song from the Para Handy series. BUT what is the name of the tune that it is sung to??????

THE CRINAN CANAL

Chorus: The Crinan canal for me
I don't like the wild raging sea
The big foaming breakers
Would give me the quakers
The Crinan canal for me
……………………………
Oh the Crinan canal for me
I don't like the wild raging sea
T’would be too terrific to cross the Pacific
or to sail to Japan or Fiji.
A life on the Spanish main
I think it would drive me insane
The big foaming breakers would give me the shakers
The Crinan canal for me
Chorus ……………………………
Its the Crinan canal for me,
From sea terrors there you are free,
There’s no shark or whale, that would make you turn tail
or shiver and shake at the knee,
I wadna like leaving my bones,
In a locker beside Davy Jones
From Ardrishaig to Crinan's the best trip ah’ve bin in
The Crinan canal for me
Chorus ……………………………..
Aye the Crinan canal for me
It's neither too big nor too wee
It's lovely and calm when your frying your ham,
or making a nice cup of tea.
You can go for a stroll on it's banks
Tae loosen your muscle-bound shanks
You can darn your socks while your still in it's locks
The Crinan canal for me
Chorus …………………………….
 
A great wee song, and I can hum the tune, but for the life of me, I can't put a name to it. John Grieve used to sing it.
 
I think the song post dates Hugh Foulis, so its relationship to the Para Handy series of stories is perhaps tenuous.
May I commend the 1992 Birlinn edition (paperback) reprinted in 2002 and still available. which includes 19 'new' stories trawled from the Glasgow Evening News archive. Among them is 'Para among the yachts' based on an article by Munro for the Clyde Cruising Club Journal in 1910, one year after the Clubs foundation.
 
The connection to the Para handy tales, is that it was sung on at least one of the TV series of Para handy. Or, on second thoughts, is it from even older, "The Maggie"?
 
NormanS said:
The connection to the Para handy tales, is that it was sung on at least one of the TV series of Para handy. Or, on second thoughts, is it from even older, "The Maggie"?
Click to expand...

"Highland Voyage" was a one-off. I don't believe the songs were ever sung on any of the Vital Spark TV series. IIRC, the video was used as a taster prior to the launch of the second series, but it didn't have anything to do with Neil Munro's tales other than they were filmed on VIC boats:

http://www.redbubble.com/mybubble/art/1617715-1-vic-32-at-fladda/edit

http://www.redbubble.com/mybubble/art/1447746-2-steam-puffers-at-crinan/edit


No luck with the tune.


Alisdair
 
NormanS said:
The connection to the Para handy tales, is that it was sung on at least one of the TV series of Para handy. Or, on second thoughts, is it from even older, "The Maggie"?
Click to expand...

It was, as I recall, a musical special from the Para Handy series - the one with Roddy McMillan as Para and not the later horror with Gregor Fisher proving, once again, that he shouldn't try to act thirty years older than his age. Grrr. But I digress.

Oh what the heck, I'll digress some more. Para Handy has been atrociously served by TV over the years. In every case the gentle humour has been ripped out and replaced by course hamming. In the Roddy McMillan series it was Alex McAvoy gurning away as Sunny Jim who wrecked it, although the Para/Dougie/McPail combination was (chust) sublime. And why can't they use Neil Munro's stories instead of inventing mawkish ****?

And ... relax.

The only good thing about the Gregor Fisher series was that I blagged my way into a trip round the Vital Spark's engine room when she was at Crinan. Jolly nice, though of course she's only a VIC victualling ship and not a real puffer. I saw the McMillan Vital Spark, many years ago, rotting sadly into the sea at Troon where she had been abandoned.

My favourite stories? The one about watching yachts race off the Cloch and, above all, the one about the quarryman's widow going to the poor house at Lochgilphead. It still brings a tear to my eye.
 
agurney said:
the video was used as a taster prior to the launch of the second series..
Click to expand...

.. to clarify, the BBC presented Highland Voyage (skipper Duncan MacRae), along with other archive footage of puffers, and bits of the first Para Handy series (skipper Roddy McMillan), to whet the appetite for the second series (with Gregor Fisher as the new skipper).
 
there was actualy an album of these songs released which I used to have on vinyl but is now long lost. I do however have a BBC dvd with 5 of the Roddy Macmillan episodes and including Highland Voyage in which the songs are performed.
The type of humour is a rarity nowadays and quite absent from the reportoire of current comedians.
 
Ubergeekian said:
My favourite stories? The one about watching yachts race off the Cloch and, above all, the one about the quarryman's widow going to the poor house at Lochgilphead. It still brings a tear to my eye.
Click to expand...

Drove past Crarae Pier on Friday, where the quarryman's widow embarked, a sad remnant of its former glory, though still being used by the fish farm there. Shame that all the old stone piers at places like Crarae, Port Anne etc. have been allowed to fall down, it would not have cost a lot to have maintained them as they were solidly built and at one time every village had one. The money spent so far on reintroducing beavers would have restored most of them.
Don't bother with Dvds. buy the book, read a story every night at bedtime, you will go to sleep chuckling.

By the way the Canal re opened this morning and the first yacht of 2010 is on its way through, no snow yet but plenty forecast for tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
Quandary said:
Don't bother with Dvds. buy the book, read a story every night at bedtime, you will go to sleep chuckling.
Click to expand...

Jumblie will be getting her copy of the Para Handy tales this week.

The quote which has been most relevant to me in my sailing career is "Take oot the chart, Dougie, and score oot Tobermory. That's anither place in the western highlands we daurna enter." I know how he felt - though I'm still OK at Tobermory.
 
Quandary said:
Drove past Crarae Pier on Friday, where the quarryman's widow embarked, a sad remnant of its former glory, though still being used by the fish farm there. Shame that all the old stone piers at places like Crarae, Port Anne etc. have been allowed to fall down, it would not have cost a lot to have maintained them as they were solidly built and at one time every village had one. The money spent so far on reintroducing beavers would have restored most of them.
Don't bother with Dvds. buy the book, read a story every night at bedtime, you will go to sleep chuckling.

By the way the Canal re opened this morning and the first yacht of 2010 is on its way through, no snow yet but plenty forecast for tomorrow.
Click to expand...

I think ALL coastal communities should have a decent landing point of some kind, be it stone or wood or small pontoon where appropriate. They would get visitors ashore and it could breath life back into many small places. I just read that £200M may be diverted from the road budget in Scotland (Pot-hole central - after the winter) to persuade people to use bicycles. That would probably restore all the old piers in one fell swoop!
Big snow showers are running through out here now- F5 Northerly - Britannia Field North Sea ;)
Can't say I mind much... at least there is no fog.. going ashore today :D
 
pagoda said:
I think ALL coastal communities should have a decent landing point of some kind, be it stone or wood or small pontoon where appropriate. They would get visitors ashore and it could breath life back into many small places.
Click to expand...

My father was purser on the Countess of Breadalbane, the Marchioness of Lorne and the Talisman, and driving or sailing round the Clyde with him he can point out the remains of many of the steamers' stopping places. The cheapest ticket he ever sold, by the way, was a child single from Auchenlochan to Kames - a farthing!
 
saltwater_gypsy said:
Nae luck then.. i think ah' gang and ask Claymore to give us a rendition in his own unique way!
Click to expand...

That's different. Is it the name of the tune that you are looking for, or do you just want the music so you can play it yourself? If the latter, I could rattle off a bit of staff notation.

Alisdair
 
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