Annotation:Crowdie
X:1 T:Crowdie Ever Mair M:C L:1/8 R:Air B:Johnson - Scots Musical Museum (1803) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Bmin F d c/d/e AFGE|Fd c/d/e AF B2|Fd c/d/e AFGE|F>E DE F^A B2|| {FG}A2 (AF) {EF}G2 (GE)|FAFD F^A B2|=AFDE F/G/ A G>E|F>E DE F^AB2||
CROWDIE. AKA and see "Crowdie Ever Mair," "Three Times Crowdie in One Day," "Wayward Wife (The)," "Bide Ye Yet (2)," "O that I had ne'er been married." Scottish, Air (2/4 time). C Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The song (adapted by Robert Burns from an older song) was printed in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (1803) as "Crowdie Ever Mair." It begins:
O that I had ne'er been married,
I wad never had nae care,
Now I've gotten wife an' weans,
An' the cry "Crowdie" evermair.
Chorus:
Ance crowdie, twice crowdie,
Three times crowdie in a day;
Gin ye "crowdie" ony mair,
Ye'll crowdie a' my meal away.
Crowdie was a poor dish of oatmeal made with cold water, not boiled, in the strict sense, but in usage it referred to any oatmeal dish, the staple of the common people in Scotland in the 18th century. Anne G. Gilchrist, writing in her article "Ancient Orkney Melodies" (JEFDSS, vol. 3, No. 4, Dec. 1939) collected a one-verse version of the words as sung in Orkney (set to a unnamed dance tune):
I that I had ne'er been married,
I wad ne'er had nae care.
Now that I've gotten wife and bairns,
And they cry "crowdie" ever mair!
Ance crowdie, twice crowdie,
Three times crowdie in a day;
Gin ye crowdie ony mair,
Ye'll crowdie is a' my meal away!
The tune is also known as "Reel_du_secours_direct" Wikipedia:Robert_Cromek. Samuel Bayard says the first strain of his "Lost Indian (7) was derived from the opening of "Crowdie."
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