Annotation:Soldier Laddie (1)
X:1 T:My Soger Laddie M:6/8 L:1/8 N:”For the German Flute” B:Thomson - Orpheus Caledonius, vol. 2 (1733, No. 27, p. 3) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G d|BAG GDE|A>BA ABd|e/f/gG GDE|G>AG B2G| cd/c/B/A/ Bc/B/A/G/|A>BA ABd|e/f/gG GDE|G>AG Gg|| d|e/f/gd gdB|a>ba Ta2g|e/f/gd gdB|g>af geB| c>de deg|gaA ABd|e/f/gG GDE|G>AG Gg||
SOLDIER LADDIE [1]. AKA - "Soldier Laddy," "Sodger Lad." AKA and see "Sailor Lad(die)." Scottish, English; Air and Jig (6/8 time). F Major (Thomson): G Major (most versions). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Thomson): AABB. The melody appears in the [James] Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768), but John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. He was perhaps referring to Scottish collections, as it was printed in England by London publishers John Walsh (The Compleat Country Dancing-Master, 1731, and in several subsequent publications), William Thomson (Orpheus Caledonius vol. 2, 1733), and John Johnson (Wright's Compleat Collection, 1740) decades prior to Bremner. Thomson, who was a Scottish singer but who spent most of his adult career in London, published the tune as a song air with words beginning:
My Soger Laddie is over the sea,
And he will bring gold and money to me;
And when he comes hame, He'll make me a Lady,
My blessing gang with My Soger Laddie.
My doughty Laddie is handsome and brave,
And can as a soger and lover behave;
True to his country, to love he is steady,
There's few to compare with my Soger Laddie.
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