Annotation:Sow's Tail to Geordie
X: 1 T:Sow's Tail to Geordie,aka. JJo2.134 Z:vmp.Steve Mansfield 2014 www.village-music-project.org.uk B:J.Johnson Choice Collection Vol 2 after c1750 N:A satirical song about King George I M:C| L:1/4 Q:1/2=120 F:http://www.cpartington.plus.com/Links/Johnson/JohnsonVol2(Feb15).abc K:D A>B AF | EF GE | DA AB | c>d ec | ec dF |EF GE | DA AG | F2 D2 || a>b af |efge | d/4e/4f/4g/4 a2 g | gd af | ga/g/ fg/f/ |ef ge | d/4e/4f/4g/4 a2 g | f2 d2 || D/D/D AF |E/E/E GE | D/C/D AB | d/d/d fd | ec dF |E>F FD | DA AG | F2 D2 |]
SOW'S TAIL (TO GEORDIE). AKA and see “Glenoral/Glenora Falls Strathspey,” "Soo's Lament for Tatties." Scottish (originally), Canadian, English; Strathspey and Scottish Measure. England, Northumberland. Canada; Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Dunlay and Reich): AA’BB (Dunlay & Greenberg): AA’BB’ (Perlman): AABBCC (Alburger): AABBCCDD (Aird): AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLL (Gow, Johnson). “The Sow’s Tail” was first printed in McGlashan’s Collection of Scots Measures, Hornpipes, etc., 1781, as a Scottish Measure. The tune features a second part in which the bow is briefly played behind the bridge, producing a sound not unlike the squeal of a pig. There was a popular bawdy song to the tune in 18th century Scotland, which can be found printed in Hogg’s Jacobite Relics (1819, vol. 1, p. 91). "’Sow’s Tail’ is a satirical song of ample invective against George I and his mistress Madame Kilmansegge, whom he raised to be Countess of Darlington. She was so large a personage that the English called her 'the elephant;' the Scots' version, the sow, was rather more earthy. Certainly the Jacobite overtones of the original words would have pleased Burns's own style of patriotism. One of the mildest (of the bawdy) verses goes:
It's Geordie, he came up the town,
Wi' a bunch o turnips on his crown;
'Aha!' qho she, 'I'll pull them down,
And turn my tail to Geordie.'
Chorus: The sow's tail is till him yet, etc.
The tune is an attractive and humorous one, set in Niel Gow’s Strathspey Reels (1784) as 'The Sow's Tail' with symphony and variations (i.e. set but not composed) by the enthusiastic amateur Mr. Nisbet from Dirleton, east of Edinburgh" (Alburger, 1983). Nisbet was an East Lothian laird and amateur musician, who was a nearly life long member of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Another amateur musicain laird, the Earl of Kelly, wrote a minuet to his daughter. Alburger (1983) notes Nisbet's symphony, the first four bars (which Johnson has labled "intro"), and the last four bars feature in a setting of the tune called "The Soo's Lament for (Raw) Tatties," played by modern Shetland fiddlers; Johnson (1984) similarly observes the tune is known to modern Scottish fiddlers also in the same form, "oddly omitting the basic tune altogether" (p. 243). “Sow’s Tail” features bowing on the wrong side of the bridge, the resulting sound in imitation of a pig squealing. The title (as "The Sow's Tail Till Him Yet, the Sow's Tail to Geordie") appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. Johnson's version, an air and variations, was set by William Nisbet of Dirleton (c. 1710=1783).
