Annotation:Stay a Wee Bit Bonny Lad

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X:1 T:Stay a Wee Bit, Bonnie Lad M:C L:1/8 S:Bruce & Stokoe – Northumbrian Minstelsy Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D DFAF dF E2|DFAF BABd|GeFd eFEF|DFAd BABd:| adab afdf|adab abaf|adab afdf|dABA dABd| adab afdf|adab abaf|gbaf edef|dABA dABd||



STAY A WEE BIT, BONNIE LAD. AKA and see "Bonny Lass wi' the Tocher," "Mr. Foote's Favourite," "Stay and take your breeches wi' ye (2)," "Welcome to Your Feet Again." English, Reel (whole time). England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune is set in both instrumental and song versions. One double-entendre verse (where the fiddle represents the vagina[1]) goes:

Well I loo my bonny lad,
we'el the playing o' the fiddle;
Weel his playing neet or day,
Best when playing about the middle.

Northumbrian musician William Vickers had a nearly identical version of the tune in his 1770 music manuscript under the title "Stay and take your breeches wi' ye (2)."


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; p. 149. The Northumbrian Pipers Pocket-Green Book (1993).

Recorded sources : - Trailer LER 2030, High Level Ranters - "High Level" (1971). Horseplay - "Roughshod."




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  1. Vic Gammon (Ed.), Chapt. 2 "Such a Merry Tune: Music, Musical Instruments and Dance as Sexual Symbols," Desire, Drink and Death in English Folk and Vernacular Song 1600-1900, 2007.