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Ye Jacobites By Name

Traditional, performed by Wild Mountain Thyme on Stormin' The Castle

Traditional

Notes:  (taken from Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland)  The air of this song has always been popular in Scotland and is sung to many different subjects but (according to Hagg in the 'Jacobit Relics') "none of them are Jacobite save this."

Notes from Cantara at www.chivalry.com

Bill Watkins, author of Scotland is Not for the Squeamish, sent us this bit of background about the song:  "This song, from the Jacobite (civil) wars in Scotland is very ANTI-Jacobite in its original form. In the original version, the William they laud is the 'Butcher Cumberland.' Robert Burns, who was sympathetic to the Jacobite cause, rewrote the song and toned it down substantially, making it more of a general anti-war song than a political statement at the time. The line 'Adore the rising sun' was taken by many musicians of my generation to be Anarchist symbolism."

Jacobites were Scots who were loyal to James II. The Latin translation of James is Jacobus. 

Robert Burns Version
This version, most commonly performed today, was re-written by Robert Burns circa 1791.

Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear!
Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear,
Ye Jacobites by name,
Your faults I will proclaim,
Your doctrines I maun blame - you shall hear, you shall hear!
Your doctrines I maun blame - you shall hear!

What is right, and what is wrong, by the law, by the law?
What is right, and what is wrong, by the law?
What is right, and what is wrong?
A short sword and a long,
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw, for to draw!
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw!

Chorus...

What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar?
What makes heroic strife famed afar?
What makes heroic strife?
To whet th' assassin's knife,
Or hunt a Parent's life, wi bluidy war, wi bluidy war!
Or hunt a Parent's life, wi bluidy war!

Chorus...

Then let your schemes alone, in the State, in the State!
Then let your schemes alone, in the State!
Then let your schemes alone,
Adore the rising sun,
And leave a man alone, to his fate, to his fate!
And leave a man alone, to his fate!

Chorus...

Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear!
Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear...

Stormin' The Castl e Tape

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