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Story behind the song
Robert Tannahill
1774 - 1810
Robert Tannahill
?1995-2005 Gazetteer for Scotland
Poet, flautist and song-writer. Born in Paisley, the son of a weaver, he received a good education for the time. At the age of 12, Tannahill became an apprentice to his father. He taught himself to play the flute and began to compose songs as he worked. Inspired by Robert Burns' work Tam o' Shanter, Tannahill walked to Alloway Kirk in 1794 and spent time visiting the localities connected with the poet.
An economic down-turn caused him to move to Bolton (England) in 1799, but he returned to Paisley in 1801 on hearing of the illness of his father. He set up one of the first Burns' Clubs in the town in 1805. Tannahill's first and only publication, Poems and Songs (1807), proved popular, selling out within weeks. His best known songs are perhaps "The Braes o' Balquhidder", "Braes o' Gleniffer", "O are ye sleepin, Maggie" and "Jessie the Flower o' Dunblane".
Tannahill enjoyed the theatre, attending regularly in Paisley and occasionally travelling to Glasgow. Gaining recognition throughout Scotland, he was visited by James Hogg (1770 - 1835), the 'Ettrick Shepherd', in 1810.
Prone to depression, when a second set of poems were rejected first by a Greenock publisher and then by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh, Tannahill drowned himself in the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal. He is remembered by a statue in his home town and the Paisley Tannahill Club still meet in the house in Queen Street where he was brought up
Lyrics
Oh, the summer-time has come
And the trees are sweetly bloomin',
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the purple heather;
Will ye go, lassie, go?
Refrain:
And we'll all go together,
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the purple heather;
Will ye go, lassie, go?
I will build my love a tower
By yon pure, crystal fountain,
And it's there I will bring
All the flowers of the mountain;
Will ye go, lassie, go?
Refrain:
If my true love will not come
I will surely find another
To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the purple heather;
Will ye go, lassie, go?
Refrain:
Oh, the autumn-time is comin'
And the leaves will soon be fallin',
And the blossoms o' the summer
Will soon wither on the mountain;
Will ye go, lassie, go?
