Guddling In The Carrying Stream.
Collections of ‘traditional’ songs and stories started as long ago as the 18th century. Early collectors who worked hard to write down songs and stories were motivated by the belief that they were witnessing the last days of cherished oral traditions in their local area.
It is true that the sort of blessings and incantations recorded by Alexander Carmichael are rarely heard today. Carmichael referred to the insights provided by his collections as “Far away thinking come down on the long stream of time.”
In the course of the twentieth century, not least through the work of Hamish Henderson, many people began to realise that traditional songs and stories are reworked, reformed and reinvented in each generation and in each community across time and space – centuries and geographies.
In the Gaidhealtachd it is still common practise to use old tunes and write new words to celebrate a special occasion or a special person, make satirical comments about local events or make political points about current affairs. This approach was as much appreciated in Robb Don’s day as it is today.
This flow of songs, stories and cultural traditions across the generations is often referred to as ‘the carrying stream’. The flow of culture and passion down the ages. Some interests are everlasting – love, land, death and parting. Others are very much of the moment – a particular birthday, the mysterious man who left a bicycle in Melness and a wad of five pound notes in an adjacent rabbit hole, differing attitudes to wind power and forestry.
Often we overlook the everyday things. Many children today don’t know what a skylight is or where to find the lobby. As we all grow older we can get lonely for the company of folk who can share the same memories of fashions gone by and words which were once current. Everyone plays a part in that carrying stream – not just singers, storytellers and musicians – but everyone who touches our lives.
Peoples brought up in an oral tradition must make an extra effort in today’s changing world to ensure that the unique insights afforded by their cultures and communities are recognised, respected and accorded an equal status alongside a more forceful or powerful global ‘majority’.
The work of the Mackay Country staff and volunteers follows on from these fine traditions established by past collectors, though with just a year at our disposal, we have perhaps only guddled for a little while in that stream.
Here’s a Mackay Country example of a local song composed in the late 1980s, following ‘discussions between the NCC and local crofters. It is to the tune ‘The Massacre of Glencoe’.
Chorus:
Oh cruel are the folk
And it’s no joke
We should have taken a stand
Oh cruel are the folk
Who at one stroke
Designated our Land
Verse 1
They came from the city
Looking so sleek
In their Barbour jackets
Green wellies on feet
And they told us that our land
It was unique
And they made it an SSSI
Verse 2
They gave us a list of things not to do now
Like planting a tree
Or using a plough
Or taking your motorbike across the Flow
On their precious SSSI
Verse 3
Now from this list I could go on forever
Like feeding your sheep
Or burning their heather
And if they could
They’d control the weather
On their precious SSSI
Verse 4
Compensation’s a word
I don’t think they’ve heard
Unless you’re a Lord
Or even a Laird
But we are the crofters
Working so hard
Trying to live on their SSSI
