Alan Reid Song Lyrics
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This is a project borne out of a conversation in the Lake District towards the end of summer 2000. A bottle of wine later, and the world looking rosier, the Alan Reid/Rob van Sante partnership was set in motion. This is the result.
We begin with 54 Winters, a tale of one who’s highlight in life is having been in a war and who spends the rest of his life taking about it in the pub. Ballantrae was prompted by the memory of reading many years ago R.L. Stevenson’s ‘The Master Of Ballantrae’, an analysis of the Scottish psyche by a great storyteller. Campbell’s Sisters evokes a ceilidh somewhere in rural Scotland where everyone is determined to have a good time while the Bold Grenadier is a re-working of a fine old English folk song. Atlantic Bridge is a waltz that has a distinctly American resonance, hence the title.
The 1600’s were a period of much bloodshed and religious strife in Scotland and Covenanter imagines a banned outdoor meeting being set upon by dragoons and a worshipper trying to flee the carnage. In stark contrast A Jug Of Charlie’s Wine is based on a whimsical poem ‘A jug of Barney’s wine’ by Belfast man John Campbell.
A Cage Load Of Men, also a poem by the Fife miner turned poet/playwright Joe Corrie, was set to music by Rob. Rob also composed Elaine’s Farewell to Skye for his wife after her all too brief visit to the island. Civil strife may be history in Scotland but it still persists in parts of Ulster and Across The Water expresses the hope that there’s been a sea change in the fortunes of that beautiful part of the world. Fair One is a song for any parent with kids who have trouble getting to sleep.
The tunes which follow are Stovies/Trip To Raasay/ The Cailleach With The Crash Helmet. Stovies are a tasty Scottish dish which include tatties and onions and leftovers from the night before ... delicious, honest! TripTo Raasay commemorates a walk in that fair isle which ended up as a 4 hour endurance trek in which a 10 year old asked her mother if they were going to die there. The Cailleach is a splendid elderly Breton lady who set off towards the holiday gite by taking off her apron, strapping on a helmet, and running down a track to kick start her motor bike.
We close with The Last Lighthouse Keeper, a salute to an intrepid band of men who are no more, the last manned station in Fair Isle having been closed in the summer of 2000, just before Rob and I began talking about this project. Nothing remains the same.
Alan Reid joined Battlefield Band in 1969, just at a time when they were morphing from a ‘covers band’, into a ‘folk group’. They quickly became pre-eminent in the emerging Scottish Traditional music scene, and have even been declared, by one critic, as a ‘national treasure’. Since then, Alan has travelled the world with the Band, and has been involved in over 30 outstanding and critically acclaimed albums.
Over these years, while others came, honed their talentsand moved on to develop solo careers, Alan remained in the keyboard engine room, becoming what I see as the ‘father and son’ of Battlefield Band. So you can imagine that it was a bit of a shock to the band when in 2010, the ever-present Alan decided that it was time to bow out, in order to develop his writing and to follow other musical paths.
Over the years, Alan has become a fine songwriter – songs covering a great range of subjects and emotions. It has been a pleasure to see where his muse has led him – from broad sweeping historical ballads to perceptive and intense character studies and deceptively simple and engaging love songs.
Alan’s songs have been an important part of the Band’s repertoire, but now that he has stepped down, it gives us the opportunity to highlight some of his favourites in their own right – fine pieces of writing, and a record of a distinguished and continuing career in Scottish music – but most of all – just great songs. ROBIN MORTON 2011
01: The Road of Tears – Alan Reid*
02: The Pleasure Will Be Mine – Alan Reid*
03: The Devil’s Courtship – Words: Trad & Music Alan Reid*/An Dro – Trad. Arr. Battlefield Band*
04: The Green And The Blue – Alan Reid*
05: The Dear Green Place – Alan Reid*
06: The Riccarton Tollman’s Daughter – Alan Reid*
07: The Green Plaid – Trad. Arr. Battlefield Band*
08: Love No More – Alan Reid*
09: Jenny O’ The Braes – Alan Reid*
10: The Gallant Grahams – Trad. Arr. Alan Reid and Brian McNeil*
11: Allan McLean – Words: Trad & Music Alan Reid*
12: The River – Words Alan Reid; Music Alan Reid & John McCusker*
13: I Am The Common Man – J Corrie & Alan Reid*
14: Three Brothers – Alan Reid*
15: Jock The Can – Alan Reid*
16: Whit Can A Lassie Dae? – Alan Reid*
17: The Arran Convict – Alan Reid*
18: Christ Has My Hart Ay – (Melody Alan Reid) Arr. Battlefield Band*
* Published Kinmor Music
An album of songs about Charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, by Alan Reid and Rob Van Sante
A founder member of Battlefield Band, Alan has been touring the world with this great Scottish group for over 30 years. This, his first solo album, has been made gradually when touring, recording & family commitments have allowed. On this album this quiet man, renowned for his fine songs and offbeat sense of humour, comes out from behind his keyboards.
Friends who appear on this album include: Eilidh MacKenzie, Christine Primrose, Gillian MacDonald, Wendy Weatherby, Mike Katz, Arthur Cormack, Eric Rigler, Duncan MacGillivray, Iain MacDonald, James MacKintosh, Brian Miller, Simon Thoumire, John McCusker and Finlay MacDonald.==
This CD aims to bring back some light to John Paul Jones, a forgotten, flawed yet brilliant individual and retells his extraordinary life story.