Muisicianer’s Lament

Gin I wis walkin doon ae road or anither,
files I wis duncin, lik Jagger nor Bowie, tae the soon o a drum.

Nooadays I’m mindin on times weel deid an beeriet,
mindin days fan I pit ma finger on the string an played
ma ain rock n roll, ma ain jazz in the howfs o Aiberdeen.

Forbye, I wis drivin on my lane up some back-road, foonerin,
ridin throu dub and flushins, awa tae some kailyerd fairmhoose
faurin we’d kirn soon oot o guitars an skirl oor blue-note blues
ower the cauld, drear parks an steen byres boss o kye.

Then, mair-like, I wis jist a loon pittin ither tunes abeen
tunes o aff-cast glory rummlin roon ma ain nor-east grun
pipin an threapin ower its bens an thir black-affrontet wids.

An wis I nae happin aathin in some ill-trickit dreamin? Mebbe aye,
if I’d shawed awa the ploo’t grun I grew in an if I’d sunnert masel fae
the loans o ma hame tae gang ayont ma mither an faither’s hoose,
far fae the doul sea’s hairst, a hard an bitter tyave, an cauller yet.

For, if I wis siccar I could spik fair, wid I nae tell ye
I wis jist daein as I wis telt, lettin the dominies o ma days
drum in thir lessons till ae day I let the wireless-station jocks
fill ma heid wi soons aff some ither road an harl me up its dreel
an then, fit wye wid I nae tak up thon electric muisic for my ain
an thump oot bass line efter bass line till the lums rattlet
and the foons o ilka hoose up Lang Stracht sabbet wi the dirl?

Och, I wis young, aye, an I wid ha thrown awa ivery tartan cloot
brakket in twa ivery fiddle for fear o stickin in the mire
o fit wis deid tae me then; syne I cam tae hear some black chiel
fiddlin like nane afore, syne I heard the pipes o Fraunce and Erin,
or the melodeons o Louisianne, an the mony sangs o wildert Scots
on the lips o fowk traikit mair than hauf across the warld.

I wis ‘at young I niver jaloused I wis missing a hale wecht
o fit the dominies were sweert tae tell aboot thon deid years
an whit wis deen by some fae here; an some o’t  wis unco glid
an some wis dire an a wheen o’t wis hid awa for fear we’d grow
swaalt heidit an crouse an nae mair myn oor place.

I wis schoolt in blateness an teacht at I wis ane o knotless kin
ower stupit tae be onythin but dytert; I ran fae sic a tale an follit
ma ain muisic, muisic fae the hale roon yird till it follit me back,
till it cam hame here wi mair in tow, an fan they pit bow tae string,
thoom tae bowran, finger on piana key, thrummt guitar,
blaw’t sax and touter - at wis fan, at last, I twigged.

I’d been but hauf a chiel, nae a richt body, for ower mony ithers
had telt hou fowk lik me went best ahin, stottin, comin lik the coos tail,
aye last ava, an the sangs we were like tae sing were orra, couthy roons
better lauch’t at; but fan I pit African drum tae Celtic hairp,
reggae tae reel, blues tae jig an pibroch, the muisic made
gaed abeen the reeftrees an its brattle birlt the warld.

© BH, 2018

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I was thinkin on Scots again. I wanted tae write aboot somethin less couthy. So alang came this. It’s aboot my ain rock-n-roll years and mebbe a filie later on…

Oh, an thon bass guitar is ma verra ain Baldwin. fae back in the day!