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As I Gaed In By Fisherraw
(Trad)

Song Lyric as sung by Dick Gaughan

As A gaed in by Fisherraw,
Musselburgh wis near me
A tuik aff ma musselpyock
An courtit wi ma dearie

Up stairs, doun stairs,
Timmer stairs fears me
A thocht it lang tae lie ma lane
Whan A'm sae near ma dearie

Had her apron bidden doun
The kirk wad ne'er hae kent it
But sin the talk's about the toun
Ma dear A cannae mend it

Bit ye maun tae the cutty stool
An A maun tae the pillar
That's the wey the puir folks dae
Because thae hae nae siller

Song Notes

Rather a scathing comment on Calvinism.

Fisherraw was a tiny fishing village on the south side of the Forth just east of Edinburgh. It is now more or less part of Musselburgh, a small town, known as "The Honest Toun", which retains a fierce independence from Edinburgh.
As an old rhyme says,

"Musselburgh was a burgh when Edinburgh was nane
"An Musselburgh'll be a burgh when Edinburgh is gane
"

Help with language and pronunciation in the General Guide to Scots

Recorded by Dick Gaughan

Five Hand Reel (1976)
as part of the medley "Both Sides of the Forth"

Also recorded by

 

Music is available for this song in these formats:

mp3
Sample

Available here

Notation
& Chords

Available here

MIDI
File

Available here

ABC
Notation

Not yet

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Song Archive

Lyrics and music for songs sung by Dick Gaughan

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As I Gaed In By Fisherraw