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'Ca' the Yowes'
This very lovely song, with its modal tune, first appeared in the Scots Musical Museum in 1790. The manuscript, containing the opening bars of the tune, is in the British Museum. In the interleaved Museum Burns noted: 'This beautiful song is in the true old Scotch taste, yet I do not know that ever either air or words were in print before.' The last two stanzas are Burns's according to Dick, while the first two were 'made out of the original first stanza'. Writing to Thomson in September 1794, Burns said: 'I am flattered at your adopting "Ca' the Yowes", as it was owing to me that ever it saw the light. About seven years ago, I was well acquainted with a worthy little fellow of a clergyman, a Mr Clunzie, who sang it charmingly; and at my request, Mr Clarke took it down from his singing. When I gave it to Johnston, I added some stanzas to the song, and mended others...' The author of the original stanzas was said to have been Tibbie Pagan, an eccentric old woman who sold whisky without a licence, and accompanied its dispensation to her customers with a fund of broad stories. However, a collection of her pieces was published in Glasgow in 1805, and 'Ca' the Yowes' was not of the number.
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