Rattlin' Roarin' Willie Robert Burns Song Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video of the Rattlin' Roarin' Willie song by Robert Burns set to a slide show of some old photographs of Scottish markets and fairs. Markets and fairs were an important part of Scottish life in Burns's day. Despite the excitement, the musician in the song refuses to part with his instrument. Burns probably composed the song after his summer tour of the Highlands in 1787

O Rattlin, roarin Willie,
O he held to the fair,
An' for to sell his fiddle
And buy some other ware;
But parting wi' his fiddle,
The saut tear blin't his e'e;
And Rattlin, roaring Willie,
Ye're welcome hame to me!

O Willie, come sell your fiddle,
O, Sell your fiddle sae fine;
O Willie, come sell your fiddle,
And buy a pint o' wine;
If I should sell my fiddle,
The warl' would think I was mad;
For mony a rantin day
My fiddle and I hae had.

As I cam by Crochallan,
I cannilie keekit ben;
Rattlin, roarin Willie
Was sitting at yon boord-en',
Sitting at yon boord-en',
And amang gude companie;
Rattlin, roarin Willie,
Ye're welcome hame to me!

Robert Burns was born, on the 25 January 1759, two miles south of Ayr, Ayrshire, in Alloway, the eldest of the seven children of William Burnes, a self educated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and Agnes Broun, the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer. The only occasion that Robert Burns visited Perth, Perthshire, was towards the end of his 22 day tour of the Highlands during August and September, 1787.

All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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