The Gathering

I sometimes teach beginning mandolin students the tune "Wha Wadna Fecht for Charlie", but there are other words to that tune which are perhaps better known. I have known the following rhyme for many years:
.............
Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Marching doon the Broomielaw
.............
The Broomielaw is a street by the Clyde in Glasgow, and the "42nd" are the The 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, better known as the Black Watch. On another occasion I was speaking to an old whistler; he sang:
.............
Wha saw the tattie howkers,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the tattie howkers,
Marching ower the Berwick Law?
.............
I've since discovered other variants: "Wha saw the cotton-spinners?", which refers to a strike in 1880s Glasgow. Here's another:
.............
Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Wha saw them gang awa?
Wha saw the Forty-Second,
Gaein' tae the wappenshaw. [wappenshaw = military parade]

Some o' them gat chappit tatties,
Some o' them gat nane ava;
Some o' them gat barley bannocks,
Gaein' tae the wappenshaw.

Wha saw the Forty-Second (etc)

Some o' them had tartan troosers,
Some o' them had nane ava;
Some o' them had green umbrellas,
Marchin' doon the Broomielaw.
.............
Other variants mention the "Zulu war" and "Wha saw the bonnie lassies" (Some had shoes and stockings on, ithers they had nane at a'" which is supposed to have referred to a pleasure boat tragedy. An Elgin variant had the closing line as "Comin' roon by Bulboha..." This is a reference to the local mental hospital! I believe I have heard a Perth variant, but it has slipped my memory.

This is clearly a very widespread song with many local variants. Has anyone else heard this song?

(15-12-2008 11:08 AM)nigelgatherer Wrote: [ -> ]I sometimes teach beginning mandolin students the tune "Wha Wadna Fecht for Charlie", but there are other words to that tune which are perhaps better known. I have known the following rhyme for many years:

<snip>

This is clearly a very widespread song with many local variants. Has anyone else heard this song?

A few years ago, the pipe band of the Black Watch used to extemporise verses, usually starting off with some of the well known ones above and then generally flyting anyone and everything that came to mind.

One night one of the lads had a skinful and woke up two days later on his mother's doorstep. After he came back, the next night it was

Wha saw the 42nd?
Wha saw John McFall?
Wha saw the 42nd?
Kippin at his mither's door?

And so on.

There are various versions of "The Gallant Forty-Twa", to a totally different tune from that of "Wha wouldna fecht for Chairlie". Elizabeth Stewart's version is riveting. You can probably hear it if you search for her on Pete Shepheard's Springthyme music website.

Before the Jacobites got hold of it, it was the tune for a song called "Who will go and marry Kitty?", and I've seen that abbreviated to "Marry Ketty" in a tunebook somewhere. But I've never seen the original words.