THE SHEPHERD'S SONG

I'm a shepherd and I rise
Ere the sun is in the skies
I can lamb the yowes wi ony o them a'
I like my flock to feed
To look fresh and fair indeed
But I wish the cauld east winds would never blaw.

Refrain:
I can smear me sheep and dip
I can udderlock and clip
I can lamb the yowes wi ony o them a'
I can paddock, I can twin,
Aye, an can cheat them wi' a skin
But I wish the cauld east winds would never blaw.

When the winter time is here
For their lives I sometimes fear
To some sheltered nook my flock I'll gently ca';
Or in the morning grey,
I turn them to the brae
Or seek them 'mang the towering wreaths o snaw 

In the lambing time I wot,
It was little sleep I got
But when the summer's sunny breezes blaw,
On yon bonny sunny hill
I'll lie and sleep my fill
When the lambs are running roond about me braw.

I can cut and mark and spean        [wean]
Or drive them to the train
Though their dams be running bleating in a raw
I can stand the market through
And right well sell them too
And my master's money safely bring it a'.

I can work in time o need
I can sow or hoe or weed.
I can swing the sythe wi ony o them a'
I can cut the corn and bind
And right braw stooks leave behind
That will stand the autumn winds when houses fa'.

And when I've done my wark
Let the night be e'er so dark
At a swaggering pace I'll hie mysel awa
To my lassie, dearest yin
She's the best beneath the sun
She'll name the day we'll be nae longer twa.

Noo my neebor herds beware
When you gang to show or fair
The fiery liquour never taste ava
If you're drouthy, thole awee,
Till your ain braw hills ye see
And the bonny bubblin streams will quell it a'

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"Smearing" with a mixture of tar and butter was the process used before
sheep-dip became available.
"Udderlocking" is gently pulling wool off the udder.
"Parrocking" was getting a ewe to accept another ewe's lamb by confining
them together in a small enclosure, or parrock.
"Twinning" was getting a strong ewe to take a second lamb, sometimes by
tying her own dead lamb's skin round a strange lamb ("cheating wi a skin").

Philip Whittaker wrote:

> Has anyone already transcribed the words of the Shepherd's Life as sung
> by Willie Scott? 

Yes. I found it in Tocher No.25 from 1977, and I'll amend your lyrics from
that. It was recorded from Willie Scott by Francis Collinson

Nigel Gatherer, Crieff