Goodbye To the Thirty-Foot Trailer (Rise Up Singing)

By Ewan MacColl

Cofeescup singin' like an angel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKtl4SOzeFo
An explanation of shawing from the Mudcat forum (a folk music forum): http://www.mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=2517675

A - - - / - - - E / A E A D / A - E7 A
The auld ways are changing, ye canna deny
The day o the traveller's over
There's nowhere tae gang and there's nowhere tae bide
Sae fareweel tae the life o the rover

Or,
The old ways are changing, you cannot deny
The day of the traveller's over
There's nowhere to go and there's nowhere to bide
And farewell to the life of the rover

Chorus:
A - D E / / A - E7 A
So goodbye to the tent and the old caravan
To the tinker, the gypsy, the travelling man
And goodbye to the thirty-foot trailer

Fareweel to the cant and the travelling tongue
Fareweel to the Romany talking
The buying and selling, the old fortune telling
The knock on the door and the hawking

You've got to move fast to keep up wi' the times
For these days a man canna daunder
There's a by-law to say ye maun be on your way
And another to say you can't wander

Fareweel to the besoms of heather and broom
Fareweel to the creels and the basket
The folks o' today they would far sooner pay
For a thing that's been made oot o' plastic

The old ways are passing and soon they'll be gone
For progress is aye a big factor
It's sent to afflict us and when they evict us
They tow us away wi' a tractor

Fareweel to the pony, the cob and the mare
Th reins and the harness are idle
You don't need the strap when you're breaking up scrap
So fareweel to the bit and the bridle

Fareweel to the fields where we've sweated and toiled
At pulling and shawing and lifting
They'll soon hae machines and the travelling quaens
And their menfolk had better be shifting

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Ewan MacColl
• Gypsy
• Gypsies
• Roma
• Romani
• U.K.
• Scottish
• English
• song
• culture
• Travelling
• Traveling
• Rise Up Singing
• chords
• lyrics
• guitar
• folk
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• melody

[funkadelian]

Love it! You have a great voice!

[matthewvaughan]

@funkadelian Thanks a lot :)

[MrTstanley11]

like the song im an engilsh gypsy

tommy

[matthewvaughan]

@MrTstanley11 Really? Thank you so much. That's really cool to hear.

[LockerzInformant]

Hi everybody hi Grany :"D

[matthewvaughan]

@LockerzInformant ;)

[sandyTki]

a good wee sang ged i grew up listin tay that sang

[sandyTki]

a good wee sang ged

[seonidh]

Then we have songs like the wraggle taggle gypsies which is a scottish border balad and not irish as well. The irish seem to want to claim romani based songs as theirs when they are not irish.

[seonidh]

@FilepoMassa No this song is only thought of as Irish because Irish bands cover the song. It was written by Ewan MacColl and appeared on his radio ballad The Travelling People in 1964. If it were Irish then why would it talk about the Romany way and the cant of the Scottish gypsies?

Furthermore Ewan MacColl was born in Broughton, Salford, Lancashire to Scottish parents, he also wrote Dirty Old Town another song that is mistaken by people like yourself as being irish. Both are not irish.

[seonidh]

@matthewvaughan I am a romani myself with socts blood too. Romanies have been in the borders of scotland for at least 300 years. So I guess I have the best of both worlds speaking in a scots accent and I also speak my dialect of Romanies as well.