Kiss Her Under The Coverlet slip jig

Also known as Kiss’d Her Under The Coverlet, Kissed Her Under The Coverlet, Saw Ye Never A Bonny Lass.

There are 4 recordings of a tune by this name.

Kiss Her Under The Coverlet has been added to 23 tunebooks.

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Two settings

X: 1
T: Kiss Her Under The Coverlet
R: slip jig
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Ador
A2g fed c2A|cBc ABc dBG|A2g fed c2A|BdB G2B dBG:|
|:A2c B/c/dB c2A|cBc ABc dBG|A2c B/c/dB c2A|BdB G2B dBG:|
|:A2g faf g2e|faf g2e dBG|A2g faf g3|BdB G2B dBG:|
X: 2
T: Kiss Her Under The Coverlet
R: slip jig
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Ador
|:G2f edc B2G|BAB G2B cAF|G2f edc B2G|AcA F2A cAF:|
|:G2B AcA B2G|BAB G2B cAF|G2B AcA B2G|AcA F2A cAF:|
|:G2f ege f2d|ege f2d cAF|G2f ege f2d|AcA F2A cAF:|

Three comments

Kiss Her Under The Coverlet…

…as opposed to behind the barrel or on the green. A hypnotic Northumbrian slip jig with a really nice 3rd part.

Vickers setting

My original submission was transcribed from the pipes playing of Chris Ormston. The tune appears in the William Vickers MS (1770) in G dorian, although it is thought that this is actually a mistake and that it should be in G mixolydian. It has been suggested that it probably would have been a border pipes tune - hence the mixolydian scale. The border pipes scale is A mixolydian, but the tunes used to be transcribed a tone lower. The A dorian version is the one that has been revived and recorded recently, but the tune sounds good in either mode. Below is the abc for the Vickers setting, including a correction to one note in bar 4 of the A-part so that the part endings all match:

K:Gdor or Gmix
|:G2f edc B2G|BAB G2B cAF|G2f edc B2G|AcA F2A cAF:|
|:G2B AcA B2G|BAB G2B cAF|G2B AcA B2G|AcA F2A cAF:|
|:G2f ege f2d|ege f2d cAF|G2f ege f2d|AcA F2A cAF:|

Coverlet

I know Chris and others play it as Dorian but I’m convinced it’s mixolydian - it’s just such a common mistake in Vickers for him to take the key sig from the last notes of the tune rather than which ones he plays sharp or flat. The Bonny Lass title is from William Dixon, a longer and different setting but still recognisable.