An Bratach Bana march

Transcript John Chambers. Scots ,Scots Irish, recorded as Bratach Ban by Horselips.

Originally a song in Scots Gaelic, it was composed by singer Calum Kennedy and guitarist George Elliot and recorded in the mid 1950s. Sometimes Kennedy’s credit on songs was merely to ensure it got recorded, in a quid pro quo agreement (“Lovely Stornoway” is a good example of this). I don’t know whether this is the case here, however. The melody quickly became popular with Scottish dance bands for The Dashing White Sergeant etc.

At school in Inverness, we used to sing

"I can sing like Calum Kennedy
I can sing like Calum Kennedy
I can sing like Calum Kennedy
So can f---ing anybody.."

🙂
To make up for the above nonsense, here’s a great version by “Five Hand Reel” featuring Dick Gaughan and the late great Bobby Eaglesham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoHVBwjTE6o

play video

Horselips .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rchANj9rZQ

play video

The version and key I’ve most often heard played for Scottish Country Dancing.

Sometimes one hears the first two lines of the 2nd part repeated, then played a 3rd time with the other ending phrase, thus the 1st part is played twice but the 2nd part is played thrice. I almost thought I’d write it out that way, but it’s a bit odd and confusing.

I should point out that X:1 is written out in 2/4 but has the time signature of 4/4.

That’s why the “play audio” for X:1 sounds crazy fast.

For some reason using a 4/4 signature but writing the tune in 2/4 is common here.

That’s probably because 4/4 is the default time signature for marches on this site and some posters go by tune type rather than time signature and maybe don’t notice the signature is incorrect. Some others do but don’t know how to override the default.

Am Bratach, not An Bratach - just as English speakers say “im Birmingham”, even if they don’t know it.

The lyric we had was similar:

I can sing like Calum Kennedy
So can you and so can anybody
Surely there must be a remedy?
[louder]Who the f*** is Calum Kennedy?

There was also a verse about a young lady who could ride a bicycle and undertake other masculine-coded activities with some success, including singing like Calum Kennedy, but propriety forbids me to put it in writing.