Wild Mountain Thyme

"Purple Heather" redirects here. For the European plant, see Calluna. For The American plant, see Krameria erecta.

"Wild Mountain Thyme", also known as "Purple Heather" and "Will You Go Lassie, Go", is a folk song, rewritten by Francis McPeake, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a variant of a traditional song The Braes of Balquhidder by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), a contemporary of Robert Burns.

Lyrics

The song's chorus is:

Will ye go, lassie, go,

And we’ll all go together

To pick wild mountain thyme

All around the blooming heather,

Will ye go, lassie, go.

The song is a variant of The Braes of Balquhidder by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), which was named after the braes, or hills, of Balquhidder near Lochearnhead. The Braes has a similar lyric which includes the lines "Let us go, lassie, go" and "And the wild mountain thyme".

McPeake version, published 1957 closely paraphrases the Tannahill version of the song, earliest known publication date 1821 (posthumously)

Tannahill:

Noo the simmer's in prime

Wi' the flooers richly bloomin'

Wi' the wild mountain thyme

A' the moorlan's perfumin'

McPeake:

O the summer time is coming

And the trees are sweetly blooming

And the wild mountain thyme

Grows around the purple heather

Tannahill:

I will twin thee a bow'r

By the clear siller fountain

And I'll cover it o'er

Wi' the flooers o' the mountain

McPeake:

I will build my love a bower

By yon clear crystal fountain

And on it I will pile

All the flowers of the mountain

Recordings

There have been numerous recordings of this song, including:

• Francis McPeake - for the BBC series As I Roved Out (1957)
• Sandy Paton - on Many Sides of Sandy Paton (1959)
• The McPeake Family - on McPeake Family of Belfast (1961)
• Judy Collins - on A Maid of Constant Sorrow (1961)
• The Clancy Brothers - (as "Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?") on The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone (1962)
• Paul Clayton - on Folk Singer (1965)
• Joan Baez - on Farewell Angelina (1965)
• The New Christy Minstrels - (as "Go, Lassie, Go") on Wandering Minstrels (1965)
• Lee Mallory - on unreleased recording with producer Curt Boettcher & The Ballroom (eventually released on CD) (1965)
• The Byrds - on Fifth Dimension (1966)
• Marianne Faithfull - on North Country Maid (1966)
• Bob Dylan - on the bootleg album The Minnesota Tapes and on bootleg recordings of his Isle of Wight Festival performance on August 31, 1969.
• Long John Baldry - on Everything Stops for Tea (1972)
• Van Morrison - as "Purple Heather" on Hard Nose the Highway (1973)
• Nigel & the Crosses - on Time Between - A Tribute to The Byrds (1989)
• Meg Davis - on Meg Davis Live at Dennos (1992)
• Strawbs - (as "Will You Go") on the B-side to the single "Part of the Union" and on the album Halcyon Days
• Glenn Frey - on Glenn Frey Live (1993)
• The Silencers - on So Be It (1994)
• Jim Diamond - on Sugarolly Days (1994)
• Brother - (as Will You Go) on the album Pipe Dreams (1994)
• The Corries - on The Corries: In Concert (1995)
• Rod Stewart - as 'Purple Heather' on A Spanner in the Works (1995)
• The Irish Rovers - on The Irish Rovers' Gems (1996)
• John McDermott - on When I Grow Too Old To Dream (1997)
• Lisa Lynne - on Quiet Heart (1997)
• Big Country used the main movement as an instrumental bridge in their live versions of Fields of Fire on the 'Final Fling' Tour of 1999/2000.
• Real McKenzies - on Clash of the Tartans (2000)
• Mark Knopfler - on A Shot at Glory (2001)
• Enter the Haggis - on Live! (2002)
• The Chieftains - on Further Down the Old Plank Road (2003)
• Emerald Rose - as "Wild Mountain Thyme" on Celtic Crescent (2003)
• James Taylor - on Telluride Bluegrass Festival: Reflections, Vol. 1 (2003)
• Broadside Electric - on Black-edged Visiting Card
• The Real McKenzies - on Clash of the Tartans
• Albert Kuvezin and Yat-Kha - on Re-Covers (2005)
• Keltik Elektrik with Jim Malcolm - on Putumayo Presents Celtic Crossroads (2005)
• Kate Rusby - as 'Blooming Heather' on Awkward Annie (2007)
• Lucy Wainwright Roche - on 8 Songs (2007)
• Moira Nelson - on Echoes of Another Time (2007)
• The High Kings - (as "Will Ye Go, Lassie Go") on their eponymous first album (2008)
• Lauren Yason, Richard Fox, and Caroline Dale - for the film Stone of Destiny (2008)
• Blake - on And So it Goes (2008)
• Fotheringay - on Fotheringay 2 (recorded 1971/2007 released 2008)
• Lark & Spur - on Once in France (2008)
• Ronan Keating - on Songs for My Mother (2009)
• Robin Pecknold (as White Antelope) (2009)
• Denis Ryan - on "Denis Ryan Mist Covered Mountains"
• Jean Redpath
• Amanda (sångensemblen) - on Tres (2005)
• Damh the Bard - on Tales from the Crow Man (2009)
• Chelsea House Orchestra - on Crossing the Border (2010)
• Ben Folds - on Download for Good (2011)
• The Mudmen on "Donegal Danny" (2012)

Controversy

While there is a copyright asserted by English Folk Dance and Song Society Publications, who published it for Francis McPeake in 1957, there is a continuing controversy about the actual ownership of the song. However, when the McPeake family took Rod Stewart to court in the early 1990's for their due royalties of his cover of the song, not only did they not receive royalties but the defense's case alleged that McPeake Senior seemed to have plagiarized Robert Tannahill's version.

External links

• Wild Mountain Thyme lyrics
• Site with link to downloadable MP3
• Allmusic review: Purple Heather by Van Morrison