Lyrics

I hae heard the fowk o the fisher toons
Drift awa as new owners land
Loud city voices declaring two home
The houses whitewashed garden’s pruned
And whit was here, that roustin birr
The rochle steer o anither Scotland
Gone wi the boats and the fish, the herring

I heard the speak o auld men on ilka tongue
The dein words are vieve
Bawlled oot in ballads on a Seterday nicht
But the cheils are lang gawn intil the earth
And a hale wi oh daen gaed wi them
They plod wi horses nae tractors
Widna been seen wi thae juddering beasts

What’s to come I ca tell but ein noo
This a seems til mony as far awa
As bothies and fein an age ahent
And the words I love gae as weel
Mo fa intil the daerk as the Scotland that wis
Winds up and changes that to which must be
Yon winna haen them or the words that flee

Up in the air heich and strange
Heard nae mair by ony save the likes o me
In the sooch o the wind in the shade o the howf
In the doors trembling roosty craik
It soonds for aye or I’m as them
A gaist in a newk, syne a wisp o reek