Play recording: Wild Mountain Thyme, The
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- Teideal (Title): Wild Mountain Thyme, The.
- Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): 781514.
- Uimhir Chnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann (National Folklore of Ireland Number): none.
- Uimhir Roud (Roud Number): 541.
- Uimhir Laws (Laws Number): none.
- Uimhir Child (Child Number): none.
- Cnuasach (Collection): Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.
- Teanga na Croímhíre (Core-Item Language): English.
- Catagóir (Category): Song.
- Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney.
- Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): Cynthia Thiessen.
- Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): 03/03/1978.
- Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): University of Washington, United States of America.
- Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): day class.
- Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): Fredric Lieberman.
- Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable.
So we’ll sing a song about summer. This is a lovely song. The first of May is the first of summer in Ireland; the first of February is the first of spring; and so on. And I often did it meself: You know between the heather and the mountains there’s grass – sort of whitish-green grass growing there, called the thyme. And sometimes they thatched the roof of the houses with that, and it’s the best thatch you ever put on a house. And it’s a beautiful time of the year, as the song says.
Oh, the summer time is coming and the leaves are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme grows among the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme all around the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go?
I will build my love a tower by yon pure crystal fountain
And around it I will pile all the flowers of the mountain
Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme all around the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go?
If my true love, she won’t come I will surely find another
To pluck wild mountain thyme among the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme all around the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go?
[But if ever she will come be it fair or stormy weather
We’ll pluck wild mountain thyme her and I together
Will you go, lassie, go? And we’ll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme all around the blooming heather
Will you go, lassie, go?]
Notes
This song was among those recorded early on in the folk music revival by the McPeakes of Belfast. Others included The Jug of Punch and The Rare Old Mountain Dew. All of these songs were taken up by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem during the ‘ballad boom’.
This song was recorded while Joe was Artist in Residence at University of Washington.