> Folk Music > Songs > Pad the Road Wi Me

Pad the Road Wi Me

[ Roud 4599 ; G/D 4:875 ; Henry H18a ; Ballad Index Wa032 ; Bodleian Roud 4599 ; trad.]

Gale Huntington: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads Katherine Campbell: Songs From North-East Scotland

Archie Fisher sang Tak’ the Road in 1970 on his Decca album Orfeo.

Ossian sang To Pad the Road Wi’ Me on their 1981 album Seal Song. They noted:

A song of courtship from Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads, the definitive collection of songs from the North-East of Scotland, edited by Superintendent John Ord of the Glasgow Police Force and published in 1930 after his death.

Malinky sang Pad the Road Wi Me in 2008 on their Greentrax album Flower & Iron. This track was also included in 2019 on their 20^th anniversary album Handsel. They noted:

Sent to the song collector John Ord by William Malcolm of Arbroath in the 1920s. A simple lovers’ ditty to which Steve [Byrne] has added some verses and Mike [Vass] a lovely new tune. Some of the traditional ones we found in the Greig-Duncan Folksong Collection were a little hymnal! Ord published his Bothy Songs and Ballads of Aberdeen, Banff & Moray, Angus and the Mearns in 1930.

Jim and Susie Malcolm sang Pad the Road on their 2017 CD Spring Will Follow On. They noted:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We owe this song to the wonderful Scottish group Malinky. The title of this album comes from a line in this optimistic love song.

Ewan McLennan sang Pad the Road Wi Me on his 2020 album Borrowed Songs. He noted:

[…] Light-hearted tales of travelling and love can be found in the traditional Scottish number, Pad the Road Wi Me, as well as in my more modern offering, Down the Line.

Lyrics

Jim and Susie Malcolm sing Pad the Road

Says I: “My dearest Molly, come let us fix the time
When ye and I get mairried love and wedlock us combine
When ye and I get mairried, love, richt happy we will be
For ye are the bonnie lassie that’s tae pad the road wi’ me.”

“Tae pad the road wi’ you, sir, cauld winter’s comin’ on
Besides, my aged parents have ne’er a girl but one
Besides, my aged parents have ne’er a girl but me
So I’m no’ the bonnie lassie that’s tae pad the road wi’ thee.”

“Oh never mind cauld winter, love, the spring will follow on
Come sit ye doon beside me, and I’ll sing ye a nice song
I’ll sing ye a nice song while I diddle ye on ma knee
You’re the bonnie lassie that’s tae pad the road wi’ me.”

“Oh the ither lads that I hae had, they proved of cruel mind
They beat me and bad-used me and proved tae be unkind
They beat me and bad-used me and garred me rue the day
That e’er I gied my love tae them tae pad the road away.”

“Oh lassie, dearest lassie, love, I’ll never dae ye wrang
It’s on my honest faither’s life I swear I’ll dae nae hairm
I’ll busk ye braw and fairer so ye could bear the gree
As the belle o’ a’ the country ‘roond tae pad the road wi’ me.”

So she has donned her hose and shoon and tae the kirk they’ve gane
And lang, ay lang ‘ere mornin’ that couple were made ane
And lang, lang ‘ere the mornin’, her troubles were set free
For she’s the bonnie lassie that’s tae pad the road wi’ me.