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The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin’

[ Roud 12516 ; Mudcat 9770 ; trad.]

The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin’ is a song that was colleted by Robert Burns and included in his Merry Muses of Caledonia. It may have served as the basis for some lines of the song The Ball of Yarn.

Jean Redpath sang Yellow Yorlin in 1976 on her Trailer album There Were Minstrels. She noted:

The Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago produced a record a few years ago called The Earthy Side [PIP Records PIP-6804, 1969]. This was a collection of songs and stories most of which were ascribed to well-known authors and composers among whom figured Mark Twain and Henry Purcell. There was, unfortunately, no itemised description of the contents and the performers, so I am left with this delicate melody without being able to credit the author or the fine tenor who sang it. Yellow Yorlin = Yellow Hammer.

Lyrics

The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin’ in Merry Muses of Caledonia

It fell on a day, in the flowry month o’ May,
All on a merry merry mornin’,
I met a pretty maid, an’ unto her I said,
I wad fain fin’ your yellow yellow yorlin’.

O no, young man, says she, you’re a stranger to me,
An’ I am anither man’s darlin’,
Wha has baith sheep an’ cows, that’s feedin’ in the hows,
An’ a cock for my yellow yellow yorlin’.

But, if I lay you down upon the dewy ground,
You wad nae be the waur ae farthing;
An’ that happy, happy man, he never cou’d ken
That I play’d wi your yellow yellow yorlin’.

O fie, young man, says she, I pray you let me be,
I wad na for five pound sterling;
My mither wad gae mad, an’ sae wad my dad,
If you play’d wi’ my yellow yellow yorlin’.

But I took her by the waist, an’ laid her down in haste,
For a’ her squakin’ and squalin’;
The lassie soon grew tame, an’ bade me come again
For to play wi her yellow yellow yorlin’.