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Thou Hast Left Me Ever, Jamie

[ Roud V456 ; Robert Burns]

Jean Redpath sang Thou Hast Left Me Ever, Jamie in 1981 on her Philo/Greentrax album The Songs of Robert Burns Volumes 4. Serge and Esther Hovey noted:

The tune, Fee Him, Father, was known in the eighteenth century as a lively and humorous song. Thomas Fraser, a friend of Burns, was the principal oboe concerto player in Edinburgh. In September 1793, Burns sent his version of this song to his publisher, George Thomson, with the comment: “…Were it possible, in singing, to give it half the pathos which Fraser gives it in playing, it would make an admirable pathetic song.”

Elpeth Cowie sang Thou Hast Left Me Ever, Jamie in 1998 on Volume 5 of the Linn Records anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns.

Karine Polwart sang Thou Hast Left Me Ever, Jamie in 2007 on her CD Fairest Floo’er.

Nua sang Jamie on their 2011 CD Both Sides.

Lyrics

Karine Polwart sings Thou Hast Left Me Ever, Jamie

Thou hast left me ever, Jamie,
Thou hast left me ever.
Thou hast left me ever, Jamie,
Thou hast left me ever.

Often hast thou sworn that death
Should alone us sever,
Noo you’ve left my heart for aye
I’ll see thee never, Jamie, I’ll see thee never.

Thou hast me forsaken Jamie,
Thou hast me forsaken.
Thou hast me forsaken Jamie,
Thou hast me forsaken.

Thou can love anither lass
While my heart is breaking,
Soon my weary e’en I’ll close
Never mair tae waken, Jamie, never mair tae waken.