> Folk Music > Songs > Up in the Morning Early

Up in the Morning Early

[ Roud V12718 ; trad. / Robert Burns]

Billy Ross sang Up in the Morning Early in 2000 on his Greentrax album Shore Street. He noted:

This song appears in the Scots Musical Museum [in] 1788 to the tune Cold and Raw which Burns presumably took from The Caledonian Pocket Companion. Burns wrote that “the chorus is old, the two stanzas mine”. The tune Cold and Raw is somewhat more of a mystery. Scots songs and tunes enjoyed a great popularity in London society in the late 17^th century. Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music 1776 relates the tale of how Henry Purcell found himself redundant at Queen Anne’s birthday celebrations in 1691 when the Queen, declining his offering, requested “the old Scots Ballad Cold and Raw”. The origins of the tune are however uncertain. It was known as Scots at that time but was first published in Playford’s Dancing Master in London in 1651 which also included tunes like the Collier’s Lass and For Auld Lang Gine My Jo, which Burns was to use later.

Olivia Chaney and Mairi Campbell with Alistair Roberts sang Up in the Morning Early on Concerto Caledonia’s 2011 CD Revenge of the Folksingers. They noted:

As we were travelling one morning from Aldeburgh to Snape, Mairi looked out of the window at the snow on the fields and started to sing this; by our mid-morning tea break, the arrangement had taken shape.

The song appears as no. 140 in James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum, Vol. 2 (1788); in his friend Robert Riddell’s copy of the book, Robert Burns wrote “The chorus of this is old; the two stanzas are mine.”

Siobhan Miller sang Winter Fairly on her 2019 Winter EP At This Time of Year.

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith sang Up in the Morning Early on their 2019 Winter album Awake, Arise. They noted:

A song of the wintery air, cold and raw, tormenting early risers.

A traditional chorus, collected by Robert Burns. The verses are his own. Set to the traditional air Cold and Raw.

Lyrics

Billy Ross sings Up in the Morning Early

Cauld blaws the wind frae east tae west
The drift is driving sairly
Sae loud and shill I hear the blast
I’m sure it’s winter fairly

Chorus (after each verse):
Up in the morning’s no for me
Up in the morning early
When a’ the hills are cover’d wi’ snaw
I’m sure it is winter fairly

The birds sit chitterin’ in the thorn
A’day they fare but sparely
And lang’s the nicht frae e’en to morn
I’m sure it is winter fairly

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith sing Up in the Morning Early

Chorus (after each verse):
Up in the morning it’s not for me
Up in the morning early
When all of the hills are covered with snow
I’m sure that it’s winter fairly

Cold blows the wind from east to west
The drift is driving sairly
So loud and shrill I hear the blast
I’m sure that it’s winter fairly

The birds sit chattering in the thorn
All day they fare but sparely
And long’s the night from evening to morn
I’m sure that it’s winter fairly