Sleeve Notes:
There is a tradition of popular song in Scotland to which England offers no counterpart
whatever, and a large part of the Scottish songs, alike in Scots and Gaelic, ha veal ways
recognised economics and politics to be the substance of poetry—and who but prettifying
cissies disagree? "War, wine and women" wrote a critic long ago, "were
said to be the only subjects for song, and England has not a dozen good songs on any of
them". One verse of the "British Grenadiers" and a couple of tolerable
ballads are no stock of war songs. "Rule Britannia" is a Scottish song, and
"God Save the King" a parody on another Scottish song. Bishop Stiff's "Jolly
Old Ale" is almost the only hearty drinking song of England, and that is an antique.
As for English love poems—they are very clever, very learned, full of excellent similes, and
quite empty of love. There is a cold glitter and a dull exaggeration through the whole set that
would make an Irish or a Scots girl despise the man who sang them to her. Contract such
English songs with any of the good Scottish songs No one can accuse the Scots of ever
showing Toadyism towards Royalty during the days when Scotland was a nation. The
traditional attitude towards their kings was expressed in Andrew Melville's reminder to
James VI, that he was "God's silly vassal"—(compare the English attitude to
the same king in the preface to the authorised version of the bible!). This tradition has
always persisted in Scotland (as Buckle shows most powerfully in his "History of
Civilisation") and rose to a peak in Burns best work, exemplified here by two of his
best pieces.
In the last ten years or so there has been a notable revival
of songs voicing the grievances and aspirations of the Scottish people. I am not referring
to the rediscovery of the great store of Corn-Kisters and folk songs generally, because
these, for the most part appertain to a rural order that has almost entirely vanished. No,
these new songs of protest are the voice of the industrial masses, and express the crucial
problems of the present day, and they are immensely popular like these fine songs of Jim
McLean's. I have no doubt whatsoever that they will be taken up and sung with enthusiasm
by the broad mass of the Scottish people, and that even superior literary critics will be unable
to deny that they (and especially perhaps "The Wallace", "Forget the Auld
Orange and the Green" and "Laird's Prayer") deserve their place alongside
Burns' "A Parcel of Rogues in a Nation" and "Scots Wha Hae".
As J. R. Campbell has pointed out, despite the world
wide Burns cult, unparalleled in literary history, nothing has been done even yet to make
the immense majority of Burns' songs together with the traditional music to which they
were written, accessible to the people. Scotland's true radical voice that "All the
powers that be" have tried to influence is nevertheless making itself heard again,
and happily has the advantage of all the best modern media of mass communication. It
will make itself heard alright. These songs of Jim McLean's in the new Scottish Republican
Album are a splendid earnest of that long overdue reawakening of the authentic spirit of
our people. Let no one, however, judge them by what l say about them; they can only be
heard to proper advantage, reading doesn't do them justice. The greatest proletarian
leader, John McLean, was an out and out Scottish Republican. It is being more and more
clearly realised today that McLean's is the line to follow, and it gives me tremendous
pleasure to pen this preface to songs in which another of the McLean clan points that
inevitable way, and sets the politically conscious marching so splendidly along it.
Hugh McDiarmid, December 1966
