You take the high road and I'll take the low - a short trip through musical history

When I was a kid, maybe 4 or 5 years old, there was a song that my grandfather would sing to me while I was sitting on his knee. By the time I was in my twenties, after my grandfather had passed away, all I could remember of the song was a line or two of the chorus:

You take the high road and I'll take the low road, and I'll be in Scotland before you.

Although I remembered him singing it, I had no idea what song that chorus was from for another decade or two. Then, maybe fifteen or twenty years ago, it occurred to me to use Internet magic to find the song, and I finally learned what you probably already know... The song was, The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond. According to Justapedia, the song is:

"a Jacobite adaptation of an eighteenth-century erotic song, with the lover dying for his king, and taking only the 'low road' of death back to Scotland."

Having tracked it down, every once in a while, I amuse myself by listening to different renditions of the song on YouTube.

With these old folk songs, it's fascinating to me to see all the creative ways that different musicians adapt centuries-old music and make it into something fresh and new and unique. I also think it's amazing how music like this manages to connect people across time and across distance. The only drawback is that YouTube turns into a time sink.

Yesterday was one of those days, and I actually managed to find some versions that I hadn't heard before. So in the spirit of Dream a Little Dream, Lavender's Blue, and Old Dan Tucker, I thought I'd share some of the interesting versions that I found.

Up until yesterday, the top of the YouTube search has usually been a version of this song by Runrig, a band that I know nothing else about, but I assume that they're Scottish. They have a ton of different performances on YouTube, but here's the one near the top of the search results:

Beating out Runrig this time, the new one at the top of my search list yesterday was by someone else I also know nothing about, Ella Roberts. When I saw, "Ella", I was thinking of "Ella Fitzgerald" at first, but it's not her^😉.

I hadn't heard of Roberts before, but the style is traditional, so although the recording was impressive, the style wasn't all that surprising. Next come the surprises.

I searched for older renditions from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and was surprised to land on a performance by Julie Andrews of Sound of Music fame. (Look how young she was!)

And the next surprise was another artist who I had not heard before, Maxine Sullivan, but that wasn't the surprise. The surprise was that it was done in the 1930s using a jazz style. And the second surprise is that Sullivan was born in Pennsylvania.

That recording is from 1955, but she apparently did it before in a 1939 movie, St. Louis Blues, and here she is performing it on TV in 1985.

And one more surprise was this Rockabilly/Doo-wop version by The Castle Kings.

Another version from the first half of the 20^th century takes a more formal style and comes from Deanna Durbin in the 1940 movie, It's a Date.

Altogether, there are a zillion different versions out there YouTube, so I'm trying to limit myself to versions that approach the song from different directions, and I'll cut myself off after one more video.

This last one by Kerri Watt brings us back to modern times, with a version that sort-of splits the difference between the traditional style and Runrig. To me, it has a more authentic feel than some of the others, and I really like the violin opening and the later inclusion of two sections that highlight the piano. I probably listened to it 5 times or more while I was writing this post!

Before yesterday, if you had asked for my favorite version, I would definitely have said Runrig. After yesterday, I'm not so sure. Maybe Maxine Sullivan, maybe still Runrig, maybe Ella Roberts or Kerri Watt.

If I force myself to pick one, I'll say Keri Watt, but if you ask me again next week, maybe I'll answer differently^😉.

Which version do you like best? One of the ones that I've included here, or is there a different version that I overlooked?

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Thank you for your time and attention.

As a general rule, I up-vote comments that demonstrate "proof of reading".

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Steve Palmer is an IT professional with three decades of professional experience in data communications and information systems. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, a master's degree in computer science, and a master's degree in information systems and technology management. He has been awarded 3 US patents.

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^{Pixabay license, source}

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