A Few Caledonian Clowns; Burns, and The Proclaimers

Scotland's Story
The Proclaimers

Michael McGrory from west Donegal
You came to Glasgow with nothing at all
You fought the landlord then the Africa Korps
When you came to Glasgow with nothing at all

Abraham Caplan from Vilnius you came
You were heading for New York but Leith's where you've stayed
You built a great business which benefits all
Since you came to this land with nothing at all

In Scotland's story I read that they came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
But so did the Irishman, Jew and Ukraine
They're all Scotland's Story and they're all worth the same

Joseph D'Angelo dreams of the days
When Italian kids in the Grassmarket played
We burned out his shop when the boys went to war
But auld Joe's a big man and he forgave all

In Scotland's story I’m told that they came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
But where's all the Chinese and Indian names?
They're in my lands story and they're all worth the same

Christina McKay, I learned of your name
How you travelled south from Delny one day
You raised a whole family in one room they say
And the X on the line stands in place of your name

So in the old story I'll bet that I came
From Gael and Pict and Angle and Dane
And a poor migrant girl who could not write her name
It's a common old story but it's mine just the same

All through the story the immigrants came
The Gael and the Pict, the Angle and Dane
From Pakistan, England and from the Ukraine
We're all Scotland's story and we're all worth the same
Your Scotland's story is worth just the same

Throw the 'R' Away Lyrics
The Proclaimers

I've been so sad
Since you said my accent was bad
He's wearin' a frown
This Caledonian clown

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate
To make sure my words
On your Saxon ears don't grate
But I wouldn't know a single word to say
If I flattened all the vowels
And threw the 'R' away

Some days I stand
On your green and pleasant land
How dare I show face
When my diction is such a disgrace

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate
To make sure my words
On your Saxon ears don't grate
But I wouldn't know a single word to say
If I flattened all the vowels
And threw the 'R' away

You say that if I want to get ahead
The language I use should be left for dead
It doesn't please your ear
And though you tell it like a leg-pull
It seems you're still full of John Bull
You just refuse to hear

Oh what can I do
To be understood by you
Perhaps for some money
I could talk like a bee dripping honey.

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate
To make sure my words
On your Saxon ears don't grate
But I wouldn't know a single word to say
If I flattened all the vowels
And threw the 'R' away

You say that if I want to get ahead
The language I use should be left for dead
It doesn't please your ear
And though you tell it like a leg-pull
I think you're still full of John Bull
You just refuse to hear

He's been so sad
Since you said his accent was bad
He's wearin' a frown
This Caledonian clown

I'm just going to have to learn to hesitate
To make sure my words
On your Saxon ears don't grate
But I wouldn't know a single word to say
If I flattened all the vowels
And threw the 'R' away
Flattened all the vowels
And threw the 'R' away
If I flattened all the vowels
And threw the 'R' away



“This Caledonian clown”, “Wha Hae wi’ Wallace bled” This short paper will discuss using three sources the nationalistic and essentially anti-British feelings of Scottish pop-culture in the time of Robert Burns, and in the time of The Proclaimers. Caledonia was the Roman name for Scotland and generally refers to anything Scottish, but specifically Highland Scottish. Burns wrote in Lowland Scot, but this does not make them separate stories, because “They’re all Scotland’s Story and they’re all worth the same”.1 The Three texts work together though in different times, and through different means to create a narrative of the oppressed in an attempt to make a dialogue with there oppressor and the people simultaneously.

The first dialogue of discourse against the oppressor begins with referring to the land as “your” in “Throwing the “R” away.2 This opens as line of estrangement from the land that it is no longer “ours”, but now is your. In “Scots Wha Hae” we hear the line “Lay the Proud Usurpers Low”3, in the term usurper there is again this them of alienation from the land and exile. The motif of exile is big in any narrative of rebellion. In “Scotland’s Story” we get a strange sense of discontinuity in the line “You fought the landlord then the Afrika Korps”4 the ‘landlord’ is a vague reference to fighting the men in power at home, but then the ‘Afrika Korps’ is undoubtedly Germany specifically Erwin Rommel’s Deutsches Afrika Korps this line could refer to the fighting in World War Two, this is a direct Nazi Reference common in punk rock language and style. The line could also be interpreted as a way of making the plight more practical since the English notion of the barbarian Scot would be one any aspiring nationalist would have to conquer.

The Afrika Corps Line and “Wa Hae wi’ Wallace bled”5 are the same in this next light. We fought the landlords, then we fought the Germans, We fought with each other. This pragmatism dispels the barbarian that though the landlord “the proud usurper”6, is the first fight that even the rebels understood the evil of National Socialism, but this could read even deeper that maybe by fighting Nazi New Imperialism the ‘real’ enemy could see that one imperialism was the same as every imperialism. The rhetoric used in “Throw the R Away” that says “I think your still full of John Bull”7 is very important. John Bull was sort of like a English Uncle Sam, but he was supposed to be more everyman, but it became the notion of almost blind national pride, most in Scotland, Whales, and Ireland rejected the figure of John Bull, because just that it was English not Scottish, not Irish. So The Proclaimers are thinking that the British are still full of the foolish national pride and sense of superiority even in an era of lost empire, and crumbling notions of identity.

A big motif behind the rejection of John Bull besides his Englishness was his class position. The structure of class in industrial British society was many parts different than agricultural Scotland. Historian Linda Colley provides excellent illustrations of this.8 So we see not only the relationship of the Scots as a subject people, but also the Scots as a people who are being subject by a group that lives in a totally different society.

The theme of exile plays the loudest note in this orchestra of resistance. A return to the line “your land”9 is important, whilst Burns says we can still stop this we can still halt the “Usurper”, in fact Burns calls to arms and says “Tyrants fall in every foe”, and “Liberty’s in every blow” he says we can still do this we can still be free, his narrative is not done the exile is not complete yet, Burns still sees a Scotland10, whilst the Proclaimers talk of the exile that has taken place the absolute worst kind of exile, to be exiled in your own home, to feel that you are a stranger in your own home. In “Scotland’s Story” The Proclaimers not only speak to the Scots as in exile, but to all exiles, and at the same time arguing what it is to be a Scot.

For Burns it seems a Scot is anyone who has died like Wallace, for Scotland, or who like Bruce has fought for Scotland, and lead her, or any man who fights for “Scotland’s King and Law”11. A Scot is anyone who draws “Freedom’s Sword”. A Scot is in this case anyone who fights tyranny. The Proclaimers define a Scot is anyone in exile. “The Gael and Pict, the Angle and Dane”, and also “But so did Irishman, Jew, and Ukraine. “12 This is both figurative and at the same time it is also real there is no genetic realism to what a Scot really is. Being a Scot is much more than race. This entire song is about everyone’s struggles, and that they are one in the same, a camaraderie anthem that we (everyone) are in this together.

The next line is extraordinary, “They’re in my lands story and they’re all worth the same”, and It’s a common old story but its mine just the same” and Your Scotland’s story is worth just the same.”13 It is a glorious march. These lines return back to Burns were they had departed when they said “your green pleasant land”14. It is my land now, an anthem of taking it all back is cried we here the echoes of Burns’ “Let us do or dee! (….) But they shall be free!” The Proclaimers say now it’s not just our Scotland, it’s your Scotland too; in fact it’s every ones, and any ones Scotland.

These two texts from two different times show a few continuities and even a progression. One cries for outright rebellion, and another cries for unity of the dammed to dispel the structure of there damnation. One line in Scotland’s story was odd though and brilliant too. “From Pakistan, England and from the Ukraine”, England, this is were they have evolved past Burns’ nationalist call to arms. Burns Wanted to take Scotland back and keep it for the Scots or who he accepted to be Scots “wham Bruce has aften led”15, his Scots are more specific than they’re Scots. For The Proclaimers a Scot is anyone who has ever felt slighted not just by Britain but by the entire complex world. The Proclaimers call for a worldwide revolution in this a new world were everyone is a Scot, this is a beautiful subtle anarchy that only a talented group such as them could put together to create a narrative that in my opinion surpasses “Scot’s Wha Hae”. So are the Reids or Burns the real Scots? The answer is marvelously simple “They’re all Scotland’s story and they’re all worth the same!”16