March 2, 2024 • 29 mins
This episode is released on March 3 and that marks National Anthem Day in the United States, but this episode takes a journey across the pond to explore Scotland's unofficial national anthem, "Flower of Scotland." Patrick delves into the song's origins, crafted by Scottish songwriter Roy Williamson in the 1960s, and its rise to prominence amid Scotland's quest for national identity. The episode discusses the historical context of the Battle of Bannockburn, which inspired the anthem, and how it became a rallying cry for Scottish nationalism, particularly in the realm of rugby. Listeners will learn about the cultural significance of the song and its transition from a folk tune to a de facto anthem for Scotland. Through engaging storytelling, Patrick reflects on the emotional resonance of the lyrics and the unique journey that led "Flower of Scotland" to become a cherished symbol of Scottish pride and unity.
A couple of my favorite people come Scotland. James Clerk Maxwell, I did an undergrad in physics and have stood on this man's grave in Westminster. Billy Connelly, perhaps the funniest living person. And Michael Marshall of many things but I'll plug the Be Reasonable podcast, he is the most patient of men.
Here are my notes, hope you hear me again folks:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-13520689
- https://web.archive.org/web/20090215011908/http://rsno.org.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=1
- https://www.scotsman.com/sport/scottish-national-anthem-lyrics-and-origins-4280559
- https://web.archive.org/web/20060210055101/http://www.scottishtartans.org/tartan.html
- https://lyricstranslate.com/en/flower-scotland-flouer-o-scotland.html
- https://web.archive.org/web/20100829194041/http://www.corries.com/news.php
- https://web.archive.org/web/20160304090308/http://www.theballadeersscotland.com/scots/cft_01.htm
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/rugby_union/features/newsid_2650000/2650581.stm
- https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/on-this-day-in-1990-flower-of-scotland-composer-roy-williamson-dies-1469958
- https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-70397
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:22):
Hello, and welcome to theAnthems podcast. Hi, I'm Patrick,
andI'm here to tell you the story of
a song that helps to tell the story
of a nation. Today we're going to
open the show a bit different than
Ihave so far, because if you are listening
to this episode on the release day
of March 3, it is national anthem
Dayin the United States. This is the
day in 1931 that President Herbert
Hoover signed the law that made the
Star Spangled Banner the official
national anthem here. It kind of
has nothing to do with the country
andanthem that I'll be talking about,
butmy daughter let me know that it was
the date, and it's a fun coincidence.
Sothere you go. The country I'm talking
about does have an official anthem,
butit's God save the Queen, and this
country is not England. We are going
to run into this situation three
moretimes before we get to England, because
I just decided that we're going to
do that anyway. This country is the
country in the UK that is closest
toEngland, and we're headed there on
the show because my mother is taking
atrip there on a plane, not like right
now, but this year. So, at her request,
we'll learn about Scotland. But I
didn't know that it was also going
tobe my first episode about a country
with a de facto anthem. But first,
what's a de facto anthem? And second,
what does de facto even mean? It
strikes me that it's one of those
terms that I learned about either
reading it or in conversation, and
only knew the meaning contextually
in adictionary. It means that something
is aparticular thing, even though it
was not planned to be that thing.
Sothe working definition I had in my
head wasn't, like, far off. Strikes
methat a lot of anthems that are now
official started off as de facto.
Andit's another thing to add to the
future list of stuff to read about.
It's also gotten me sufficiently
far afieldof my original reason for telling
youabout Flower of Scotland, which is
an upcoming trip, that, despite the
fact that I've been told about a
great deal of it, all I can remember
isthat she'll be in Edinburgh at some
point. Sorry, mom. Interestingly
enough, andcoincidentally, this anthem is the
second country in a row with a distinctive
traditional dress containing a deep
history that makes the tartan more
than a piece of clothing. Just don't
wear the balmoral pattern without
theexpress permission of the sovereignty.
Asfar as playing this anthem goes,
Ihave not asked the king's permission
toplay the song that you are about
tohear. Matter of fact, I didn't ask
anybody for permission about this
one and it's the first time that
Iam playing the original version of
something verse in official version
ofthe song. But there is no official
version of the song, and in this
case we get to listen to the very
first public performance of the anthem
before it became what it is, even
ifthe three minute and eleven second
long song didn't have the third verse
yet.
(03:36):
Ophelau Scott will we see yourlegs again that fought and died yet
Helen Glen and stood against him
lode Edwards on me and sent them
home omar they think again the hills
are bare now autumn lives all land
that's been lost now which those
sodearly held that stood against him
o dead words on me unsentim hope
they think again will we see your
lights again that fandaip yet awake
and stood against him loaded words
onme unsem homeward.
(06:31):
My initial reaction isenjoyment. It's another pretty simple
song. It's two guys, a bad ran and
a bouzouki, very clearly an acoustic
folk song, and it's mostly what I
play when I'm playing music myself.
Sosomething like this is completely
in mywheelhouse and definitely goes on
the playlist. In the words of one
of the artists, it got an archaic
treatment to make a new song sound
kind of ancient. Not so bad. I said
earlier that Scotland shares an island
with England, or I think I did. But
that tells us nothing about where
itis, does it? I'm not going to tell
you about lochs either, as the geography
term today, even though I found out
that it means lakes too, and not
just an ocean inlet like I thought
Iinstead I want to talk about the
highlands of Scotland. They were
formed through the caledonian orogeny,
with the cambrian and precambrian
rock. Anorogeny is a mountain building process.
My non geologist understanding is
that two plates meet, one of them
crumbles on compression and up pops
a mountain range over like millions
ofyears. So more info that doesn't
domuch to nail down where Scotland
is, butmakes it geologically interesting
visually.It's easy to find Italy on a map
ofEurope, then go northeast to the
coast up to the larger of the two
islands off the coast off the coast
of Europe. The northern third of
that, plus many smaller islands,
comprise the country of Scotland.
About77,900 km², or 30,078 sq mi, is land
and almost exactly the same size
asLake Victoria. You can get to Scotland
from Lesotho on a plane, but it's
something of a slug. First you take
an hour and a half flight to a major
airport in Johannesburg, and from
there you go eight and a half hours
to Qatar, and then it's another 11
hours to get to Edinburgh. Gotta
tellyou, 23 hours on a plane means that
I'm not making that trip with Scotland.
The written history of the country
starts when the Romans came along
andtried to make their empire a little
bit bigger. This time, though, we
have some really specific entry points
into the story of the anthem. The
first happens second in the actual
historical timeline and involves
the manresponsible for flower of Scotland.
Thesecond part we'll get to after I
tell you about Mister Roy Murdoch
Buchanan Williamson. He's a scottish
songwriter and folk musician, born
in 1936, the younger of the two sons
of ethel Cumming and Archibald Williamson.
They were a pianist and an advocate.
That's a type of scottish lawyer,
respectively, and I understand that
they were both pretty good at what
they did. However, they had some
marital trouble and it led to Archibald's
suicide by coal gas poisoning in
1944, when Roy was eight years old.
This, understandably, led to a period
of uncertainty in Roy's life, and
that was ended by being sent to a
boarding school. There he received
apretty good education and he also
gained a love of rugby and sailing.
Hewas also banned from music class
because it was discovered that he
was playing the recorder by ear and
not learning music. It's a monster
thatI have yet to defeat as well, so
Iget it. When he finished high school,
our songwriter tried to join the
Royal Navy, but he had severe asthma,
and something like that keeps you
out of the military pretty much all
of the time. So he went to Edinburgh
College of Arts in 1955 and honed
hisskill painting with robustly no nonsense
seascapes. Thankfully for Scotland
andmy narrative, this is also when Roy
began to get seriously interested
inmusic. Williamson had always been
amusical kind of guy and attended
manyconcerts with his mother, while seeming
to possess a natural ability to play
instruments, particularly stringed
ones.Soon after getting started with the
guitar, he was performing live for
an art school skiffle group. Skiffle
isa sort of pared down rhythmic folk
blues, and the UK loved it in the
mid fifties. In fact, it was some
ofwhat the quarry men played, although
that band is better known for its
members than its music. Once he got
on the music, Ray began absorbing
influences from all over, and by
1961, the idea of forming a folk
group had formed also. By then, he
had met and married his first wife,
Violet Thompson. Then by 1962, he
and his rugby buddy and grad school
classmate had been recruited into
the Corey trio with Patti Bell. That
group lasted about three years and
was successful enough that Williamson
quithis job teaching art at Edinburgh's
Liberton High School. There was a
falling out in the group and Roy
ended up working in a duo with Ronnie
Brown, the aforementioned rugby Buddy.
They were called the Quarries. He
also spent the sixties learning the
bad rand, the concertina, the flute,
the tin whistle, northumbrian pipes
and like five different stringed
instruments. Then he built two custom
instruments called the combo lens,
that developed a distinctive musical
and performative style with them.
Thecorries were a mostly traditional
scottishmusic act, but as Ray became more
musically knowledgeable and capable,
heincreasingly turned to composition
on hisown. One of the other things that
Ray was doing with the 1960s was
writing songs about historic themes.
And Flower of Scotland is written
aboutand inspired by the events surrounding
thebattle of Bannockburn. We'll hear
about that battle from the Middle
Ages. When I am discussing the song
itself, I think a 600 year leap back
and then forward is not going to
be helpful or needed. So we'll stay
in the sixties from 60 years ago
for now. According to his daughter,
aruffed draft of flower of Scotland
existed as early as 1964. In the
words of Ronnie Brown himself, and
I quote, the song was written by
Roy in the mid sixties. Its first
showing to the public was in a BBC
quarries filmed television series
recorded in 1967 in black and white.
While Roy playing the bouzouki, and
myself the bad rain in front of Ruthven
barracks in the north of Scotland.
Itgave it a somewhat archaic treatment,
perhaps to make a new song sound
abit more ancient. From there, the
song became very popular, and I think
it might be the only anthem that
someone listening to this show might
have seen at a concert, just as part
of a set list. Since the last few
shows that the corries did were in
the 1980s, the route to popularity
andtaking its place as a de facto anthem
was kind of a threefold path for
this song. First off, the fans of
the duo love the song and that's
alright because you heard what I
heard. It's not a bad tune and I
enjoyed it. Unless traditional sounding
music is an anathema to you. Or maybe
you just don't like this song, which
is fine too, because sometimes you
don't. The song became popular in
concert with the rise of the Scottish
National Party or the SNP. Despite
theoriginal patriotic and not exactly
political intent of the tune, the
rousing call for scottish nationhood
inthe song, along with both members
ofthe band actually supporting the
SNP in the seventies led to the song
being perceived as a party anthem,
whether or not they had intended
it tobe one. What really made the flower
ofScotland famous, though, was scottish
rugby guy mister Billy Steele of
the British Lions. He took the song
with him on the victorious tour of
South Africa that the team had. The
Scots on the team were so into the
song that they talked everybody on
the team, including english and irish
folks, to sing it. When they got
voted as team of the year, they sang
it live on the BBC. And honestly,
it's anexcellent sport anthem in that it
refers to distant heroes overcoming
greatodds, and usefully, it has simple
andeasy to learn lyrics from there.
Itwas forever associated with rugby
andScotland in many minds, and in 1990
Flower of Scotland got its turning
point moment. That year, the Scottish
Rugby Union decided that they needed
anew song before the games because
itturns out the Scottish arent huge
fans of God save the Queen, with
several sources referring to the
pre game atmosphere as hostile. The
fans wanted something that was undeniably
scottish, and enough people remembered
thesuccess of the team with Roy's song
as the game opener that the league
heeded the call. I suspect that if
the team had not won against the
English at Murray Field that year,
the song might not have been chosen.
Williamson was proud of the song's
rise to rugby anthem he played in
college and continued to be a great
fan of the sport throughout his life.
But life is also random and cruel,
andearly in 1990, Roy started feeling
notso great, and then by the middle
ofAugust, he'd passed due to a fast
growing malignant brain tumor. He
died kind of young for my taste because
54 is not far away from me at 42.
But he did get to see something he
created begin to take on a permanent
place in the culture of a country
thathe clearly loved. On August 31, 1996,
Ronnie Brown sang it officially for
the Scottish Football association
before aWorld cup qualifying match against
Austria. The quarries even got a
tartan in 2007 to mark the 40th anniversary
of Roy penning the tune and to essentially
commemorate it, taking its place
asthe de facto national anthem in Scotland.
As of 2010, it has taken the place
ofScotland the brave. That's the song
that, if you're in the western world,
might be the only bagpipe tune that
you know. But that was the victory
anthem for the country in the Commonwealth
Games. In the reading for this episode,
I have come to learn that since 1995,
Olympic teams are not allowed to
be fielded by non sovereign nations.
Sothat means that Scotland doesn't
get ateam, but for some reason Puerto
Ricodoes. But that's another rat's nest
of reading and history that I just
can't touch, even though it sounds
like a fascinating thing to find
out. So Flower of Scotland has not
yet been sung at an Olympic medal
ceremony, but it was sung by a choir
of school children during the opening
ceremony of the 2012 Games in London.
Again, though, Scotland is part of
the United Kingdom and I as such,
itsanthem is technically the same as
the english one. However, people
havedone a bit of clamoring to try and
get one in 2004, some parliamentary
lawyeringin the Scottish Parliament, of all
places, resulted in a ruling that
they could legally pick an anthem
oftheir own. There was some interest
andinitial petitioning, but it went
nowhere. In 2006, there was a poll
with 10,000 self selected online
pollparticipants, and Flower of Scotland
won41% of the vote to Scotland, the
brave second place showing with 29%.
That same year, the Scottish National
Party was also denied a motion to
open a national debate on deciding
ananthem, while ostensibly not pushing
for a particular song. Then, in 2015,
scottish organist Chris Cromar put
forth a petition to have an agreed
anthem and suggested flower of Scotland
be selected. So the parliament asked
the Scottish Football association
for theirfans input, finding overall that
only about 55% of respondents were
in favor of officially recognizing
the songas the anthem. A couple of months
later, the matter was officially
closed assomething that shouldn't be led by
the government, but rather decided
informally over time. And that represents
the latest information I was able
tofind on the Internet regarding the
state of Scotland's national anthem,
leaving us with Flower of Scotland
asthe reigning de facto anthem for
the nation. So on to the song itself.
Musically speaking, Flower of Scotland
is, as originally conceived, a fairly
straightforward and nearly simple
scottish folk song. It's a verse
chorus format song typically played
inbb major. Whether it is a dirge like
tune similar to the one we heard
atthe beginning of the show, a vocal
choir performance, as it was at the
2012 Olympic opener, or as a full
orchestration to celebrate Scotland
winning a match at some games, the
strongly memorable melody and emotive
lyrics have made this song something
that's been stuck in my head for
acouple of weeks. Honestly, I'm going
to read the lyrics out in the original
English, and then I get to tell you
about a 14th century battle that
hasnothing to do with William Wallace
Oflower of Scotland. When will we
see your like again that fought and
died for your wee bit of hill and
glen and stood against him proud
Edward's army and sent him homeward
taethink again the hills are bare now
and autumn leaves lie thick and still
o'er land that is lost now which
those so dearly held death stood
against him prowed Edward's army
andsent him homeward tae think again
those days are past now and in the
past they must remain but we can
still rise now and be the nation
againand then the chorus the song is directly
inspired by the battle of Bannockburn,
my socalled second entry point into the
timeline. It was fought over the
course of two pretty brutal days
near the end of June in 1314, and
largely understood to be the culminating
battle in the campaign by Robert
deBruce to legitimize his status as
the scottish king by grinding everybody
down with warfare. I am not going
todo a narrative blow by blow of the
entire battle. I mean, as far as
battle goes, it's a pretty good one,
but it's straying off the intended
pathfor me. So broad strokes here. King
Edward went north to invade Scotland
anddeal with them once and for all with
something on the order of 20,000
troops, more than twice the size
ofBruce's amassed defenders, and they
were absolutely trounced by the Scottish.
Edward escaped with his life, but
more than 10,000 english soldiers
didn't. It seems like an impossible
numberto die in a mostly on foot, hand
tohand combat situation. From where
Isit and write, it's not really that
many people dying in a battle in
ahistorical sense, since 1314 or so,
but it doesn't even make it onto
theWikipedia page that lists battles
bycasualties, but that gets it no closer
to an experience I'm interested in.
It is an actual important event in
scottish history, though, and flower
of Scotland is not the only piece
ofart or music to reference it. Immediately
following the battle, it led to the
surrender of two castles that were
strategically important to England.
Bruce razed one of them to the ground
to prevent it from being taken back,
and the other came with the capture
ofa group of nobles that Bruce was
able to trade for his wife and a
larger group of his family members
thathad been imprisoned for eight years
in England. There's a fairly straight
line between the victory at the Battle
of Bannockburn and the Treaty of
Northampton and Edinburgh that was
signed in 1328. In that document,
thebritish crown finally recognizes
independent Scotland and acknowledges
Bruceand his heirs as the rightful rulers
of the nation. But our de facto anthem
isn't just about the battle, at least
based on the lyrics and how it feels.
In fact, I don't think the song would
be as popular and as good as it was
or is if it was only about a battle.
And I suspect that I'd be talking
abouta different tune entirely if I didn't
have this other set of anthem esque
qualities that I'm still trying to
figure out how to define clearly.
Thesong begins by addressing the country
metaphorically as a flower and expressing
a longing for something in the past.
There are the aforementioned specific
references to Bannockburn, but there
are some broader references to the
people, and it's a pretty good patriotic
rallying cry. Roy uses symbolism
andimagery to invoke the natural beauty
of the country and the strength and
resilience of the scottish people.
It'sfun that completely without meaning
towrite a national anthem, he kind
ofnailed the assignment. The lyrics
evoke a range of emotions such as
praise, nostalgia, and determination.
Heevokes a celebration of history and
culture that expresses longing for
some restoration of glory. It very
much has the sometimes overt nationalistic
sentiment that I've come to expect
inan anthem. It is pretty good and
largely organic choice for this tune,
and I suspect it will win out in
the end. The song is not without
itscriticisms, though, and I'm not surprised
that an unsettled thing has humans
debating about it. But maybe it would
be a surprise if there were a thing
that we universally agreed on. Fun
thought, but that's another one that
requires an entire podcast. One of
the criticisms that rings a little
hollow for me because it's an anthem,
is the song refers to things in the
past and not aspirations for the
future of the country and the people.
Lots of anthems do that, like a bunch
of them. The great past accomplishments
thatshall be lived again by the nation
works well as material for a national
anthem, as far as I can tell. One
that is more to the point is that
the song has some odd vocal timing
going on, with a little bit of a
pause and some short lines, making
iteasy for the thing to get away from
you if you're not paying attention.
It'snot a big deal for a solo performer
or apractice group, but I've seen videos
of a few crowds of soccer fans that
just completely lose the thing. But
that's fine though, because I am
not a trained singer either, and
those people were probably having
anamazing time at the game. However,
I doknow that I have told you everything
I cantell you about this anthem. It was,
again, a different kind of a story,
told in what I hope is becoming a
familiar and evolving style of narrative,
something or other. Well, I've learned
a lot this time, as usual, and I
hope you have as well. That is literally
the goal here, because why else would
I be doing this? Even if it strikes
methat here we don't really get that
grand of a tale. Roy wrote a song
that checked off a lot of boxes for
him and a lot of boxes for national
anthems. He really loved his country
and he wrote music that honors the
musical traditions and that comes
through especially strongly in the
flower of Scotland. But despite being
about a great victory in war, there
is not a revolution that serves as
our backdrop. We're not learning
about acountry that existed because of Napoleon
or Stalin or Hitler or the Romans.
It'sjust something that rugby players
werereally into, and maybe a bunch of
people were relieved that it wasn't
God save the queen and that it had
words to accompany the music. So
let's get through the credits and
I'll get to writing for the next
one. The writing, recording and production
for the show are done by me, and
Iwrote and played the theme music
andused it with my permission. Unless
otherwise noted, the anthems I play
are public domain or some other equivalently
free to play license. And indeed,
hereI am noting that I did not get permission
to play that song. I'm hoping to
sail through any potential trouble
because I'm using it in an educational
context and I'm definitely not making
any money. Guys, my sources and the
specific items I mentioned in the
show are contained in the notes for
the show, and the most direct way
to get to the notes for the show
is@anthemspodcast.com you can find
me on Facebook and WhatsApp as the
Anthems podcast, although I realize
Ihave no idea what WhatsApp actually
is.Or maybe someday somebody will make
a TikTok for me. Kids like anthems,
right? So for now, I try to get the
episodes shared on whatever platform
Ican with the hashtag hash anthemspod,
andit would be cool if you hashtag stuff
like that too. You can email me corrections,
comments, concerns, suggestions,
ideas,instructions on how to do awesome
things and even ask me questions@anthemspodcastmail.com.
forbetter or for worse, I've made it
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still, leave me a review wherever
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Or maybe tell the person that makes
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you've learned from me. I bet they
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can't think of a reason not to. So
if you have any, probably the best
way to get them to me is through
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if you just keep listening every
nowand then, thank you and I hope you
enjoyed it.
Hello, and welcome to theAnthems podcast. Hi, I'm Patrick,
andI'm here to tell you the story of
a song that helps to tell the story
of a nation. Today we're going to
open the show a bit different than
Ihave so far, because if you are listening
to this episode on the release day
of March 3, it is national anthem
Dayin the United States. This is the
day in 1931 that President Herbert
Hoover signed the law that made the
Star Spangled Banner the official
national anthem here. It kind of
has nothing to do with the country
andanthem that I'll be talking about,
butmy daughter let me know that it was
the date, and it's a fun coincidence.
Sothere you go. The country I'm talking
about does have an official anthem,
butit's God save the Queen, and this
country is not England. We are going
to run into this situation three
moretimes before we get to England, because
I just decided that we're going to
do that anyway. This country is the
country in the UK that is closest
toEngland, and we're headed there on
the show because my mother is taking
atrip there on a plane, not like right
now, but this year. So, at her request,
we'll learn about Scotland. But I
didn't know that it was also going
tobe my first episode about a country
with a de facto anthem. But first,
what's a de facto anthem? And second,
what does de facto even mean? It
strikes me that it's one of those
terms that I learned about either
reading it or in conversation, and
only knew the meaning contextually
in adictionary. It means that something
is aparticular thing, even though it
was not planned to be that thing.
Sothe working definition I had in my
head wasn't, like, far off. Strikes
methat a lot of anthems that are now
official started off as de facto.
Andit's another thing to add to the
future list of stuff to read about.
It's also gotten me sufficiently
far afieldof my original reason for telling
youabout Flower of Scotland, which is
an upcoming trip, that, despite the
fact that I've been told about a
great deal of it, all I can remember
isthat she'll be in Edinburgh at some
point. Sorry, mom. Interestingly
enough, andcoincidentally, this anthem is the
second country in a row with a distinctive
traditional dress containing a deep
history that makes the tartan more
than a piece of clothing. Just don't
wear the balmoral pattern without
theexpress permission of the sovereignty.
Asfar as playing this anthem goes,
Ihave not asked the king's permission
toplay the song that you are about
tohear. Matter of fact, I didn't ask
anybody for permission about this
one and it's the first time that
Iam playing the original version of
something verse in official version
ofthe song. But there is no official
version of the song, and in this
case we get to listen to the very
first public performance of the anthem
before it became what it is, even
ifthe three minute and eleven second
long song didn't have the third verse
yet.
(03:36):
Ophelau Scott will we see yourlegs again that fought and died yet
Helen Glen and stood against him
lode Edwards on me and sent them
home omar they think again the hills
are bare now autumn lives all land
that's been lost now which those
sodearly held that stood against him
o dead words on me unsentim hope
they think again will we see your
lights again that fandaip yet awake
and stood against him loaded words
onme unsem homeward.
(06:31):
My initial reaction isenjoyment. It's another pretty simple
song. It's two guys, a bad ran and
a bouzouki, very clearly an acoustic
folk song, and it's mostly what I
play when I'm playing music myself.
Sosomething like this is completely
in mywheelhouse and definitely goes on
the playlist. In the words of one
of the artists, it got an archaic
treatment to make a new song sound
kind of ancient. Not so bad. I said
earlier that Scotland shares an island
with England, or I think I did. But
that tells us nothing about where
itis, does it? I'm not going to tell
you about lochs either, as the geography
term today, even though I found out
that it means lakes too, and not
just an ocean inlet like I thought
Iinstead I want to talk about the
highlands of Scotland. They were
formed through the caledonian orogeny,
with the cambrian and precambrian
rock. Anorogeny is a mountain building process.
My non geologist understanding is
that two plates meet, one of them
crumbles on compression and up pops
a mountain range over like millions
ofyears. So more info that doesn't
domuch to nail down where Scotland
is, butmakes it geologically interesting
visually.It's easy to find Italy on a map
ofEurope, then go northeast to the
coast up to the larger of the two
islands off the coast off the coast
of Europe. The northern third of
that, plus many smaller islands,
comprise the country of Scotland.
About77,900 km², or 30,078 sq mi, is land
and almost exactly the same size
asLake Victoria. You can get to Scotland
from Lesotho on a plane, but it's
something of a slug. First you take
an hour and a half flight to a major
airport in Johannesburg, and from
there you go eight and a half hours
to Qatar, and then it's another 11
hours to get to Edinburgh. Gotta
tellyou, 23 hours on a plane means that
I'm not making that trip with Scotland.
The written history of the country
starts when the Romans came along
andtried to make their empire a little
bit bigger. This time, though, we
have some really specific entry points
into the story of the anthem. The
first happens second in the actual
historical timeline and involves
the manresponsible for flower of Scotland.
Thesecond part we'll get to after I
tell you about Mister Roy Murdoch
Buchanan Williamson. He's a scottish
songwriter and folk musician, born
in 1936, the younger of the two sons
of ethel Cumming and Archibald Williamson.
They were a pianist and an advocate.
That's a type of scottish lawyer,
respectively, and I understand that
they were both pretty good at what
they did. However, they had some
marital trouble and it led to Archibald's
suicide by coal gas poisoning in
1944, when Roy was eight years old.
This, understandably, led to a period
of uncertainty in Roy's life, and
that was ended by being sent to a
boarding school. There he received
apretty good education and he also
gained a love of rugby and sailing.
Hewas also banned from music class
because it was discovered that he
was playing the recorder by ear and
not learning music. It's a monster
thatI have yet to defeat as well, so
Iget it. When he finished high school,
our songwriter tried to join the
Royal Navy, but he had severe asthma,
and something like that keeps you
out of the military pretty much all
of the time. So he went to Edinburgh
College of Arts in 1955 and honed
hisskill painting with robustly no nonsense
seascapes. Thankfully for Scotland
andmy narrative, this is also when Roy
began to get seriously interested
inmusic. Williamson had always been
amusical kind of guy and attended
manyconcerts with his mother, while seeming
to possess a natural ability to play
instruments, particularly stringed
ones.Soon after getting started with the
guitar, he was performing live for
an art school skiffle group. Skiffle
isa sort of pared down rhythmic folk
blues, and the UK loved it in the
mid fifties. In fact, it was some
ofwhat the quarry men played, although
that band is better known for its
members than its music. Once he got
on the music, Ray began absorbing
influences from all over, and by
1961, the idea of forming a folk
group had formed also. By then, he
had met and married his first wife,
Violet Thompson. Then by 1962, he
and his rugby buddy and grad school
classmate had been recruited into
the Corey trio with Patti Bell. That
group lasted about three years and
was successful enough that Williamson
quithis job teaching art at Edinburgh's
Liberton High School. There was a
falling out in the group and Roy
ended up working in a duo with Ronnie
Brown, the aforementioned rugby Buddy.
They were called the Quarries. He
also spent the sixties learning the
bad rand, the concertina, the flute,
the tin whistle, northumbrian pipes
and like five different stringed
instruments. Then he built two custom
instruments called the combo lens,
that developed a distinctive musical
and performative style with them.
Thecorries were a mostly traditional
scottishmusic act, but as Ray became more
musically knowledgeable and capable,
heincreasingly turned to composition
on hisown. One of the other things that
Ray was doing with the 1960s was
writing songs about historic themes.
And Flower of Scotland is written
aboutand inspired by the events surrounding
thebattle of Bannockburn. We'll hear
about that battle from the Middle
Ages. When I am discussing the song
itself, I think a 600 year leap back
and then forward is not going to
be helpful or needed. So we'll stay
in the sixties from 60 years ago
for now. According to his daughter,
aruffed draft of flower of Scotland
existed as early as 1964. In the
words of Ronnie Brown himself, and
I quote, the song was written by
Roy in the mid sixties. Its first
showing to the public was in a BBC
quarries filmed television series
recorded in 1967 in black and white.
While Roy playing the bouzouki, and
myself the bad rain in front of Ruthven
barracks in the north of Scotland.
Itgave it a somewhat archaic treatment,
perhaps to make a new song sound
abit more ancient. From there, the
song became very popular, and I think
it might be the only anthem that
someone listening to this show might
have seen at a concert, just as part
of a set list. Since the last few
shows that the corries did were in
the 1980s, the route to popularity
andtaking its place as a de facto anthem
was kind of a threefold path for
this song. First off, the fans of
the duo love the song and that's
alright because you heard what I
heard. It's not a bad tune and I
enjoyed it. Unless traditional sounding
music is an anathema to you. Or maybe
you just don't like this song, which
is fine too, because sometimes you
don't. The song became popular in
concert with the rise of the Scottish
National Party or the SNP. Despite
theoriginal patriotic and not exactly
political intent of the tune, the
rousing call for scottish nationhood
inthe song, along with both members
ofthe band actually supporting the
SNP in the seventies led to the song
being perceived as a party anthem,
whether or not they had intended
it tobe one. What really made the flower
ofScotland famous, though, was scottish
rugby guy mister Billy Steele of
the British Lions. He took the song
with him on the victorious tour of
South Africa that the team had. The
Scots on the team were so into the
song that they talked everybody on
the team, including english and irish
folks, to sing it. When they got
voted as team of the year, they sang
it live on the BBC. And honestly,
it's anexcellent sport anthem in that it
refers to distant heroes overcoming
greatodds, and usefully, it has simple
andeasy to learn lyrics from there.
Itwas forever associated with rugby
andScotland in many minds, and in 1990
Flower of Scotland got its turning
point moment. That year, the Scottish
Rugby Union decided that they needed
anew song before the games because
itturns out the Scottish arent huge
fans of God save the Queen, with
several sources referring to the
pre game atmosphere as hostile. The
fans wanted something that was undeniably
scottish, and enough people remembered
thesuccess of the team with Roy's song
as the game opener that the league
heeded the call. I suspect that if
the team had not won against the
English at Murray Field that year,
the song might not have been chosen.
Williamson was proud of the song's
rise to rugby anthem he played in
college and continued to be a great
fan of the sport throughout his life.
But life is also random and cruel,
andearly in 1990, Roy started feeling
notso great, and then by the middle
ofAugust, he'd passed due to a fast
growing malignant brain tumor. He
died kind of young for my taste because
54 is not far away from me at 42.
But he did get to see something he
created begin to take on a permanent
place in the culture of a country
thathe clearly loved. On August 31, 1996,
Ronnie Brown sang it officially for
the Scottish Football association
before aWorld cup qualifying match against
Austria. The quarries even got a
tartan in 2007 to mark the 40th anniversary
of Roy penning the tune and to essentially
commemorate it, taking its place
asthe de facto national anthem in Scotland.
As of 2010, it has taken the place
ofScotland the brave. That's the song
that, if you're in the western world,
might be the only bagpipe tune that
you know. But that was the victory
anthem for the country in the Commonwealth
Games. In the reading for this episode,
I have come to learn that since 1995,
Olympic teams are not allowed to
be fielded by non sovereign nations.
Sothat means that Scotland doesn't
get ateam, but for some reason Puerto
Ricodoes. But that's another rat's nest
of reading and history that I just
can't touch, even though it sounds
like a fascinating thing to find
out. So Flower of Scotland has not
yet been sung at an Olympic medal
ceremony, but it was sung by a choir
of school children during the opening
ceremony of the 2012 Games in London.
Again, though, Scotland is part of
the United Kingdom and I as such,
itsanthem is technically the same as
the english one. However, people
havedone a bit of clamoring to try and
get one in 2004, some parliamentary
lawyeringin the Scottish Parliament, of all
places, resulted in a ruling that
they could legally pick an anthem
oftheir own. There was some interest
andinitial petitioning, but it went
nowhere. In 2006, there was a poll
with 10,000 self selected online
pollparticipants, and Flower of Scotland
won41% of the vote to Scotland, the
brave second place showing with 29%.
That same year, the Scottish National
Party was also denied a motion to
open a national debate on deciding
ananthem, while ostensibly not pushing
for a particular song. Then, in 2015,
scottish organist Chris Cromar put
forth a petition to have an agreed
anthem and suggested flower of Scotland
be selected. So the parliament asked
the Scottish Football association
for theirfans input, finding overall that
only about 55% of respondents were
in favor of officially recognizing
the songas the anthem. A couple of months
later, the matter was officially
closed assomething that shouldn't be led by
the government, but rather decided
informally over time. And that represents
the latest information I was able
tofind on the Internet regarding the
state of Scotland's national anthem,
leaving us with Flower of Scotland
asthe reigning de facto anthem for
the nation. So on to the song itself.
Musically speaking, Flower of Scotland
is, as originally conceived, a fairly
straightforward and nearly simple
scottish folk song. It's a verse
chorus format song typically played
inbb major. Whether it is a dirge like
tune similar to the one we heard
atthe beginning of the show, a vocal
choir performance, as it was at the
2012 Olympic opener, or as a full
orchestration to celebrate Scotland
winning a match at some games, the
strongly memorable melody and emotive
lyrics have made this song something
that's been stuck in my head for
acouple of weeks. Honestly, I'm going
to read the lyrics out in the original
English, and then I get to tell you
about a 14th century battle that
hasnothing to do with William Wallace
Oflower of Scotland. When will we
see your like again that fought and
died for your wee bit of hill and
glen and stood against him proud
Edward's army and sent him homeward
taethink again the hills are bare now
and autumn leaves lie thick and still
o'er land that is lost now which
those so dearly held death stood
against him prowed Edward's army
andsent him homeward tae think again
those days are past now and in the
past they must remain but we can
still rise now and be the nation
againand then the chorus the song is directly
inspired by the battle of Bannockburn,
my socalled second entry point into the
timeline. It was fought over the
course of two pretty brutal days
near the end of June in 1314, and
largely understood to be the culminating
battle in the campaign by Robert
deBruce to legitimize his status as
the scottish king by grinding everybody
down with warfare. I am not going
todo a narrative blow by blow of the
entire battle. I mean, as far as
battle goes, it's a pretty good one,
but it's straying off the intended
pathfor me. So broad strokes here. King
Edward went north to invade Scotland
anddeal with them once and for all with
something on the order of 20,000
troops, more than twice the size
ofBruce's amassed defenders, and they
were absolutely trounced by the Scottish.
Edward escaped with his life, but
more than 10,000 english soldiers
didn't. It seems like an impossible
numberto die in a mostly on foot, hand
tohand combat situation. From where
Isit and write, it's not really that
many people dying in a battle in
ahistorical sense, since 1314 or so,
but it doesn't even make it onto
theWikipedia page that lists battles
bycasualties, but that gets it no closer
to an experience I'm interested in.
It is an actual important event in
scottish history, though, and flower
of Scotland is not the only piece
ofart or music to reference it. Immediately
following the battle, it led to the
surrender of two castles that were
strategically important to England.
Bruce razed one of them to the ground
to prevent it from being taken back,
and the other came with the capture
ofa group of nobles that Bruce was
able to trade for his wife and a
larger group of his family members
thathad been imprisoned for eight years
in England. There's a fairly straight
line between the victory at the Battle
of Bannockburn and the Treaty of
Northampton and Edinburgh that was
signed in 1328. In that document,
thebritish crown finally recognizes
independent Scotland and acknowledges
Bruceand his heirs as the rightful rulers
of the nation. But our de facto anthem
isn't just about the battle, at least
based on the lyrics and how it feels.
In fact, I don't think the song would
be as popular and as good as it was
or is if it was only about a battle.
And I suspect that I'd be talking
abouta different tune entirely if I didn't
have this other set of anthem esque
qualities that I'm still trying to
figure out how to define clearly.
Thesong begins by addressing the country
metaphorically as a flower and expressing
a longing for something in the past.
There are the aforementioned specific
references to Bannockburn, but there
are some broader references to the
people, and it's a pretty good patriotic
rallying cry. Roy uses symbolism
andimagery to invoke the natural beauty
of the country and the strength and
resilience of the scottish people.
It'sfun that completely without meaning
towrite a national anthem, he kind
ofnailed the assignment. The lyrics
evoke a range of emotions such as
praise, nostalgia, and determination.
Heevokes a celebration of history and
culture that expresses longing for
some restoration of glory. It very
much has the sometimes overt nationalistic
sentiment that I've come to expect
inan anthem. It is pretty good and
largely organic choice for this tune,
and I suspect it will win out in
the end. The song is not without
itscriticisms, though, and I'm not surprised
that an unsettled thing has humans
debating about it. But maybe it would
be a surprise if there were a thing
that we universally agreed on. Fun
thought, but that's another one that
requires an entire podcast. One of
the criticisms that rings a little
hollow for me because it's an anthem,
is the song refers to things in the
past and not aspirations for the
future of the country and the people.
Lots of anthems do that, like a bunch
of them. The great past accomplishments
thatshall be lived again by the nation
works well as material for a national
anthem, as far as I can tell. One
that is more to the point is that
the song has some odd vocal timing
going on, with a little bit of a
pause and some short lines, making
iteasy for the thing to get away from
you if you're not paying attention.
It'snot a big deal for a solo performer
or apractice group, but I've seen videos
of a few crowds of soccer fans that
just completely lose the thing. But
that's fine though, because I am
not a trained singer either, and
those people were probably having
anamazing time at the game. However,
I doknow that I have told you everything
I cantell you about this anthem. It was,
again, a different kind of a story,
told in what I hope is becoming a
familiar and evolving style of narrative,
something or other. Well, I've learned
a lot this time, as usual, and I
hope you have as well. That is literally
the goal here, because why else would
I be doing this? Even if it strikes
methat here we don't really get that
grand of a tale. Roy wrote a song
that checked off a lot of boxes for
him and a lot of boxes for national
anthems. He really loved his country
and he wrote music that honors the
musical traditions and that comes
through especially strongly in the
flower of Scotland. But despite being
about a great victory in war, there
is not a revolution that serves as
our backdrop. We're not learning
about acountry that existed because of Napoleon
or Stalin or Hitler or the Romans.
It'sjust something that rugby players
werereally into, and maybe a bunch of
people were relieved that it wasn't
God save the queen and that it had
words to accompany the music. So
let's get through the credits and
I'll get to writing for the next
one. The writing, recording and production
for the show are done by me, and
Iwrote and played the theme music
andused it with my permission. Unless
otherwise noted, the anthems I play
are public domain or some other equivalently
free to play license. And indeed,
hereI am noting that I did not get permission
to play that song. I'm hoping to
sail through any potential trouble
because I'm using it in an educational
context and I'm definitely not making
any money. Guys, my sources and the
specific items I mentioned in the
show are contained in the notes for
the show, and the most direct way
to get to the notes for the show
is@anthemspodcast.com you can find
me on Facebook and WhatsApp as the
Anthems podcast, although I realize
Ihave no idea what WhatsApp actually
is.Or maybe someday somebody will make
a TikTok for me. Kids like anthems,
right? So for now, I try to get the
episodes shared on whatever platform
Ican with the hashtag hash anthemspod,
andit would be cool if you hashtag stuff
like that too. You can email me corrections,
comments, concerns, suggestions,
ideas,instructions on how to do awesome
things and even ask me questions@anthemspodcastmail.com.
forbetter or for worse, I've made it
possible to leave me a voicemail
or sendme a text at 1203-759-8375 or better
still, leave me a review wherever
youcan so that I can find out what you
think. Give me a rating on your podcast
collection app. If you're lying about
me, please lie up. That would help.
Or maybe tell the person that makes
you coffee some facts about a song
you've learned from me. I bet they
like facts, too. And also, I've decided
that I'll take requests because I
can't think of a reason not to. So
if you have any, probably the best
way to get them to me is through
theemail@anthemspodmail.com. but even
if you just keep listening every
nowand then, thank you and I hope you
enjoyed it.
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