I heard the Christy Moore version of this old scottish song about the Blantyre Mining Disaster which took place on October 22, 1877 where 207 miners died and 92 widows made, and 250 fatherless children. I had never heard of this explosion yet, this town is just next to my home city Glasgow till i heard this song. Tears came down my face first time i heard this..
Dunno there is something about this song that really touches me, makes me think of all us ordinary people that get fucked over by a system that reduces us to a means of production or reproduction, or a wastage underclass and how precarious our existances are within that set up…
It is songs like this that gives us an insight into the real lifes and emotions of such events that can alas only be generally put into statistics for us to recount such is the magnitude of the problems of this world….
I came across the chords for it and have been practicing it, i like to sing real songs about real people, and the real struggles that we all have to endure that rarely get noticed.
Anyway heres a great version by Luke Kelly and below are the lyrics..
By Clyde’s bonnie banks
as I sadly did wander
among the pit heaps
as evening grew high.
I spied a young maiden
all dressed in deep mourning
a weeping and wailing
with many a sigh.
I stepped up beside her
and this I adressed her
“Pray, tell me fair maid
of your trouble and pain.”
Sobbing and sighing
at last she did answer
“Johnny Murphy, kind sir,
was my true lover’s name
twenty-one years of age
full of youth and good looking
to work down the mine
of high Blantyre he came.
The wedding was fixed
all guests were invited
that calm summer’s evening
my Johnny was slain.
The explosion was heard
all the women and children
with pale anxious faces
made haste to the mine.
When the truth was made known
the hills rang with their mourning.
Three hundred and ten
young miners were slain.
Now husbands and wives
and sweethearts and brothers
that Blantyre explosion
they’ll never forget.
And all you young miners
who hear my sad story
shed a tear for the victims
who were laid to their rest.”
