Years ago, Lame Dog had the pleasure of seeing the Australian songwriter Eric Bogle in concert. Bogle performed many of his fine songs, but not the one that first made the Dog prick up his ears. That can be heard in the clip below. Bogle supplied the melody and the chorus. The remainder is credited to a poem by James MacArthur.
I always assumed that MacArthur was a minor nineteenth century literary figure. In fact, he died in 1981 and, as far as I know, never published a word.
James MacArthur emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1946. He enjoyed a good life in his adopted country and always said that he did not want to go back. But when he died, he left directions for this poem to be read at his funeral. It commences with Aussie imagery — a reference to the Murrumbidgee River, which flows through New South Wales, and to the wattle plant and kookaburra bird. But it does so as counterpoint to a lament for another land, one that the writer knows he will never see again. Several years later, his son sent a copy to Bogle, with whom it no doubt struck a cord. Bogle himself had left Scotland to resettle in Australia, as have over 130,000 of his countrymen.
Some additional biographical details about MacArthur have surfaced on a website commemorating old Glasgow pubs. He was born in 1913 and spent much of his childhood on the Isle of Syke. At fourteen, however, he moved to a far less bucolic setting — a Glasgow slum known for its gangsters. There he later found work as a bartender in an establishment patronized by Catholics, which made it necessary for him to conceal that he was Protestant. Australia must have represented an auspicious new beginning for him. But even under the best of circumstances, emigration involves displacement and loss.
As for Bogle’s chorus, it borrows a line from the iconic song, “Loch Lomond.” But the lyric is inverted. In the original, the singer proclaims that he will take the low road to Scotland, not the high one. A version has been traced back to the 1740’s, when supporters of the unsuccessful uprising in favor of Bonnie Prince Charlie faced execution in England. According to some interpretations, the low road signifies death. In Scottish lure, the souls of those who die while away will be carried via an underground route by fairies back to the homeland.
The world’s an old place. People come and go. Sometimes, when we’re lucky, they leave behind songs. Let’s raise a glass to MacArthur and Scotland. And to all those who seek a new life while bearing the weight of the past.