It's time for that Burns night post again:
Music historians have long noted the influence of the Scottish ballad tradition on the development of the blues and jazz, a product of the cultural encounter between Scottish and African American immigrants in the New World.
The Slave’s Lament (1792) by Robert Burns is pure blues in sentiment and structure as well as being a clear statement of solidarity with African slaves:
It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthrall
For the lands of Virginia-ginia O;
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more,
And alas! I am weary, weary O!
All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia-ginia O;
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O!
The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia-ginia O;
And I think on friends most dear with the bitter, bitter tear,
And Alas! I am weary, weary O!
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