Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Whatever his motives, it was a crowd-pleasing choice: the ballad was still popular two decades after its modern incarnation. With its enchanting melody and sublime, soaring chorus, it remains a folk-music fixture, with Melody Maker magazine once describing it as \u201cthe folk scene\u2019s national anthem\u201d.It is based on the traditional ballad \u201cThe Braes of Balquhither\u201d, which was written around the turn of the 19th century by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill and composer Robert Archibald Smith. Tannahill\u2019s lyrics concern a man persuading his lover to walk among the braes (hills) of a Perthshire village called Balquhither to enjoy their beauty, including the wild mountain thyme\u2019s pink blooms which grow around the purple heather (the modern song is sometimes known as \u201cPurple Heather\u201d). Such ballads extolling the virtues of rural over urban life became popular during the industrial revolution.The song reached Ireland, and in the late 1940s was modified by Belfast musician Francis McPeake. His altered melody was more beautiful than its predecessor, and although he followed the spirit of Tannahill\u2019s words, he adapted them to his own life. His lines: \u201cIf my true love she were gone\/I will surely find another\u201d reflected the death of his first wife, Mary, and his wonderment at finding love again with his second, Alice. He called the song \u201cWill Ye Go, Lassie, Go?\u201d from the chorus line \u2014 yet another alternative title.Let us know your memories of \u2018Wild Mountain Thyme\u2019 in the comments section belowThe paperback edition of \u2018The Life of a Song: The stories behind 100 of the world\u2019s best-loved songs\u2019, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by ChambersMusic credits: Columbia; The Lost Noises Office;\u00a0Smithsonian Folkways; Otey; Sony; Warner; Mercury; Exile; BMG; Renaissance; Parlophone; Lakeshore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Whatever his motives, it was a crowd-pleasing choice: the ballad was still popular two decades after its modern incarnation. With its enchanting melody and sublime, soaring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242433,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242431\/revisions\/242433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}