"Aiken Drum" (

Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

2571) is a popular Scottish folk song and nursery rhyme, which probably has its origins in a Jacobite song about the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715).

Lyrics

Modern versions of the lyrics include:

There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon, There was a man lived in the moon, And his name was Aiken Drum. ''Chorus'' And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle, And he played upon a ladle, and his name was Aiken Drum. And his hat was made of good cream cheese, of good cream cheese, of good cream cheese, And his hat was made of good cream cheese, And his name was Aiken Drum. And his coat was made of good roast beef, of good roast beef, of good roast beef, And his coat was made of good roast beef, And his name was Aiken Drum. And his buttons made of penny loaves, of penny loaves, of penny loaves, And his buttons made of penny loaves, And his name was Aiken Drum. And his waistcoat was made of crust pies, of crust pies, of crust pies, And his waistcoat was made of crust pies, And his name was Aiken Drum. And his breeches made of haggis bags, of haggis bags, of haggis bags, And his breeches made of haggis bags, And his name was Aiken Drum.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 52–4.

Other versions of the song include the lyrics:

His hat was made of guid cream cheese, His coat was made of fine rost beef, His buttons were made of
bawbee A bawbee was a Scotland, Scottish sixpence. The word means a debased copper coin, valued at six pence Scots (equal at the time to an English half-penny), issued from the reign of James V of Scotland to the reign of William III of England, William ...
baps, (bread rolls costing a halfpenny each) His breeks (breeches) were made of haggis sacks, His hair was made of spaghetti.

Origins

The rhyme was first printed by

James Hogg James Hogg (1770 – 21 November 1835) was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many ...

in ''

Jacobite Reliques ''Jacobite Relics'' is a two volume collection of songs related to the Jacobite risings, compiled by the Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg on commission from the Highland Society of London in 1817. Most of the songs in the collection are Jacob ...

'' in 1820, as a Jacobite song about the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715):

Ken ye how a Whig can fight, Aikendrum, Aikendrum Ken ye how a Whig can fight, Aikendrum He can fight the hero bright, with his heels and armour tight And the wind of heavenly night, Aikendrum, Aikendrum Is not Rowley in the right, Aikendrum! Did ye hear of Sunderland, Aikendrum, Aikendrum Did ye hear of Sunderland, Aikendrum That man of high command, who has sworn to clear the land He has vanished from our strand, Aikendrum, Aikendrum, Or the eel has ta'en the sand, Aikendrum. Donald's running 'round and 'round, Aikendrum, Aikendrum, Donald's running 'round and 'round, Aikendrum But the Chief cannot be found, and the Dutchmen they are drowned And King Jaime he is crowned, Aikendrum, Aikendrum But the dogs will get a stound, Aikendrum. We have heard of Whigs galore, Aikendrum, Aikendrum We have heard of Whigs galore, Aikendrum But we've sought the country o'er, with cannon and claymore, And still they are before, Aikendrum, Aikendrum We may seek forevermore, Aikendrum! Ken ye how to gain a Whig, Aikendrum, Aikendrum Ken ye how to gain a Whig, Aikendrum Look Jolly, blythe and big, take his ain blest side and prig, And the poor, worm-eaten Whig, Aikendrum, Aikendrum For opposition's sake you will win!

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

in his novel ''

The Antiquary ''The Antiquary'' (1816), the third of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott, centres on the character of an antiquary: an amateur historian, archaeologist and collector of items of dubious antiquity. He is the eponymous character and for all p ...

'' (1816) refers to Aiken Drum in a story told by an old beggar about the origins of what has been perceived by the protagonist as a Roman fort. The beggar tells him that it was actually built by him and others for "auld Aiken Drum's bridal" and that one of the masons cut the shape of a ladle into the stone as a joke on the bridegroom. The reference suggests that the rhyme, and particularly the chorus, was well enough known in the early nineteenth century for the joke to be understood.

The Brownie of Blednoch

Aiken Drum is also the name given by the Scottish poet William Nicholson to the brownie in his poem "The Brownie of Blednoch" (1825). Although this has led some folklorists to speculate that the song may derive from older fairy legends, there is no evidence of the name being used for a brownie prior to Nicholson.Briggs, Katharine (1976). ''An Encyclopedia of Fairies''. Pantheon Books. p. 2. .

Performances

The Scottish folk group

The Singing Kettle The Singing Kettle (also known as Artie's Singing Kettle) are a folk music and entertainment group from Scotland who perform traditional children's songs, along with live theatre performances. Originally from the village of Kingskettle in Fife, ...

performs this song for children in an interactive way by allowing the children to decide the foods of which Aiken Drum is made. A version is included on their CD '' Singalong Songs from Scotland'', produced in 2003 for

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

. Popular Armenian-Canadian children's singer

Raffi Raffi Cavoukian, ( hy, Րաֆֆի, born July 8, 1948), known professionally by the mononym Raffi, is a Canadian singer-lyricist and author of Armenian descent born in Egypt, best known for his children's music. He developed his career as a " ...

played a version of the song, called "Aikendrum", on his album '' Singable Songs for the Very Young'' (1976). Raffi's version of the song replaces the various foods with ones that would be more familiar to an American audience: spaghetti for Aikendrum's hair, meatballs for his eyes, cheese for his nose, and pizza for his mouth. This version was also the ''

Barney & Friends ''Barney & Friends'' is an American children's television series targeted at young children aged 2–7, created by Sheryl Leach. The series premiered on PBS on April 6, 1992. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomo ...

'' version. The album ''Classic Scots Ballads'' (1961) by Ewan MacColl and

Peggy Seeger Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935) is an American folk singer. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years, and was married to the singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989. First American period Seeger's father ...

includes a recording of this song with the original lyrics.

In popular culture

Aiken Drum is the name chosen for one of the main characters in the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

series The

Saga of Pliocene Exile The Saga of Pliocene Exile (or the Saga of the Exiles) is a series of science / speculative fiction books by Julian May, first published in the early 1980s. It consists of four books: '' The Many-Colored Land'', ''The Golden Torc'', ''The Nonbo ...

References