FOR AA THAT, A SONG STRAND TRAVELS FROM BOTHY TO HOLYROOD

Often different lyrics are pinned together by the tune they utilise. For example, in an old song gathered in fragmentary versions by song collectors a woman yearns for love and social status, leading to an 18th Century anthem to social equality, then a 20th Century suffragettist demand, and then the reopening of the Scottish Parliament.
Robert Burns named 'For a' That, and a' That' as the tune for his 'marching revolutionary anthem' lyric 'A Man's A Man For A' That'.
Gavin Greig and his co-worker James Duncan found six varying texts for the source song Burns worked from, reported in the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection under an alternative title of ‘He’s Comin Here’. Attractive text and language is scattered through these rather fractured lyrics, and it is one of few Scottish traditional songs that give a positive aspirational voice to a woman.
He’s bonnie comin frae the north to gar me gang blithe an braw yet.
He keeps the keys o yon mill door.
Ye’ll maybe dwell in my peat neuks.
He’s pullen on his lang grey quite, he’s tyin on his gravat.
He’s on his horse, he’s in the close, that’ll tak me frae ye a yet.
Miss Bell Duncan in 1931 gave American collector James Madison Carpenter just two verses and a refrain, and said, ‘That was such a common song that I do not know who I got it from. Everyone sung it’.
Carpenter also recorded a differing confused text from Mrs William Carter of Portgordon, and transcribed his recording thus.
He's stanin in his stable door, a tyin on his gravit
He's gaun awa tae court taenicht, bit he'll be mine for a' that
For a that, for a that, an twice as muckle as a that
He's comin o'er yon hielan hills tae take me fae ye a yet
He wears a bonnet for a hat, a naepkin for a gravit
He's comin here, he will be here, he's comin here for a that
Where is he? Either at the farm or mill door or over the Highland hills? Is he in fact interested in her, or does she just admire him at a yearning distance, hoping he will warm to her?
For a very attractive fuller and more rounded lyric that incorporates Greig-Duncan strands we must turn to John Ord’s 1930 collection of ‘Bothy Songs and Ballads’. Ord titles it ’For A That And A That’, and comments, “Our national poet – Burns – appears to have used this old bothy song as a model for his “A Man’s A Man For a That’”.
In Ord’s version a kitchie-deem servant girl dreams of her ‘young man’, who wears commoner clothes, and of her hopes of rising to a higher social status when she will not revenge herself for her current mistreatment by those who feel themselves her superiors.
Be gude to me as lang’s I’m here, I’ll maybe win awa yet
He’s bonnie comin oer the hills that will tak me frae ye a yet
For a that and a that, and thrice as muckle’s as a that
He’s bonnie comin oer the hills that will tak me frae ye a yet
He wears a bonnet for a hat, a napkin for a gravat
He wears a jacket for a coat, but he’ll be mine for a that
For a that and a that, and twice (sic) as muckle’s as a that
He’s comin here and will be here, to tak me frae ye a yet
And maybe I’ll hae hose and sheen when ye maun a gang barefit
An maybe I’ll gang neat and clean when ye gang wet an rablit
For a that and a that, and thrice as muckle’s as a that
Ye’ll maybe sit in my cot-town when I sit in my ha yet
There’s nane o you been gude to me but I’ll reward ye a yet
You’ll maybe need a peck o meal when I can gie ye twa yet
For a that and a that, and thrice as muckle’s as a that
I’ll hae fine kilns and fine meal mills, and muckle mair than a that

And here are some of the lines in a different format, sung by fiddler Ned Stewart, Fetterangus brother of Lucy Stewart.

Robert Burns' own song 'A Man's A Man For A' That' was first printed anonymously, and his identification as the maker of this radical and seditious lyric must surely have caused him anxiety. His song utilising only the tune and the ‘thrice as muckle as a that’ phrase, was and is sung and printed very widely, and his format copied in serious and lampooning street lyric sheets through the 19th Century. At last elements of his structure and lines were employed again for a contentious political struggle.
The 2009 songbook ‘The Right To Vote An' A' That’ tells us that 'In 1908 the London Society for Women's Suffrage printed 'songs sung at the Albert Hall on Suffrage Day Saturday, June 13, 1908', including the also anonymous lyric which is used as the booklet’s title. Lines which work off Burns’ original ones include
For a that and a that, oor timid souls and a that
The girls of independent mind they only laugh at a that
For a that and a that, in spite o fears and a that
Ability and common sense are bound to win for a that
Though some may try to pass it by, the time will come for a that
When women all throughout the land shall have fair play and a that
For a that and a that, it’s coming yet for a that
When Britain’s daughters, as her sons, shall have a vote, and a that

The following day 10,000 women marched through the streets of London. The Observer newspaper reported, 'They marched as if they meant business. They looked as if they wanted votes, and meant to have them, whoever said "No", and on their faces was a smiling consciousness of triumph which disarmed all the potential hostility of the rowdy section of the crowd. The women made London their own. They gathered in their thousands on the Embankment. Motor-cars, brakes and cabs drove up every moment laden with women who wanted to demonstrate.' Maybe they sang the new song again.
When Scotland’s parliament was reconvened on 12th May 1999 the singer of Burns' own lyric was Sheena Wellington, with a majestic wave of her hand gathering up the new MSPs to join in the last verse.
Then let us pray that come it may, as come it will for a’ that
That sense and worth o’er a’ the earth shall bear the gree an a’ that
For a’ that, an a’ that, it’s comin yet for a’ that
That man to man the warld o’er, shall brithers be for a’ that

While a doughty and celebrated performer of Scottish traditional song, Wellington too is a maker, her best-known song being ‘The Wimmin O Dundee’ which celebrates in fine Urban Scots the breadwinner role of Dundee female mill workers.
The men they were na lazy but the work was hard tae find
The pairish and the means test they'd tae face
But a lassie's hands are nimble and a lassie's wages sma
So the wimmin o Dundee worked in their place
Oh, the wailin o the bummer and the clackin o the looms
Brought the wimmin o Dundee oot o their beds
And they walked tae mills and factories and they wrought frae seeven tae five
And the wimmin kept the bairns o Dundee fed