Andrew Carr
Hey, my Andrew, Andrew,
How, my Andrew Carr,
Hey, my Andrew, Andrew,
How, my Andrew Carr,
It's what care I for better, an' what care I for waur,
An' what care I for better, gin I get Andrew Carr.
________________________________________________________
Paul Past and Present of Aberdeenshire (1881), 157
(no. 30).
This is a version of a stanza quoted by Sir Walter Scott
in a note on a song in Sharpe's Ballad Book (1823; ed.
of 1880, p. 68):
Hey for Andrew, Andrew,
Hey for Andrew Car!
He gaed to bed to the lass,
And forgot to bar the door!
Andrew Car is cunnin',
And Andrew Car is slee,
And Andrew Car is winnin',
And Andrew Car for me!
Sing hey for Andrew, &c.
O it was Andrew Car,
O it was him indeed;
O it was Andrew Car,
What gat my maidenhead.
Sing hey for Andrew, &c.
Scott's note (p. 138) has "And what care I for better,/
And what care I for waur,/ And what care I for better,/
Since I've got Andrew Car?" He adds: "The Andrew Car of
the ballad, or rather the Andrew Karr, is said to have
been Karr of Kippilaw, a great Covenanter and commander
in the civil wars."
An English version in Bell, Rhymes of Northern Bards (1812),
241: "As I went to Newcastle,/ My journey was not far,/ I met
with a sailor lad,/ Whose name was Andrew Carr.// And hey for
Andrew, Andrew," (etc.). [Words and music in Bruce and
Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy (1882), 179.]
Scott's identification conceivably takes the tune back to the
17th century; but I do not find it published in any old
Scottish collection, at least under this title (not in Glen
ESM, SDM). It is however in the Cox MS. (c. 1830), 85 (9/8
jig), also Robertson Athole Coll. (1884), 138. It appears to
be a set of Hey the Dusty Miller, q.v.
MS
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!