I love a good mashup. This isn’t exactly a mashup maybe, but in a way…
Red Red Rose is a song I’ve been exploring – it’s one of Robert Burns’ most famous lyrics: “O, my luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June: O, my luve’s like the melodie, That’s sweetly play’d in tune.”
Those immortal words written by Burns, known affectionately by Scots as The Bard of Scotland, were written in the 1700’s but 200 years later, in Sweden, the troubadour Evert Taube translated them into Swedish and set them to a song called Min Älskling (my love). Taube was in the Swedish navy and had spent time in South America – mostly in Argentina, I believe – where he soaked up the music and imported it into Sweden. Those sounds heavily influenced music of the 50’s and 60’s and his rendition of Red Rose was a kind of rumba. It struck me that the original words in English suit the Taube melody just fine, so I tried it out at the livestream last Friday. Have a listen!