Of A' the Airts the Wind Can Blaw

DESCRIPTION: "Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly like the west, For there the bonnie lassies live, The lassie I lo'e best." His thoughts are "ever with my Jean." The flowers, the birds' songs, the fountains remind the singer of Jean
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns / Music: William Marshall
EARLIEST DATE: written 1788 (source: Kinsley); 1790 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad | wind
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dime-Song-Book #14, p. 41, "Of a' the Airts the Wind can Blow" (1 text)
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 259-264, "Of A' the Airts" (1 text plus many additional stanzas)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #227, pp. 336-337, "I Love my Jean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #36213
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(222a), "Of a' the airts the wind can blow," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 25(1392) (ibid); also Harding B 28(18)=Harding B 28(220), "Burns's Lovely Jean," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 25(1163) (ibid); also 2806 c.11(171)=Firth b.25(287)=Harding B 11(3730), W. and T. Fordyce and J. Whinham (Newcastle and Carlisle), c. 1840; also Harding B 16(179c), "Of a' the airts," unknown, n.d.; also Harding B 11(4261), "Bonnie Jean," unknown, n.d.
NOTES [141 words]: According to Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 52, reports, "Burns wrote in all fourteen songs commonly associated with Jean [Armour, his eventual wife]. Of these, by far the greatest is 'Of a' the Airts the Wind can Blaw,' of which Burns said: 'The air is by Marshall; the song I composed out of compliment to Mrs. Burns.' The song first appeared in 1790 in the Scots Musical Museum. The air first appeared as 'Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey' in William Marshall's Collection of Reels, 1781.
According to Lindsay, pp. 226-227, Marshall 1748-1833) was trained as a clockmaker, but found a career as butler to the Duke of Gordon, and published three books of tunes, in 1781, 1822, and after his death. Burns may have met him, but this is not certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: DSB01441

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