Indygo Blue

DESCRIPTION: "Kind freens if ye listen a while tae me, I'll sing tae ye of a chap in Dundee.... The king ower the bairns was Indygo Blue." He is teased by children, harassed by adults. He breaks a lamp and is imprisoned for ten days, where they wash the blue off him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1986 (Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee)
KEYWORDS: prison commerce colors
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee 51, "Indygo Blue" (1 text)
NOTES [67 words]: Gatherer-SongsAndBalladsOfDundee explains that Indygo Blue sold blue camstone, Camstone/caumstone was a clay or a limestone with a large clay component, used to make pipes and hearth tiles. Normally such a material would be white; blue would be an impurity. It is not clear whether there was a natural source of blue camstone or if Indygo Blue added a blue (presumably indigo) to make it that color. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: Gath051

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