A Long Hard Road
They took my brother across the water A long road, a hard road
They took my sister across the sea A long hard road
A long hard road, a long hard road A long road, a hard road
To work forever in a foreign land A long hard road
Many died upon the journey A long road, a hard road
Many broke their hearts and died A long hard road
Over the mountains and the Great Salt Water A long road, a hard road
A chain at your throat, a stone in your heart, A long hard road
They took our hopes, they took our freedom A long road, a hard road
They took our names and threw them away A long hard road
Ewan McVicar wrote this lyric to an amended version of the tune Follow The Drinking Gourd for a 1990s show about Scots explorer Mungo Park, performed with Ghanaian drum group Atsimevu. The last verse was added for a 2013 show about David Livingstone.
The recording was made on 15th Feb 2014 with 50 singers attending The Muckle Sing in Linlithgow, organised by the Edinburgh & Lothians Branch of the TMSA. The singers had been taught the song that morning by tutor Christine Kydd, who made the ©arrangement.
