Skye Bus Song [FT]

by @timfatchen Mod

Liner Notes

Convinced by sweet commenters--against my better judgment--I now possess a baritone ukulele (ref: https://write.fawm.org/songs/307394 ). So what better way to abusingly introduce it to my world than a piece of deplorable #filk we can all sing along to:

May 2023 and Deborah & I are in Edinburgh, not able to get to my elder brother in Wales for a few days because he's ponced off to a Past P&O Commodore Reunion a.k.a. a Used Commodore Lot (Australians will understand). So for the sake of my Newhaven Fishwife we took a quick Green Bus tour through the highlands to the Isle of Skye, famed in #folk song and story.

Oh the letdown when we found that Flora need only have sailed her Bonny Prince a couple of hundred yards over the sea to #Skye, and we crossed that on a bridge.

The driver was one Andrew, a true Covenanter, regaling the passengers with tirades against England, the English, English history, the English Royal Family, indeed anything English, so much so that when recovered from the laughter at one stop, I quietly asked "Are there any English actually on the bus?". A brief moment of thought and the response: "AH DINNAE CARE!" He was an immaculately aggressive driver with hairtrigger reflexes, needed because most of the roads weren't quite wide enough for bus and car to cross at any speed, and many of the drivers were (!) English tourists all at sea.

So here's my salute to Andrew, Skye, The Isles Inn Portree, and of course, my new baritone ukulele. #fuc #publicdomain And not having any Islay Storm left, it seemed inappropriate to bring out the Wild Turkey, so I was sober when I did this. True.

Post-FAWM, I'll change "Over the sea to Skye" to "Over the bridge to Skye", the original paper-scrap wording. I've realised some have visions of a sea-borne bus on top of having to cope with culture shock. I live in a post-Clearances enclave, married to a Bow-Tow , went to Scotch College, it's all built in. Anderson tartan, piper next door, Covenanters...

Lyrics

THE SKYE BUS SONG [FT] Tune: Skye Boat Song Trad. Lyrics Copyright Ā© 2025 TJ Fatchen All Rights Reserved

[CHORUS] Speed bonny bus, like a green wheelie bin, "Onward" the tourists' cry; Driven by one of the Covenant's kin Over the sea to Skye

[VERSE 1] Loud the tyres howl, loud the pipes roar, Backfirings rend the air! Baffled the cars cringe on the shore, Follow they will not dare.

[CHORUS]

[VERSE 2] Many's the folk rode on that day (Andrew the Strong at the helm), When the night came, drunkenly lay By Portree's "The Isles Inn" overwhelmed

[CHORUS]

Comments

[avatar]
@monty

Made me yearn for a bit of Drambuie. Cool song. Great to see the Tadpole once again. We go back a bit. Thanks for the feedback on "The Last Minute."

[avatar]
@ryuu

Aaaaah, love this story! A worthy tale of a modern journey. Your baritone ukulele sounds lovely.

[avatar]

Iā€™m very familiar with The Skye Boat Song! Iā€™m also a huge Outlander fan, so this really resonates with me. The photos you shared from your trip were stunning. Scotland is such a breathtaking and historic place. Your performance was incredible, great flow, excellent tone, and a wonderful rendition of the tune. Fantastic work! šŸ˜„

[avatar]
@karan

Hooray to the ukulele and to this song (and its enjoyable background story)!

[avatar]

Oooo! a sing-along!! :) And a lovely new ukulele! What a treat. This was really fun to listen to. I'm fairly fond of that tune, and you made it even better. And I also loved the whole story about the short distance by boat or bridge to Skye! That's a hoot! Who knew?! On a fairly random note, we just shipped a used (by my kids) Commodore plus all the accouterments to my youngest kiddo, who is now living and working in Texas. So, yay used Commodores.

[avatar]
@ayais

You really made me work to get this. Filk - only a passing knowledge. Your story - quite sweet. The song - ah yes history. The new lyric - so inventive. Thanks! Oh, and the uke - somber and spritely.

[avatar]

they used to tell us that the english bands of the mid 90s were too engish for americans to understand. that wasnt true, but an austrailian singing about bus trips in scotland may go above the american listener's comprehension. i quite like your song, and can relate to it only because of the crazy bus drivers challenging death on the thin, broken roads of the andes, but cannot claim to understand it, as it has been born in regions unknown to me.

[avatar]

I almost wet myself with laughing at that first line. Especially as my ears had invented a real Mondegreen in my head, at first. I had to check the lyrics to ensure you hadn't name checked our local wine bar "Willy Vins" I will never go there again without thinking of Grinning Wheelie Bins. V is pronounced as B in Spanish. šŸ˜‰

[avatar]
@2lofi

It has a very Ween, but acoustic. It was enjoyable, TY for the experience

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