# Bagpipes and Amazing Grace **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267 "2016-03-17T15:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/41 "2016-03-18T15:23:59Z")
I’ve seen The Battlefield Band live a few times. Bagpipes in the right setting can be fun. My favorite cover they do is [Bad Moon Rising.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ophI4q0xkCw) ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/42 "2016-03-18T19:49:29Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > [nitpick]The uilleann pipes _are_ bagpipes. But the highland variety is an eff of a lot easier to carry down the street in a parade, or in a funeral procession.[/nitpick] Oh, thanks! Ignorance fought. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/43 "2016-03-19T02:37:19Z")
Here’s a great piping without any of the usual’s. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/amNF_F6oeRU/hqdefault.jpg ""DUELING PIPERS" College of Piping") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amNF_F6oeRU) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/44 "2016-03-19T02:57:32Z")
> [@svd678](#): > > That’s Scotland the Brave, with a little Loch Loman thrown in. Magnificent Seven is a movie, right? nitpick: Loch Lomond. “You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road…” or “O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road…” One of my favorite Scottish songs (although it’s one of the very few I know, so it’s not like I’m choosing from a large pool.) I’m trying to remember why I know this song so well. Was it ever featured on cartoons? I lived and worked in Scotland for a few months, but I knew the song before that (and I honestly don’t think I even heard it once while living there.) As an American, where’s the most likely place I heard it? And obviously I must have heard it more than once to remember the lyrics from the chorus. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/45 "2016-03-19T03:55:45Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Is there any reason 99 times out of 100 times that I hear bagpipes being played, Amazing Grace is the song? > > In my facebook feed today, someone posted a video of a “REALLY COOL BAGPIPE PERFORMANCE!!” I said to myself, “Bet it’s Amazing Grace.” And a-yup. > > What’s the story behind this. I can’t think of any other instrument being tied to a song so strongly as this (perhaps the piano and Chopsticks, but that’s actually a waltz written for the piano; Amazing Grace wasn’t written for bagpipes, AFAIK.) > [@Seren359](#): > > I always thought it was “Scotland the brave” or “Flowers of the forest” > Perhaps yours is an American thing? > [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > I’m an American, and [Scotland the Brave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBKBI7DOLHA) has always been “the bagpipe song” as far as I was concerned. I’m an American, and the only two songs I associate with the bagpipes are “Scotland the Brave,” and “Celebration,” by Kool and the Gang. > [@pulykamell](#): > > nitpick: Loch Lomond. “You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road…” or “O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road…” One of my favorite Scottish songs (although it’s one of the very few I know, so it’s not like I’m choosing from a large pool.) > > I’m trying to remember why I know this song so well. Was it ever featured on cartoons? I lived and worked in Scotland for a few months, but I knew the song before that (and I honestly don’t think I even heard it once while living there.) As an American, where’s the most likely place I heard it? And obviously I must have heard it more than once to remember the lyrics from the chorus. Judy Collins (again) recorded a version of it that got a lot of radio play in the 70s. If you were a kid in the 70s, you probably sang it in preschool in circle time, or sang it in music class in elementary school, depending on just how old you were when the Collins version was a big hit (exactly what year that was, I don’t know; we had a “Best of Judy Collins” that had it by about 1978 or so, and that’s the best I can do). Also, I think Burl Ives used to sing it on his children’s albums. He was a hugely popular folksinger, and all-round performer, who did voices on some if the Rankin & Bass Christmas specials, and had a #1 hit in the 1940s with “Blue-tail Fly.” ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/46 "2016-03-19T04:00:08Z")
A Scottish Soldier: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/GNRqibe96_g/maxresdefault.jpg "⚡️Scottish Soldier💥Royal Scots Dragoon Guards💥The Green Hills of Tyrol⚡️") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNRqibe96_g) ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/47 "2016-03-19T04:40:34Z")
I love a good stirring bagpipe tune. “The Barren Rocks of Aden” and the “Black Bear/Highland Laddie” medley by the Black Watch are favourites. When the Royal Scots Dragoons recording of Amazing Grace came out, I was in heaven especially when the whole band comes in on the second stanza. I can’t have been the only one, considering how popular it became. But yeah, it’s been done to death now. I haven’t listened to it in years. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/48 "2016-03-19T22:40:54Z")
I was at a funeral just this afternoon, as it happens, for a woman of Scottish descent. Her nephew, in full Highlands gear, played both “Amazing Grace” and “Danny Boy.” ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/49 "2016-03-20T00:48:25Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > That is because Amazing Grace and Gilligan’s Island are both in Ballad Meter, a very common poetic and musical meter. So-called “Common Meter” is a subset of Ballad Meter. > > Here are some of the many lyrics that fit Ballad Meter: > > The Australian National Anthem > Auld Lang Syne > Most of the poetry of Emily Dickenson > O Little Town of Bethlehem > Joy to the World > Many other Christmas carols > Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven > The House of the Rising Sun > > Now, to blow your mind, here’s [Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO2px91IheQ). I’ve known for 40 years that Emily Dickinson’s poetry could be easily sung to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”. I’m not a musician. Would you say “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is in ‘Ballad Meter’? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/50 "2016-03-20T01:20:56Z")
Back when I used to teach AP European History, the kids would always joke that the answer to any musical question on one of my quizzes would be either “Scotland the Brave” or “Rule Britannia.” And if there were bagpipes it was the former. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/51 "2016-03-20T01:29:54Z")
The best bagpipe song is the theme from Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267/52 "2016-03-20T16:49:08Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > The best bagpipe song is the theme from Star Wars. How about the cantina music on bagpipes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bagpipes-and-amazing-grace/749267.md?page=2)