THE MODEL VILLAGE PLEAN
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This site has song lyrics made by classes in East Plean Primary with Ewan McVicar in 2012.
OLDER PLEAN SONGS
Older Plean Songs
THE MODEL VILLAGE PLEAN [1926]
TUNE: The Wearing Of The Green
There’s a model little village
The finest ever seen
It must have dropped from heaven
Cause the Government called it Plean
Oh the model village Plean
Oh the model village Plean
They’re going to build a prison wall
Roon the model village Plean
We got to court on Tuesday
Tae stand before the Dean
And the prosecuting fiscal says
‘It’s Reynolds frae the Plean’
They go to church on Sunday
Half an hour too late
They pull the buttons off their shirts
And put them in the plate
It’s full of thieves and robbers
And honest men are few
If you ask Big Johnston the polis man
He’ll tell you that it’s true
It’s early in the morning
You’ll hear the warders bark
Here comes the chip cairt robber
And his name is Dizzy Clark
Coorie Doon
by Matt McGinn (1928–77)
Coorie doon, coorie doon, coorie doon
my darling,
Coorie doon the day (Repeat)
Lie doon my dear, and in your ear,
To help you close your eye
I'll sing a song, a slumber song,
A miner's lullaby.
Your daddy's doon the mine, my darling,
Doon in the Curlby Main,
Your daddy's howking coal, my darling,
For his own wee wean.
There's darkness doon the mine, my darling,
Darkness, dust and damp.
But we maun hae oor heat, oor light,
Oor fire and oor lamp.
Your daddy coories doon, my darling,
Doon in a three foot seam,
So you can coorie doon, my darling,
Coorie doon and dream
Words:
Coorie: snuggle, nestle
Howking: hewing, digging
Wean: small child
Collier Sweetheart
In 2003 Ewan McVicar was asked to write songs with class P5 in East Plean Primary near Stirling. Ewan’s mother was born in Plean, and he remembered that his grandfather, Hugh Reynolds, had told him about being in a mining disaster. Ewan's grandfather had heard the sound of the 1921 explosion where he was hewing (cutting coal) in the next-door pit. Ewan looked up old newspapers to get details of what happened. Then he and P5 wrote this song.
My mother said I could not have a collier
If I did it would break her heart
I didn’t care what my mother told me
I had a collier for my sweetheart
But one day up Cadger’s Loan
The siren screamed at Pit Four head
All of Plean ran to find out
How many living, how many dead?
Lowsing time in the Carbrook Dook
The young shotfirer fired his shot
Dynamite blew up the section
Twelve lads dead, seventy caught
Their holiday bags were lying waiting
The men were lying down below
The wee canaries they died too
Salty tears in the sad Red Rows
The young shotfirer had no certificate
My young collier gave his life
Fate was cruel to my sweetheart
And I will never be a wife
My mother said I could not have a collier
If I did it would break her heart
I didn’t care what my mother told me
I had a collier for my sweetheart
Today Is Hogmanay
Today is Hogmanay
Tomorrow's Hogmananny
And ah'm gaun doon the brae
Tae see my Irish grannie.
Ah'll tak her tae a ball
Ah'll tak her tae a supper
And when ah get her there
Ah'll stick her nose in the butter.
Singing ah ah ah, ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah
And that's the Gaelic chorus.
Make the bagpipe sound of the 'ahs' by holding your nose with one hand, and beating gently on your throat with the edge of the other hand.
Ewan McVicar's mother Beth Reynolds learned this song in East Plean School playground in the 1920s.
PLEAN SCHOOL SPACE MACHINE
Plean school space machine
It’s roon the back an it can’t be seen
But we know it’s purple, yella an green
An made bi a man ca’d Wull
It’s made wi glass an rusty bars
That come frae rusty motor cars
But it’s good enough tae go tae the stars
Wi the man ca’d Wull
It’s awfy ecological
It’s run bi rottin vegtabuls
Ye throw them in in bucketfuls
Hurray fur the man ca’d Wull
Maybe he wis the jannie here
Maybe he’s Santa’s engineer
Whoever he is, gie three cheeers
For the man ca’d Wull
Plean school space machine
It’s roon the back an it can’t be seen
But we know it’s purple, yella an green
An made bi a man ca’d Wull
Shirley MacCurl the Space Girl
Birls by and gies us a twirl
Cause her machine wis made as well
By the man ca’d Wull
Some fowk say his name is Billy
That’s no right, that’s just silly
We ken better, we ken really
That his name is Wull
NEW PLEAN SONGS
New Plean Songs Made With East Plean Primary Classes
P5'S OOMPA LOOMPA SONG
Shovel the coal (x4)
Oompa Loompa shovel the coal
Makes your clothes as black as a mole
Oompa Loompa sweaty and hot
Like working in a boiling pot
Shovel the coal (x4)
Oompa Loompa bend your back
Look out for a spark attack
Oompa Loompa this is our doom
Wish we were all in the chocolate room
Shovel the coal (x4)
Oompa Loompa doop pa de dum
Wish we all had chocolate thumbs
Oompa Looma doop a de dee
When will it be time for tea
Shove the coal (x4)
Oompa Looma doop a de do
We like chocolate black as a crow
Oompa Looma doop a de dell
We like chocolate white as well
Shove the coal (x4)
Oompa Loompa doop pa de doo
We’re the super shovelling crew (repeat quietly x2)
THE NEW MODEL VILLAGE PLEAN
P6 with Ewan McVicar
There’s the chemist and the garage and the Day To Day Express
The Clansman and the Tavern where they go to have a rest
The chippy and the library, the clinic if ye’re ill
Post Office and Community shop, the paper shop as well
In The Model Village Plean
In The Model Village Plean
We’ll tell you what we’ve got here
In The Model Village Plean
President Kennedy Avenue sounds fine
They used tae call it Cadger’s Loan, you went there tae the mine
Pre Cast is up there now, and the Country Park
Ye must admit the big old house looks spooky in the dark
The smoke was rising like a cloud when our old school burnt down
The flames blazed, the roof fell in with a crashing sound
Our new school is building, when will they be through?
We wish we had our old school but we’ll like the new one too
New song verse by P6
Oh dear, Yuri Gagarin
You flew over Plean wi a pie fe your mammy,
It burst in your face like a pizza fe granny,
And then you had mince in your hair
Words by Cameron and Alec
P7 Wee Wullie Wallace
Wee Wullie Wallace,he wasnae very tall
And when it came to World War Two he didnae fight at all.
He wanted to be a sailor and shout 'torpedo ahoy'
But they sent him down Plean coal mine to be a Bevan Boy
Chorus
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging dusty diamonds all season round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
He went into an iron cage hanging from a chain
It crashed and banged so much hHe thought 'I’ll never come up again'.
When he reached the bottom he asked what to do
But the man down there said 'I havny got a clue'
A helmet with a torch on, big tackety boots
A shovel to shift the earth, not a gun to shoot
He might have been a soldier but he didny get a chance
They sent him to Plean coal mine instead of going to France
He heard about the Knockers hiding in the black
If you went to follow them you’d never come back
They’d tip you in a crater far below the groon
Full of oily water, then you’d droon
He never got a uniform, he never got a gun
He never got a medal when the war was done
He dug dusty diamonds, they put him to the test
All Plean Bevan Boys they did their very best
NEW PLEAN SCHOOL VERSES FOR BANANAS ARE THE BEST
Chorus
Banana, banana, bananas are the best
A nice squishy middle in a big yella vest
Today or manana, ah’ll be saying canna
Canna have a banana
By P6 who are studying space
You can see one on the moon banana
It’s crescent- shaped, not roon banana
We’d like to go there soon banana
Canna have a banana
By P5 who are studying Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
I’d like a chocolate one banana
To use as a funny gun banana
But it would melt in the sun banana
Canna have a banana
By P7 who are studying World War Two
When they had World War Two banana
Banana lovers all felt blue banana
You couldny get wan even if you queued banana
Canna have a banana
New Plean Writing
POEM BY TORI, 2011
As I stand here in Plean
watching the school burn to the ground
it is smoky as can be
as I am trying to see
as the brightly coloured flames burn
and dance in the night
they made the sky shine so bright
I hear the screaming fire engines
on this terrible night
Who is doing this, what does it mean?
Why are they burning the school down in Plean?
We got there to learn and play
Oh no, this is a terrible day