Songs of Scotland

Happy Saint Andrew’s Day. Whether you’re Scottish or not, you can’t deny that some fantastic music has come from my home country over the years.

Our musical heritage is rich and varied, and many Scottish artists can’t resist the urge to make music about the place they come from.  To celebrate Scotland’s national day, I wanted to look at which songs sum up Scotland.

I’ll start with my choice. Frankie Miller’s version of Caledonia. It captures how I feel about Scotland, especially now I don’t live there and can get all romantic about the place. If I hear this song and I haven’t been home for a while, it compels me to get there soon.

Our Business Support Manager, Gemma, went with the theme from Braveheart, bringing back all the memories of Mel Gibson’s painted face and the.. eh… accent! If you buy me a drink, I’ll tell you how this track, me and Tony Blair almost combined to create a major political fall out!

Roger, one of our presenting team, chose The Proclaimers and Sunshine on Leith. Is there a better love song to Scotland out there?

Another of our presenters, Michaela, selected the next track. She says, “It’s a sublime ode to the rugged beauty of Scotland AND a bit of a Christmas banger”. Warning: contains bagpipes.

The boss (who isn’t Scottish!) has been inspired by the Scottish Rugby Team and picked Flower of Scotland. I’m biased, but is there another national anthem that gets the goosebumps going like this one?

And Kim, who could only be Scottish based on what is coming, says Loch Lomond by Runrig. As Kim explains, “If you’ve ever been to a Scottish wedding, you’ll know this is always the last song played. Everyone who is left is ordered to the dance floor, where the bride and groom take centre stage, and everyone else links arms and forms a circle round them.”

Donald from our AV teams agrees, but his experience of the Runrig song is different. As he says, “working on a lot of events, when loch Lomond comes on, it signals to us techs that it’s the end of the night. We know we can soon get started packing everything away.”

Enjoy those songs. Every one of them captures different feelings about Scotland in a way that only music can.

Written by Euan McMorrow, Content Director at AVC Immedia.