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Some Hae Meat

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Some Hae Meat

A song written by Ian Walker, who explains, 'This song was provoked on hearing that we spend billions of pounds each year in Britain advertising food. The chorus is Robert Burns’s ‘Selkirk Grace’.'

Ian never thought anyone else would be interested in the song, but singer Alastair MacDonald added the last verse, and it has been recorded several times by him and others.

From my armchair window on this world
Before my eyes appearing
Foods for breakfasts, dinners, teas
For in between meals feeding

Chorus

Some hae meat and canny eat
Some would eat that want it
But we hae meat and we can eat
Sae let the Lord be thankit

From my armchair window on this world
I see butter mountains rising
And fish thrown back into the sea
And leaders compromising

And then I see one bowl of rice
A child’s eyes staring at me
With feeble bones life never owned
Reaching out to touch me

Just down the road a million miles
Our children they are crying
Too weak to eat, they’ve got no meat
They spend their living dying

But the ill divisions of this world
Exist because we let them
The choice is ours, ‘tween need and greed
To help or just forget them

'Some Hae Meat', performed by Tryst.
Recorded for Learning and Teaching Scotland for Scotland’s Songs.