Browse content similar to Burns in the USA. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Don't roll yet. I'm practising, right? | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
Bad Scots accent or American accent? | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
Robert Burns, the great Scottish bard, | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
never travelled to America, | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
but his poems and songs certainly did. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
Burns was the 19th-century Elvis, that's how popular he was. | 0:00:17 | 0:00:22 | |
Burns' poems were pirated in the States | 0:00:22 | 0:00:25 | |
by several canny Scots who printed thousands of copies. | 0:00:25 | 0:00:29 | |
He's all over America in the early 19th century. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
I mean, everybody's reading Robert Burns. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:34 | |
The poet's stories really hit home in this emerging nation | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
and some of the greatest cultural and political minds of the day | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
were influenced by Burns' work | 0:00:42 | 0:00:43 | |
during America's most troubled years. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
He is of the people by the people for the people. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
He's an American poet. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
In his own lifetime, Burns was big in America. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
After his death, he became an absolute icon. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
This is the story of a new nation | 0:00:59 | 0:01:01 | |
that took a poet from the old country to its heart | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
and of the legacy that his words left behind. | 0:01:04 | 0:01:07 | |
All right, here we go. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:17 | |
The whole thing? | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
How do you say this? | 0:01:19 | 0:01:20 | |
"We've..." Oh, wait. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
Wee, sleekit, cow... | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
-Is it "slick-it"? -Sleekit. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
"Cow'rin". | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
Wee, sleekit, cow'rin tim'rous beastie | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
O, what a panic in thy breastie! | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
Thou need na start awa sae hasty | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
Wi' bickering brattle! | 0:01:36 | 0:01:38 | |
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
Wi' murdering pattle! | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
I can do that over, if you want. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
It may not be obvious when travelling through America, | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
but if you know where to look, | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
the evidence of Burns is there to be seen. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
And in the wooded suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
there's a curious relic. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:10 | |
It's a unique Burns club that has been meeting for over 100 years | 0:02:10 | 0:02:15 | |
in this living, breathing replica of the cottage in Ayrshire | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
where Burns was born. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:20 | |
Rebuilding Burns' cottage, an exact replica, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
I suppose is the biggest homage to Burns | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
in the United States of America. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
It is very much a sign that Burns is successfully, not artificially, | 0:02:31 | 0:02:37 | |
transplanted into the United States of America in enduring fashion. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
And it's Atlanta pharmacist Joseph Jacobs, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
the man that served the very first glass of Coca-Cola, | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
that the members have to thank for their cottage. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
A lawyer, Piromis Bell, and Dr Joseph Jacobs had a meeting. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:02 | |
Piromis Bell spied a copy of Burns on his shelf | 0:03:02 | 0:03:05 | |
and read several poems. | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
Jacobs was so blown away that he decided, | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
"We must do something about this." | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
In 1907, | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
the club made plans for their very own Burns cottage | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
on land bought by Dr Jacobs. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
It's an almost exact replica | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
but it doesn't have a thatched roof. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
Some of our archives indicate that the field mice | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
found it a little bit too attractive. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
The Burns Club of Atlanta | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
may not look exactly like the cottage in Ayrshire, | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
but it does embody the spirit of Burns. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
The whole notion of good company, good eating, good drinking, | 0:03:50 | 0:03:55 | |
good toasting, good jesting, | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
all of these things which have a kind of licence in Burns' own work | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
are to be found in the Atlanta Burns Club. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
Like most Burns Clubs, this one celebrates the life, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
works and philosophy of Robert Burns. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
Glad to be here with my wife now of six months. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
CHEERING | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
I want to thank Robert Burns for helping this to happen. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
I read Red, Red Rose to her before I asked the question. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:24 | |
Burns, a man that liked company, drinking and talking politics. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:30 | |
Those of you who don't know, I have an English son-in-law who said, | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
"Do you really need to wear this T-shirt, | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
"especially in the political system that we've got now?" | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
It says "Make America Great Britain again!" | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
Burns cottage, you know, was built on the outskirts of town on purpose, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:53 | |
so they could have a place to sing and drink their whisky | 0:04:53 | 0:04:58 | |
and then walk up the hill and catch the trolley back into town. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:03 | |
I was in "Edinboro" a few years ago and I was... | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
I was drinking. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
SHOUTING | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
We've had five governors, we've had senators. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
We've had judges. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
We had a guy who... | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
took care of goats. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:21 | |
BANGING | 0:05:21 | 0:05:22 | |
Gentleman and guests, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
at this time in accordance with the normal routine of the programme, | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
we'll be reading from the bard by Frank Shaw. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:31 | |
Yes, Frank! | 0:05:31 | 0:05:32 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
These verses were suggested by the actual event of Burns ploughing. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:43 | |
It goes something like this. It says... | 0:05:43 | 0:05:45 | |
Small, crafty, cowering, timorous little beast... | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
It's not just the poetry that caused this enduring American fascination | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
in Robert Burns. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:54 | |
It's the history of the man and the things he stood for. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
Burns' life had been a combination of hard labour as a farmer, | 0:06:07 | 0:06:13 | |
but also as a young man who enjoyed fashion, who enjoyed dancing, | 0:06:13 | 0:06:19 | |
who enjoyed music, who enjoyed poetry. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
He was part of a cultural set in Ayrshire. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
And if you look at the guys who get together | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
to subscribe to his first book, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
it's very often lawyers, schoolteachers, merchants. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
These are the guys that Burns is mixing with | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
in that Ayrshire Enlightenment. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
The poems were an instant hit, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
and the Ploughman Poet was soon entertaining | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
the literati of Edinburgh. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:47 | |
With his second edition of his poems, with a much bigger print run, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
some began to refer to Burns as "Caledonia's bard". | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
We're talking about 612 copies of the Kilmarnock edition. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:03 | |
We're then talking about 3,000 copies of the Edinburgh edition, | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
and Burns begins to accrue money | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
that represents a tidy sum in today's terms. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
It's the kind of sales, it's the kind of money, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
that a modern poet would kill for. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
Evidence of the high regard that Americans have for Burns | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
can be seen by the number of people that collect his works. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:30 | |
Frank Shaw's collection is one of the most extensive. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
I've got books that cost in the hundreds of dollars | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
and I've got... | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
a few books that cost in the thousands of dollars. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
Erm... | 0:07:42 | 0:07:43 | |
The most treasured possession I have is a Kilmarnock, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:49 | |
poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
This book is extremely special. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
It's the first book written by Robert Burns. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:10 | |
The book meant a lot to Burns. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
It gave him the money to pay off some debts, | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
it paved the way for him to receive the recognition | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
that he actually thought that he deserved and, erm... | 0:08:20 | 0:08:25 | |
it's the most treasured item that I have in my life. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
Other than my wife! | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
It's very expensive. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
I know there's about 82-84 books left like this. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
There's one for sale right now on eBay for 85,000. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:44 | |
But it's not the Kilmarnock or Edinburgh editions | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
that propelled the work of Robert Burns onto the American stage. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
That's chiefly down to two printers from Scotland | 0:08:50 | 0:08:53 | |
looking to make a tidy sum in Philadelphia. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
I still find it quite remarkable | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
that it just takes a matter of months | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
after the 1787 Edinburgh edition is first sold | 0:09:19 | 0:09:24 | |
before it's being reprinted even in both Philadelphia and New York. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
In places like Philadelphia, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
Burns begins to have a presence in the local newspapers, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:38 | |
partly due to the expatriate Scottish community, | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
but not exclusively. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
It's quickly realised by editors this guy is enjoyed as a poet, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
as a songwriter. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:48 | |
And before long, some bright spark in Philadelphia has the idea, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:53 | |
"Let's pirate an edition of Burns, | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
"let's just take the Kilmarnock and the Edinburgh poems | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
"and let's print it here." | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
It' thought to be in the rooms above this bar | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
in the centre of Philadelphia where those Scottish bright sparks, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
Peter Stewart and George Hyde, pirated the poetry of Burns. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:14 | |
Philadelphia and New York were the main commercial hubs | 0:10:16 | 0:10:21 | |
of America during the period. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
Printing presses are very, very heavy | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
and when they would've come from overseas, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
they would've come in through a port city, and Philadelphia | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
was kind of the original port city | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
before New York kind of surpassed it. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
The absence of any copyright laws | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
created a culture of reprinting in New York and Philadelphia, | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
and naturally, because of the shared language, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:45 | |
popular British books became commonplace, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
and if you think about it from an entrepreneurial | 0:10:49 | 0:10:54 | |
or marketing point of view, | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
it makes sense in that you don't have to pay any royalties, | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
but you can reprint work and make money from selling these books. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
Putting a book of poetry together gives you some specific challenges | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
really in typesetting. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
With poetry you have to be very, very careful, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
because where lines break, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
where they're indented, all of that matters in poetry. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:21 | |
So it would've been, you know, not only a fair amount of work, | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
but it would've been a fair amount, you know, kind of skilled work. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
The high cost of producing a substantial book of poetry | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
meant that Stewart and Hyde had to be confident | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
that Burns' poems would sell well. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:36 | |
But the popularity of the poet meant the venture was unlikely to fail. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
Printers wanted to make money and I think if they found something | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
that they believed would sell, a book of poetry that, you know, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
had a kind of history of doing well, | 0:11:48 | 0:11:51 | |
I could see why that would be, you know, | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
very enticing to an American printer, erm... | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
copyright aside possibly! | 0:11:57 | 0:11:59 | |
The same year, two more Scots, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
John and Archibald McLean from Glasgow, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
published an edition in New York. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
Little did Burns know, | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
but his bootlegged books were flooding the American market. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
We've got no direct evidence that Burns knows this is happening. | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
He is reading about America in the periodical press. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:21 | |
Almost certainly he's seeing advertisements for his own work. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
Burns gets a lot of fame but no royalties at all from that venture. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:31 | |
The chearfu' Supper done, wi' serious face | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
They, round the ingle, form a circle wide | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
The Sire turns o'er, with patriarchal grace | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
The big ha'-Bible... | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
-The big ha'-Bible... -Ha'Bible... | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
The big ha'Bible, ance his Father's pride | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
He wales a portion with judicious care | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
And let us worship God! he says with solemn air. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
It's really pretty. It's a little hard to pronounce some of the words. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
It's like "ha'-Bible," I don't even... | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
I don't know what that means. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:16 | |
In 19th-century America, there was a ready audience for homely tales | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
of country folk, listening to words from the Bible in the hall, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
or ha'-Bible. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:28 | |
It was a country of recent immigrants, | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
keen for reading matter that related to their rural lives, | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
especially those whose roots were from Scotland. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
This is the St Andrew's Society of Central Illinois, | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
enjoying their annual barbecue and membership drive. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
Undoubted fans of all things Scottish, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
they're proud of their bagpipes and their love of Burns. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
If you're an immigrant and you're moving somewhere | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
for a very long time and you're probably not going to return, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
you're going to take some reading material | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
and you're going to sing the same songs that you sang back home, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
and you might even sing them a bit louder in a new, foreign land. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
When you transplant culture, in some ways it becomes more self-conscious, | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
even more traditional, and tradition begets tradition. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
That's not to say there isn't a genuine love going on, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
but Burns clearly abroad as well as at home | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
becomes somewhat fetishistic. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
Burns and his works were definitely used to | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
uphold a sense of Scottish identity in America. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
But when Burns did become popular, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
it didn't take long for his work and even the symbolism of the man | 0:15:24 | 0:15:29 | |
to become incorporated into these societies and to become a symbol, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:35 | |
a patriotic symbol of Scotland and Scottishness. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
BAGPIPES PLAY | 0:15:38 | 0:15:42 | |
THEY SHOUT CLAN NAMES | 0:15:44 | 0:15:49 | |
Clan McFarlane! | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
CHEERING | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
Up! | 0:15:54 | 0:15:55 | |
Clans, light the fire! | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
Scotland forever. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
We have to teach our youth about the history. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
We can't let it be forgotten because it happened. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
As Burns would say, we don't want it to gang agley, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
or go away. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
MUSIC: Ae Fond Kiss played on flute | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
I remember when I was eight years old | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
and my parents gave me a book of his poetry and I read it | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
and read, er, Scots Wha Hae. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
And it's... He's always been there. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:53 | |
At my dad's funeral, I recited My Heart's In The Highlands, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
which is still one of my favourite Burns poems. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
And it was tough to do but I did it for my dad, | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
and he would've loved it, so... | 0:17:05 | 0:17:06 | |
Robert Burns' final years were marked with money worries | 0:17:10 | 0:17:14 | |
and increasingly bad health. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
But his death at the age of 37 | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
didn't bring about a drift into obscurity. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
Burns' reputation and fame grew, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
and in the States, his work would go on to influence some of | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
the most important thinkers of the 19th century. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
Copy of Time Out magazine! | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
Free copy of Time Out magazine. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:51 | |
-All right. -Free copy, free copy. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
Then let us pray that come it may | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
As come it will for a' that, | 0:17:57 | 0:17:59 | |
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth | 0:17:59 | 0:18:02 | |
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
For a' that, an' a' that, It's coming yet for a' that | 0:18:04 | 0:18:09 | |
That Man to Man, the world o'er | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
Shall brothers be for a' that. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
We're all men, I think we're all women, we're all people. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
'It's probably about that.' | 0:18:19 | 0:18:20 | |
That was great, that was great. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
This is a great poem. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
The man should be for a' that. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
With his brothers. We're all that. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
You know? | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
Free copy of Time Out magazine. Free copy, it's all that. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
And that. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:38 | |
When Robert Burns was a young man, | 0:18:46 | 0:18:49 | |
he was fascinated by the emerging nation | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
that was to become the United States of America. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
The British crown was in conflict with its upstart colonies in America | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
for all of Burns' teenage years. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:02 | |
And his most radical views were heavily influenced | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
by what he learned of the revolutionary war. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
Burns wrote a handful of poems, | 0:19:10 | 0:19:12 | |
songs and letters that mention America. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
The common theme is an association with liberty. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
However, by the time of Burns' death, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
it was becoming clear that the ideals behind | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
the American Declaration of Independence had not come to pass. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
The enslavement of black people was endemic in the States. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
But in the fight to end it, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
two people would draw in different ways on the work of Robert Burns. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:44 | |
They were the most influential African-American of the 19th century, | 0:19:44 | 0:19:49 | |
and the man who was probably America's greatest president. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:52 | |
Although Abraham Lincoln had little formal education, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
he was a voracious reader by the time he arrived | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
in New Salem, Illinois at 21 years of age. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
But books were hard to come by in small frontier townships. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
Fortunately, this one had the next best thing to a library - | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
the 27 books of neighbour Jack Kelso. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
Well, with a name like Jack Kelso, or Jock Kelso, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
it's no surprise that this is a Scotsman, | 0:20:22 | 0:20:25 | |
and he is certainly one of Lincoln's mentors. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
Lincoln may well have read the books of Robert Burns | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
before he came to New Salem, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
but Kelso seemed to give the words new weight and meaning. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
He heard Kelso recite the works of Robert Burns | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
complete in that Scottish dialect, acting out those poems. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:48 | |
Lincoln picks up that habit. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
What I think is going on is that Lincoln, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:54 | |
like many new world politicians, | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
many new world cultural figures of intellectuals, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
is looking for something that in a sense isn't British, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:04 | |
isn't English. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:05 | |
And Burns, to some extent, I think, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
plays into that alternative culture that America's looking for. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
Burns' stories of the common man and his themes of egalitarianism | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
were attractive to those struggling to uphold the founding principles | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
of the new American republic. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
The same year that Lincoln leaves New Salem for a law career, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
another young man is planning a much more dramatic change of life. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:36 | |
Frederick Douglass started out as an enslaved person | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
on the plantation of Talbot County, Maryland. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
He would escape at the age of 20 in 1838 at the help of his first wife, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:46 | |
Miss Anna Murray-Douglass, | 0:21:46 | 0:21:48 | |
and he started making those strong and vehement forceful arguments | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
as an abolitionist against slavery. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
We're looking at his last and final home, which was Cedar Hill, | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
where he would often say that he's actually able | 0:21:59 | 0:22:01 | |
to keep an eye on Congress. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
The home of Frederick Douglass is now a museum, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
containing his most precious possessions. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
One of the first books that Douglass got after his escape from slavery | 0:22:10 | 0:22:16 | |
was a copy of Burns' poems | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
and he treasured this throughout most of his life. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
Mr Douglass had a tremendous man crush on Robert Burns, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
and the significance is these are the books | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
that Douglass connected with. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
We have the Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:36 | |
We know this was actually a transformative book for Mr Douglass | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
because all of Douglass' books that had his name | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
with the signature in it are the ones that he really cherished. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
He describes Burns as someone who | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
"broke through the moorings which society threw around him." | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
He enlists Burns into his own discourse on slavery and abolition. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:59 | |
The two main themes that really connected with Douglass | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
in terms of Burns' works is the notion of the egalitarian, | 0:23:03 | 0:23:08 | |
the common folks, as well as this idea of liberalism | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
that was really coming to fruition all throughout Europe at the time. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:16 | |
Fearing that by raising his profile he might be recaptured | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
and returned to slavery, | 0:23:19 | 0:23:21 | |
Douglass left for a 19-month tour of the British Isles, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:25 | |
a place where the anti-slavery movement was beginning to flourish. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
After he frees himself from captivity, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
Frederick Douglass self-consciously, but entirely sincerely, | 0:23:32 | 0:23:37 | |
presents himself as a man of culture, | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
and that's important in the clothes he wears, in the poetry he reads | 0:23:39 | 0:23:44 | |
as he goes round advocating the abolition of slavery. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:49 | |
Because people have to see an educated black man. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
Even though he hasn't been to university, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
even though he hasn't had a huge amount of schooling, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
one of the things that gives him the confidence to appear educated | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
is the exemplar of Robert Burns | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
who had a similar kind of formative experience. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
Non-university, self-taught, but as cultured as anybody else. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:12 | |
In Scotland, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:17 | |
Douglass not only argued the case for black emancipation, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:21 | |
but he also lobbied the free Church about how it raised funds | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
from slave owning states. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
He also took a detour to see the birthplace of his poetic mentor, | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
Robert Burns, and meet his elderly sister, Isabella, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
and two of the poet's nieces. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
He wrote extensively about his trip in a letter | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
later published in the New York Tribune. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
"I am now in the town of Ayr. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
"It is famous for being the birthplace of Robert Burns, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
"the poet by whose brilliant genius every stream, hill, glen | 0:24:52 | 0:24:57 | |
"and valley in the neighbourhood have been made classic. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
"For as you are aware, painfully perhaps, | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
"I am an enthusiastic admirer of Robert Burns." | 0:25:08 | 0:25:11 | |
The trip to Britain was a great success. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
Douglass had furthered the cause of egalitarianism | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
and his supporters had raised enough money to purchase him | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
from his slave owner in the States. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:25 | |
In 1847, Douglass returned to the United States | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
a commanding and influential speaker, | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
and a free man. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
Well, here we have the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office | 0:25:43 | 0:25:46 | |
behind us here, and this is where Lincoln would practice his law trade | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
for a number of years. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
By the time Frederick Douglass was back in the States, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
Lincoln had spent ten years honing his oratory skills | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
in the courtrooms of Springfield. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
The Capitol here is actually one of the most historic buildings | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
in our nation's history. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:04 | |
This is where Lincoln served in the legislature, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
argued court cases. By the time that he had become | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
an Illinois House of Representative here, | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
Lincoln has actually gained a reputation | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
as the finest lawyer in the entire state of Illinois. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:20 | |
Now there's a thriving tourist industry in Springfield, | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
centred around the house Lincoln lived in | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
and the reputation of the man that owed some of his oratory power | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
to the writing of Robert Burns. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:31 | |
Lincoln had only one year total of formal schooling. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:35 | |
It makes all the sense in the world that Shakespeare and Burns | 0:26:35 | 0:26:39 | |
and the Bible and many others he read | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
were influential in his writing style. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
In his speeches, his very emotive style owes something | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
to the high sentimental style that he's reading in Robert Burns. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
In terms of satire, Burns is one of the best. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
Abraham Lincoln picks up that characteristic as well. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
He writes brilliant satirical pieces | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
that are reminiscent of many of the pieces of Burns. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
During the 1850s, Lincoln's ability to argue his case | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
is progressively tested as tensions grow | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
over the increasingly divisive issue of slavery. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:19 | |
A power struggle was developing between the North | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
and the slave-owning Southern states, and in 1860, | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
Illinois' finest lawyer stands for president on an anti-slavery ticket. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:33 | |
Lincoln wins the election, | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
but his victory instigates the worst crisis in the history | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
of the United States. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
Seven states secede from the union, | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
Southern militias are taking over federal property. | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
It's a very ominous situation in American history. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
When he's coming into Washington, DC, | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
he's almost coming into enemy territory. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
DC was a very Southern city at the time, | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
and the sentiments were very much with the South. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
As neither side would budge, war became inevitable. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
Lincoln knew this Civil War would decide the future direction | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
of America. It would either continue | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
as the largest slave-owning country in the world | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
or it would become one in which the idea that all men are created | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
with an equal right to liberty would finally come true. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
The first big battle was to take place around the banks of a creek | 0:28:37 | 0:28:41 | |
called Bull Run in Virginia, | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
around 30 miles west of the federal capital of Washington, DC. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:47 | |
Over an eight-mile front, troops waited for orders. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:52 | |
Some wrote letters home, some took the time to read. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:55 | |
His songs and poetry were used by various political groups, | 0:28:57 | 0:29:02 | |
often on opposing sides. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:04 | |
You have Northern abolitionists who were quoting Burns, | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
but you also have Southern Confederate groups, | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
who are proven to be fans of his poetry and songs. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:18 | |
Burns isn't really a war poet, | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
he's more a poet of the home front | 0:29:21 | 0:29:24 | |
so that people are reading the poetry, | 0:29:24 | 0:29:26 | |
the songs like Green Grow the Rushes, O | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
and thinking of their girl back home. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:31 | |
So he does write sometimes about war, | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
but what he's writing much more about is love and hearth and home. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:40 | |
When the Southern Confederates beat Lincoln's unionists at the battle, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
both sides could see that the war would be | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
a long, drawn-out and bloody affair. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
Frederick Douglass saw something else, | 0:29:52 | 0:29:54 | |
that among these rebels were black troops. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
He suggested that these troops had been pressed into service | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
by their tyrant masters, | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
and Douglass used this to force home the argument to Abraham Lincoln | 0:30:02 | 0:30:06 | |
that all slavery should be abolished now | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
and that former black slaves should be armed as a military strategy. | 0:30:09 | 0:30:13 | |
Lincoln believed very much in the founding documents | 0:30:13 | 0:30:17 | |
of the United States, that talk about all men being created equal, | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
and that's something that you see in the poetry of Robert Burns as well, | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
and so this idea of natural rights | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
is something that Lincoln really latched onto. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:30 | |
And very much why the Emancipation Proclamation is the culmination | 0:30:30 | 0:30:35 | |
of his personal beliefs and what he felt he could do | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
according to his official duties as President of the United States | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
and Commander in Chief. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:43 | |
Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
made the freeing of slaves an explicit goal of the war. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
After it came into effect in 1863, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
any slaves that escaped to the North became free | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
and they could fight for the union, just as Douglass wanted. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
Douglass was a hugely gifted orator and a very charismatic individual. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:05 | |
During the Civil War era, | 0:31:05 | 0:31:07 | |
Douglass quite frequently alluded to Burns' songs and poems, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:12 | |
particularly when trying to encourage men of colour | 0:31:12 | 0:31:14 | |
to enlist in the union army. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:16 | |
He would tout the line that, "A man's a man for a' that," | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
regardless of colour. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:20 | |
Lincoln's fight for the moral right | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
would claim well over half a million American lives | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
and take over two more years to conclude. | 0:31:26 | 0:31:29 | |
For over a quarter of his presidency, | 0:31:31 | 0:31:33 | |
Abraham Lincoln moved his family out here to a cottage | 0:31:33 | 0:31:37 | |
on what was known as the Soldiers' Home grounds. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:39 | |
It's considered a healthier climate, | 0:31:39 | 0:31:42 | |
it's removed from the downtown, swampy part of Washington, DC, | 0:31:42 | 0:31:46 | |
but in many ways it brings him closer to the war. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:49 | |
While living at the cottage, | 0:32:01 | 0:32:02 | |
he's 200 yards away from the first National Cemetery. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
So thousands of soldiers are being buried in plain view | 0:32:06 | 0:32:10 | |
of Lincoln's front door. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:12 | |
The final record of Abraham Lincoln's affection for Burns | 0:32:28 | 0:32:31 | |
comes from his secretary, John Hay. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:34 | |
He describes the President's mood as | 0:32:34 | 0:32:36 | |
they travelled down the Potomac River. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:38 | |
John Hay recollects that in April of 1865, the war has come to an end, | 0:32:38 | 0:32:44 | |
that Lincoln himself recites extensively | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
from Robert Burns without notes, this is all from memory. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
One of the poems that came into Lincoln's mind that day | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
is one of Burns' saddest. | 0:32:55 | 0:32:57 | |
The wind blew hollow frae the hills | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
By fits the sun's departing beam | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
Look'd on the fading yellow woods | 0:33:06 | 0:33:08 | |
That wav'd o'er Lugar's winding stream | 0:33:08 | 0:33:11 | |
Beneath a craigy steep, a Bard | 0:33:11 | 0:33:14 | |
Laden with years and meikle pain | 0:33:14 | 0:33:17 | |
In loud lament bewail'd his lord | 0:33:17 | 0:33:19 | |
Whom Death had all untimely ta'en. | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
The bridegroom may forget the bride | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
Was made his wedded wife yestreen | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
The monarch may forget the crown | 0:33:30 | 0:33:32 | |
That on his head an hour has been | 0:33:32 | 0:33:35 | |
The mother may forget the child | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
That smiles sae sweetly on her knee | 0:33:38 | 0:33:41 | |
But I'll remember thee, Glencairn, | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
And a' that thou hast done for me! | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
-It's a great poem. -It definitely shows the heartbreak | 0:33:47 | 0:33:50 | |
that he's going through, you know? It's... | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
It's rough. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:54 | |
It's a long poem. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:56 | |
Less than a week later, | 0:33:58 | 0:34:00 | |
Lincoln was assassinated at a theatre in Washington. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
The war, however, was effectively over. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:08 | |
The fight to end slavery throughout the union had been won. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
And the nation's founding argument of liberty for all had been upheld. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
There was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, | 0:34:33 | 0:34:36 | |
one of many who objected to Burns, | 0:34:36 | 0:34:38 | |
because of his drinking and his womanising, | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
and he felt that anyone who idolised Burns | 0:34:40 | 0:34:45 | |
had a disease he called Burnsomania. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
A century later, the disease of Burnsomania had still found no cure. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:56 | |
In America, the greatest sufferer of all was a Scot | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
and a wealthy one at that. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
Andrew Carnegie probably was a Burnsomaniac. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:05 | |
I do think the connection Carnegie had to Burns was personal | 0:35:05 | 0:35:10 | |
and was close because of his own upbringing. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:13 | |
Born and brought up in a cottage in Fife, | 0:35:15 | 0:35:17 | |
12-year-old Andrew Carnegie moved to Pennsylvania | 0:35:17 | 0:35:20 | |
with his family in 1848. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:23 | |
50 years later, | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
Carnegie had become the world's richest man | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
and one of its biggest philanthropists. | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
I think there's no doubt that his eventual decision to divest himself | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
of much of his wealth | 0:35:36 | 0:35:38 | |
and to establish all kinds of charitable funds, | 0:35:38 | 0:35:41 | |
half to do with a good nature, | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
but part of it actually is a Scottish self-conception. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:47 | |
It's the Burnsian myth that you don't need lots of money | 0:35:47 | 0:35:52 | |
and that money isn't the most important thing. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
Carnegie gave away around 90% of his fortune. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
Just some of that went into funding 1,679 new libraries | 0:36:02 | 0:36:07 | |
in America alone. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:08 | |
The whole Carnegie philanthropic project was about egalitarianism. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:15 | |
It was about everybody being afforded the same resources | 0:36:15 | 0:36:18 | |
and the same opportunities to grow | 0:36:18 | 0:36:22 | |
and to transform themselves. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
The philosophy of Robert Burns really spoke to him in that way | 0:36:25 | 0:36:29 | |
and really influenced his trajectory. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
From the age of eight, when he first read Burns, | 0:36:34 | 0:36:37 | |
to his death 75 years later, | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
Carnegie's enthusiasm for the poet never waned. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
For many years, he was one of the most sought-after speakers | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
of the Burns clubs and the Burns societies around the country. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
And he went to many statue unveilings and gave many talks. | 0:36:53 | 0:36:57 | |
Just how much Carnegie revered the Bard can be seen | 0:37:00 | 0:37:03 | |
in his personal notes for a speech he gave | 0:37:03 | 0:37:05 | |
at an unveiling of a statue of Burns in 1899. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:08 | |
"Burns occupies and will permanently hold his unique position | 0:37:11 | 0:37:15 | |
"in other lands than his own. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:17 | |
"For supreme genius rules over the highest natures of all lands. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:22 | |
"Its touch makes the whole world kin." | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
As Andrew Carnegie began redistributing his wealth, | 0:37:27 | 0:37:31 | |
other American entrepreneurs began using Burns' fame | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
for their own commercial gain. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
The main reason that Burns becomes a commercial figure is quite simply, | 0:37:39 | 0:37:45 | |
to begin with, that he's so recognisable. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
Burns began to be commercialised in America along with other writers | 0:37:48 | 0:37:54 | |
on cigar boxes, starting in 1880s and well into the 20th century. | 0:37:54 | 0:38:00 | |
And unlike most of the poets and authors, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
Robert Burns cigars are still produced and sold in America. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
Thomas Keith is a bit of a Burnsomaniac himself. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
I've been collecting Burns-related bric-a-brac for about 20 years. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:17 | |
I would say this handbill from 1830 is my favourite object, | 0:38:18 | 0:38:22 | |
and the reason is that what it's proof of is that somebody | 0:38:22 | 0:38:25 | |
walking down the street in lower Manhattan | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
who's handed this handbill knows exactly who Tam O'Shanter is | 0:38:28 | 0:38:32 | |
in literature and who Burns is. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
They don't have to be told. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
This is a tin from Robert Burns Segars, | 0:38:36 | 0:38:41 | |
S-E-G-A-R-S, | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
which was manufactured during the Civil War. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
And from about 50 years later, | 0:38:47 | 0:38:52 | |
here's a tin of Little Bobbie cigars, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
the small Robert Burns cigar. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:57 | |
There was also Tam O'Shanter tobacco, | 0:38:57 | 0:39:01 | |
Auld Lang Syne tobacco, | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
eventually, Sweet Afton cigarettes. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
There was also Tam O'Shanter beer and ale | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
sold out of Rochester, New York. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:11 | |
Here's a Bobby Burns pop bottle or soda bottle from the 1950s | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
and the only thing that remotely identifies it to a Scotsman as Burns | 0:39:15 | 0:39:20 | |
would be the Glengarrian pipes that he's carrying. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:24 | |
And I know it's long been the sorrow of many a Scot | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
that Americans' diminutive for Burns is Bobby, | 0:39:28 | 0:39:32 | |
but it's been that way for a long, long time | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
and it's a natural evolution from Robert to Rab to Rabbie | 0:39:35 | 0:39:40 | |
to Robbie to Bobby. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:41 | |
Sorry. | 0:39:43 | 0:39:45 | |
All kinds of products, from ornaments to drinks | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
are marketed on the back of Robert Burns | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
because he is such a convenient, portable, readily available icon. | 0:39:52 | 0:39:58 | |
People were no longer just collecting books, | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
but they were collecting... | 0:40:00 | 0:40:01 | |
Whether it be snuff boxes, jewellery, erm... | 0:40:01 | 0:40:06 | |
lots of material culture | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
that collectors used to not only preserve the memory of Burns, | 0:40:08 | 0:40:13 | |
but I think, reify their connection with the poet. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
The Nasmyth portrait of Burns, | 0:40:17 | 0:40:19 | |
the classic portrait, shows a very handsome young man, | 0:40:19 | 0:40:23 | |
and that's very helpful. | 0:40:23 | 0:40:25 | |
Robert Burns, that romantic, slightly tragic, enigmatic figure, | 0:40:25 | 0:40:30 | |
has a beautiful portrait to go with him. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:34 | |
And you put those two things together, | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
and it's a killer combination for iconicity, | 0:40:36 | 0:40:40 | |
and also for advertising. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
In America... | 0:40:42 | 0:40:43 | |
Burns was the 19th-century Elvis. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
That's how popular he was. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:49 | |
-ELVIS: -# Lord Almighty | 0:40:49 | 0:40:51 | |
# I feel my temperature rising | 0:40:51 | 0:40:53 | |
# Higher, higher... # | 0:40:55 | 0:40:57 | |
Burns' image was not only ingrained on the products | 0:40:57 | 0:41:00 | |
Americans found in their homes, | 0:41:00 | 0:41:02 | |
he was also becoming a focal point in America's biggest cities. | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
If the popularity of cultural icons in America were measured | 0:41:07 | 0:41:10 | |
by the number of statues erected in their honour, | 0:41:10 | 0:41:13 | |
Burns would be number one. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
# Your kisses lift me higher | 0:41:16 | 0:41:18 | |
# Like the sweet song of a choir... # | 0:41:18 | 0:41:20 | |
There are four statues of Stephen Foster, | 0:41:20 | 0:41:22 | |
five each of Washington Irving and Beethoven, | 0:41:22 | 0:41:26 | |
six each of Daniel Webster, Shakespeare and Mozart, | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
seven of Goethe, eight of Dante, | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
12 of Schiller | 0:41:34 | 0:41:35 | |
and 15 of Robert Burns. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:37 | |
# A hunk, a hunk of burning love | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
# I'm a hunk, a hunk of burning love... # | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
And that's how important Burns was and is to Americans. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
# I'm a hunk, a hunk of burning love | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
# I'm just a hunk, a hunk of burning love | 0:41:50 | 0:41:53 | |
# I'm a hunk, a hunk of burning love. # | 0:41:53 | 0:41:57 | |
Ready? | 0:41:59 | 0:42:00 | |
But Mousie, thou are no thy lane | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
In proving foresight may be vain | 0:42:03 | 0:42:05 | |
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
Gang aft agley | 0:42:08 | 0:42:09 | |
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain | 0:42:09 | 0:42:12 | |
For promis'd joy! | 0:42:12 | 0:42:13 | |
FIDDLE PLAYS | 0:42:16 | 0:42:18 | |
The mark that Robert Burns left in the States after his death in 1796 | 0:42:25 | 0:42:29 | |
extends way beyond Burns clubs, | 0:42:29 | 0:42:32 | |
Burns suppers, | 0:42:32 | 0:42:33 | |
and the effect he may have had on politicians and philanthropists. | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
It's in the music and the writing of those that read his work. | 0:42:40 | 0:42:43 | |
If we think of places along the way | 0:42:45 | 0:42:48 | |
where Robert Burns sat down, | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
he's all over America in the early 19th century. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:53 | |
I mean, everybody's reading Robert Burns, | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
he is probably the most popular poet in the country. | 0:42:56 | 0:42:59 | |
Walt Whitman was very much affected by Burns, | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
Mark Twain reads Burns and then, from there on, | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
it's a pretty straight shot, via Woody Guthrie, | 0:43:06 | 0:43:08 | |
to Bob Dylan. | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
# Johnny's in the basement | 0:43:10 | 0:43:11 | |
# Mixing up the medicine | 0:43:11 | 0:43:13 | |
# I'm on the pavement | 0:43:13 | 0:43:14 | |
# Thinking about the government. # | 0:43:14 | 0:43:16 | |
Bob Dylan's recent award of a Nobel Prize for literature | 0:43:16 | 0:43:19 | |
not only raised his status as a writer, | 0:43:19 | 0:43:22 | |
but it focused attention on the post-Civil War lyric poets | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
that came before him. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:26 | |
When asked for his greatest influence | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
in a recent poster campaign, the singer surprised many | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
by citing the Burns poem My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
Perhaps it shouldn't have been such a surprise. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:40 | |
Dylan is merely the latest of a long line of Americans | 0:43:41 | 0:43:44 | |
that have looked to the past, and to Burns in particular, | 0:43:44 | 0:43:47 | |
for inspiration. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
The American Civil War scars the psyche, | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
and the idea is... All our industry, | 0:43:55 | 0:43:57 | |
all our technology, all our rationality has brought us what? | 0:43:57 | 0:44:01 | |
This big war. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:03 | |
And after that, American poets like Emerson, | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
like Walt Whitman were saying, | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
is there something purer that we can get back to? | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
As the post-war nation is drawn back to simpler ideals... | 0:44:18 | 0:44:21 | |
..new poets like Walt Whitman, an early fan of the Bard, | 0:44:23 | 0:44:27 | |
helped fill the gap that Burns left behind. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:29 | |
In a way, | 0:44:31 | 0:44:32 | |
as Burns is to Scotland, | 0:44:32 | 0:44:35 | |
so Whitman is in the United States. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:38 | |
He's the father of poetry here. | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
Walt was the guy who spoke in the American grain. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
What you see in Whitman is the Everyman. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:50 | |
You know, he included in his poetry | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
the poor, the working class, | 0:44:53 | 0:44:55 | |
the middle class, the slaves... | 0:44:55 | 0:44:58 | |
As did Burns. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:02 | |
Born only 23 years after the early death of the Bard, | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
Whitman's New York was full of Celtic music | 0:45:09 | 0:45:11 | |
and the poetry and songs of Burns. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
There's an essay that Walt wrote | 0:45:17 | 0:45:19 | |
about Robert Burns as poet and person, | 0:45:19 | 0:45:23 | |
and, in it, he says, | 0:45:23 | 0:45:26 | |
"Without the race of which he is a distinct specimen," | 0:45:26 | 0:45:30 | |
which would be Burns in Scotland, that was Scottish race, | 0:45:30 | 0:45:34 | |
"and perhaps his poems, | 0:45:34 | 0:45:35 | |
"America and her powerful democracy could not exist today. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:41 | |
And I think that's one of the first similarities you see, | 0:45:41 | 0:45:44 | |
is that both of these poets | 0:45:44 | 0:45:47 | |
absolutely had faith in the common folk, | 0:45:47 | 0:45:51 | |
in the population at large. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:53 | |
They were totally democratic | 0:45:53 | 0:45:55 | |
in the way they approached government, | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
and the power to the people. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:01 | |
"Dear Rob," he says in the middle, which is the way you want to see | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
these two fellows talking to each other, isn't it? | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
"Dear Rob! Manly, witty, fond, friendly, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:12 | |
"full of weak spots as well as strong ones." | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
You know, Whitman just couldn't let it go that this was a great poet. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:20 | |
He loved Burns for the comradeship, for the feeling of, | 0:46:21 | 0:46:24 | |
as he would put it, adhesiveness. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:27 | |
It was hard to be an American writer, in fact, let alone... | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
Well, it was hard to be an American, let alone an American writer, | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
and not in some way have had some contact with Robert Burns. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:35 | |
In the 20th century, | 0:46:36 | 0:46:38 | |
it's American writers of modern classic novels | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
that are influenced by the work of Burns. | 0:46:40 | 0:46:42 | |
American writers are referencing Burns poems | 0:46:44 | 0:46:48 | |
in terms of the words that the Americans have consumed | 0:46:48 | 0:46:53 | |
and, indeed, reused in their own works. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
John Steinbeck's 1937 novella | 0:46:58 | 0:47:01 | |
tells a tragic story of two migrant ranch workers | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
who plan their future as they move from place to place | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
during America's Great Depression. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:09 | |
Originally entitled Something That Happened, | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
Steinbeck changed the title to Of Mice And Men | 0:47:13 | 0:47:17 | |
after reading Robert Burns' poem, To A Mouse. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
14 years later, JD Salinger went further, | 0:47:24 | 0:47:27 | |
incorporating the Burns song Comin' Thro The Rye | 0:47:27 | 0:47:30 | |
into the plot of his 1951 novel of teenage angst. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:34 | |
# Comin' thro the rye... # | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
Salinger creates a fantasy at the heart of the book | 0:47:36 | 0:47:39 | |
in which its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, | 0:47:39 | 0:47:42 | |
misrepresents the song, | 0:47:42 | 0:47:43 | |
seeing himself as the "catcher in the rye" instead. | 0:47:43 | 0:47:47 | |
So it's a very, very deep influence. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
The most important thing about that | 0:47:50 | 0:47:53 | |
is that America has Burns' poetry and songs in its blood, | 0:47:53 | 0:47:57 | |
in its common language. | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
And that's what these writers are riffing on. | 0:48:00 | 0:48:03 | |
By the mid-20th century, | 0:48:03 | 0:48:05 | |
the riffing on Burns had extended beyond books to music. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:08 | |
-BOB DYLAN: -# Come gather round people | 0:48:09 | 0:48:11 | |
# Wherever you roam... # | 0:48:11 | 0:48:13 | |
In New York, those who wanted their music to make a statement | 0:48:13 | 0:48:16 | |
were drawn to the neighbourhood of Greenwich Village. | 0:48:16 | 0:48:19 | |
In the early 1960s, the Village was very much the centre | 0:48:21 | 0:48:24 | |
for, not only literary experimentation | 0:48:24 | 0:48:26 | |
and playwrights and all the rest of it, | 0:48:26 | 0:48:28 | |
but for jazz, and particularly for the folk revival. | 0:48:28 | 0:48:31 | |
# Oh, the times they are a-changin'... # | 0:48:31 | 0:48:35 | |
The mid-20th century saw another bid for a simpler, more peaceful life. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:39 | |
Only 20 years after it had ended World War II | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
with a nuclear mushroom cloud in Japan, | 0:48:46 | 0:48:49 | |
America was deeply involved in another bombing war, | 0:48:49 | 0:48:52 | |
this time in Vietnam. | 0:48:52 | 0:48:54 | |
# Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
# For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled... # | 0:48:56 | 0:48:59 | |
When 19-year-old Bob Dylan moved to New York in 1961, | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
he was already immersed in the world of folk. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
My dad had a book shop at the corner of 8th street and MacDougal, | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
and down MacDougal Street was where Bob Dylan got his start. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
# The times they are a-changin'. # | 0:49:11 | 0:49:13 | |
I remember hearing A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall | 0:49:14 | 0:49:17 | |
for the first time as a... How old would I have been? | 0:49:17 | 0:49:20 | |
'62, I'd have been 11. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:22 | |
And I loved it immediately. | 0:49:22 | 0:49:23 | |
I loved the guitar, I loved the raspy voice, | 0:49:23 | 0:49:27 | |
I loved the way he used words. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:28 | |
# A hard rain's a-gonna fall... # | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
Dylan's idol at the time was another folk singer, Woody Guthrie. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:37 | |
When Bob Dylan arrived, he was a Woody Guthrie jukebox. | 0:49:37 | 0:49:40 | |
He was playing Woody Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, all the time. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:42 | |
He started talking like Woody Guthrie. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:44 | |
So Guthrie had an enormous impact on Dylan in particular. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
MUSIC: Pastures Of Plenty by Woody Guthrie | 0:49:47 | 0:49:49 | |
Woody Guthrie was a major figure in the 1940s on the New York scene. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:51 | |
He's part of this left-wing folk singer world. | 0:49:51 | 0:49:54 | |
But Guthrie himself was influenced by Robert Burns. | 0:49:56 | 0:49:59 | |
During World War II, Guthrie was a seaman and his ship was torpedoed, | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
and he found himself in Glasgow, of all places. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:06 | |
After the war, he writes this kind of poetic letter, | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
To That Man Robert Burns, and he's addressing Burns directly, | 0:50:10 | 0:50:14 | |
and telling him about how he'd ended up in Glasgow | 0:50:14 | 0:50:16 | |
and walking the same clods of earth Burns did, | 0:50:16 | 0:50:19 | |
and how he had picked up a cheap edition of Burns' poems. | 0:50:19 | 0:50:24 | |
But he likens himself to Burns, he says, I'm like you. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
We both grew up in the countryside. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
We both grew up out of the cities, | 0:50:29 | 0:50:30 | |
we've both been chased around by policemen, we both... | 0:50:30 | 0:50:33 | |
We have a lot in common, you and I, Robert Burns. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:36 | |
For that moment, he was very much touched by him as a kind of rapport, | 0:50:36 | 0:50:39 | |
almost a brotherhood that he feels across the centuries. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:43 | |
# This land is your land. # | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
Other folk singers also influenced Bob Dylan. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
Bob Dylan's a sponge. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
And at the heart of the folk revival | 0:50:50 | 0:50:52 | |
was the entire Anglo-Celtic American tradition in poetry and in song. | 0:50:52 | 0:50:58 | |
There's a friend of mine who comes from Scotland | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
who's also a good singer, | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
and I asked her if she'd drop around here today. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
was also at the centre of the folk revival, | 0:51:08 | 0:51:10 | |
as was the young Scottish singer, Jean Redpath. | 0:51:10 | 0:51:14 | |
Jean Redpath, instead of me talking about your songs, | 0:51:14 | 0:51:16 | |
I think the best thing would be for you to sing them. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:18 | |
# And here's a hand | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
# My trusty friend | 0:51:21 | 0:51:25 | |
# And gie's a hand o' thine... # | 0:51:25 | 0:51:26 | |
A Burns enthusiast who had memorised almost all of Burns' work, | 0:51:26 | 0:51:30 | |
Redpath shared a house in the Village with Dylan. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:34 | |
Her goal was to record all 323 songs written by Burns. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:38 | |
# For auld lang syne. # | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
And it's impossible to imagine that Dylan would not have been listening | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
to a good deal of Burns poetry at that time. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:46 | |
Where'd the song come from, anyway? | 0:51:47 | 0:51:50 | |
-Robbie Burns wrote it. -He wrote it? | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
Mm-hm. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:53 | |
Robbie Burr-ns. I thought it was Burns, but it's not. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:57 | |
It's Burns in this country, it's Burr-ns in Scotland. | 0:51:57 | 0:51:59 | |
Burr-ns. Robbie Burr-ns. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
Burns comes to him two ways. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:06 | |
I mean, one is through this Celtic tradition, | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
Jean Redpath and all the rest, they're there. | 0:52:09 | 0:52:12 | |
But he's also going to be reading Burns as a poet. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:14 | |
I mean, he's very taken with Byron, | 0:52:14 | 0:52:16 | |
he's very taken with Shelley and, you know, | 0:52:16 | 0:52:18 | |
Burns is not too far out of that mix, | 0:52:18 | 0:52:21 | |
as far as Dylan would've been concerned. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:23 | |
Burns meant a lot to him, | 0:52:23 | 0:52:25 | |
and he would've picked up on Burns in those days. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:28 | |
I absolutely think there's a connection between Bobby Burns | 0:52:28 | 0:52:33 | |
and Bobby Dylan. You know? | 0:52:33 | 0:52:35 | |
Burns is a true, true influence for him. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:41 | |
You can hear it in the way he sings. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
He actually has a song called Farewell, | 0:52:43 | 0:52:46 | |
where he starts off the song saying, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:48 | |
"Fare thee well, my own true love." | 0:52:48 | 0:52:50 | |
# Fare thee well my darling true | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
# I'm leaving in the first hour of the morn. # | 0:52:53 | 0:52:57 | |
Bob Dylan has read and listened to Robert Burns, | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
in poetry and in song, and, of course, | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
he cites A Red Rose as one of the greatest songs ever. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:11 | |
Both Burns and Bob Dylan are the great lyric poets of their day. | 0:53:11 | 0:53:15 | |
I mean, Burns' verse is meant to be sung. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
Well, Bob Dylan's verse is meant to be sung. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:21 | |
So, in that sense, they are very much a part of the same brotherhood, | 0:53:22 | 0:53:26 | |
and Bob Dylan really is the Bobby Burns of his day, | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
and Robert Burns was the Bob Dylan of the end of the 18th century. | 0:53:29 | 0:53:32 | |
Right, ready? | 0:53:35 | 0:53:37 | |
O my Luve's like a red, red rose | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
That's newly sprung in June | 0:53:40 | 0:53:42 | |
O my Luve's like the melodie | 0:53:43 | 0:53:45 | |
That's sweetly play'd in tune | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
As fair art thou, my bonie lass | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
So deep in luve am I | 0:53:50 | 0:53:52 | |
And I will luve thee still, my dear | 0:53:52 | 0:53:54 | |
Till a' the seas gang dry | 0:53:54 | 0:53:56 | |
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear | 0:53:58 | 0:54:00 | |
And the rocks melt wi' the sun | 0:54:00 | 0:54:03 | |
And I will luve thee still, my dear | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
While the sands o' life shall run, | 0:54:05 | 0:54:07 | |
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve! | 0:54:07 | 0:54:10 | |
And fare-thee-weel, a while! | 0:54:10 | 0:54:12 | |
And I will come again, my Luve | 0:54:12 | 0:54:14 | |
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile! | 0:54:14 | 0:54:16 | |
This man puts words together just like that. | 0:54:18 | 0:54:20 | |
And that's what I love about it. | 0:54:20 | 0:54:22 | |
America took the work of Burns to its heart in the 19th century. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:38 | |
In the 20th, it gave his biggest hit back to the world | 0:54:38 | 0:54:41 | |
with a whole new purpose. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:43 | |
Auld Lang Syne had become so popular | 0:54:46 | 0:54:50 | |
that it replaced A Man's A Man For A' That | 0:54:50 | 0:54:54 | |
as the way to end Burns Night suppers. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:56 | |
And by Victorian times, | 0:54:56 | 0:54:59 | |
it was all purpose. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
For Auld Lang Syne this Halloween, | 0:55:01 | 0:55:03 | |
For Auld Lang Syne on the Fourth Of July, | 0:55:03 | 0:55:05 | |
For Auld Lang Syne for your birthday. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:07 | |
It was for everything. | 0:55:07 | 0:55:09 | |
Until Guy Lombardo got a hold of it. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:11 | |
MUSIC: Auld Lang Syne | 0:55:11 | 0:55:13 | |
It's Guy Lombardo and his band | 0:55:16 | 0:55:18 | |
that is almost solely responsible for ensuring that Auld Lang Syne | 0:55:18 | 0:55:22 | |
became the song for New Year's Eve. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
By the time I was a kid, New Year's Eve | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
was about listening to Guy Lombardo's band, orchestra, | 0:55:28 | 0:55:32 | |
on the television to, you know, ring in the New Year. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
And they'd always play Auld Lang Syne. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
Auld Lang Syne had become the New Year's song long before that, | 0:55:41 | 0:55:43 | |
but Guy Lombardo was absolute New Year's Eve kitsch. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:47 | |
I mean, it was middle America, | 0:55:47 | 0:55:48 | |
it was what people listened to. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:50 | |
It was so corny, even we listened to it, | 0:55:50 | 0:55:52 | |
us sophisticated villagers, | 0:55:52 | 0:55:54 | |
because it was there. | 0:55:54 | 0:55:55 | |
Happy New Year, everybody! A very happy New Year. | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
Especially from all of us and especially from Clairol, | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
the first name in hair colour! | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
It's kind of become a theme song | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
for a very boring kind of drunken escapade | 0:56:10 | 0:56:12 | |
on the 31st of every December. | 0:56:12 | 0:56:15 | |
I wish we could detach it from New Year's Eve! | 0:56:16 | 0:56:20 | |
Am I trying to do that accent? | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
No, do what you gotta do. Just go through it, just read it. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:24 | |
-All right. -Just read, that's all. -All right. | 0:56:24 | 0:56:26 | |
It's an interesting poem about remembrance, | 0:56:26 | 0:56:30 | |
and about loss, really. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:32 | |
And we have to remember what we lose. | 0:56:32 | 0:56:36 | |
-BOTH: -Should auld acquaintance be forgot | 0:56:36 | 0:56:39 | |
And never brought to mind? | 0:56:39 | 0:56:41 | |
Should auld acquaintance be forgot | 0:56:41 | 0:56:44 | |
And auld lang syne! | 0:56:44 | 0:56:46 | |
For auld lang syne, my dear | 0:56:46 | 0:56:48 | |
For auld lang syne | 0:56:48 | 0:56:50 | |
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet | 0:56:50 | 0:56:53 | |
For auld lang syne. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:54 | |
Yay! Woohoo! | 0:56:54 | 0:56:56 | |
Give me a high five, friend! | 0:56:56 | 0:56:58 | |
When Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians | 0:56:59 | 0:57:03 | |
made it their midnight song on New Year's Eve, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
people started to copy that. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:09 | |
And, most importantly, it started to be copied in the movies, | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
and the most famous occasion for that, of course, | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
is in It's A Wonderful Life, | 0:57:15 | 0:57:17 | |
when the brothers are reunited, | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
and the whole town's there to support Jimmy Stewart, | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
and they all break into Auld Lang Syne. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:24 | |
To my big brother, George. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:26 | |
The richest man in town! | 0:57:26 | 0:57:28 | |
THEY CHEER | 0:57:28 | 0:57:29 | |
# Should auld acquaintance be forgot | 0:57:30 | 0:57:35 | |
# And never brought to mind? | 0:57:35 | 0:57:41 | |
# We'll drink a cup of kindness yet | 0:57:41 | 0:57:46 | |
# For auld lang syne. # | 0:57:46 | 0:57:51 | |
It's meant to make you cry. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:53 | |
And it usually works. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:54 | |
Robert Burns once joked | 0:57:58 | 0:58:00 | |
that he would be more famous after his death than during his life. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
He died with no concept of how, centuries later, | 0:58:05 | 0:58:08 | |
he would be revered in America, | 0:58:08 | 0:58:10 | |
thousands of miles from Scotland. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:11 | |
No notion of how his poetry and songs could be reinterpreted | 0:58:12 | 0:58:16 | |
or how his thoughts might inspire some of the most significant figures | 0:58:16 | 0:58:19 | |
in American history, helping the lives of millions. | 0:58:19 | 0:58:23 | |
Robert Burns never travelled to America. | 0:58:25 | 0:58:28 | |
He didn't need to. | 0:58:28 | 0:58:29 |