View source for Annotation:If e'er ye do well it's a wonder

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{{TuneAnnotation
|f_tune_annotation_title= https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:If_e'er_ye_do_well_it's_a_wonder >
|f_annotation='''IF E'ER YE DO WELL IT'S A WONDER'''. AKA and see "[[How blest was the hour]]." Scottish, Slow Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The air and song were originally published by cellist-composer James Oswald (1710 – 1769) and appear in his '''Curious Collection of Scots Tunes''' (1740), dedicated to the Duke of Perth. John Glen ('''Early Scottish Melodies''' {1900}) suggests "If e'er ye do well its a wonder" "probably may refer to another song than the one in the '''[Scots Musical] Museum vol. 4''' (Song 332), which is taken from the fourth volume of [Allen] Ramsay's '''Tea Table Miscellany''' (c. 1720-21)."  Glen declines to record which song he might have been referring to, if not Ramsay's.  The melody in the '''Museum''' is the same as Oswald's, and the words begin:
<blockquote>
''When I was a young lad''<br> 
''My fortune was bad if e'er I do well 'tis a wonder;''<br>
''I spent all my means''<br>
''On whores, bawds, and queans;''<br>
''Then I got a commission to plunder.''<br>
''I spent all my means''<br>
''On whores, bawds, and queans;''<br>
''Then I got a commission to plunder.''<ref>Alan Ramsay did not repeat the last lines of the words for a refrain, as did Johnson. Instead Ramsay directed the refrain be sung "Fall all de rall &c."  </ref><br>
</blockquote>
The protagonist obtains a Letter of Marque from the Crown, essentially allowing him to engage in legalized piracy.  
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A later derivation of the song is the drinking song "All for Me Grog." Classical composer [[wikipedia:Franz_Joseph_Haydn]] arranged a setting of this air.
|f_source_for_notated_version=
|f_printed_sources=McGibbon ('''Scots Tunes, Book 1'''), c. 1762; p. 27. James Oswald ('''Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 1'''), 1760; p. 27.
|f_recorded_sources=
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}}