Follow The Wild Geese Home © Ted Christopher 1998

At the end of the day does your heart fly

To the lochs and the glens and the islands

Do you dream of the Clyde or a bonnie border town

Do the pipes make you shiver and want to see your mother

It's been too long since you've been gone,

Too long since you've been home

To the place that's forever in your heart

To walk your father's steps again in the soft Scottish rain

So follow the wild geese home.

From the wilderness of Torridon to Australia 's New South Wales

From The Black Isle to Nova Scotia

From Fife to Dubai , New York from a croft on Skye

A new beginning whether forced or chasing dreams

In San Francisco Bay do you dream of the Tay

Do you long to walk down Princes Street once more

At night on your rig are your thoughts of Stirling Brig

Follow the wild geese home.

Were your forefathers' families cleared from the land

And sent in exile to the New World

Did they give that foreign place a loved familiar name

Of a home they would never see again

Or did you sail on the tide seeking fortune

On a ship that you built years before

Did you make that last trip to the graveyard

To say your final farewell to these shores

For at the end of your days you know your soul will fly

And follow the wild geese home

I'm Coming Home © Ted Christopher 2004

I did not close my eyes for the last time under Caledonia 's skies

With my good friends gathered all around me to say their last goodbyes.

But I will not be forgotten- in the heart of every Scot I still live on

Now it's time to fly the saltire high my spirit's coming home

I'm coming home – back where I belong

I'm coming home – my spirit's coming home

They tore apart my body so I could not rise on judgement day

But what they did not realise is now I'll never go away

And I'm coming back to the land I love and the people I hold dear

To Scotland , St. Andrew and freedom

I'm coming home – back where I belong

I'm coming home – my spirit's coming home

I'm returning after all this time to Caledonian skies

To the country we died for so our nation would survive

Once again to stand beside the people I hold dear

For Scotland , St Andrew and freedom

Scottish Dawn © Ted Christopher 1997

This is my land, I stand beside my brothers,

Each man here to face this day of destiny.

We answered The Bruce, not for greed and not for gain

We fight only to be free

For days I have walked across the moorland

Leaving far behind the glen where I was born

And a frightened crying woman carrying my child

I trust in God that I will live to hold my son

This day brings a Scottish dawn

And freedom is the right of every man

We give our all here today, so our children can say

This is our land and we are Scotland 's sons

Now we will face this hour together.

We may fear, but we will never run

We will pay the cost though many good friends will be lost

Tomorrow, our flag will fly again

On this Coxet Hill we gathered to the saltire

When we are long gone, our sons of sons will say

“They stood behind The Bruce not for greed and not for gain

but on this Borestone field they died that we be free”

so if we die here today, we die for Scotland 's sons.

Slainte Mhath 2000 © Ted Christopher1999

The winter sun was shining this morning on the glen

And the frost on the trees took my breath away

The snow covered mountains never seemed so near

And my thoughts turned to hogmanay and the coming year

Slainte Mhath 2000 here's a toast from the old land

“Wherever you may be, may your god watch over you”

when the first bell chimes, raise your glass to your homeland

as you take your first steps into the next thousand years

We've come a long way, but have we come so far

When every day some country is at war

Yet man to man the world o'er could brithers be ye know

If we'd just listen to a child who was born two thousand years ago

For auld lang syne……

The Lion Roars

In the summer of '90 we headed to Italy

To take on the world we were going for glory

Sometimes you make us cry but the spirit will never die

Because one day our nation will cause a sensation

Scotland – the lion roars with pride

Scotland – the tartan army's at your side

Give us a goal for the millions of miles

Don't forget to give your mum a smile

In Scotland where the lion roars with pride

From hampden to germany we flew the saltire high

argentina then spain saw lions waving in the sky

sang “here we go here we go” to mexico

italy was five in a row, there's a tartan army party everywhere we go

Scotland - the lion roars with pride

Scotland – the tartan army's at your side

Give us a goal for the millions of miles

You'll hear us cheering in the western isles

Scotland – the lion roars with pride

Brazilian drums beat to Flower of Scotland through the warm Italian night

we didn't bring the cup back home cos we played a load of shite

but now that it's all over we can hear the whole world say

Scotland – you are welcome any day

Scotland – the lion roars with pride

Scotland the tartan army's by your side

We have walked a million miles leaving memories of a million smiles

Scotland – the lion roars with pride

The Auld Land ©Ted Christopher 2006

How can ye stand and look so proud over this lovely land-

the glen where I spent my childhood that was farmed by my father's hand?

Where he took me out to hunt the hills and fish the Golspie Burn

And he taught me God gave us this home to which I never can return.

Stafford you broke my heart when you shipped us all away

“You are off to a land of plenty” I heard you say

and we will work and sweat to build a new land young and free

but it's Scottish blood that fills these veins and my heart will always be

In the auld land where the thistle grows and the rain comes pouring down

On the ruins of our houses that only sheep now roam around

Down the paths of my fathers, o'er the dreams of my clan

I may be many miles across the sea but she's still my auld land

You are not of my country but took Sutherland as your bride

And you sit down there in London town where you cannot hear my people cry.

What kind of man enjoys his wine while his orders are applied

As our houses burn in the drifting snow and our children freeze and die

Stafford you broke my heart when you shipped us all away

To this world of plenty and a better day

Where we have worked with pride and built a new land strong and free

But it's Scottish blood that fills these veins and my heart will always be

In the auld land where the thistle grows and the rain comes pouring down

On the ruins of our houses that only sheep now roam around

O'er the graves of my fathers, the dreams of my clan

I may be many miles across the sea but she's still my auld land

Your money and power destroyed our ways but she's still my auld land.

The Old Man's Chair © Ted Christopher 2004

It's faded and it's torn and the varnish has long gone

It's just a piece of junk that should be thrown away.

But something in my heart made me tear it off the cart

Before the binmen took the other stuff away

They have cleared the old mans home and the dozers have moved in

And very soon there will be just a pile of stones.

As I turned with misty eyes, it was then I realised

This was the only thing I had that he'd owned

It sat beside the fire and it was his alone

And in the evenings there he'd rest his weary bones

And he'd take me on his knee and sometimes he'd sing to me

Till I'd sleep there in the old man's chair

When the work came to an end, there was precious little spare

But I still remember when he built my first guitar

Though it would never play in tune, I was over the moon

Just a young boy with a toy made from love

It sat beside the fire and it was his alone

And in the evenings there he'd rest his weary bones

I'd climb upon his knee and sometimes he'd sing to me

and I felt safe there in my old man's chair

But the ambitions of youth turned me blind

To all the treasures I had left behind.

I got wrapped up in myself never thinking of my home

by the time I found my senses he had gone.

Now it sits beside my fire though it's faded and it's torn

And in the evenings there I rest my weary bones

With my son upon my knee I dream contentedly

In that same old chair where my father dreamed the same dreams for me

We Are

We are the soil, we are the trees on the hills,

The birds in the air, the fish in the pools.

From ages past we've come to dust we'll return.

In birth, life and death, we are this land

that we call home. We are the fire and the stone,

the warm summer breeze and the mighty seas.

We are the legends, the songs, the blood and the bones,

the snow and the rain, the dreams and the pain

And if I should die somewhere away from here,

bring me home to lie in Scotia 's fields

where I've been blessed just to be their keeper for a while.

Now as I pass them to my sons –to the soil I return

Freedom's Flame

Good morning my friend. You do not stand here alone

But it warms our old hearts that you've come to kneel beside this stone

Where brave Frasers fell on that day sent from hell

When they snuffed out our flame

-But in you, today I see, it flickers once again.

A flame that roars the cry of freedom as we hold it to the sky

With a thousand years of Scottish souls each one holding high

freedom's flame in Scotland's name – hold it high, hold it high

as long as there remain one hundred our flame will never die.

We came here not knowing how we'd feel among these stones

Just to lay some sprigs of heather for those brave men long gone

But as the teardrops fall, on the wind we hear a call

“For Scotland! For Scotland!” and a burning pride engulfs us all

Never comes the day when I don't think about that moor

Or other fields of battle that are scattered o'er this world

Where young Scotsmen lie called before their time

But they did not die in vain for each one carries freedoms flame.