Forever Yesterday - Barclay James Harvest

Talk about a loser, I was just about to go When someone grabbed me by the arm, a man I did not know

He said he’d been a drover, a member of the clan

With runrig in his very soul and nowhere left to stand

Now me I’m just a highland boy and cottar was my trade

He’d seen me at Kildoanan when the black-face came to stay

He’d oatcakes and he’d whisky and one foot in the grave

For us it’s over

Bitter tears began to fall as whisky tore away the years

From the straths and the braes

Forever yesterday

The royal George it was that brought the Countess to our door

She wanted us to leave the hills for crofts upon the moor

She took our piece of paradise and left us on the shore

For us it’s over

Bitter tears began to fall as whisky tore away the years

From the straths and the braes

Forever yesterday

They cleared the clans from Strathnavar, the heart of Sutherland

They cleared us from our highland homes by ship to foreign glens

There’s Linton and there’s Cheviot and red deer on the bens

For us it’s over, over, over, my friend