"Dark Island"

Apparently this is a good tune before "The South Wind".

We obtained copyright permission for this song for our first CD.

Marcia reports (Sept. 2009) that she has found that others are starting the tune on a 'D' instead of an 'E' (same key...), and again for each repetition of that riff. This gives the tune a slightly more haunting feel. The Fiddler's Companion definitely uses the 'E'. What I have found is that many folks split the difference - turn the E into 'ED'... I guess we'll have to use what feels best for us.

"Here's some info about the song taken from various threads on the Mudcat Cafe forum:"

From George Seto: The information I have is that the song, Dark Island, was written by David Silver, and the tune was written by Iain MacLachlan, an accordianist. This was created for a BBC Thriller called the Dark Island, in 1963. The show was filmed in Benbecula, Scotland.

There is further controversy about this song. Alan Bell wrote words to what he believed was a traditional tune. Also, Stewart Ross of Inverness, Scotland wrote a very well known version of the song in 1963, after being assured that the tune was traditional. There were at least 4 English lyrics that were written in the 60's to versions of the tune. The Ross words were written to a very different version of the tune and are not a straight fit to the accordian tune.

Note: (From Stewart Ross' son) "There were no other words to the tune before my father's were written. David Silver wrote a set of lyrics in response to my father's appearing first - and has been paid and very usually credited for both lyrical versions. The tune had been played on the Scottish music circuit before being formally copyrighted and had earlier titles including Dr. MacKay's Farewell to Creagorry and Dr. McInnes's farewell to South Uist."