Did Scotland give the world rock n' roll? Three doctors and a contralto made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion in an Edinburgh Fringe festival performance of "The Secret Life of Robert Burns".
Their production started with a serious academic discourse and ended in
a hilarious rendition of extracts from some of the best known works of
the poet Rabbie Burns to the beat of some of Elvis Presley's best known
songs.
The king of rock 'n' roll, who died 30 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee,
is only known to have visited Scotland once. He set foot on Scottish
soil briefly at Prestwick airport near Glasgow in 1960 on his way back
to the United States after doing his army draft service in Germany.
Scottish humour writer Allan Morrison, however, claims in his 2004 book
The Presley Prophecy that he had traced Presley's ancestry back to
blacksmith Andrew Presley and Elspeth Leg, who were married in the tiny
village of Lonmay in the northeast coast county of Aberdeenshire on
Augusr 27, 1713.
He says their son, also named Andrew, fled Scotland after the 1745
Jacobite uprising in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie for North
Carolina in the United States. He claims to have traced the line down
to the birth of Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935.
So, did Elvis's singing genius trace back to the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment?
The secret life of Burns starts with retired medical professor and
Burns expert David Purdie uncovering fresh images connected with the
poet from Scotland's National Library and Portrait Gallery.
Burns died in 1796 before the age of photography, but there is a
photograph of his youngest sister Isabel in 1843. Purdie hopes to put
together an accurate depiction of Burns with computer technology using
portraits, silhouettes and Isobel's photograph.
Aileen Drife, who has been interested in folk songs since her teens,
sang several of the poet's works in what is thought to be the authentic
style of the day.
Then Doctors Jim Drife and Walter Nimmo, who have been performing irregularly at the Fringe for over 30 years, hit the stage.
Drife said recent musical discoveries concealed for over two centuries
in the cellars of a country mansion in the Scottish Borders indicated
rock rhythm was developed in 18th century Scotland, and that Burns was undoubtedly aware of this.
The duo, with guitar and electronic harpsichord belt out a series of
songs from "It's a sheep sale baby, it's a sheep sale", through "the
world's first commerical jingle." Canny Scots know what's what with the
Encylopaedia Britannica (first published in Edinburgh between 1768 and
1771) to a medley of songs Tae a Louse, Tae a Mouse, Tam O'Shanta and
Auld Lang Syne to a mixture of Presley's rock tunes and shouts of
laughter.
Even Benjamin Franklin, American diplomat, philosopher, inventor and
general man about the world, makes a fleeting appearance in
enlightenment Edinburgh: Howdy Scotland! Call me Ben!
I'm one of them renaissance men...