How disgraceful it was to hear Rod Stewart, who prides himself in his Scottish roots, getting the words of Burns marvellous song completely wrong.
Nowhere did the bard write "for the sake of" auld lang syne - it is "for auld lang syne".
When are you lot South of the border going to got it right?
Poor old Rabbie must be spinning in his grave every New Year's Eve when you guys make a mess of his beautiful anthem.
Please try this year to get it right.
Rich
The problem arises because the Scottish version which Burns collected does not translate into English very well. There is a miss match between the melidy and the lyrics and adding 'for the sake of' makes the song scan much better in the English version.
Rabbie Burns and the Pope died at the same time Saint Peter was drunk and let Rabbie in and sent the Pope down to Old Nick.
Peter woke up in the morning and contacted Old Nick, they agreed to swop ''guests''.
On his way up from hell the Pope met Rabbie and asked where he was going ''down to see Auld Nick and where are you going to'' said Rabbie ''up to see the Virgin Mary'' said the Pope, ''Too late'' said Rabbie
Wharton, when it was first sung, it was in honour of a black player, Chris Oti, who'd just scored three tries on his debut at Twickenham. Bizarre sort of honour, but I believe it was well meant. It has stuck, but the singers know even fewer lines of it than they do of God Save the Queen.
Does it matter at the end of the day, what version you use, as long as you get together and sing the same words as each other in a circle at the end of a dance or party etc., and mean what you say.