Isla Cameron (c. 1930 - 1980) was a Scottish singer and actress. She was, f… Read Full Bio ↴Isla Cameron (c. 1930 - 1980) was a Scottish singer and actress. She was, for much of the 1950s, a singing partner of Ewan MacColl. In her time she was one of Britain's most popular woman folk singers, performing regularly in clubs throughout the British Isles. Her pioneering work in the 1950s paved the way for such figures as Sandy Denny and opened English folk music to a wider audience than it had been perceived as having.

Isla Cameron was born in Scotland but was brought up in Dorset and Somerset. While trying to become an actress she joined Joan Littlewood who had co-founded the Theatre Workshop in 1945. Joan’s husband at the time, Ewan MacColl was to become Isla’s singing partner for much of the 50s.

During 1953-4, Peter Kennedy produced a series of Sunday morning BBC radio programs called “As I Roved Out”. Two of these were later issued on the Folktrax label, with Isla singing three folk songs, Seamus Ennis playing uilliann pipes and tin whistle, Ewan MacColl singing some songs and Bob & Ron Copper also singing.

In 1956 Isla Cameron appeared in another radio program “Ballads and Blues: Sea Music”. In 1960 “The Singers Club” opened in “The Princess Louise” pub in Holborn, London. It was run by Ewan MacColl and his new wife Peggy Seeger. Isla Cameron became a resident at this folk club, but by this point her film career had taken off. She acted in a number of movies, with her biggest acting role being in the 1969 version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where she could use her Scottish accent to advantage.

She continued singing and recording during the 1960s. In 1962, Isla Cameron and Tony Britton recorded “Songs of Love, Lust and Loose Living”. In 1963, Peter Kennedy recorded Isla singing with accompaniment by Jack Armstrong on Northumbrian pipes. She sang songs by Bob Dylan and Bertolt Brecht but rarely sang after 1966, when acting took over her life.

She died in an accident in her home in 1980.

Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
Isla Cameron Lyrics

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Come all you fair and tender girls
That flourish in your prime
Beware, beware, keep your garden fair
Let no man steal your thyme
Let no man steal your thyme
For when your thyme, it is past and gone
He'll care no more for you
And every place your time was waste

Will all spread over with rue
Will all spread over with rue
The goddess son was standing by
Three flowers he gave to me
The pink, the blue and the violet true
And the red, red rosy tree
And the red, red rosy tree
But I refused the red rose bush
And gave the willow tree
That all the world may plainly see
How my love slighted me
How my love slighted me

Naar het Nederlands vertalen

Overall Meaning

Kom allen, mooie en tedere meisjes,
Die bloeien in je hoogtijdagen,
Wees op je hoede, houd je tuin netjes,
Laat geen man je tijm stelen,
Laat geen man je tijm stelen.
Want wanneer je tijm voorbij is
Zal hij niets meer om je geven,
En elke plek waar je tijd verspild is
Zal bedekt zijn met verdriet.
Zal bedekt zijn met verdriet.
De zoon van de godin stond naast me,
Drie bloemen gaf hij me,
De roze, de blauwe en de ware viooltjes,
En de rode, rode rozenboom.
En de rode, rode rozenboom.
Maar ik weigerde de rode rozenstruik,
En gaf de wilgenboom,
Zodat de hele wereld duidelijk kon zien
Hoe mijn liefde me verachtte.
Hoe mijn liefde me verachtte.