The Proclaimers - Letter From America (Official Video) 

They were brilliant in harmonizing each other

Sean GJ O'Brien, aye... so true!

This song is almost as old as me lol

it is gorgeous and great from the release on !!!

aye yer no joking

Ravenscraig employed twice as many workers than needed. It’s hardly surprising it shut down. It was a fairly new facility when it had to be demolished. What a waste of tax payers money.

100%

Mon the shire

Wouldn’t have shut down Ravenscraig if they’d supported the Miners. But they didn’t. They drove past picket lines waving their pay packets at starving miners and laughed at them. Ask your dad about that. Tell we were asking for him. Ask him if he’s proud.

I would love to ask my dad lots of things but he died just after the Craig closed of an industrial related cancer . An ex miner himself we gave every extra penny we could to the miners when they were on strike . If you are from North Lanarkshire you have seen the devastation that the de-industrialisation of that area has wreaked . This was Thatcher and Thatcher alone .you are spiteful but also completely wrong .Divide and conquer ? Thatcher would have been proud of you .

Greetings from Scotland!

Greetings from America 🙋

Greetings from Scotland 😃 wish we had your weather!

Its shite being scottish

My home village mentioned in song was brought up in Linwood Scotland thought no 1 knew it existed unless your were from there or paisley lol in my defense I was only 8 when it came out

You are always welcome back home

A letter from America has a deep meaning in the West of Ireland because they were accompanied by sums of money to help the home families survive in straitened economic conditions. Usually a family would pool their money and get the eldest child across the water to the US. This child was then expected to send back the passage moeny for the next child and so forth.

@@jgdooley2003 no its the highland clearances

As a welsh irish i respect that 😢

I am Irish we have a few good songs

Texas to Manchester, why ?

@@Caphiasas-sf6ct 😝

@@forgottenpalace4472 as you fleeing justice ?

@@forgottenpalace4472 since you've been here have you rid yourself of that america disease religion ?

@@Caphiasas-sf6ct Just enjoying the weather.

It's the great arrangement that's the key to this song. The Proclaimers point of difference is their ability to sing with a full on Scottish accent rather than in an entirely benign, industry standard, US one. Song is OK as a piece of work.

Who said they were?

@@captainkenzie6873 on the Edinburgh news national survey. It literally says these guys are one hit wonders.

@@tomburke9955 I agree, most singers lose any accents when they sign, if you listen to this they sing in scottish. And its the orchestration that carries the backing instrumentation. Other than that they were a pair of lefty SNP supporters, in serious need of a good dentist.

Nah matey two hit wonders.

doesnt nova scotia mean new scotland?🤔😅🤷‍♂️

@@beetojuice618 Aye. It does

lovely to hear it, my mum was born in England, west Sussex, her mum and auntie was from Hamilton and I was so lucky to have been able to visit these places since she departed , such a wonderful place especially the highlands

Dunfermline Here 😀 Any idea what she did or where she stayed?

Your no cousin of mine Paddy.😂

​@@4legsgood well, it is possible

Very lucky. So sorry for the loss of your Dad.

Totally agree.

It was directly inspired by news at the time of a skills drain among nurses working in Scotland, as many were leaving their home towns and NHS careers to take up offers of better pay and working conditions in the US and Canada. Obviously it ties in with the history of the clearances and certainly the final verse is direct political commentary aimed at the Thatcher era which had closed major manufacturing industries in towns like Methil, Linwood, Irvine etc. Some of those communities still haven't recovered to this day, rating high on the social deprivation index and lacking any outside investment.

It is a great song, but total bollocks connecting the reasons for the Highland Clearances with the deindustrialisation of Scotland.

It's good but it's no sunshine on leith is it ?

A drunk Andrew Strong singing this on a stage at an Irish wedding. Brilliant

You know that 'Thousands Are Sailing' and 'Letter From America' were released within months of each other? Two brilliant and poignant songs about the same experience.

@@grantmcinnes1176 Amazingly "Two Margarines on the go" was also released at that time, another amazing song

Seeing them sat 24 June at Queens Park x

Proper job ❤

The Commitments taught me the Irish love to belt this song lmao

now imagine people from Nepal knows this song as well :D

Hink it's mair tae dae wi the fact yous huv hunners ae yir ain great music that it's a pleasant surprise yees gie a leuk in tae wir ain sangs about the hings we thole fur bein Scots.

Where's your WASPS uniform lol

I appreciate your feeling, but for this 66yo person who grew up in Scotland, this song is just heartbreaking. It is beautiful, but there is nothing happy or inspiring about it. It is a song about emigration and loss that was mostly forced and not voluntary. It spans the 18th to the 20th century. There is an expression of hope in the rising melody of the "when you go" (not "if" you go), "will you write a letter". That means I realise you see no future here and I hope you have a better future elsewhere, but please don't forget to write to those who stayed. Families were torn apart and in those days, communication was only by letter. But the main message is of loss, departure and desolation: " X no more" in the first few verses lists the names of places in the HIghlands from which people emigrated in the 18th and 19th century (sometimes not voluntarily, e.g. being evicted, burned out of their homes, with police brutality pushing people onto boats). In the later verses, it lists the names of places in Central Scotland where mining, shipbuilding and engineering were killed between the 1960s and the 1980s. This is a lament, not a celebration.

Thank you. Whoever you are,you are clearly a working class person of principles. Guid luck tae yi.

Billy Bragg New England 👍🏻

I'm born in Essex but my name is Scottish - Iain - bloody father came down fro Glasgow in the 70's...

Romanticism is OK in songs but not a sensible basis for life

mickigoe Me, too. And I’m American, and I’ve never been to Scotland.

brother

Same and I'm Scottish. But on a serious note....... no

@@Jamie-bv6mz Something wrong with Scotland?

@@Thaddeus2007 very much so with our drug problem. Worst in Europe in fact

You are awesome. The way you talk about Scotland.

​@@vinaymulukutla358He's a sheep snagging,turnip eater.😂.

'Take a lew--k at the re-al trah-k..' Classic indeed.

The Scottish accent really makes this song. Just brilliant.

they really will our young will hear it and love it

Ditto. Always reminds me of Christmas in my horrendous secondary school years. Christmas being happy times. School not so much.

Coming from Egypt I would think you'd find most countries lovely in comparison.😂.

Im Scottish and proud to born and bread here 😊

The saddest word in this song is "When". They don't say "If you go", but "When you go". That word breaks my heart.

Forced immigration I might add. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances

Forced by Scottish landlords who valued sheep and grouse over their peasants. Even the English didn't do this to their own. The Scottish gentry saw highlanders as bothersome folk who had over populated the land and brought little or nothing of value to it.

Consider how poignant that is when you remember back in the real old days, letter was the only means of communication - lucky if your letter even got there. No nipping back on the plane for Christmas, definitely no email or Skype. If you decided things were untenable in your homeland and chanced it on a ship to the Americas, it was bye forever, pretty much.

Correct! Kick out people to change them for sheep, and deer for the posh to go hunting on weekends. Sooo sad.

Working in a company mailroom today made me think of letter songs like Return to Sender and Please Mr Postman,but then I saw a letter addressed to someone in Bathgate who had moved away,and instantly thought about this song.

Jesus. I would have been crippled with tears. How could the family make it through that.

... virtually nothing could be better!

The Rolling Stones, Super tramp, Status Quo,The Hollies, CCR, Dr.Hock, the Who,many more,I just got fed up texting.

The Lismore Bar,Glasgow. Has this sign in the men's toilets . This urinal is dedicated to three men who participated in the Scottish Highland Clearances. These men took part in what is now recognised as a form of Central Government endorsed ethnic cleansing. “Through their greed and bigotry, they and others have been instrumental in destroying a centuries old Scottish Highland way of life. “Please feel free to pay them the respect they deserve.” Got to give an award to the Glaswegians for the inventiveness levels of disrespect.

I actually created a channel here JUST so I could like this comment. It's EXACTLY what I was thinking when I listened to this song. I've never heard the song before today, but I love it!

Aye, we miss a' oor ain folk. People have been forced for hundreds of years, sometimes physically, sometimes financially, to leave Scotland. I'm lucky. I still live here but, like millions of Scots, I never forget those forced to leave. You will always be welcomed home to bonnie Scotland.

This has me crying on the way to work x

God that's Soo sad.

@@jakeandcorirobertson735 you've really never heard this song..uck that's sad.

Your a mongeral.

@@weemac4645 im 100% aryan ancestry

I love this song too, but it makes me sad to be Scottish

It does ey....

I am not Scottish but cheers mate. Great song and perfect English ;-)

always happy and PROUD to be SCOTTISH, don't have to make excuses.

Warm people.

i love Im on my way..

i loved both songs

It’s their best song because it was produced by nobody less than Gerry Rafferty... His influence is obvious throughout.

My favorite proclaimers song is what makes you cry I could listen to that song 3 times a day and never gets old and sunshine on leith.

It's on Now 80s a lot. Letters from America

...you need to think about it more often! Cos it's just brilliant!

I live in lochaber 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Janet Fairweather to how, are,you

Good call!

Link to the letter that you are searching for is given above. Wish you a educated research.

ive read the lyrics i am forever changed@@maimun2000

God Bless Brother.....I’m proud to be English......we should all respect each other......👍🇬🇧🤓

I think 500 miles is better :p

@@bimich7339Well, not necessarily better, but also great.

Agreed

Sunshine on Leith

Old comment allert

It also equates the highland clearances as the same as the closure of 80's industries. Quite an amazing political comment of the day.

no its not, difference between seeking a better life and being thrown off the land through political policies that leave you with no choice.

@@shonagraham2752 To be fair, very few people "seek a better life" in another country unless they're already rich enough that it's not a gamble for them (in which case, they're not so much seeking a better life, as a life with better ocean views), or because there's something deeply wrong (normally political) happening back home. But I take your point.