[1989:] A modern "music hall" nationalist song which Henderson repudiates in his second stanza [of the Freedom Come-All-Ye]. Scotland the Brave is a good example of a song locked into Scotland's mythical, glorious Highland past. Of its kind it is an excellent and stirring piece, and often sung as the concert-hall national anthem. It appeals to past glory as an inspiration for the present, but offers no other solution to the problems of Scotland. (Olson, Music 154)
It is unlikely that the composer, brought up in Glasgow, ever intended that this song should be taken seriously, but it has been enthusiastically adopted by concert-hall nationalists. It is similar in spirit to (and was probably intended as a parody of) [...] Scots Wha Hae. (Olson, Music 164)