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Ding Dong Dollar

Glasgow Song Guild
Languages: Scots, English


Glasgow Song Guild

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Related Songs

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(Pete Seeger)
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[1962]
Album “Ding Dong Dollar: Anti-Polaris and Scottish Republican Songs”, Folkways Records.
Scritta da Thurso Berwick, John Mack Smith e Jim McLean sulla melodia della tradizionale americana “She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain”, la stessa che in Scozia accompagna i versi di una canzoncina per bambini intitolata “Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus”

1961. Holy Loch, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) demonstration
1961. Holy Loch, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) demonstration


“In protest to an American nuclear submarine that sailed into the Holy Loch in the early 1960s, the Anti-Polaris Singers started a movement with music at its core. Drawing from the rich Celtic bard traditions and combining folk and popular melodies with biting lyrics, the Anti-Polaris Singers were not only informative but played an important role in sustaining the demonstrators’ morale.” (Folkways Records)

“In January 1962, the berthing of US Polaris submarines at Holy Loch in Scotland welded together the basic Scottish nationalism and growing fear of nuclear war into a powerful movement that turned to music as an agitational tool [...]. On top of the basic bardic tradition of "aoir" (satire) was thrown an eclectic mixture of blues, ballads, skiffle and Woody Guthrie and allowed to simmer. Dozens of songs resulted, many of them still sung wherever radical Scots gather including this parody of a Glasgow street song [Ye Cannae Shove Yer Grannie aff a Bus] which was itself a parody of She'll be coming round the mountain.” (MySongBook)
Oh ye canny spend a dollar when ye're deid
No ye canny spend a dollar when ye're deid
Singing, Ding… Dong… Dollar…, everybody holler
Ye canny spend a dollar when ye're deid

O the Yanks have juist drapt anchor in Dunoon
And they've had a civic welcome fae the toon
As they cam up the measured mile
Bonnie Mary o Argyll
Wis wearing spangled drawers ablow her goun

An the publicans will aa be daein swell
For it's juist the thing that's sure tae ring the bell
O the dollars they will jingle
They'll be no a lassie single,
Even though they maybe blaw us an tae hell

But the Glesca Moderator disnae mind
In fact he thinks the Yanks are awfy kind
For if it's Heaven that ye're goin'
It's a quicker way than rowin,
And there's sure tae be naebody left behind

Oh ye canny spend a dollar when ye're deid
Sue teel Kennedy he’s got tae keep the heid
Singing, Ding… Dong… Dollar…, everybody holler
Ye canny spend a dollar when ye're deid

Contributed by Alessandro - 2010/4/22 - 09:44


"The album 'Ding Dong Dollar' was recorded in Morris Blythman's house in Rouken Glen around 1960 and apid for by Pete Seeger who managed to get it released via Folkways... The singers, if I can remember, were: Jack O'Conner, Nigel Denver, Josh MacRae, Morris Blythman and various people in the choruses. Alastair McDonald played various instruments...."
(Jim Mclean)

Alessandro - 2010/4/22 - 09:55




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