Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
Oh ye cannae spend a dollar when ye're deid
No ye cannae spend a dollar when ye're deid
Singing, Ding Dong Dollar, everybody holler
Ye cannae spend a dollar when ye're deid

O the Yanks have just drapped anchor aff Dunoon
And they've had a civic welcome frae the toon
As they came up the measured mile
Bonnie Mary o' Argyle
Was wearing spangled drawers ablow her goon

And the publicans will a' be daein' swell
For it's jist the thing that's sure tae ring the bell
Aye the dollars they will jingle
There'll be no a lassie single
Even though they'll maybe blow us a' tae hell

And the Clyde is sure tae prosper now they're here
Because they're chargin' one and tenpence for the beer
Ay, an' if you want a taxi
They stick it up your - jersey
An' they charge you thirty bob tae Sandbank Pier

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

As sung at the Glasgow International Folk Festival 1994

Tune: She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain

[1973:] 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. (Dallas, Wars 251f)

[1984:] Songs like [this] were right for their time but they now appear rather oversimplified, and hardly adequate for the resurgent CND movement. (Munro, Revival 237)

[1985:] [Being made The Right Reverend, The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland] is the highest honour that the Church of Scotland can confer on any of her servants but, unlike the Pope, the Moderator's term of office is one year only - his appointment lasting from one month of May to the next. Like the Pontiff he is larded with pomp and ceremony. (Macdonald, The Corncrake and the Lysander 30f)

[1990:] Glaswegian John Mack, also known as John Smith (Jak) heard George MacLeod of the Iona Community say 'You cannot spend a dollar when you are dead'. John Smith got the basic chorus idea, then he and Morris [Blythman, aka Thurso Berwick] refined it and Jim McLean joined in the working up of the verses. It became the anthem of the Scottish Anti- Polaris movement. (McVicar, ISIS 66)

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10921

See also
Words please: Scottish Breakaway