Ding, Dong, Dollar
Ye canny spend a dollar when ye're deid
Welcome to new subscribers and regular readers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Ding, Dong, Dollar”, by John Mack, sung by the Anti-Polaris Singers. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 500+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.
The Background
(592 words)
In the 1950s, the nuclear arms race was going on between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. If its land-based missile systems were destroyed, the U.S. needed a way to fight back. The Polaris Missile Program was developed. Polaris missiles could be sent from submarines anywhere in the world.
In the 1960s, the U.S. built a nuclear submarine base in Holy Loch near Glasgow, Scotland. Many people in the British House of Commons as well as the general public did not want the weapons there. Thousands of people marched in protest, and many songs against the threat were written. “Ding Dong Dollar” is one of them.
The Anti-Polaris Singers helped teach others about this issue and played an important role in sustaining the demonstrators’ morale.
The Song
The original song was written in Scots, the language of Lowland Scotland. I put it through Gemini (AI), and it gave me the more common English:
Chorus (Original): 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
(common English):
You can't spend a dollar when you're dead
No, you can't spend a dollar when you're dead
Singing, Ding... Dong... Dollar..., everybody holler
You can't spend a dollar when you're dead
Dunoon is a town that is near Holy Loch, near Glasgow. The Yanks (Americans) walked the “measured mile” from the navy base up to the town. The songwriters probably used this phrase because it had the same sound as “Argyll”, a county in the west of Scotland. (Mary of Argyll is not a real person.)
Oh, the Yanks have just dropped anchor in Dunoon
And they've had their civic welcome from the town
As they came up the measured mile, Pretty Mary of Argyll
Was wearing spangled underwear under her gown
Because the American military would be going into the town, the local businesses would make money (doing swell). The “publicans” are pub owners. Something that is “sure to ring the bell” is something that will satisfy someone. Here, it refers to drinking in the pubs. There is a play on words - ring the bell and jingle, the sound of coins. The soldiers will want to meet the girls, but they might also be the people who launch the weapons.
And the publicans will all be doing swell
Because it's just the thing that's sure to ring the bell
Oh, the dollars they will jingle
There won't be a girl single (remaining)
Even though they might be blowing us all to hell
I wasn’t able to find exactly what “Glasgow moderator” means in this song. A moderator is a person who stands between, for example, opposing groups in order to make communication between them easier. Based on the lyrics and the context, I’m guessing that this moderator was someone who was talking with the American authorities and the Glasgow public officials.
Oh, the Glasgow Moderator doesn't mind
In fact, he thinks the Yanks are awfully kind
Because if it's to Heaven that you're going
It's a quicker way than rowing
And there's sure to be nobody left behind
In 1961, the U.S. President was John F. Kennedy. The lyrics urge him to “keep his head”. To “keep one’s head” means to stay calm. The opposite, “lose one’s head”, means to panic or lose self-control.
Oh, you can't spend a dollar when you're dead
So tell Kennedy he’s got to keep his head
Singing, Ding... Dong... Dollar..., everybody holler
You can't spend a dollar when you're dead
This song became the anthem of the Scottish Anti-Polaris movement.
Question:
Why do you think the title is “Ding Dong Dollar”?
Vocabulary
submarine 潜水艦
threat 脅威
morale 士気
holler 大声で叫ぶ
drop anchor 錨をおろす
spangle スパンコール
launch 打ち上げ
ring the bell 満足させる
jingle チリンチリンと鳴る音
blowing us all to hell 私たち全員を地獄に爆破する
keep one’s head 落ち着き払う
Additional note:
There was another verse. Alex Norton and Gordon McCulloch sing it in the BBC video listed below.
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
Sources
Antiwar Songs (AWS). (Apr. 22, 2010). Glasgow Song Guild - Ding Dong Dollar. https://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=en&id=30513 Accessed 18 September 2024.
BBC. (Jun. 20, 2014). I belong to Glasgow, Alex Norton, Alex Norton Sings the Classic Protest Song “Ding Dong Dollar” with folk singer Gordon McCulloch. BBC One. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021b09f#:~:text=to%20play%20content-,Alex%20Norton%20sings%20the%20classic%20protest%20song%20’Ding%20Dong%20Dollar,of%20Clyde%20in%20the%201960s Accessed 18 September 2024.
Black, S. (Sep. 30, 2019). Send the Yankees home: Anti-nuclear protest songs from 1960s Scotland. Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/ding-dong-dollar-protest-songs-1960s-scotland Accessed 18 September 2024.
Henry’s songbook. Ding Dong Dollar. (Mar. 28, 2003). http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/d/dingdong.html Accessed 18 September 2024.
Scots Language Centre, Centre for the Scots Leid. (No date) Ding Dong Dollar. https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/444 Accessed 18 September 2024.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Catalog. https://folkways.si.edu/glasgow-song-guild/ding-dong-dollar-anti-polaris-and-scottish-republican-songs/celtic-historical-song-struggle-protest-world/music/album/smithsonian Accessed 18 September 2024.
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. (2000). The best of broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American underground from the pages of Broadside Magazine. ISBN: 0-9704942-0-3
Ye canny spend a dollar when ye’re Deid. (Dec. 23, 2010). https://si-siris.blogspot.com/2010/12/ye-canny-spend-dollar-when-yere-deid.html Accessed 18 September 2024.
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