Twelve and a Tanner a bottle

AKA Twelve and a Tanner
Twelve Bob and a Tanner
First Published 1920
Writer/composer Will Fyffe Roud RN8104 6334

Music Hall Performers Will Fyffe
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Stewart, Belle; Scotland : Perthshire; no date 1950s/60s?
McPhee, Elizabeth; Scotland : Perthshire; 1955
Unknown singer; Scotland : Perthshire; 1955
Modern performances
Hamish Imlach, Robin Laing		 

Lyrics transcribed from recording by Jim Dixon

It's really high time that something was done
To alter the way that the country is run.
They're not doing things in the way that they should.
Just take for instance the price of the food.

Twelve and a tanner a bottle, that's what it's costin the day.
Twelve and a tanner a bottle! It takes all the pleasure away.
Before ye can get a wee drappie, ye have to spend all that ye've got.
How can a fella be happy, when happiness costs such a lot?

There's taxes on this, taxes on that.
While we're getting lean, the officials get fat.
You must admit it's a bit underhand,
Puttin a tax on the breath of the land,

Noo I used to meet with some old pals o mine,
When whiskey was cheap an it went doon like wine.
Noo I never meet them, I'm sorry to tell.
I dodge roond the corner an I drink by mysel,

A song written and performed by the great Will Fyffe – champion of the Scottish working man. It was a hit in the 1920s and has remained in the repertoire of Scottish traditional singers ever since. It has been collected several times from members of the the important Scots traveller community based in Blairgowrie., Perthshire and also features on Hamish Imlach’s 1969 album Ballads of Booze.

Will Fyffe sings it:

Robin Laing sings it:

Sources: