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A Wee Drappie O’t

[ Roud 5610 ; G/D 3:560 ; Ballad Index FVS181 ; DT DRAPPIE ; Mudcat 126637 ; trad.]

Ewan MacColl: Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland Alison McMorland, Elizabeth Stewart: Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads

Ewan MacColl sang A Wee Drappie O’t in 1956 on his Riverside album Scots Drinking Songs. He noted:

This is the work of Robert Tannahill (1774-1810), the cotton weaver bard of Paisley. Like many other Scots workers of his time, he was inspired by the example of Robert Burns to write poems and songs in the language of his workmates. At least three of his songs have become part of the. Scots tradition. This one belongs to that part of a drinking session which is characterised by the first glow of good fellowship and a good deal of philosophising.

MacColl’s attributing this song to Robert Tannahill seems to be a red herring, though. It is not included in any of Tannahill’s publications. According to The Book of Scotsmen Eminent for Achievements in Arms and Arts, Church and State… by Joseph Irving (Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1881), page 542, Lanarkshire weaver Walter Watson (1780-ca.1854) wrote a song with this title.

Adam McNaughtan sang A Wee Drappie O’t on his 1975 Caley cassette The Glasgow That I Used to Know, reissued in 1988 as a Greentrax cassette and in 2000 as part of his Greentrax double CD The Words That I Used to Know.

John Mearns sang A Wee Drappie O’t on the 1987 various artists Ross cassette A Night at the Auld Meal Mill 1987, and on his posthumous 2006 anthology The Best of John Mearns.

Bob Blair sang A Wee Drappie O’t in 2000 on his Tradition Bearers album of Scots songs and ballads, Reachin’ for the High, High Lands. This track was also included in 2010 on the second edition of the World Music Network anthology The Rough Guide to Scottish Folk. Adam McNaughtan noted on Blair’s album:

Scotland’s other national love. Bob’s one departure from his main theme is one of the Nineteenth Century’s best convivial songs. This rendition drops the verse which made Robert Ford regard it as a temperance song.

Robin Laing sang A Wee Drappie O’t in 2003 on his Greentrax album The Water of Life. He noted:

This song is often sung as a bit of a dirge but the words seem to me to be so joyous and defiant in the face of life’s troubles that I wanted to give it a happier treatment. A perfect opening statement for a collection of whisky songs.

Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers sang Wee Drappie O’t on their 2008 album Out All Night and Chris Sherburn and Findlay Napier sang A Wee Drappie O’t in 2014 on their Cherry Groove album Two Men on a Boat.

Donald WG Lindsay and Alasdair Roberts sang A Wee Drappie O’t on their 2025 album Welcome Home My Dearie. Donald WG Lindsay noted:

This convivial Scots song is often attributed—perhaps incorrectly—to Paisley bard Robert Tannahill (1774-1810). First printed in 1828 in The Oriental Herald and later sung across Scotland and Canada, it celebrates the simple joys of gathering for ‘a wee drappie’—a small drink—to lighten life’s burdens.

Lyrics

Bob Blair sings A Wee Drappie O’t

This life is a journey we a’ hae to gang,
And care is the burden we carry alang,
Though heavy be oor burden and poverty oor lot,
We’ll be happy a’ thegither owre a wee drappie o’t.

Chorus (after each verse):
Owre a wee drappie o’t, owre a wee drappie o’t,
We’ll be happy a’ thegither owre a wee drappie o’t.

The trees are a’ stripped o’ their mantles sae green,
The leaves o’ the forest nae langer are seen,
For winter is here wi’ its cauld icy coat,
But we’re a’ met here thegither owre a wee drappie o’t.

Job in his lamentations said man was made to mourn,
There’s nae such thing as pleasure fae the cradle to the urn.
O but in his meditations Job surely had forgot
The pleasure man enjoys owre a wee drappie o’t.

Donald WG Lindsay and Alasdair Roberts sing A Wee Drappie O’t

This life it is a journey we a hae tae gang,
An care it is a burden we carry alang,
Though heavy be the burden, and poverty oor lot,
We’ll be happy a thegither owre a wee drappie o’t.

Chorus (after each verse):
Owre a wee drappie o’t, owre a wee drappie o’t,
We’ll be happy a thegither owre a wee drappie o’t.

The trees they are a stripped o their mantle sae green,
A the leave o the forest nae langer are seen,
For winter it is here wi its cauld icy coat,
Yet we’re a met thegither owre a wee drappie o’t.

Job in his lamentations said "man wis made tae mourn",
That there’s nae such thing as pleasure frae the cradle tae the urn,
But in his meditations he surely had forgot
A the pleasure man enjoys owre a wee drappie o’t.