The best recording of this song that I can find is The Gaugers' one here, but I'm having trouble making out some of the lyrics. There's a webpage here that claims to have The Gaugers' lyrics but it's full of errors (not least, it has two of the verses in the wrong order!). Most of their mistakes are obvious and I can work out what the Gaugers words really are; but there are two words in The Gaugers' version of the song that I can't make out at all, which are as follows:

1) In the third line of the first verse, it sounds like The Guagers are singing:

Little ken ye ev noo, though ye'll soon come tae learn

... but I don't think there's such a word as "ev" even in Doric? The lyrics page I linked to above has the line as:

Little ken ye I noo, though ye'll soon come tae learn

... but that's clearly not what The Gaugers sang, and it doesn't even make sense.

Little ken ye the noo, though ye'll soon come tae learn

would make perfect sense, but that's not what The Gaugers seem to be singing either. Are there any North East Scots mudcatters who could listen to the youtube recording and see if you can make out what word they're singing there? The line concerned is 23 seconds into the recording.


2) In the third line of the second verse, The Gaugers sound as if they're singing:

Twa and six tae lay by gin ye win tae be sparin'

I know "gin" in Doric dialect means "if" but are they singing the word "win"? If so does it mean "want", or if not, what does it mean? (The lyrics page I linked to above has the word as "need" but that's definitely not the word The Gaugers are singing!)

Many thanks

Dave