- published: 06 Jun 2014
- views: 360620
A tankard is a form of drinkware consisting of a large, roughly cylindrical, drinking cup with a single handle. Tankards are usually made of silver, pewter, or glass, but can be made of other materials, for example wood, ceramic or leather. A tankard may have a hinged lid, and tankards featuring glass bottoms are also fairly common. Tankards are shaped and used similarly to beer steins.
The word "tankard" originally meant any wooden vessel (13th century) and later came to mean a drinking vessel. The earliest tankards were made of wooden staves, similar to a barrel, and did not have lids. A 2000-year-old wooden tankard of approximately four-pint capacity has been unearthed in Wales.
Metal tankards often come with a glass bottom. The legend is that the glass bottomed tankard was developed as a way of refusing the King's shilling, i.e. conscription into the British army or navy. The drinker could see the coin in the bottom of the glass and refuse the drink, thereby avoiding conscription.
Early in the eighties
The brealdancers very strong
But we destroyed their discos
The day and all night long
Our loudness was incredible
Our metal alcoholical
Zombies attacked us from behind
But we survived the Berlin nights
Ugly, fat and alive
Twenty years of thrash 'til death
Ugly, fat and alive
Bangin' 'til our final breath
Ugly, fat and alive
Always held the bottles high
Ugly, fat and alive
And then we joined the beer-wars
Invasion chemical
We puked into the tour bus
The morning after smell
Our loudness was incredible
Our metal alcoholical
There knocked an alien at my door
"Meaning of life?" it asked me for
Ugly, fat and alive
Twenty years of thrash 'til death
Ugly, fat and alive
Bangin' 'til our final breath
Ugly, fat and alive
Always held the bottles high
Ugly, fat and alive
We won't be stone cold sober
Like our two-faced manager
We do the tankard club tour
No groupies there at all
Our loudness was incredible
Our metal alcoholical
We still destroy all discos
The kings of beer are back, let's go
Ugly, fat and alive
Twenty years of thrash 'til death
Ugly, fat and alive
Bangin' 'til our final breath
Ugly, fat and alive
Always held the bottles high