Welcome to h2g2's attempt to decipher the mystery that is the song 'The 12 Days of Christmas'. You've come to the page that is concentrating on the line Twelve Drummers Drumming, and here's what our Researchers came up with when we asked them what on earth this line meant.

• Drum solos - please, no! Anyone who has ever sat through the entire length of Led Zeppelin's 'Moby Dick' (off their second album) will be only too aware of how astoundingly boring drum solos in rock music can be, even among the rest of the dross produced by the mind-bendingly pretentious '70s. The very thought of 12 drummers drumming is enough to make you pack away your flares once and for all...

• Research by the Department of Psychology at the North-east Louisiana University found that the preference for exaggerated bass in music - in other words drum beats you can feel - was associated with impulsiveness and a preference for unusual experiences. The argument went that, since bass sounds in 'primitive' cultures were associated with warfare and uninhibited actions, exaggerated bass may well encourage wild behaviour. Most nightclub bouncers would concur.

• This line is a metaphor for hangovers, of course. If you don't believe us, you try drinking three bottles of cheap Greek brandy and a crème de menthe chaser. Boom! Boom! Urgh...