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15 Aug 20 - 10:32 PM (#4068513) Subject: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Joe Offer
This thread will be edited by GerryM. -Joe Offer- |
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16 Aug 20 - 04:14 AM (#4068524) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST,henryp Anderson's Coast by John Warner Old Bass Strait roars like a great mill race And where are you, my Annie? And the same moon shines on this distant place As shone that night on my Annie's face. Chorus (after each verse): And Annie dear, don't wait for me, I fear I'll never return to thee. There's naught to do but endure my fate And watch the moon, the lonely moon, Light the breakers of wild Bass Strait. We stole a vessel and all her gear And where are you, my Annie? And from Van Diemen's north did steer Till Bass Strait's wild waves, they wrecked us here. A mile inland as our path was laid And where are you, my Annie? We found a government stockade, Long, long deserted, but stoutly made. And somewhere's west port Melbourne lies And where are you, my Annie? Through swamps infested with snakes and flies And the fool who walks there, the fool he dies. We hail no ships, though time it drags, And where are you, my Annie? For our chain gang roll and government rags, They mark us out as Van Diemen's lags. We fled the lash and the chafing chain, And where are you, my Annie? We fled starvation and brutal pain, But here we are, and here remain. John Roberts and Debra Cowan sing Anderson's Coast. Words from Mainly Norfolk. Recording by Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, It's also in the DT: Here |
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16 Aug 20 - 10:22 AM (#4068543) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Jeri John and Debra sing Anderson's Coast on YouTube John DOES sing "our chain gang roll". |
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16 Aug 20 - 11:00 AM (#4068548) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney John Warner Singer Songwriter Poet and good bloke 4. ANDERSON'S COAST © John Warner 8/5/93 Old Bass Strait roars like some great millrace, And where are you, my Annie? And the same moon shines on this lonely place, As shone one day on my Annie's face. But Annie, dear, don't wait for me, I fear I shall not return to thee, There's nought to do but endure my fate, And watch the moon, the lonely moon Light the breakers on wild Bass Strait. We stole a vessel and all her gear, And where are you, my Annie? And from Van Dieman's we north did steer, Till Bass Strait's wild waves wrecked us here. A mile inland as our path was laid And where are you, my Annie? We found a government stockade Long deserted but stoutly made. And somewhere west, Port Melbourne lies, And where are you, my Annie? Through swamps infested with snakes and flies, The fool who walks there, he surely dies. We hail no ships though the time, it drags, And where are you, my Annie? Our chain gang walk and our government rags All mark us out as Van Dieman's lags. We fled the lash and the chafing chain, And where are you, my Annie? We fled hard labour and brutal pain, And here we are, and here remain. |
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18 Aug 20 - 06:06 AM (#4068698) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GerryM As the Mudcat Songbook is intended to be a follow-up to Rise Up Singing and Rise Again, here is a list of the Australian songs that are already in those two books. No point in posting these songs to this thread (unless it's to make corrections/additions to the entries in those books). Rise Up Singing contains Kookaburra Mothers Daughters Wives No Man's Land Safe in the Harbor South Australia Waltzing Matilda Rise Again contains Down Under Rattlin' Bones The Band Played Waltzing Matilda Leaving the Land The Court of King Caractacus Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport All For Me Job If It Weren't For the Union One Voice in the Crowd Until |
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18 Aug 20 - 10:41 AM (#4068722) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Mysha "Now I'm easy"? |
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18 Aug 20 - 06:52 PM (#4068767) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Joe Offer Certainly, the chapter should include something from Henry Lawson, like The Outside Track. Lots of ideas in John Thompson's Australian Folk Song a Day |
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18 Aug 20 - 08:11 PM (#4068774) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Battler's ballad --Stewie. |
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18 Aug 20 - 08:53 PM (#4068779) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Helen One of my favourite Henry Lawson songs is Do You Think That I Do Not Know? The song is performed by Priscilla Herdman to the tune that Chris Kempster set it to, as shown in The Songs of Henry Lawson which CK compiled. I like this song because a lot of HL's poems or songs are about people striving to make a living in the bush, some are funny like The Loaded Dog, some are sad, some are about the hard life on the land, but Do You Think ... is different. It seems more personal to HL. |
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18 Aug 20 - 10:00 PM (#4068786) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Yes - a great choice, Helen. I quite like "Service song" by Harry Robertson. SERVICE SONG Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson Arranged by Evan Mathieson When I was a boy on my daddy’s farm, he sometimes used to say, Take the brown cow out for service, son, to the farmer down the way. Each time I took the cow down there, the farmer he would say, Just leave the cow with me my boy, and come back another day. For years it had me puzzled — what did this service mean? ’Til one day I decided that this service must be seen, Through a knot hole in the barn door — with a youthful naked eye, I saw what they’ve been doing to us in the years that had gone by. We hear a lot of talk these days, from companies big and small, What would we do without them, they’re a service to us all, We’re here to serve the people — just buy from us once more, For years we’ve really served you — but we’d love to serve you more. When you hear a politician say, “I’ve served my country true.” I don’t know what he means by that, so I’ll leave that one to you. We’re here to serve the people — elect us just once more, For years we’ve really served you — but we’d love to serve you more. So in the next election friends, when you put your cross on the dot, Be sure you elect a proper man — or you’ll get what the brown cow got! We’re here to serve the people — elect us just once more, For years we’ve really served you — but we’d love to serve you more! (Repeat last two lines — with great gusto — for final chorus) Any of Harry Robertson's songs would be good. |
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19 Aug 20 - 02:12 AM (#4068792) Subject: RE: One of the has-beens -2 versions From: Sandra in Sydney https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6510 - Don Henderson's re-writing of this classic Australian folksong + original song both on this thread & below One of the has-beens by Don Henderson I'm one of the has-beens A folk song I mean. In oral transmission I once was serene. Illiterate agrarians my worth would avow, but you may not believe me 'cause they don't do it now. Chorus I'm as awkward as a new one, much more cap and gown, than a blithe air of arcadia; I've been written down Eluding the Banjo, Vance Palmer, Bert Lloyd, Jones, Durst and O'Connor I did likewise avoid. Manifold, Meredith, Tate, de Hugard, both Scotts, all found finding me was too hard. One day while engrossed in making a whip, my current custodian let his version slip. Ron Edwards was on hand and wrote down all that, while feigning description of the sixteen strand plait. Oh, it's no use complaining, I'll never say die, though the variant days for me have gone by. Now captured in MS, stave and magazine, I merely have told you just what I have been. Don Henderson 1937 - 1991 collectors of Australian Folk song Banjo Paterson, Vance Palmer, Bert Lloyd, Percy Jones, Joy Durst, Norm O'Connor, John Manifold, John Meredith, Brad Tate, Dave de Hugard, brothers bill scott and Alan Scott Ron Edwards collector, folklorist, artist, storyteller, craftsman ... ================== ONE OF THE HAS-BEENS. It's an Australian shearing song, and is from the point of view of an old man who used to be the best shearer in the sheds, i.e. the ringer, but now he is old and has lost most of his shearing prowess. The tune is PRETTY POLLY PERKINS OF PADDINGTON GREEN, and this tune and lyrics are in the DT database, if you search for [Polly Perkins]. I probably found this on an Australian folk music site. I posted these lyrics in a thread called "Feedback please" a while back. I'll check where I got it from and post the site address. Helen ONE OF THE HAS-BEENS I'm one of the has beens a shearer I mean I once was a ringer and I used to shear clean I could make the wool roll off like the soil from the plough But you may not believe me for I cant do it now CHORUS: I'm as awkward as a new chum and I'm used to the frown That the boss often shows me saying keep them blades down I've shore with Pat Hogan, Bill Bright and Jack Gunn Tommy Leighton Charlie Fergus and the great roaring Dunn They brought from the Lachlan the best they could find But not one among them could leave me behind It's no use complaining I'll never say die Though the days of fast shearing for me have gone by I'll take the world easy shear slowly and clean And I merely have told you just what I have been Notes - Printed in Stewart and Keesing Old Bush Songs with the note: "From Mrs G.L.Ginns, of Merrylands, NSW". (Written by Robert Stewart) From the singing of A.L.Lloyd, who writes on the notes for Across the Western Plains that he heard it in Cowra, NSW when he was working there in the 1920's. Tune 'Pretty Polly Perkins' |
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19 Aug 20 - 08:07 AM (#4068818) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST,Mysha Is there a separate chapter on New Zealand songs? Or else, where does By the Dry Cardrona go? Bye Mysha |
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19 Aug 20 - 02:44 PM (#4068863) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: John MacKenzie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c80UR3PtGuQ Where the Brumbies Come to Water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhH0r-0YbFo Reedy Lagoon |
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19 Aug 20 - 08:04 PM (#4068883) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Alistair Hulett's excellent song relating to Wittenoom mine in Western Australia. He fades away Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 08:21 PM (#4068885) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another fine song from Hulett's days in Oz: Suicide town Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 08:37 PM (#4068889) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Rabbit Trapper Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 08:48 PM (#4068890) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie WHERE THE CANE FIRES BURN (Bill Scott) I've wandered east, I've wandered west, From the Hamersley Range to the Snowy Crest, From the Lachlan Plains to the Broken Hill, But my heart's at the Johnstone River still. Now the time has come when I must return Where the vine scrub grows and the cane fires burn. Where the vine scrub grows and the cane fires burn. By the Yarra now the cold rain falls And the wind is bleak from the Bass Strait squalls, I stand and wonder in the chill Has the season started at Mulgrave Mill? For Autumn comes and I must return Where the harvesters chug and the trash fires burn - Where the harvesters chug and the trash fires burn. The smog is thick and stings the eye Where the Harbour Bridge fills half the sky And the sirens wail through Sydney town.... But I dream of Tully when the sun goes down Where the rainforest covers the hills with green The cane grows tall and the air is clean - The cane grows tall and the air is clean. I've been wandering South and West On land and sea, but the north is best. Now Autumn comes with its hint of snows And I must follow where the egret goes To watch the evening's first faint star From Flying Fish Point or Yarrabah- From Flying Fish Point or Yarrabah. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 09:02 PM (#4068891) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie HEY RAIN (Bill Scott) CHORUS: Hey rain, rain comin' down On the cane, on the roofs of the town. There's rain on me hands and rain on me face, Oh muddy old Innisfail's a muddy wet place, Hey rain, hey rain. And there's rain in me beer and rain in me grub, And they've just fitted anchors to the Garradunga pub, Hey rain, hey rain. Chorus........ There's a Johnstone River crocodile livin' in me frig' And a bloody great tree on the Jubilee Bridge Hey rain, hey rain. And the monsoon sky has sprung a leak From Flyin' Fish Point to the Millstream Creek, Hey rain, hey rain. Chorus..... And the storm clouds are so black and big Theres an old flyin' fox in the Moreton Bay fig, Hey rain, hey rain It's the worst wet season we've ever had, And I'd swim down to Tully, but it's just as bloody bad Hey rain, hey rain. Chorus..... Youtube clip Mudcat thread --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 09:33 PM (#4068897) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Bob Randall's classic song about the stolen generation: Brown skin baby A beaut cover and video by Tom Reid, an Irishman who spent time in Oz: Tom Reid's rendition --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 09:59 PM (#4068898) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Phyl Lobl has written so many great songs. lyrics Antiwar songs In 1968, Phyl released her own E.P. (remember them?!) titled "Dark Eyed Daughter". It was a significant political statement by an Australian folk singer as it was dedicated to the political issue of Aboriginal Rights at a time when Australia's Aboriginal people were disenfranchised. Phyl recorded two of her own songs for the EP, the title song "Dark Eyed Daughter" and "Will You Fight, Will You Dare?" As well, Phyl recorded the song "Whose Hand" written by Ian Hills and Kath Walker's poem "No More Boomerang" to which she and her friend, later to be her husband, Geri Lobl had composed a tune and arrangement. |
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19 Aug 20 - 10:00 PM (#4068899) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Dorothy Hewett's poem 'Sailor home from the sea'. In Darwin, we always called it 'Cock of the north'. It has been put to several tunes, but the one used in the NT was by Martyn Wyndham-Read. SAILOR HOME FROM THE SEA Oh cock of the morning with a dream in your hand, My love has come home, come ashore to the land As he walks through the door with his eyes like the sun And his kit bags crammed full of the treasures he's won. There's a pearl shell from Broome and a tall Darwin tale, Coral and clam and the jaws of a whale, And our kitchen is full of the smell of the sea And the leaping green fishes my love brings to me. Oh tumble your treasures from Darwin and Broome, And fill with your glory my straight little room With the sun in the morning ablaze on your chest, My love has come home from the north of northwest. 4. And deep in these beds we will love and we'll lie, We'll kiss and we'll listen to the rain in the sky, Warm as the summer, we'll hive winter long, My love has come home like King Solomon's song. A recent video by Martyn: Cock of the north --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 10:11 PM (#4068901) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Dorothy Hewett's Weevils in the flour http://unionsong.com/u140.html - lyrics "Weevils in the flour" + original poem "Where I grew to be a man" On an island in a river How that bitter river ran I grew on scraps of charity In the best way that you can On an island in a river Where I grew to be a man. Chorus For dole bread is bitter bread Bitter bread and sour There's grief in the taste of it There's weevils in the flour There's weevils in the flour And just across the river Stood the mighty B.H.P., Poured pollution on the waters, Poured the lead of misery And its smoke was black as Hades Rolling hungry to the sea. In those humpies by the river Where we lived on dole and stew, While just across the river Those greedy smokestacks grew, And the hunger of the many Filled the bellies of the few. On an island in a river How that bitter river ran It broke the banks of charity And it baked the bread of man On an island in a river Where I grew to be a man. Last chorus: For dole bread is bitter bread There's a weevils in the flour But men grow strong as iron upon Black bread and sour, Black bread and sour. Notes Many thanks to Dorothy Hewett and Mike Leyden for permission to include this song in the Union Songs collection Weevils in the Flour was published in Australian Tradition, November 1965 and is sung here by Declan Affley, from the 1987 memorial LP 'Declan Affley' here is the original poem: Where I Grew To Be a Man On an island in a river, How that bitter river ran! I grew on scraps of charity In the best way that you can, On that island in the river Where I grew to be a man. For dole bread is bitter bread, Black bread and sour, There's grief in the taste of it, There's weevils in the flour. And just across the river Stood the mighty B.H.P., Poured pollution on the waters, Poured the lead of misery, And its smoke was black as Hades Rolling hungry to the sea. In those humpies by the river, We lived on dole and stew, And just across the river Those greedy smokestacks grew, And the hunger of the many Filled the bellies of the few. Oh! Winter on the river Was a time of bitter cold, A time of hungry bellies And children growing old, And men with nothing else to do But watch the river roll. For dole bread is bitter bread, Black bread and sour, There's grief in the taste of it, There's weevils in the flour. Oh! cats on the river, And men on the tide, They all became a commonplace On our river side, And even mothers couldn't weep When new-born babies died. Oh! black was the steel town, And black was the smoke, Cold-black the river water That can gag a man and choke, Till he dreams up a furnace fire Of his own to stoke. We met beside the river With the ghosts of good men drowned, We picketed the steel mill And we banked our hunger down With words that stung and deeds that hung Like live things on the town. For dole bread is bitter bread, There's weevils in the flour, There's rage in the taste of it. Black bread and sour! On an island in a river, How that bitter river ran! It broke the banks of charity, It baked the bread of man, On that island in the river Where I grew to be a man. For dole bread is bitter bread, There's weevils in the flour, But men grow strong as iron upon Black bread and sour! |
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19 Aug 20 - 10:16 PM (#4068902) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BARE LEGGED KATE Words: John Dengate: "Written for my mother, Born Kathleen Mary Kelly, Gundagai, NSW, 1914." Tune: Bare legged Joe First Verse and Chorus: Bare legged Kate with your natural grace, The big big sad eyes in the Irish face. A poor bush girl when the summer is high In the stony hills of Gundagai. Bare legged Kate why do you weep When the men ride by with the travelling sheep? Does the sight of the drover make you sad? Do you think of the father you never had? CHORUS: Bare legged Kate why do you run, Down to the creek in the setting sun? Down where the eyes of the world cannot see - Run Kate, run, from poverty. CHORUS: Bare legged Kate, there is gold in the hills But you know that the cyanide process kills. Poisons the miners and cuts them down In the mean little homes below the town. Bare legged Kate, when the floods come down, It's the poor on the creeks are the ones who drown: When the great Murrumbidgee is thundering by Through the haunted hills of Gundagai. The above is a transcription by Bob Bolton. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 10:48 PM (#4068904) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie My apologies, the transcription that I posted above of 'Sailor home from the sea' needs severe correction. I copied and pasted it from a Mudcat thread. Martyn's version varies a little from Hewett's original, but this is what he sings: SAILOR HOME FROM THE SEA Oh cock of the morning with a dream in his hand, My love has come home to this beautiful land He bursts through the door with his eyes like the sun And his kit bag crammed full with the treasures he's won A coral from Broome and a tall Darwin tale, A pearl and a clam and the jaws of a whale, My kitchen is full with the smell of the sea And the leaping green fishes my love brings to me Oh tumble your treasures from Darwin and Broome, And fill with your glory this straight little room With the sun of the morning ablaze on his chest My love has come home from the north of northwest And deep in our bed, we'll lie and we'll be We'll kiss and we'll listen to the rain on the sea Warm as the summer, we've lived winter long My love has come home like King Solomon's song Poem --Stewie. |
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19 Aug 20 - 11:35 PM (#4068907) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Below is my transcription of a Martyn Wyndham-Read rendition: THE BROKEN-DOWN SQUATTER (Cherles Flower) Come, Stumpy, old man, we must shift whilst we can, Your mates in the paddock are dead We must bid our farewell to Glen Even's fair dell The place where your master was bred Together we'll roam from our drought-stricken home Seems hard that such things have to be, And it's hard on the horse when he's nought for a boss But a broken-down squatter like me Chorus: And the banks are all broken they say And the merchants are all up a tree When the bigwigs are brought to the bankruptcy court What chance for a squatter like me? No more we will muster the river for fats Nor speed on the fifteen-mile plain Nor rip through the scrub by the light of the moon Nor see the old homestead again Leave the slip-panels down, they don't matter much now, There's none but the crows left to see, Perching gaunt on a pine, as though longing to dine On a broken-down squatter like me. Chorus When the country was cursed with the drought at its worst The cattle were dying in scores Though down on me luck, I kept up me pluck Thinking justice might soften the laws But the farce had been played, and the government aid Ain't extended to squatters, old son; When me money was spent, they doubled the rent And resumed the best part of the run Chorus Twas done without reason, for leaving the season No squatter could stand such a rub And it's useless to squat when the rents are so hot That you can't save the price of your grub And there's not much to choose 'tween the banks and the screws When a fellow gets put up a tree Theres's no odds how I feel, there's no court of appeal For a broken-down squatter like me Chorus Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Aug 20 - 03:56 AM (#4068916) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Stewie, do you perchance have an MP3 of Smokey's (et al) version of Lawson's "The Outside Track" (music by Gerry Hallom)??? I always thought his rendition was beautiful and needs to be known outside of The Top End. Same with his singing of the "Northern Gulf" (was that with the early Tropical Ear perhaps?), using MacColl's "North Sea Holes" as a base. I'd be happy to put them up on Paul's YT channel if you like. Cheers, R-J |
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20 Aug 20 - 04:06 AM (#4068919) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Joe Offer Oh, this is fun. Thanks, Gerry. Anybody else ready to propose and manage a chapter? |
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20 Aug 20 - 07:36 AM (#4068926) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy The late Paul Lawler's observations of the changing face of tropical architecture in the Top End of the Northern Territory, after Cyclone Tracy (not necessarily for the better), are immortalised in his song "My Dear Darwin", popular with so many folkies who have visited or lived in Australia's Top End - it's very singable! MY DEAR DARWIN © Paul Lawler, 1983 Time was, when people in harmony With nature understood, That freedom for living things went without saying And life’s simple pleasures were good. Asymmetrical, practical, buildings of yesterday Made from lattice and lace, But louvres and shutters and the wide open spaces Now have concrete blocks in their place. Chorus My Dear Darwin Oh what have they done to your face, Since Tracy blew, your tropical hue Has somehow fallen from grace. Call it green season, then build without reason These homes from latitudes far, Creating hot boxes, visually obnoxious On Darwin’s horizon, a scar. Government platitudes, old-fashioned attitudes Building suburbs of gloom, Breezes are few, in your tropical igloo You’ll never enjoy the monsoon. Caravan window, breeze adagio Air condition the room, Depend when you’re hot, on one thousand watts Sealed in a suburban tomb. But make the correction and opt for convection Let the nor-wester in from the sea, Airing your dwelling and bonus that’s telling The wind and the breezes are free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bueF-1abr_s Cheers, R-J |
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20 Aug 20 - 08:04 AM (#4068928) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST,Mysha Which end of Australia is its top? Bye Mysha |
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20 Aug 20 - 08:21 AM (#4068930) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney The Top End is the pointy bit! Northern Territory & the northern part of Queensland. Darwin has a Top End Folk Club which used to meet in the Gun Turret I've never been there & now I can see why the Gun turret was such a great venue. sandra |
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20 Aug 20 - 09:35 AM (#4068939) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST,Mysha Ah, thanks Sandra. I have a grasp of how Jan Abe Tassema named those islands, but have only a vague idea of how later natives reinvented the topography afterwards. (-: So, back to the general topic. I see we do have a mention of Van Diemenslandt. Are there specific parts of New Holland that we are missing but that are worth mentioning songs for? Bye Mysha |
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20 Aug 20 - 09:40 AM (#4068941) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, unfortunately I do not have any recordings of Smokey. I recall he also did a belter rendition of 'Death of Ben Hall'. He had an excellent voice for Oz bush ballads - his German accent would disappear when he sang. Ah, Sandra, the turret days were wonderful. We had hundreds attend of a Sunday night. Many heard about us on the hippy routes to the north. Here is an Australian version of Stephen Foster's 'Gentle Annie'. There are several variants, but the text of an unusual one was given to Danny Spooner by Dave Lumsden who said his family tradition had that it was written for his grandmother's sister, but that he believed it was probably written for a friend. The words were by Jack Cousens who was an itinerant worker around the Murray River in the 1890s. Cousens spent much of his time with the travelling steam-driven threshing machines that travelled from town to town. GENTLE ANNIE Now the harvest time is come, Gentle Annie And the wild oats they are scattered o'er the field And you'll be anxious to know, Gentle Annie How your little crop of oats is going to yield And we're travelling down the road into Barna And we're following the feeder, Billy Yates When we arrive and we see the donah She's the little girl we left at Tommy Waits' So we must meet again Gentle Annie As each year we're travelling round your door And we never will forget you, Gentle Annie You're the little dark-eyed girl we do adore Well, your mutton's very sweet, Gentle Annie And your wines they can't be beat in New South Wales But you'd better get a fence round your cabbage Or they'll all be eaten up by the snails And you'll take my advice, Gentle Annie, And you're bound to watch old Chaffie going away With a pack bag hung over his saddle For he stole some knives and forks the other day Yes, we must meet again Gentle Annie Each year as we're travelling round your door And we never can forget you, Gentle Annie You're the little dark-eyed girl we all adore Well, your little bed of oats is fresh, Gentle Annie And the bullocks they are yoked to go away You'll be sorry when we're gone, Gentle Annie For you'll want us then to stop and thresh the hay But we must say farewell, Gentle Annie, For you know with you we cannot longer stay But we hope one and all, Gentle Annie, To be with you on another threshing day Here's a version by Martyn Wyndham-Read: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Aug 20 - 10:17 AM (#4068948) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The late Chris Buch was a good friend of mine. He used to run the Mt Isa Folk Club which for a time was one of the clubs that organised the Top Half Folk Festival. Back when the world was young, Chris was commissioned by the Australian Folk Trust to go on a cattle drive and collect songs from the drovers. He went on the drive but was unable to collect any songs. Chris told me that the drovers were too buggered at night to sing around a campfire - all they did was consume soup, snore and fart in their sleeping bags. Bereft of any collected songs, Chris decided to write one himself. He based it on a drover from Camooweal who occasionally attended the Mt Isa folk club. It is a fine song indeed. The story goes that the song came over the radio in the Camooweal servo/cafe. One of the patrons yelled out to Johnny who happened to be there: 'Hey Johnny, there's some pommie bastard singing about you on the radio. JOHNNY STEWART DROVER (Chris Buch) The mob is dipped, the drive is started out They're leaving Rockland's dusty sheds behind them The whips are cracking and the drovers shout Along the Queensland stock-roads you will find them Droving ways have been like this for years No modern ways have meant their days are over The diesel road trains cannot know the steers Or walk them down like Johnny Stewart, drover CHORUS On the banks of the Georgina and down the Diamantina To where the grass is greener, down by New South Wales Johnny Stewart's roving with mobs of cattle droving His life story moving down miles of dusty trails The cook is busy by the campfire light Above a fire a billy gently swinging The mob is settled quietly for the night And Johnny's riding softly around and singing Johnny doesn't spend much time in town Impatient for the wet to be over Most of the year he's walking cattle down The stock roads are home for Johnny Stewart, drover CHORUS Dawn will surely find another day Sun still chasing moon, never caught her The morning light will find them on their way Another push to reach the next good water CHORUS They're counted in now, Johnny's work is done And fifteen hundred head are handed over It's into town now for a little fun And a beer or two for Johnny Stewart, drover CHORUS The song has gone around Australia and the world. Gordon Bok made a fine recording of it: Youtube clip |
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20 Aug 20 - 10:20 AM (#4068949) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Thanks Stew. I'll have to see what I can "carefully resurrect" from my old tapes!! Wonder if Tone has copies?? R-J |
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20 Aug 20 - 10:45 AM (#4068950) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Will Ogilvie, a Scotsman, wrote some fine bush ballads during his years as a jackaroo in Australia. One of his best was 'When the brumbies come to water' which circulated in oral tradition, changed, shortened and turned into a song. This version was collected by Ron Edwards. WHEN THE BRUMBIES COME TO WATER There's a lonely grave half hidden where the blue-grass droops above, A slab that roughly marks it: we planted it with love There's a mourning rank of riders closing in on every hand O'er the vacant place he left us: he was best of all the band Now he's lying cold and silent with his hidden hopes unwon Where the brumbies come to water at the setting of the sun There's a well-worn saddle hanging in the harness-room above A good old stock horse waiting for the steps that never come And his dog will lick some other hand when the wild mob swings We'll get a slower rider to replace him on the wing Ah but who will kiss his wife who kneels beside the long lagoon Where the brumbies come to water at the rising of the moon We will miss him in the cattle camps a trusted man and true The daddy of all stockmen was young Rory Donahue We will miss the tunes he used to play on his banjo long and low We will miss the songs he used to sing of the days of long ago Where the shadow-line lies broken 'neath the moonbeams' silver bars Where the brumbies come to water at the twinkling of the stars Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Aug 20 - 11:02 AM (#4068953) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie West Australian group, Loaded Dog, give their authentic version of Australia's best-known song. I reckon they are the best bush band in Oz. Alan Mann is telling the story and Bob Rummery is lead vocalist and box player. Waltzing Matilda --Stewie. |
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20 Aug 20 - 11:04 AM (#4068954) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I've just made a quick list of traditional songs, collected & re-popularised in the revival of the 50s/60s. They were all published by the Bush Music Club in Singabout (1956-67) Maggie May Nine Miles from Gundagai The Neumerella Shore - 1 2 pages The Neumerella Shore - 2 The Wild Colonial Boy The Black Velvet Band & The Old Bark Hut also in Singabout 5(1) 1963 The Drover's Dream & Wild Rover both also in Singabout 3(1) 1958 Old Black Billy (written in 1938 but thought to be trad. when it was collected) and a couple of other classics which strangely enough were not published in Singabout! - Moreton Bay & Reedy River lyrics & video of Chris Kempster singing |
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20 Aug 20 - 11:46 AM (#4068958) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST,henryp Gerry Hallom sang The Outside Track to his own tune in 1984 on his Fellside album A Run a Minute. He noted: Another Lawson poem which fits conveniently into song. To me it captures the sadness and emptiness when parting company from friends when futures are uncertain. The traveller at least has his adventures before him to soften the parting, but those on the quayside have only the loss. There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay, And one on the for’ard hatch; No straighter mate to his mates than he Had ever said: “Len’s a match!” “’Twill be long, old man, ere our glasses clink, ’Twill be long ere we grip your hand!”— And we dragged him ashore for a final drink Till the whole wide world seemed grand. For they marry and go as the world rolls back, They marry and vanish and die; But their spirit shall live on the Outside Track As long as the years go by. The port-lights glowed in the morning mist That rolled from the waters green; And over the railing we grasped his fist As the dark tide came between. We cheered the captain and cheered the crew, And our mate, times out of mind; We cheered the land he was going to And the land he had left behind. We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell, But my heart seemed out of joint; I well remember the hush that fell When the steamer had passed the point We drifted home through the public bars, We were ten times less by one Who sailed out under the morning stars, And under the rising sun. And one by one, and two by two, They have sailed from the wharf since then; I have said good-bye to the last I knew, The last of the careless men. And I can’t but think that the times we had Were the best times after all, As I turn aside with a lonely glass And drink to the bar-room wall. But I’ll try my luck for a cheque Out Back, Then a last good-bye to the bush; For my heart’s away on the Outside Track, On the track of the steerage push. Thanks to Mainly Norfolk |
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20 Aug 20 - 08:48 PM (#4069012) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Here's a good'un from Roy Abbott, a West Australian singer-songwriter. It was first recorded by Mucky Duck Bush Band. AND WHEN THEY DANCE (Roy Abbott) I play in a band, I’ve played all around, From Perth in the west to old Melbourne Town, But one thing delights me each time I look down It’s the lasses who dance ‘til the morning. Chorus: And when they dance their dresses spin round, They travel so light that they scarce touch the ground And the smiles on their faces would win any crowd The lasses who dance ‘til the morning. I’ve played for the gentry I’ve played for them all, From the old bush hut to the debutante’s ball, But one thing unites them the great and the small It’s the lasses who dance ‘til the morning. And when the dance ends and they all leave the floor Their legs are so weary tired and sore But who are the ones that keep yellin’ for more? It’s the lasses who dance till the morning. So, long may I travel and far may I roam Around this big country we call our home Playing for people that I’ll never know And the lasses who dance till the morning. Danny Spooner recorded it on his 'Emerging Tradition' album, but here is a live version: Youtube clip |
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20 Aug 20 - 09:01 PM (#4069013) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie My apologies. The Guest above for 'And when they dance' was me. I forgot to log in or to sign the post. Henryp referred to Gerry Hallom and 'Outside Track'. Here is a link to Gerry singing it: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Aug 20 - 09:19 PM (#4069017) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Gallipoli is a striking example of place identity. Bob Hawke fancied that Anzac Cove is ‘a little piece of Australia’ and John Howard postulated that the Gallipoli peninsula is ‘as much a part of Australia as the land on which your home is built’. We have been told for decades that Australian soldiers sacrificed their lives there for our freedoms. If anything, the notion of ‘sacrificing for freedoms’ is truer for the Turks. The Turks were defending their land from invasion at a cost of over 50 000 dead – the Anzac count was 10 000. For Turks, every piece of soil at Gallipoli is sacred. Historians, Mark McKenna and Stuart Ward, wrote in their essay ‘An Anzac Myth: The Creative Memorialisation of Gallipoli’: 'Turkey and Australia have rushed to memorialise a romantic image of Gallipoli – one of co-operation and friendship. As admirable as these intentions might be, they are based on falsehoods and the misrepresentation of war. Far better a friendship that has the courage to confront war’s brutality and the senseless loss of life that occurred in 1915' WATCHERS OF THE WATER (Paul Hemphill) It is the night of April 25th, 1915. The Turkish soldiers are waiting for the ANZAC assault on Gallipoli to begin … The sun's fiery furnace beat down upon our backs As we fixed our sharpened bayonets and shouldered heavy packs We marched in ordered files to destiny that day In a land God had forgotten, due east of Suvla Bay And in the hills so rough and rugged, we hauled our guns by hand Raised the shells upon our shoulders to the heights we must command We watched and prayed and waited, each heart beating like a drum We all had our eyes on the seaward horizon to west where they would come And the cold moon she rose on the watchers of the water The stars hung brightly high above the trees And in the warm night-tide, sheep came to the slaughter From their land so far away across the seas And when night fell, oh, she fell so soft and silent We could have been in the Garden of Paradise And no man raised his voice, not a soul made a noise Though our blood ran as cold, as cold as ice And the cold moon she shone on the watchers of the water The stars hung brightly high above the trees And in the warm night-tide, sheep came to the slaughter From their land so far away across the seas The cold moonlight upon the water glistened And enwrapped in all of our hopes and fears As through the long night-tide, oh, we watched and listened With sharpened eyes and very, very frightened ears And we saw small boats come sailing from great ships far out to sea Shells came at us wailing in infernal symphony And with fists of fire and steel, we were hammered hard that night And many brave men went to God without the chance to fight And as the boats drew nearer, oh, we watched with bated breath We waited for the order and our turn to deal out death And the cold moon looked down on the watchers of the water The stars hung brightly high above the trees And in the warm night-tide, sheep came to the slaughter From their land so far away across the seas From their land so far away across Youtube clip --Stewie. . |
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21 Aug 20 - 07:56 AM (#4069048) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney very famous songs in copyright Redgum - I was only 19 lyrics I was only 19 video Paul Kelly & Kev Carmody - From little things big things grow In this video Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly talk about the process of writing the song. From Little Things Big Things Grow tells the story of Vincent Lingiari, a Gurindji stockman who, in 1966, initiated a strike in response to the poor working conditions faced by Gurindji workers, on the Wave Hill Cattle Station. |
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21 Aug 20 - 08:22 PM (#4069098) Subject: RE: LYR ADD-Time is a tempest From: Sandra in Sydney TIME IS A TEMPEST John Broomhall / John Thompson As sung by Cloudstreet on "Dance up the Sun" (2008) Time is a tempest and we are all travellers. We are all travellers; we are all travellers. Time is a tempest and we are all travellers, Travelling through the storm. Our cities are crowded; our forests are falling, War clouds above, angry voices are calling. Five minutes to midnight is no time for stalling. It's time to share our load. So lift up your voices and sing of the wind and rain. Sing of the wind and rain; sing of the wind and rain. Lift up your voices and sing of the wind and rain, Travelling through the storm. For time is a tempest and we are all travellers. We are all travellers; we are all travellers. Time is a tempest and we are all travellers, Travelling through the storm. They've poisoned the oceans; they've dammed the great rivers. They've killed all the jungles; they're takers, not givers. They call it progress; well, it gives me the shivers. We're in for a winter that's cold. So lift up your voices and sing of the wind and rain. Sing of the wind and rain; sing of the wind and rain. Lift up your voices and sing of the wind and rain, Travelling through the storm. For time is a tempest and we are all travellers. We are all travellers; we are all travellers. Time is a tempest and we are all travellers, Travelling through the storm. So brothers and sisters, we'll join hands together. With love in our struggle, we'll face the foul weather. And when the sun shines through, under blue skies we'll gather. Our journey will take us home. So lift up your voices and sing of the wind and rain. Sing of the wind and rain; sing of the wind and rain. Lift up your voices and sing of the wind and rain, Travelling through the storm. For time is a tempest and we are all travellers. We are all travellers; we are all travellers. Time is a tempest and we are all travellers, Travelling through the storm. |
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21 Aug 20 - 08:30 PM (#4069099) Subject: RE: LYR ADD - The Answer's Ireland -John Dengate From: Sandra in Sydney http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/2011/03/answers-ireland.html The Answer's Ireland (Tune Rody McCorley) originally published in Singabout 6(1), 1966, p.4 Who gave Australia the tunes to sing, the tunes of songs so grand? Songs to inspire, full of beauty and fire – the answer's Ireland. Know when you sing of Jack Donahue, that he was a Dublin man And Dennis O'Reilly is travelling still with a blackthorn in his hand. Who raised a ruckus at Castle Hill, who there defied the crown? 'Twas the same rebel boys who in '98 'gainst odds would not lie down. Oh, but they made Samuel Marsden fret and ruffled silver tails, Why, the words "Croppy Pike" were enough to strike fear into New South Wales. Who agitated at Ballarat for Joe Latrobe's death knell? Who was it raised up the five-starred flag and damned the traps to hell? Who was it gathered beneath that flag, where solemn oaths were sworn? Who would not run from the redcoats' guns, upon Eureka morn? Ned Kelly's dad was an Irish lad, the Kellys all died game. Brave Michael Dwyer's bones are buried here, we'll not forget that name. Who could resist Larry Foley's fist, and Foley wore the green. Who led the anti-conscription ranks in 1917? |
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21 Aug 20 - 08:59 PM (#4069100) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie It is a somewhat disappointing that it was up to a Canadian - Garnet Rogers - to put a tune to one of Lawson's finest poems: AFTER ALL (Henry Lawson) The brooding ghosts of Australian night have gone from the bush and town; My spirit revives in the morning breeze, though it died when the sun went down; The river is high and the stream is strong, and the grass is green and tall, And I fain would think that this world of ours is a good world after all. The light of passion in dreamy eyes, and a page of truth well read, The glorious thrill in a heart grown cold of the spirit I thought was dead, A song that goes to a comrade's heart, and a tear of pride let fall -- And my soul is strong! and the world to me is a grand world after all! Let our enemies go by their old dull tracks, and theirs be the fault or shame (The man is bitter against the world who has only himself to blame); Let the darkest side of the past be dark, and only the good recall; For I must believe that the world, my dear, is a kind world after all. It well may be that I saw too plain, and it may be I was blind; But I'll keep my face to the dawning light, though the devil may stand behind! Though the devil may stand behind my back, I'll not see his shadow fall, But read the signs in the morning stars of a good world after all. Rest, for your eyes are weary, girl -- you have driven the worst away -- The ghost of the man that I might have been is gone from my heart today; We'll live for life and the best it brings till our twilight shadows fall; My heart grows brave, and the world, my girl, is a good world after all. Rogers makes some very minor changes to the Lawson text: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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21 Aug 20 - 09:42 PM (#4069102) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I first heard a lovely setting of another Lawson classic on a home-recorded cd of Brian Mooney given to me by his fellow Tasmanian, Mike Manhire. THE SLIPRAIL AND THE SPUR (Henry Lawson) The colours of the setting sun Withdrew across the Western land - He raised the sliprails, one by one, And shot them home with trembling hand; Her brown hands clung - her face grew pale - Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim! - One quick, fierce kiss across the rail, And, "Good-bye, Mary!" "Good-bye, Jim!" Oh, he rides hard to race the pain Who rides from love, who rides from home; But he rides slowly home again, Whose heart has learnt to love and roam. A hand upon the horse's mane, And one foot in the stirrup set, And, stooping back to kiss again, With "Good-bye, Mary! don't you fret! When I come back" - he laughed for her - "We do not know how soon 'twill be; I'll whistle as I round the spur - You let the sliprails down for me." She gasped for sudden loss of hope, As, with a backward wave to her, He cantered down the grassy slope And swiftly round the darkening spur. Black-pencilled panels standing high, And darkness fading into stars, And, blurring fast against the sky, A faint white form beside the bars. And often at the set of sun, In winter bleak and summer brown, She'd steal across the little run, And shyly let the sliprails down, And listen there when darkness shut The nearer spur in silence deep, And when they called her from the hut Steal home and cry herself to sleep. And he rides hard to dull the pain Who rides from one that loves him best... And he rides slowly back again, Whose restless heart must rove for rest. Unfortunately, Mooney's rendition is not available on the Net. However, Garnet Rogers recorded a version on his 'Speaking softly in the dark' album. He is faithful to Lawson's text for the first few stanzas but reshuffles and rewrites the latter part of the poem. You can listen to it on Bandcamp here: Rogers There's a trio of renditions available on Youtube, including one by a choir, but none of them sparks my clod. Youtube clips --Stewie. |
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21 Aug 20 - 10:08 PM (#4069105) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie At a themed concert that my mate Phil Beck and I presented at folk festival in Tasmania, Phil had this to say about another Alistair Hulett belter: '"The Swaggies Have All Waltzed Matilda Away" is from the pen of the song writer non-pariel, Alistair Hulett. It’s really a potted history of the foundation of Australia as we know it, and refers not only to transportation of convicts but also to the dispossession of the Aboriginal lands to the newcomers. I’m sure I remember Alistair telling me that he wrote the song as an entry into an Australia Day song-writing competition and this was his ‘up yours’ take on the thing. Whatever, it’s an optimistic song and says that whatever our people in the end, we all ought to be united". THE SWAGGIES HAVE ALL WALTZED MATILDA AWAY (Alistair Hulett) You came to this country in fetters and chains Outlaws and rebels with numbers for names And on the triangle were beaten and maimed Blood stained the soil of Australia Dookies and duchesses, flash lads and whores You worked their plantations and polished their floors Lived in their shadow and died in their wars Blood stained the soil of Australia Chorus: Does it quicken your heart beat To see tar and concrete Cover the tracks of the old bullock dray Have you grown so heartless To christen it progress When the swaggies have all waltzed Matilda away Driven like dogs from your own native home Hardship and poverty caused you to roam Over the bracken and over the foam Blood stained the soil of Australia Then in the fever for fortune and fame You caused the poor blacks to suffer the same Imprisoned on missions or hunted for game Blood stained the soil of Australia Chorus Its two hundred years since you came to this land Betrayed by the girl with the black velvet band And still to this day you don't understand Blood stained the soil of Australia Koori and white, old Australian and new Brothers and sisters of every hue The future is ours, take the wealth from the few And raise the Red Flag in Australia Let it quicken your heart beat The road's at your own feet Travel it lightly and travel it well And don't speak of success Or christen it progress Til the swaggies can all waltz Matilda as well [Repeat last 3 lines of final chorus] Hulett recorded it first with Roaring Jack. Unfortunately, although there are clips by Roaring Jack on Youtube, this is not among them. However, Wongawilli do a fine rendition, but they replace Hulett's 'red flag' with 'true flag'. Bowdlerism! Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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21 Aug 20 - 10:22 PM (#4069107) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie My favourite rendition of another beaut Lawson poem: Riogh PAST CARIN’ (Henry Lawson) Now up and down the siding brown The great black crows are flyin’ And down below the spur, I know Another `milker's' dyin'; The crops have withered to the ground, The tank's clay bed is glarin' But from my heart no tear nor sound For I have gone past carin' — Through death and trouble, turn about Through hopeless desolation Through flood and fever, fire and drought Through slavery and starvation Through childbirth, sickness, hurt and blight And nervousness and scarin' Through bein' left alone at night I've got to be past carin'. Our first child took, in days like these A cruel week in dyin' All day upon her father's knees, Or on my poor breast lyin' The tears we shed, the prayers we said Were awful, wild, despairin' I've pulled three through and buried two Since then, and I'm past carin'. T’was ten years first, then came the worst All for a dusty clearin' I thought, I thought my heart would burst When first my man went shearin' He's drovin' in the great North-west I don't know how he's farin’ For I, the one that loved him best Have grown to be past carin'. My eyes are dry, I cannot cry I've got no heart for breakin' But where it was in days gone by A dull and empty achin' My last boy ran away from me I know my temper's wearin' But now I only wish to be Beyond all signs of carin’ Past wearyin' or carin' Past feelin' and despairin'; And now I only wish to be Beyond all signs of carin'. --Stewie. |
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21 Aug 20 - 11:52 PM (#4069113) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The late Danny Spooner recorded this little gem on his final album 'Home'. Danny noted that a 1935 article identified the author as Jimmy Connors. If that is correct, it passed into oral tradition. The version below was collected here in the Northern Territory by Geoff and Nancy Wills. The song was published in the Stewart & Keesing, John Manifold (Penguin) and Ron Edwards books of Australian folk songs. THE REEDY LAGOON The sweet-scented wattle sheds perfume around, Enticing the bird and the bee; As I lie at my rest in a fern-covered nest In the shade of a currajong tree; High up in the air I can hear the refrain Of a butcher-bird piping its tune, For the spring, in her glory, has come back again To the banks of the Reedy Lagoon. I've carried my bluey for many a mile, My boots they are worn out at the toe; And I'm dressing, this season, in a far different style, To that of last season, God knows! My cooking utensils, I'm sorry to say, Consist of a knife and a spoon. And I've dry bread and tea, in my battered jack-shay On the banks of the Reedy Lagoon. Where is old Frankie, man how could he ride, And Johnny, the kind-hearted boy; They tell me that lately he's taken a bride, A benedict's life to enjoy. And Big Mac, the Scotchman; I once heard him say, That he wrestled the famous Muldoon: But they're all far away, and I'm lonely today On the bank of the Reedy Lagoon. Now where is that lassie I oft-times caressed, The girl with the sad dreamy eyes? She pillows her head on another man's breast, While he tells her the very same lies. My bed she would hardly be willing to share, Where I camp by the light of the moon. But it's little I care, cos I couldn't keep square On the bank of the Reedy Lagoon. Martyn Wyndham-Read recorded on his 'A rose from the bush' LP and noted: 'I would take this song with me to a desert island, as it brings home so much of Australia and the smell of the bush to me'. I first heard it recorded by Gordon Bok on his 'Seal Djiril's Hymn' album. He sticks pretty close to the Wills text. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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22 Aug 20 - 09:30 PM (#4069232) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Always great fun to sing - from 60's group The Settlers: THE COOMA CAVALIERS (Ulik O'Boyle) From Jindabyne tunnel and 'round Island Bend We boys go to Cooma, our money to spend And we'll buy youse one beer there if you happen to see Four Italians, three Germans, two Yugoslavs and me Chorus Now we may not be diggers but we'll have you know We're digging thee tunnels up here in the snow It's dark in that tunnel and the work she is rough By the time it hits payday we all have enough So we rush in to Cooma to have us one spree Four miners, three fitters, two chippies and me We pull up in Sharp Street by the Alpine Hotel If you've been to Cooma you'll know this place well Before we get inside our order rings out Four vinos, three schnappses, two slivovitz, one stout Well I guess a we got-a noisy, though no-a harm did we mean Singing "O Solo Mio" and "Lili Marlene" Some Aussies went crook 'cos they didn't agree With four singing, three marching, two dancing and me We may not be diggers but we'll have you know The barmen all love us up here in the snow The barman stood up then with a snarl on his face, He said: "You Europeans, you're a flipping disgrace, Stop drinking those queer drinks if you want to stop here Become integrated drink our Aussie beer. So we switched on to schooners and to the bar's cheers Sang "Waltzing Matilda" and "Click Go The Shears" For hours and hours without any cease 'Till the sudden arrival of the Cooma police Now we may not be diggers but we'll have you know We're regular swiggers up here in the snow In a furious moment the whole bar was cleared And no sign remained of those Aussies that cheered So the coppers locked up then - unfair you'll agree - Four Italians, three Germans, two Yugoslavs and me Now we're back in that tunnel as broke as can be For it cost us a fortune to bail ourselves free But before you start laughing let me make it clear It was worth it Australia for the sake of your beer We may not be diggers, but we'll have you know We dig digger beer up here in the snow Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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22 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM (#4069235) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another fine song relating to an immigrant worker is Ted Egan's 'Sayonara Nakamura' - one of his best: Mudcat thread Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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22 Aug 20 - 10:44 PM (#4069236) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another Ted Egan song posted by rich-joy. 'Back to Broome always feature in 'uglies' at Top Half Folk Festivals here in the Northern Territory. Mudcat thread Youtube clip --Stewie |
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22 Aug 20 - 10:55 PM (#4069237) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie My apologies, the Youtube link in my previous post was the wrong one. It should have been: Back to Broome Where are other Oz 'catters? Is our thread moderator going to post any songs? --Stewie. |
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22 Aug 20 - 11:00 PM (#4069238) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Please ignore my previous post. It appears the Youtube link was correct. Somehow when I first clicked it, the Nakamura clip came up. I'll go and lie down. --Stewie. |
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23 Aug 20 - 09:59 PM (#4069403) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney In Sydney the Redfern Shanty club does a great version of "Broome" & it might be on their facebook page as it's not on their Reverbnation page I met Ted Egan at Illawarra Folk Festoval one year & suggested he see Shanty club as thy were on the program, I hope he got to see them When you get (got! preCovid) a legal maximum for the premises of 45 mainly young singers all roaring out a shanty or sea song under the instruction to the newcomers "if you don't know the words, sing louder" it is magic. One day they will be back. sandra |
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23 Aug 20 - 10:17 PM (#4069404) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's another fine Ogilvie poem that has been put to music. At this very moment, due to covid-19, there are challengers to bringing in the NZ shearers needed to do the job in Oz. NORTHWARD TO THE SHEDS (Will Ogilvie) There's a whisper from the regions out beyond the Barwon banks There's a gathering of the legions and a forming of the ranks There's a murmur coming nearer with the signs that never fail And it's time for every shearer to be out upon the trail Chorus: For the western creeks are calling, And the idle days are done With the snowy fleeces falling, And the Queensland sheds begun They must leave their girls behind them and their empty glasses too, For there's plenty left to mind them when they cross the dry Barcoo There'll be kissing, there'll be sorrow much as only sweethearts know But before the noon tomorrow they'll be singing as they go Chorus There is shortening of the bridle, there is tightening of the girth There is fondling of the idol that they love the best on earth Northward from the Lachlan River and the sun-dried Castlereagh Outward to the Never-Never ride the ringers on their way Chorus From the green bends of the Murray they have run their horses in For there's haste and there is hurry when the Queensland sheds begin On the Bogan they are bridling, they are saddling on the Bland, There is plunging and there's sidling -- for the colts don't understand Chorus They will camp below the station, they'll be cutting peg and pole Rearing tents for occupation till the calling of the roll And it's time the nags were driven, and it's time to strap the pack For there's never licence given to the laggards on the track Chorus Hark the music of the battle: it in time to bare our swords! Do you hear the rush and rattle as they tramp along the boards? They are past the pen-doors picking light-wooled weaners one by one I can hear the shear-blades clicking, and I know the fight's begun! Ted Egan printed the complete Ogilvie poem in his 'The Shearers: Songbook', but the clip on Youtube for 'Northward to the sheds' has 3 stanzas only - the song begins at the 2 minute mark. Gerry Hallom also messes with and shortens the Ogilvie text, but it's worth a listen: --Stewie. |
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23 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM (#4069405) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I don't know what happened in my above post, but it seems that my signature became the link to Youtube. --Stewie. |
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24 Aug 20 - 10:02 PM (#4069516) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Sandra, it looks like it is down to us. I don't mind posting some more - our moderator can always chuck 'em out. LAST COAL TRAIN (Paul Wookey) No more black-faced miners Buying carbide at the store All the lamps that lit the darkness Are hangin’ empty by the door And the chilly winds that blow no good Have blown no good once more And the last coal train is leavin’ town No more kids out on the trestle bridge Playin’ that dangerous game You’ll never have to mend a broken track Or drive the spike again You can leave the sleepers rotting The signals rusting in the rain ‘Cause the last coal train is leavin’ town You’ll never have to feed a family Upon a striker’s pay You’ll never have to fight for what’s yours by right In this game that rich men play And for the first time in a long time You might see the light of day And the last coal train is leavin’ town So the word came down from Melbourne Said they’ve got to close the mine Oh we can’t afford to dig it out We’ll just have to leave it lyin’ With all the men who died in 20 shafts Who’ll lie there for all time And the last coal train is leavin’ town Youtube clip Paul Wookey, was raised in the Dandenong Ranges. An excellent singer and guitarist, he was heavily influenced by American folk, blues and country. He had a solid reputation in Melbourne’s folk clubs – Traynor’s, Outpost Inn and One-C-One. A fine example of his original work is 'The Last Coal Train' which he noted ‘was the last coal train that left Wonthaggi some time in 1968 after the coal mines were finally closed down. It represents the passing of a period in Australian history – the generational move from the land to the city, the loss of country jobs, the dislocation of the pre-war generation. --Stewie. |
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24 Aug 20 - 10:24 PM (#4069518) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SERGEANT SMALL I went broke in western Queensland in 1931 Nobody would employ me so my swag carrying begun I came down into Charleville through all the western towns I was on my way to Roma destination Darling Downs My pants were getting ragged my boots were getting thin But when I stopped at Mitchell a goods train shunted in I heard the whistle blowing and looking out could see She was on her way to Roma it was quite plain to me Chorus I wish I was about twenty stone andgonly seven feet tall I'd go back to western Queensland and beat up Sergeant Small Now as I sat and watched her inspiration's seed was sown I remembered the government slogan: Here's the railway that you own By this time the sun was setting and the night was getting nigh So I gathered my belongings and took her on the fly When we got into Roma I kept my head down low I heard a voice say "Any room mate?" I answered "Plenty Bo" "Come out of there my noble man" came the voice of Sergeant Small "I have trapped you very nicely - you've ridden for a fall" The judge was very kind to me he gave me thirty days Saying "Maybe this will help to cure your rattler jumping ways" So if you're down and outback boys I'll tell you what I think Stay off those Queensland goods trains for they're a short cut to the clink Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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24 Aug 20 - 11:21 PM (#4069520) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie DUSTY GRAVEL ROAD (Alan Mann) Have you travelled northwards past the slime dumps of Kalgoolie Out upon the old Broad Arrow Road Have you seen the heaps of mullock like the tombstones in a graveyard That signify the finding of a lode Have you ever stopped to wonder how many picks and shovels And aching muscles on bodies young and old Would have scraped the dust of legend, the clay and the ironstone Searching for a dish of yellow gold Chorus: For the passing of some years seats you in a four-wheel-drive The exhaust pipe leaves your sweat and your worries far behind The air-conditioned faint north-easter blows cool air across your mind Travelling on the dusty gravel road Well ahead there's corrugations and you spot the blackened carcass Of a tyre gone to pieces on the side Christ, what happens if you break down - the petrol tank is holed Or, worst of all, the grog supply runs dry Like the heroes in that legend maybe you'll walk a while Maybe you'll get lucky, hitch a ride But would you push your barrow, loaded up with life's possessions Like some of them damn near three hundred mile Chorus At the turnoff there's some diggings and you stop to rest a while As nightfall pulls the curtain on the day By the last few glints of sunlight something on that yonder hillside Beckons you to come and walk that way Glittering in the gully, piles of champagne bottles Signs they caught up with the golden fate And you lift the flimsy flip-top from a frosty ice-cold can And you join their celebration just eighty years too late Chorus Alan Mann, a fine musician and songwriter, has been part of the West Australian folk scene for ever. 'Dusty gravel road' is the title track of an album by Loaded Dog. In respect of this song, Alan noted: 'The first prospectors had a great and intimate understanding of the goldfields country. It was not until 1986 that the output of gold in Western Australia exceeded that of the halcyon year of 1904'. Unfortunately, the only clip of Loaded Dog on the Net is the one I posted re 'Waltzing Matilda'. Loaded Dog's website has disappeared. They have 4 excellent CDs. If any 'cattier is interested in obtaining their music, send me a personal message and I will put you in touch. --Stewie. |
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24 Aug 20 - 11:37 PM (#4069521) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Loaded Dog are fantastic, they turned up at Jamberoo years ago & I had hopes of booking them for the Loaded Dog Folk Club, but alas, they never came east again. I think they had a grant from some Govt agency to travel that year. Poison Train is one of the best session songs, & we've had it many a time at the Dog, often sung by Margaret & Bob Fagan. The Dog is run by singers for a singing audience. I remember the first time I went to another club after a friend took over the Dog in 1995 & NO-ONE SANG ALONG! sung by Chloe & Jason Roweth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45fvCPqTm8M Subject: ADD: The poison train ^^ From: Stewie - PM Date: 04 Mar 00 - 08:52 PM THE POISON TRAIN (Michael O'Rourke) This old town has had its day All the people moved away And the houses standing empty In the dry and the dusty day No one cares for this old town Now the money's not around And the railway lines are rusty And the station's falling down Chorus: There's a light down the line Let it shine, shine, let it shine There's a camp down the way All the fettlers will be coming home today When the railway opened here All the gutters flowed with beer And the people stood beside the line To watch and wave and cheer All the speeches that were made When the bosses smiled and said 'The good times are just beginning Follow us and you'll go ahead' Chorus Well, they built the street so wide It would be a thing of pride To walk across it drunk Or throw a stone to the other side And the buildings grew so tall You would tremble at the fall But they've just dried out And you would never know There was anyone there at all Chorus I still hear the tall man say To the children at their play 'You'd better go home early And you'd better stay away Stay away from the line Can't you hear the railway humming The grass has grown too tall And the poison train is coming Chorus You feel sorry for the grass All it did was grow too fast All the weapons used against it It was never made to last And the man and his offsider Are all dressed in black As the poison train goes through the town And blisters all the track Chorus Well, it never lasted long Half the town was packed and gone And everybody was afraid To be left there alone All the people stayed away And there was no celebration Nobody made a speech the day They closed the railway station Chorus Published by Greenhouse Publications. Source: Roy Bailey 'New Directions in the Old' Fuse CFCD 402. Recorded by 'Mike O'Rourke on 'Flying Pieman' 1980. PS. The image of the 'Poison Train' is used by O'Rourke to describe the decay of outback towns that grew too quicly. The fast-growing grass around the railway tracks has to be burnt back. |
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25 Aug 20 - 12:10 AM (#4069522) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG You are doing a great job, Stewie! |
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25 Aug 20 - 12:19 AM (#4069524) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie PADDY'S BACK (Alan Ralph) Father had a soft spot for the men out on the track And somehow Paddy featured regularly He worked upon the rabbit-proof and when he came to town He'd doss down in our shed for a week or three He'd spend his days in the town's hotels drinking pinkie wine And shouting drinks for almost all the town We'd feed his horse and dog and keep them watered regularly And when he left, he'd give us half-a-crown Chorus: And the spring-cart tracks led through our gate His horse and dog were there We ran to mother, shouting out the news 'Paddy's back from the rabbit-proof, he's in from way outback And I'll bet he's down at the Federal getting boozed' When Paddy staggered home alone or on a copper's arm We'd take him down some supper on a tray A plate of snags and murphys or mother's shepherd pie He thought it like a banquet, so he'd say And often when we'd go out to the outhouse in the night We'd hear old Paddy talking to his dog Or singing Irish melodies or spieling to the stars He'd stay a gentle man despite the grog Chorus When his money was all gone, then father told him so His clothes were laundered, he was scrubbed and shaved He'd join us at the table and tell stories of the bush Us kids would listen spellbound to his tales Then next day he'd load his cart up with stores to see him through And father'd slip some pinkie in the back He'd head off to the rabbit-proof to check along the fence And we'd watch him disappear along the track Chorus At christmas time there'd always be a parcel for us kids That Paddy got the local store to send And one year I remember when he really got it right Tin soldiers in a box - a hundred men Father would get a cherry pipe, a tablecloth for mum The gifts were better than a lump of gold A flask of Irish whisky was what father'd give to him To frighten off the snakes and beat the cold Chorus But somehow Paddy drifted from our lives as we grew up I often wonder where old Paddy went Did he meet a childhood sweetheart and settle down in town Or did he die out by that lonely fence The snake that killed his old blue heeler, did it get him too Or did he strike it rich in someone's will Either way I still can hear those Irish melodies And tin soldiers march across the table still Chorus That cracker of a song was written from an old-timer's recollections of growing up in country Western Australia. It is on Loaded Dog's 'Dusty gravel road' album. Alan Ralph is not a member of the group. His song was published in 'The West Australian'. --Stewie. |
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25 Aug 20 - 11:28 AM (#4069590) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney thanks for the memories, Stewie, I need to locate my Loaded Dog CDs from wherever they are hiding. |
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25 Aug 20 - 09:08 PM (#4069642) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Cheers Jennie and Sandra. I'll post a few more favourites from the Dog albums. Bob Rummery wrote the tune for this one: CALL OF THE NORTH (J.Sorensen/R.Rummery) Oh the western wind is blowing So there’s rain and storm in store And the teams have long been going Down the road to Glindawor To where tropic sun is gleaming And the fragrant winds blow free I’ve awakened from my dreaming And the north is calling me Chorus: Oh, the steam is in the boiler In the expert’s room below While upon the board each toiler waits To hear the whistle blow For the shearing is beginning And my heart is fancy free And the friction wheels are spinning So the north is calling me From the southward to the nor’ward Where the long brown tracks wind down All me mates have hastened forward To the wilderness from town Gone! By stony hill and hollow To where I now fain would be Where they lead, I needs must follow For the north is calling me Chorus What’s this news I have been hearing Tidings strange to me indeed Bidgimia now is shearing With Sawallish in the lead Straining camels teams are swaying From the junction to the sea Why so long am I delaying When the north is calling me Chorus And so northward I am going For I cannot linger here For the starting whistle’s blowing And the ‘guns’ are into gear So to be there I am yearning I will hail the sheds with glee For the friction wheels are turning And the north is calling me Chorus The song is on 'Dusty gravel road'. Here is a rendition by Wongawilli: Youtube clip My mate, Phil Beck from Perth, and I once presented a themed concert 'Songs of Separation' which included 'Call of the north'. For those who may be interested, here are Phil's remarks about the life of Jack Sorensen: Sorenson was amongst other things a shearer and a pugilist (at one time welter weight champion of WA) who once said you had to be prepared to be the latter if you were going to pretend to be the former in and around a shearing shed in the outback. In other words that one needs to be a hard man in a hard environment. Born in Western Australia he began his working life as an orchardist on his family's property in Perth, and then worked as a shearer on stations in the Murchison, Gascoyne and Kimberleys. Returning to Perth, Sorensen took up employment with Mr Sampson, a local MP, who was influential in having some of his early poems published in local papers. Throughout his life he drew on his early bush experiences to write poetry and songs mainly about life in rural Western Australia, often with an environmental theme. He clearly loved the bush and the sense of peace that living in the outback can bring. The outbreak of war evoked in Sorensen a sense of doom that was to haunt him forever. The death of his friend and mentor, Mr Sampson had a further detrimental effect on his mental health to the point that he was discharged from the military. Not long after his discharge, his mother also died, further deepening his melancholia. Seeking happier times, Sorensen set out for the Kimberleys searching for that inner peace that he’d felt in the north of WA in earlier years. This song, probably written around that time, revolves around the start of the shearing season in northern Western Australia. The Bidgemia mentioned is a reference to Bidgemia Station located on the south bank of the Gascoyne River. Sawallish refers Bob Sawallish a gun shearer of the time. Mullewa, inexplicably referred to as Glindawor in our version of the song, is a shire in mid west WA. Sadly the inner peace Sorensen sought eluded him, so in 1949, he decided to fulfil his lifetime dream of going to the Queensland outback. He sailed from Fremantle, but never reached his goal, for it was on the ship in Sydney, just a week or so short of his destination that Jack decided his life was no longer worth living. --Stewie. |
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25 Aug 20 - 09:25 PM (#4069645) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie My apologies, I once again forgot to log in before posting 'Call of the north'. A couple of decades ago, Bob Bolton posted the lyrics to Alan Mann's 'Windmill run' together with a few notes to assist non-aussies: THE WINDMILL RUN (Alan Mann) The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears, Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised, The blades have turned for fully fifty years. One day's dawn will find him, astride his faithful Harley Just a kerosene tin jammed between his knees. There's a hessian bag of tucker, twitch wire and some pliers, And his camouflage, khaki dungarees. Out along the western fence, the three-mile troughs are full, And it's north along the track 'till deadwood bore. There's spinifex and mulga, plus the dozen mills or so, 'Till nightfall finds him on an Alcan floor The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears, Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised, The blades have turned for fully fifty years. Well, every now and then, there's a breakdown - and he finds it Depressing as the jammed-up rods he frees. Fifty head it cost him ... and the crows with bellies full; Sitting there ... laughing in the trees. Mostly, though, it's endless toil – adjusting floats and valves, And checking out the fences near and far. Visions of the wife and kids – see him through the afternoon, 'Till his nightly destination with the stars. The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears, Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised, The blades have turned for fully fifty years. Gone again's another week and he turns up at the homestead, Just a silhouette against the setting sun, There's just two days at home, for there's sheep to dip tomorrow. And a rest before another windmill run. The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears, Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised, The blades have turned for fully fifty years. The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling ... Notes: Alcan: Local brand of aluminium (well, lots of Canadian money in it as well). Presumably the floor of a work shed or store out on the run. Clockwise, ever clockwise: Of course, the blades always turn in the same direction because the tailpiece keeps them pointing up wind Dungarees: Work overalls – in this case ex-army Fifty head it cost: On these huge inland runs, there is little permanent water and the bore (artesian) water brought up by the windmill may be all there is. A pump breakdown can mean death to all the cattle in that paddock. Harley: Harley Davidson motorbike? Maybe an old WWII despatch rider's bike, rather than the fat road bikes of today Hot-dipped and galvanised: They made things to last back then … not that there is much rain to rust windmill blades out in the outback! Mulga: Low scrubby acacias of the arid interior Southern Cross: The best known Australian brand of water-pumping windmill (named for the famous southern sky constellation). Spinifex: Thorny weed - the Australian species is zygochloa paradoxus. Tucker: Food, supplies Twitch wire: Binding or tie wire for minor repairs You can find the song on Loaded Dog 'A Coastline Facing West'. Here is a rendition by Wongawilli: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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25 Aug 20 - 10:07 PM (#4069653) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie DOWN THE RIVER (H. Lawson/I. MacDougall) I've done with joys an' misery, An' why should I repine? There's no one knows the past but me An' that ol' dog o' mine. We camp an' walk an' camp an' walk, An' find it fairly good; He can do anything but talk, An' he wouldn't if he could. We sits an' thinks beside the fire, With all the stars a-shine, An' no one knows our thoughts but me An' that there dog o' mine. We has our Johnny-cake an' "scrag," An' finds 'em fairly good; He can do anything but talk, An' he wouldn't if he could. He gets a 'possum now an' then, I cooks it on the fire; He has his water, me my tea — What more could we desire? He gets a rabbit when he likes, We finds it pretty good; He can do anything but talk, An' he wouldn't if he could. I has me smoke, he has his rest, When sunset's gettin' dim; An' if I do get drunk at times, It's all the same to him. So long's he's got me swag to mind, He thinks that times is good; He can do anything but talk, An' he wouldn't if he could. He gets his tucker from the cook, For cook is good to him, An' when I sobers up a bit, He goes an' has a swim. He likes the rivers where I fish, An' all the world is good; He can do anything but talk, An' he wouldn't if he could You can find the song on Loaded Dog 'That there dog o' mine' album. They note that the tune they use is by Ian MacDougall. I can't find any rendition on the Net. There is a tune by Chris Kempster in his songbook (page 12): Kempster |
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25 Aug 20 - 10:41 PM (#4069654) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Here's another good'un from the pen of John Warner. Kitty Kane is a tough woman who thumbs her nose at convention and not only survives but thrives. Good on her! KITTY KANE (John Warner) I came up the Thomson with thousands of others When Walhalla's gold wove its wild, shining spell I was young, I was pretty, I called myself Kitty I offered the best jewels a woman could sell A length of fine velvet in well fitting burgundy Tight round the curves where a man's eye could fall Lace at the edges and eyes full of laughter Oh young Kitty Kane was the pride of them all (Chorus) I might take a walk by the wild Thomson River Where the mountain ash rise in the soft misty rain There's gold in the range and there's gold in the memories Of the lady of pleasure they call Kitty Kane The publican brought a piano from Melbourne I could tell you right now, it was never in tune But the work-weary diggers came crowding to hear it When Samson would play in the late afternoon On nights when Walhalla lit up like a fire And the miners were roaring some boozy refrain There would always be eyes lit with lust and desire And bright gold for evenings with young Kitty Kane Chorus There were schemers and sailors and bearded old diggers Whose tough, hairy hides had the gravel ground in Young men far from home who still needed a mother And sad furtive parsons who needed to sin Rough, drunken brutes with the manners of cattle Who let me lie bleeding and shaking in pain I served them their drinks while my bruises were healing And I laughed and I shone, I was still Kitty Kane Chorus I've heard the men singing down at the piano That youth it soon passes and beauty will fade But I gave them their pleasure when I was past forty It's the light in me eyes made me queen of my trade Though Walhalla now is all merchants and farmers Whose wives see in me what they think of as shame I'll die in this valley with fine, singing memories My name's Kitty Kane, I was best in the game Chorus (X2) You can find the song on Margaret Walters' excellent 'Pithead and Fern' album. --Stewie. |
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25 Aug 20 - 11:15 PM (#4069657) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I did it again - lost my cookie. Here's an amusing little poem that my good mate, the late Paul Lawler, put to music. It is by the late John Manifold, a fine poet, activist and editor of the original 'Penguin Australian Song Book'. Perhaps Rich-Joy will post the tune to the website of Paul's music in due course. ON THE DEATH OF MR HOLT (John Manifold/Paul Lawler Only a week before Christmas, The happiest day of the year, They held a wake for Harold Holt, And the bigwig guests came here. Bonnie Prince Charlie came owre the sea With Wilson, who never smiles, And L.B.J. from the U.S.A And the king of the Cannibal Isles; Chaps from Siam and from South Vietnam And the Philippines too, I think; Some for the sake of the free, free world, And some for the free, free drink. They made long speeches and shed loud tears To propitiate Harold's ghost, And the king of the Cannibal Isles got up To propose a final toast. He said: "We have had such a splendid time, Such generous Christmas cheer, We hope you'll be able to drown A Prime Minister every year!" --Stewie. |
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26 Aug 20 - 03:52 AM (#4069672) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney good one, Stewie, the more serious side of John Manifold |
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26 Aug 20 - 04:02 AM (#4069674) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney & I located my Loaded Dog CDs today, so can play them again. |
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26 Aug 20 - 10:57 PM (#4069771) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Many thanks for that, Sandra. It is very interesting, albeit difficult (physically), reading. Have you read his 'Who wrote the ballads'? He wrote one of Australia's finest poems: The Tomb of John Learmonth AIF THE SHAME OF GOING BACK (Henry Lawson) When you've come to make your fortune, and you haven't made your salt And the reason of your failure isn't anybody's fault When you haven't got a billet, and the times are very slack There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back Chorus: Crawling home with empty pockets Going back hard-up Oh! it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known When your clothes are very shabby, and the future's very black There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back When you've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall, 'Tis the sneer of man, not conscience, that makes cowards of us all And while you are returning, oh! your brain is on the rack, And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain They post-mortem him, and try him, and they say he was insane But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back Ah! my friend, you call it nonsense, and your upper lip is curled You have had no real trouble in your passage through the world But when fortune rounds upon you and the rain is on the track You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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27 Aug 20 - 12:37 AM (#4069773) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney we have copies of "Who wrote the Ballads" in BMC library. THE PEOPLE HAVE SONGS (Miguel Heatwole) Here voices are tuned to each other in gladness To all here in common affection belongs Here joy and laughter meet keening and sadness Here tyranny's cursed for the people have songs Chorus: Let us set the room ringing with the sound of our singing When we come to the end let us hold the chord long Hear the harmonies rise and all close our eyes 'Til the last cadence dies the people have songs Here is war parting sweethearts Here are strong sweating sailors And poets for beauty who ardently long Here are people at work singing loud at their labours Here are marriage and drinking for the people have songs Respect for each other gives each one a hearing And whether the voice be uncertain or strong We listen with love if the heart is endearing Supported in harmony the people have songs Disdaining oppression like others before us Our gentleness angered by history's wrongs Our tradition endures, and our voices in chorus Are lifted in hope for the people have songs! People have Songs on bandcamp anotehr greta session song - |
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27 Aug 20 - 12:43 AM (#4069774) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney TYPO! how did I hit submit? another great session song is former Catter Canberra Chris's Call to Song , also recorded by Miguel for his latest CD More People Have songs, also available on Bandcamp. I'll ask him to pop in with the words. sandra |
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27 Aug 20 - 01:25 AM (#4069776) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Gotta have Union Street by Alistair Hulett Siege of Union Street video https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118813 THE SIEGE OF UNION STREET (words & music by Alistair Hulett) words taken from 'The Cold Grey Light of Dawn' by Alistair Hulett & Dave Swarbrick Musikfolk Ltd, 1997. The Unemployed Workers Union was formed in Melbourne during the Great Depression to fight evictions by heartless landlords of destitute families for non-payment of rent. A Sydney branch soon followed and the UWU drew thousands into it's ranks. Matters came to a head in Union Street in the inner city suburb of Erskinville in Sydney, when over a thousand militants fought a pitched battle with police that lasted several days. The tenants were a 'war widow' and her children, so emotions were running high and the struggle received much media coverage The Communist Party was deeply committed to supporting the UWU and the police had assistance from the covert right wing paramilitary group identified by D.H. Lawrence in his novel "Kangaroo." Casualties on both sides were high but the issue was finally resolved when the Labor State Premier, Jack Lang, introduced legislation to protect the unemployed from being thrown out of their homes. Jim Munroe, a founding member of the UWU is the source of the material on which much of this song is based. You should have seen us down at Erko Fourteenth August, Saturday night To Newtown, Stanmore, Enmore and Petersham Calls went out 'Workers unite!' We built a bloody great wall With planks and boards full seven foot tall We didn't mind the howling wind and sleet When we stood around the fire at Union Street The man from the shop said put it on tick The kids came round with bottles and bricks There was Irish stew and home-made lemonade They were grand old days on the barricade I never thought I would join a party Carry a card or see things red The sight of bare foot children crying Out on the pavement turned my head Their old man's over in France Flapping like a rag on a barbed wire fence Their Mum does what she can to make ends meet And she's down at the siege of Union Street The cops came down and they came down hard They must have numbered five hundred strong They called us reds and they cracked our heads To teach us poor sinners right from wrong I learned a lesson that night It's all out war when you stand and fight I saw those brisk young coppers on their beat Behave like thugs in Union Street Sunshine danced on the broken glass It shone like diamonds as morning broke The cops were back by the railroad track And the streets were filled with working folk They'd bashed us bloody and raw But it forced Jack Lang to change the law Now the landlords have to cop it sweet And the Red Flag flies over Union Street The man from the shop gave out licorice sticks To the kids who cleaned up the bottles and bricks Down the years those memories never fade Of the grand old days on the barricade. |
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27 Aug 20 - 10:50 PM (#4069917) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another fine song from Alan Mann. Alan noted: Home thoughts from abroad! Sitting in a Canadian airport in winter knowing that in Western Australia it is summer and remembering the landscapes and associated farming activities. WINNIPEG IN WINTER (Alan Mann) Winnipeg in winter is not the place to be When the wind is up to 30 knots and it's minus 23 And all around a sea of white, snow drifts and sheets of ice Frozen lakes, high latitudes don't make for paradise Freezing, fevered snowbound - I'm sitting all alone In Winnipeg in winter, ten thousand miles from home Summertime is beautiful, so the locals say I'm not convinced to press my luck and stay another day Instead of this white wilderness, I see the big red heart Purple hill and spinifex - I'm ready to depart Brown and yellow's on the fields, a harvest's coming in Sweaty seat, the Inter truck, Kellerberrin bin And all along the gravel roads, lines of eucalypts Dance and shimmer in the heat, and make the light of it There an azure ocean laps a golden beach A little line of breakers is curling out of reach Majestic stands off karris and ghostly river gums Throw their shade at red-brown dirt 'til evening's blanket comes Of this distant dreaming it's not hard to make some sense When from a fresh-cut field of oats or along a barbed-wire fence Dust clouds spiral skywards, you'd pause and take a guess 'It's forty in the water bag' - more or less Stooped against the driving snow, hail the brave Canuck Wrapped up in fur and feathers, shuffling through the muck Tugging at the parka hood, he nods and says 'G'day' Breaking links to a train of thought - ten thousand miles away Winnipeg in winter is not the place to be When the wind is up to 30 knots and it's minus 23 And all around a sea of white, snow drifts and sheets of ice Frozen lakes, high latitudes don't rate with paradise Freezing, fevered snowbound - I'm sitting all alone In Winnipeg in winter, ten thousand miles from home You can find the song on Loaded Dog's 'That there dog o' mine' album. For this one, there is a beaut video on Youtube. Bob Rummery is lead singer: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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27 Aug 20 - 11:41 PM (#4069920) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie AWAY TO TINTINARA (Mike O'Connor) It's away to Tintinara and miles to Emu Springs Every year a little farther to the song the drover sings It's a hundred miles from Adelaide the Overlander rolls Then a dusty road to sunrise where open bushland calls Chorus: And the music on the wind is the creaking of the saddle And the rhythm of the song are the hooves upon the ground Where the fences run forever to the dusty blue horizon And like gems on distant velvet, stars echo to the sound 'Call me back' There's a lonely crossroad beckons to the blue remembered hills Then beyond the sands of Sugarloaf where memory lingers still On the sunlit plains of yester year where lyre birds dance and sing Are the echo of the voices a bushman's dreams can bring Chorus And around the paddock dreaming, you know that she'll be right And around the billy boiling the stories last the night For there's room enough for breathing, there's space to be your own And to sing again the old song and watch the sun go down Chorus Martyn Wyndham-Read explains the genesis of the song at the end of this video: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Aug 20 - 03:57 AM (#4069935) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Sorry, only just got my 'puter back from the Docs (with a warning that it won't last too much longer :( I will try to add some more suggestions too! Crikey Sandra, that's funny about "Poison Train" - it was a firm favourite in SE Qld sessions when I arrived some 27 years ago and is still frequently heard. Good Song! Stewie, re "On the Death of Harold Holt" : a good 18 months back I was preparing Lawls' TEFC bracket of Manifold songs, with pics, for upload to his YT channel ..... not quite sure why they haven't manifested there yet ..... LtU&E, I guess :( I was always very fond of "Fannie Bay" [by D&A Tainsh] as sung by the late "Tropical Ear" in Darwin. Their version was quite unlike the (Dobe Newton's) Bushwackers version, more poignant and more singable. And not at all like the "Galway Bay" parody on John T's "Oz Folk Song a Day" webpages!!! So I'll just have to add another to my upload list, along with the previously mentioned "Northern Gulf", sung by Smokey. Happy Friday!! R-J |
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28 Aug 20 - 09:04 PM (#4070028) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, good to hear you got your 'puter back. What is LtU&E? Is it something like a 'round tuit'? Bob Rummery put the tune to this one: WHEN YOU'RE FLUSH (T.Brittain/R.Rummery) The work's been long and steady, now the contract's finished up When the pass is hard, it doesn't pay to rush Burning in my moleskin pocket is what I got from it And there's other things you think of when you're flush So I'll wind up the stringline, I'll put the tools away And I'll turn the old camp-oven upside down And in quest of earthly capers, I will look around a bit And I'll try the bill of fare in Bunbury town Yes, I'll try the bill of fare in Bunbury town By the noon I'd crossed the sandplain and I didn't raise a sweat 'Cause a traveller that day was kind to me I alighted from his sulky at the Prince of Wales Hotel And soon afterwards embarked upon a spree When a lady I befriended, so delightful was her charm My desire of it was soon to wear me down I feted her a fortnight with all the spice of life It was nice, the bill of fare in Bunbury town Yes, it was nice the bill of fare in Bunbury town And then a day out at the races, some pennies that I tossed Soon relieved me of my remaining dough So I shouldered my possessions, I whipped the cat a bit To the bush I stretched, 'twas time to strike a blow Back across the Preston River, and about a mile beyond Resting in the shade of Boyle O'Reilly's tree My mind's eye shaped a picture of him trudging years before In a way that seemed a parallel with me Yes, In a way that seemed a parallel with me Having finished with my dreaming at the junction of the roads And with thirty mile or more still left to tramp And past another sunrise to a gully farther on I've rested in the refuge of my camp Where I've unwound the stringline, I've turkeyed up my axe And I hope my daily tallies bring renown Cooking in the old camp-oven there's a lovely mutton stew And it beats the bill of fare in Bunbury town Yes, it beats the bill of fare in Bunbury town I've been toiling long a steady since the contract started up When the pass is hard, it doesn't pay to rush I'll settle up and clean the slate with what I get from it And I'll satisfy my needs when I am flushed Yes, I'll satisfy my needs when I am flush The song is on 'A coastline facing west'. Bob introduces the song in one of the few videos of the Dog available on the Net (there's some competition from sprog noises): Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Aug 20 - 09:53 PM (#4070031) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Alan Mann used the tune of an old favourite for this one. He noted: This is the true story of the founding of the town of Menzies in WA's goldfields in 1894. After striking it rich, Leslie Robert Menzies tipped his nuggets on the floor of the Bank of Coolgardie and proceeded to shout the town 4000 pounds worth of champagne. Lonnie Donegan had a great skiffle version of this tune which had previously been covered by Leadbelly and collected by Alan Lomax. MENZIES' SHOUT (HAVE A DRINK ON ME) (Alan Mann) In the eighteen nineties down a dusty road Came a saddle-bagged miner with a six ton load Everybody - have a drink on me He was caked in dust from his foot to his head But he had a 'gold smile' it had to be said Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me He reined his camels, hitched them to the rail Shouted to his mates: 'Found the Holy Grail' Everybody - have a drink on me He staggered to the bank, tipped nuggets on the floor 'I've pegged out ground, there's a whole heap more' Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me Chorus: Have a drink, have a drink, have a drink on me Ev'rybody have a drink on me Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me Have a drink, have a drink, have a drink on me Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me There's trouble in store at the Old Camp Saloon It being quite early - not yet noon Everybody have a drink on me 'First things first, a day of champagne Settle in boys for a long campaign' Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me Well I've been to Hannans and to Kununulling Toasted success - this time we're skulling Everybody have a drink on me This new show, a hundred miles from here Has beaten all the rest for all of last year Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me I went to the Barossaa to float another mine The gold was scarce, but the red was fine Everybody have a drink on me Seems like the gold and my luck have run out But I remember the day it was my turn to shout Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM (#4070032) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy "Life, the Universe, & Everything" Stew! (#1 excuse for not coping, or doing!!!) R-J |
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28 Aug 20 - 11:20 PM (#4070036) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Thanks R-J. There are fewer Paterson poems set to music than those of Lawson, but there are some. Cathie O'Sullivan put a tune to this one years ago. SONG OF ARTESIAN WATER (Paterson/O'Sullivan) Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought, But we're sick of prayers and Providence - we're going to do without, With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below, We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go. Sinking down, deeper down, Oh, we'll sink it deeper down: As the drill is plugging downward at a thousand feet of level, If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil; Yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down. Now, our engine's built in Glasgow by a very canny Scot, And he marked it twenty horse-power, but he didn't know what is what. When Canadian Bill is firing with the sun-dried gidgee logs, She can equal thirty horses and a score or so of dogs. Sinking down, deeper down Oh, we're going deeper down: If we fail to get the water, then it's ruin to the squatter, For the drought is on the station and the weather's growing hotter, But we're bound to get the water deeper down. But the shaft has started caving and the sinking's very slow, And the yellow rods are bending in the water down below, And the tubes are always jamming, and they can't be made to shift Till we nearly burst the engine with a forty horse-power lift, Sinking down, deeper down, Oh, we're going deeper down: Though the shaft is always caving, and the tubes are always jamming, Yet we'll fight our way to water while the stubborn drill is ramming- While the stubborn drill is ramming deeper down. But there's no artesian water, though we're passed three thousand feet, And the contract price is growing, and the boss is nearly beat. But it must be down beneath us, and it's down we've got to go. Though she's bumping on the solid rock four thousand feet below, Sinking down, deeper down, Oh, we're going deeper down: And it's time they heard us knocking on the roof of Satan's dwellin', But we'll get artesian water if we cave the roof of hell in- Oh we'll get artesian water deeper down. But it's hark! the whistle's blowing with a wild, exultant blast, And the boys are madly cheering, for they've struck the flow at last: And it's rushing up the tubing from four thousand feet below, Till it spouts above the casing in a million-gallon flow. And it's down, deeper down- Oh, it comes from deeper down: It is flowing, ever flowing, in a free, unstinted measure From the silent hidden places where the old earth hides her treasure- Where the old earth hides her treasures deeper down. And it's clear away the timber and it's let the water run, How it glimmers in the shadow, how it flashes in the sun! By the silent belts of timber, by the miles of blazing plain It is bringing hope and comfort to the thirsty land again. Flowing down, further down: It is flowing further down To the tortured thirsty cattle, bringing gladness in its going; Through the droughty days of summer it is flowing, ever flowing- It is flowing, ever flowing, further down. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Aug 20 - 01:35 AM (#4070039) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Gerry Hallom put a tune to Paterson's beaut poem 'With the cattle'. He makes some minor changes and omissions: here is how he sings it: WITH THE CATTLE (Paterson/Hallom) The drought is down on field and flock The riverbed is dry And we must shift the starving stock Before the cattle die So we muster up with weary hearts At breaking of the day And turn our heads to foreign parts And take the stock away By the stock routes bare and eaten On dusty roads and beaten In heat and drought and hopeless pain, we take the stock away We cannot use the whips for shame On beasts that crawl along We have to drop the weak and lame And try to save the strong For the wrath of God is on the track The drought fiend holds his sway With blows and cries and stock whip crack We take the stock away As they fall we leave them lying, With the crows to watch them dying With half a chance to save their lives we take the stock away So in dull despair the days go by With never hope of change But every stage we draw more nigh The distant mountain range And some may live to climb the pass And reach the great plateau And revel in the mountain grass By streamlets fed with snow As the mountain wind is blowing It starts the cattle lowing The creatures smell the mountain grass that's twenty miles away They press towards the mountain grass They look with eager eyes Along the rugged stony pass That slopes towards the skies Though their feet may bleed from rocks and stones And though the blood-drop starts They struggle on with stifled groans For hope is in their hearts As the mountain wind is blowing And the mountain grass is growing They break in to a kind of run – pull up, and let them go! The days are done of heat and drought Upon the stricken plain The wind has shifted right about And brought the welcome rain The river runs with sullen roar All flecked with yellow foam And we must take the road once more And bring the cattle home And it's `Lads! we'll raise a chorus There's a pleasant trip before us Towards the far-off mountain-land, to bring the cattle back' We have to watch them close at night For fear they'll make a rush And break away in headlong flight Across the open bush And by the campfire's cheery blaze With mellow voice and strong We hear the lonely watchman raise The overlander's song While the stars shine out above us Like the eyes of those who love us The eyes of those who watch and wait to greet the cattle home The plains are all awave with grass The skies are deepest blue And leisurely the cattle pass And feed the long day through But when we sight the station gate We make the stockwhips crack A welcome sound to those who wait To greet the cattle back And through the twilight falling We hear their voices calling, As the cattle splash across he ford and churn it into foam And the children run to meet us Our wives and sweethearts greet us Their heroes from the overland who brought the cattle home Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Aug 20 - 10:04 AM (#4070062) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney geez, Stewie, don't you have anything else to do! I'd love to put some of Kevin Baker's songs up, but I'd have to type them. Tthere's not much online, just this bio from a 2006 appearance at Sutherland folk club. Kevin Baker A long time political activist and historian, Kevin Baker is a brilliant exponent on the social, economic and industrial life of the Illawarra. He has recorded in song the struggles of workers and the despair of unemployment. Kevin’s song The Snowy River Men” is regarded as the most powerful anti-war song ever written. His three recordings, The Snowy River Men, Still a Rich Man’s Land and Harvest and Heartbreak, all his own compositions carry a wealth of Australian history and are an invaluable Australian Folk Collection. A poet/singer/songwriter Kevin knows and feels the real Australia and has that special gift of telling a story in song. Kevin Baker - Snowy River Men - video Dear Mrs Allen I write to you today To say that I was with your son just before he passed away I trained with him at Goulburn and we traveled on to France And I was there when he got hit in the German advance. It seems so long ago since we marched into your town And all the young men heard the call and signed their name straight down And the girls and the children proudly all cheered us all along At Bibbenluke that day was a feast of speech and song. CHORUS - And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud From Goulburn to Sydney and then a ship from Circular Quay A spirit of adventure stirred and filled both Les and Me It was great to be with comrades true and travelling abroad For a while the war seemed far away and the world was to be toured In Durban the natives took us travelling in style In rickshaws that they pulled along at a shilling a mile. In Capetown we watched the black boys diving in the Bay The Snowies had a good time there and would have liked to stay CHORUS - But the Snowy River men just couldn't march today There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud When we landed at Plymouth, we'd spent 8 weeks at sea And entrained straight way for Wilton where our camp turned out to be, They treated us well there so we really can't complain That the sky was grey, the weather bleak and it always seemed to rain When we set sail for France, the weather had turned fine And it wasn't long before the call to reinforce the line Then a shell whined above us and we were raked with stones and mud And I turned and saw Les sitting there in a pool of his own blood CHORUS And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud He stared as the blood poured out of his legless thigh And I carried him back to the aid post close nearby His blood soaked my uniform but he never breathed a sigh And I had no idea then that he was going to die When I left him he spoke of a pain inside his chest I suppose that's what killed him, I just don't know the rest But I know that we all miss him and cant help but wonder why So many Snowy men so quickly had to die. CHORUS - And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud We hear the king's grateful for all the men who've died And is sending home a photo of the graves in which they lie Well I still think that the cause is right but it's not clear any more Why so many Australian men should die in Europe's war We hope with our hearts that time will ease the pain Of never once to see his face or hear his voice again But I've seen so much death now since that day on which he died That I can't now be the snowy man that once I was inside CHORUS - And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud |
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29 Aug 20 - 10:52 AM (#4070068) Subject: LYR ADD - Kevin Baker - Superstar From: Sandra in Sydney Kevin Baker - Superstar I still hear my mother whistling as she hung clothes on the line While our neighbour did the Monday wash and sang away the time Down the road on a building lot where hammers kept the beat Workmen sang and shared their lunch with the boy from up the street And the Baker's cart and the Rabbito came trading to a tune As we lived to our own music morning night and afternoon. CHORUS - But now you've got to be a superstar if you want to sing a song If they catch you quietly singing people think there's something wrong Somehow we lost the right to sing: it almost seem a crime To share the things you care about in music, words and rhyme. I hear echoes of my father in the songs he used to know Of love and work and freedom; the memories start to flow And my mother played an old squeeze-box as he people had before And friends would visit friends and bring their songs in through the door. And no-one was at all surprised or thought it indiscreet If the friendly sound of music were to spill out on the street. CHORUS But now we get our music with an electronic sound In accents strange and foreign that aren't heard on our home ground It's slick and flash but hasn't got a thing to do with me But it clogs up all our radios and floods out from TV And I can't help looking back to when we thought we all belonged Before we lost our voices and bought other people's songs. CHORUS Rabbits were poor people's meat & Rabbitos sold them door to door. |
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29 Aug 20 - 11:08 AM (#4070069) Subject: LYR ADD - The Rabbiter by Stan Wakefield From: Sandra in Sydney https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=23038 THE RABBITER Words and music: Stan Wakefield I read about the fortunes that the rabbiters make outback - The sporting life and the lairy tales of prices fetched at Sydney sales, So I started out across New South Wales on the roving rabbiters' track. CHORUS: With a hool-em-up and a sool-em-up And the fool-em-up decoys; The men who scalp the rabbiters Are the Sydney market boys. A free and independent life, a life of simple joys I camped beneath an old belah ' and my tucker was mostly fried galah, And I trapped 'em near and I trapped 'em far, for the Sydney market boys. I poisoned out at Hillston, and I trapped at Gundagai, I followed 'em over creeks and bogs, and chopped 'em out of hollow logs, And tailed 'em up with yelping dogs, 'way back of Boggabri. Besides the bunnies that you catch, there's things that you despise: A hawk, a snake, a crow, a rat, a bandicoot, a tiger cat, And when you're lucky, a lamb that's fat is a welcome enough surprise. I skinned and scalped and scalped and skinned, till my back was nearly broke, With blood and muck all stiff and brown, the stink of my clothes would knock you down, And I slaved all day for half a crown for the Sydney market bloke. I thought I'd get a snifter cheque for skins I sent from Bourke, But the broker rogues in Sydney Town, they weigh them short and they grade them down, And they sent me back three lousy pound, for a month of slavin' work. Some day we're going to set our traps to catch the hungry crew Who live on useful workers' sweat -- we'll stop their thieving racket yet, And to make them earn their tucker, you bet, is the job for me and you. With a hool-em-up and a sool-em-up, And there'll be no more decoys; Then a-hunting, hunting we will go For the Sydney market boys. Stan (died early 1960s) wrote The Rabbiter's Song in the 1930s. It refers to the Government attempt to persuade the unemployed to go out and make money from trapping rabbits, instead of applying for the dole (which required working for the Government anyway - usually on public works programmes ... sometimes of utility and value). Of course, when a whole mob of unemployed city slickers started sending off rabbit skins to the Sydney or Melbourne markets ... the price dropped (the law of supply and demand) as well as a number of the skins arriving rotten due to poor preparation. Anyway, there wasn't much money to be made in the game and Stan, being the good Left-winger that he was, wrote a beaut song and, being the competent musician that he was, wrote his own tune to it. |
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29 Aug 20 - 04:50 PM (#4070100) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Richard Mellish Thanks for The Rabbiter Sandra. It's one I've sung occasionally for many years, but I was missing the last verse. Now I have to graft that onto what is already in my brain. |
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29 Aug 20 - 10:24 PM (#4070116) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Extracts from Singabout - the early songwriters - Stan Wakefield (1906 - 1962) |
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29 Aug 20 - 10:37 PM (#4070119) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie It keeps me off the streets, Sandra. Thanks for posting the Wakefield songs - excellent. it looks like it is up to us. I am puzzled by the absence of our thread moderator who listed songs in Joe's original thread, but has posted none. Anyhow, this lovely song is one of my wife's favourites. BRUNSWICK ROAD (Steve Groves & Danny Bourke) I know a woman who says she's old She weaves a spell around my rented house of stone It's late when we leave at the foot of the stairs The gas pipes ring as she laughs and sings of her dancing years Chorus: And she tells me we should go home down Brunswick Road Where we would walk and we would talk till the moon went down We were arm in arm, as in days of old We thought the street was lined with gold down Brunswick Road We live in the heart of the town she loves She doesn't mind I can't recall her yesterdays. Outside the hall, the iron lace Her dancing's over now the pain is on her face She laughs again, she sees her man He's singing Daisy on a bike out in the rain He fades from sight, he's out of view and if I had the chance I'd bring him back to you Chorus As sung by Graham Dodsworth: Brunswick Road --Stewie. |
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29 Aug 20 - 11:03 PM (#4070120) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SHEARING IN A BAR (Duke Tritton) My shearing days are over, though I never was a gun I could always count my twenty at the end of every run I used the old trade union shears, and the blades were always full As I drove ’em to the knockers, and I chopped away the wool I shore at Goorianawa and didn’t get the sack From Breeze out to Compadore, I always could go back And though I am a truthful man, I find when in a bar My tallies seem to double, but I never call for tar Shearing on the western plains where the fleece is full of sand And the clover burr and corkscrew grass is the place to try your hand Where the sheep are tall and wiry where they feed on the Mitchell grass And every second one of them is close to the cobbler class And a pen chock full of cobblers is a shearer's dream of hell So loud and lurid are their words when they catch one on the bell But when you’re pouring down the grog, there's no need to call for tar For a shearer never cuts ’em, when shearing in a bar At Louth I caught the bell sheep, a wrinkled, tough-wooled brute Who never stopped his kicking till I tossed him down the chute My wrist was aching badly, but I fought him all the way I couldn’t afford to miss a blow, I must earn my pound a day So when I’d take a strip of skin, I’d hide it with my knee Turn the sheep around a bit where the right bower couldn’t see Then try and catch the rousie’s eye and softly whisper 'tar' But it never seems to happen when I’m shearing in the bar I shore away the belly wool and trimmed the crutch and hocks Opened up along the neck while the rousie swept the locks Then smartly swung the sheep around and dumped him on his rear Two blows to clip away the wig – I also took an ear Then down around the shoulder when me full blades open wide As I drove ’em on the long blow and down the whipping side And when the fleece fell on the board, he was nearly black with tar But this is never mentioned when I’m shearing in a bar Now when the season's ended and my grandsons all come back In their buggies and their sulkies -I was always on the track They come and take me into town to fill me up with beer And I sit on a bar stool and listen to them shear There’s not a bit of difference – it must make the angels weep To hear a mob of shearers in a barroom shearing sheep For the sheep go rattling down the race with never a call for tar For a shearer never cuts ’em when he’s shearing in a bar Then memories come crowding in and they wipe away the years And my hand begins to tighten and I seem to feel the shears I want to tell them of the sheds, the sheds where I have shorn Full fifty years and maybe more, before these boys were born I want to speak of Yarragin, Dunlop or Wingadee But the beer has started working and I’m wobbling at the knees So I’d better not start shearing, I’d be bound to call for tar Then be treated as a blackleg when I’m shearing in a bar Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Aug 20 - 11:33 PM (#4070123) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Extracts from Singabout - the early songwriters - Duke Tritton (1886-1965) I'll contact Gerry |
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29 Aug 20 - 11:35 PM (#4070124) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Pete Seeger talks with Duke Tritton 1963 |
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30 Aug 20 - 07:14 PM (#4070192) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Western Australian Herald - 23 October 1869: Preparation for the New Pearling Season ...take the first of the ebb and glide away out of the creek ... then comes the most important part, the picking up of niggers ... for pearling after all would never pay white labour. LEWIS ISLAND LUGGER (M.Murray & L.Silvester) The lugger is painted already She is painted in red and in green She is painted so gaily we smile at her She is painted in red and in green The lugger is rigged out already She's rigged out with tackles and ropes She's rigged out to take us a-pearling She's rigged out with tackles and ropes And the lugger is charted already She's charted out from Nichol Bay She's charted to go for the pearling She's charted out from Nichol Bay O father why are we waiting Away from our home far away Why do we wait on Lewis Island For the lugger to take us away And the lugger is loaded already She's loaded with beer and with wine Loaded with blackbirds from the Gascoyne Loaded with beer and with wine The lugger is waiting already She's sailing away from the land She's taken away my family She's sailing away from the land O father why are we waiting Away from our home far away Why do we wait on Lewis Island For the lugger to take us away And the lugger is stranded already She's stranded between surf and reef Now gone are my sister and brother Stranded between surf and reef And their headstone is written already Written in pearl shells and blood A headstone to stand among many Written in pearl shells and blood O father why are we waiting Away from our home far away Why do we wait on Lewis Island For the lugger to take us away And the lugger is saiing already The song may be found on Mike Murray and Lesley Silvester 'Strangers on the Shore' TimeTrackers TT0101 2001. It is an album of true stories of ships, the sea and first contact with Western Australia. Mike and Lesley noted: Blackbirding flourished in the pearling industry in NW Australia. Kidnapped Aborigines from the Gascoyne region were held captive on islands such as Lewis Island, and the luggers would call in from time to time to replace those who had perished either from the bends, ill-treatment or shipwreck. --Stewie. |
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30 Aug 20 - 07:57 PM (#4070197) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's another one from the NT. Dave Oakes is a fine singer/songwriter from Alice Springs. [He's not the one you get if you put the name in Youtube search], BENEATH ULURU (Dave Oakes) Looking forward to seeing you You're just a week away And like so many times before I'd want that time to stay for more And yet before we know it We'll be saying our goodbyes Time will have come and gone To be seen through memory's eyes Time has no time, time's passing through No one can hold it, it's always anew That was a time, the memory of you Under the starlight beneath Uluru Nothing comes from yearnin' Just an achin' for the heart And time is just like learnin' With no endin' and no start Got no time for worryin' 'Bout tomorrow or yesterday Stop the clock and turn the tide It's on the wings of change time flies Time has no time, time's passing through No one can hold it, it's always anew That was a time, the memory of you Under the starlight beneath Uluru That was a time, the memory of you Under the starlight beneath Uluru Youtube clip Perhaps R-J could check my above transcription. --Stewie. |
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30 Aug 20 - 10:36 PM (#4070200) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST SHIP REPAIRING MEN (Harry Robertson) To the workshop off we go, toolkits heavy in our hands To a big ship that’s come in, from a trip to foreign lands Salty streaks of rust have marked her, but her moorings hold her tight And we’ll work to fix her engines, all today and half the night CHORUS: Don’t wait up for me this evening — I’ll be out all night again Working on the Brisbane River with the ship repairing men. Oil-fired boilers throb with power, drinking up the furnace heat Water turns to driving steam to make the engines beat But the feed pump’s sighing wail to us cuts through all other sound As it sings a song of triumph, for the valves that we have ground Engine bearings that knocked and hammered through the wild and stormy seas Will be machined and fitted till they run with silent ease And that winch that rattles every time the piston turns the shaft Will hum along and sing its song to men skilled in their craft When you see an ocean liner glide between the river banks And the Captain in his gold braid orders men of lesser ranks Have you thought perhaps this stately craft might never sail again If it wasn’t for the toil and sweat of ship repairing men The National Sound and Screen Archive released a CD of Robertson: 'Whale Chasing Men' SSA/WC0022. This song is not on it. I first heard it on a Declan Affley LP. You can find it on Evan Mathieson 'Harry's Legacy' Mamaia 0701. Evan Mathieson has a second CD devoted to Robertson: 'Tribute to Harry Robertson' Mamaia 0902. Here is a rendition by John Thompson. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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30 Aug 20 - 11:14 PM (#4070201) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Bugger, I did it again - all the nameless GHESTS in this thread are yours truly. Here's another Robertson favourite that I first heard on Declan Affley's 'Rake and a Rambling Man' LP. HOMELESS MAN (Harry Robertson) I've travelled hard these last ten weary years And my youthful dreams have slowly turned to fears If you think I am complaining I can tell you that I'm not For I know that this is just the drifter's lot Many years my home has been the wayside camp And I've starved and sweated on the river banks And I've fought with fists and feet, rough-neck drifters that I meet Broken dreams and bottles pave my lonely street As a homeless boy I thought when I'm a man I'll change this world and right what wrongs I can Since then I have met defeat, it's a bitter bread to eat And the homeless boy is now a homeless man Happiness has not been mine upon this earth Both my parents left me when they met their death And I'll drink before I eat with the drifters that I meet But the sorrow here is mine and mine alone So my friends I think that I should move along And I'm glad that you have listened to my song For the road is all I know and I'll wander it alone As an outcast homeless drifter, and unknown The text above is copied from the booklet to Mathieson's 'Harry's Legacy'. Evidently, the tune is traditional Norwegian. The only clip I could find on the Net is by Warren Fahey: Youtube clip Stewie. |
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30 Aug 20 - 11:43 PM (#4070202) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Perhaps the best-known of Robertson's songs is 'Wee Pot Stove'. I've copied this text from the booklet to Mathieson's 'Harry's Legacy': WEE POT STOVE (Harry Robertson) How the winter blizzards blow when the Whaling Fleet's at rest Tucked in Leither Harbour's sheltered bay, safely anchored ten abreast The whalers at their stations, as from ship to ship they go, Carry little bags of coal with them, and a little iron stove. Chorus: In that wee dark engine room, where the chill seeps in your soul How we huddled roon' that wee pot stove, that burned oily rags and coal Fireman Paddy worked with me, on the engines stiff and could A stranger to the truth was he, there's not a lie he hasn't told He boasted of his gold mines, and the hearts that he had won And his bonny sense of humour shone, just like a ray of sun. Chorus We laboured seven days a week, with could hands and frozen feet Bitter days and lonely nights making grog and having fights Salt fish and whalemeat sausage, fresh penguin eggs a treat And we trudged along to work each day through icy winds and sleet Chorus Then one day we saw the sun, and the factory ship's return, Meet your old friends, sing a song, hope the season won't be long Then homeward bound when it's over, we'll leave this icy cove But I always will remember that little iron stove Perhaps the best-known cover is the one by Nic Jones who recorded it under the title 'The Little Pot Stove' and used a phrase in the song as the title of his album. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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31 Aug 20 - 12:27 AM (#4070203) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Speaking of Henry Lawson, I'd like to put in a vote for Reedy River. http://folkstream.com/073.html Cheers, Andrez |
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31 Aug 20 - 05:00 AM (#4070219) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney good one, Andrez Stewie - Chloe & Jason Roweth present Saturday Streaming 8th August, 7-8.30pm (Aus Eastern Standard time), The Songs & Tunes of Bob Rummery, live on facebook, donations welcome (To be posted on youtube a week later) Over the years our repertoire has greatly benefited from the addition of songs from Bob Rummery, and we are thrilled to have the chance to focus on his work in this special presentation. Bob has been performing and championing West Australian songs and music both as a solo performer and with West Australian band Loaded Dog for many years. He is a fine tune writer and sets Australian poetry to music as though it was always meant to be sung that way. It occurs to me that many folks who loves Bob Rummery’s work, might not be Facebook users. If you know anyone who might be interested, please pass it on... As usual for our Saturday Streaming shows, it will be on YouTube early next week. Likewise - it’d be great to have mates of Bob’s join in the craic on Saturday night. It’ll be a real pleasure to focus on his great work - all in one show! We’d appreciate any folks sharing this one - hoping to reach all Bob’s friends and fan... |
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31 Aug 20 - 07:37 AM (#4070226) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Andrez Another one of my all time favourites, Weevils in the Flour by Dorothy Hewitt in 1962. Somewhere on one of my old cassettes I've got a version of the late Hugh McDonald singing this and I also have fond memories of Dave Brannigan singing it around the traps and or folk festivals too. The link belowis a video with her son (I think) singing a version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgp7zWdZtoM Cheers, Andrez |
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31 Aug 20 - 07:57 AM (#4070227) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Joe is her son & one of her literary executors from Bush Music Club Blog - Weevils in the Flour, October 2012. A preliminary history of a song; the early songwriters - Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) & Merv Lilley (1919-2016) |
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31 Aug 20 - 10:02 AM (#4070233) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Thanks, Sandra. I'm not on facebook, but I'll watch it on Youtube. Bob is a fine composer and performer and a thoroughly good bloke. He composed a tune after a bbq and music session with Darwin folkies. We would occasionally gather on the cliffs above the Nightcliff foreshore for such sessions. He simply titled it 'Nightcliff' and it is the final track on his solo album 'The Man with the Concertina'. --Stewie. |
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31 Aug 20 - 10:08 AM (#4070234) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I'm not on facebook either, but I do look at a few sites. I used to have Bob's CD but gave most of my Oz CDS to a radio program that promotes Australian music, otherwise I could listen again. sandra |
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31 Aug 20 - 07:29 PM (#4070275) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Gerry Hallom put a tune to Paterson's 'Song of the wheat'. Once again, he makes omissions and minor changes to the poem. Here is what he sings: SONG OF THE WHEAT (Paterson/Hallom) We have sung the song of the droving days Of the march of the travelling sheep How in silent stages and lonely ways The drovers’ herds did creep But the man who now by the land would thrive Must keep to a plough-share beat And the singer changing his tune may strive To sing the song of the wheat Silver gum and box and pine ’Twas axe and fire for all We scarce could tarry to blaze the line Or wait for the trees to fall But the land was cleared both far and wide As the dust from the horses feet Rose up like a pillar of smoke to guide The wonderful march of wheat Furrow by furrow, and fold by fold The soil is turned on the plain It’s better than silver, it’s better than gold The precious mine of the grain Better than cattle and better than sheep In the fight with drought and heat For a stubborn streak both wide and deep Lies hid in a grain of wheat Green and amber and gold it grows As the sun sinks late in the west And the breeze sweeps over the rippling rows Where the quail and the skylark nest Mountain or river or shining star There’s never a sight can beat Away to the skyline stretching far A sea of the ripening wheat When the burning harvest sun sinks low And the shadows stretch on the plain The roaring harvesters come and go Like ships on a sea of grain And the lurching, groaning wagons bear Their tale of the load complete Of the world’s great work he has done his share The man who has gathered wheat Princes, kings and queens and czars Travel in royal states But old King Wheat has a thousand cars For his trip to the water-gate; And his thousand steamships breast the tide And sail through the winds and sleet To the lands where the teeming millions lie And say, ‘Thank God for wheat!’ Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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01 Sep 20 - 07:08 PM (#4070406) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another themed concert that Phil Beck and I presented was entitled 'A Sense of Place'. It included several songs that may be of interest in this context. This one, relating to the red centre, is by a Scot. SINGING LAND (Dougie Maclean) Your burning skies are never ending across your red brush plains Out where the dingo still is king and eternity remains There between the old and ancient desert oasis bright Your gentle children who have gone are close to me tonight Chorus: In your singing land In your singing land Shine on, oh shine on over me There's a feeling still and eerie, there's a feeling strong The path humanity has come and the path that he has gone Me I am, I am just passing, three score years and ten And I'm just a stranger who may never come this way again Chorus Under the spell of caterpillar dreaming a new light shapes its form Along the river's naked banks which are straining from the storm On secret rock in thunder ocean the tree of man grows clear The woodlarks sing, the woodlarks dance and the dawn is slipping near Chorus Youtube clip Phi's intro: 'The Singing Land' is set in the MacDonnell Ranges out of the Alice Springs. The red centre of Australia is a place of quiet almost mystical vastness where, as yet, man has made little impact. It’s magnificent ancient country, a vision splendid in any and every direction. The song captures perfectly the timelessness of this place of Aboriginal dreaming. The three score years and ten conventionally allotted to we mortals is as nothing to the ancient Country that is just there and has been so forever, seeming to mock the utter insignificance of man. The melody too fits perfectly with the tranquillity of the red centre: it’s in sync with the rhythm of the land which is slow, and natural change will take its own good time. --Stewie. |
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01 Sep 20 - 07:21 PM (#4070409) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie My friend, Terry Piper, was at one time a ranger at Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory - he now lives in Cairns. He wrote this song decades ago, but its theme is still very relevant. Just recently, a mining company blew up sacred sites in the Kimberley. BAW BAW BIG BILL (Terry Piper) It’s been ten long years now Since they first found uranium Did you know what it meant Did you see through the lies When they hounded your people Did you know it was no good Did you give up the fighting Just for some peace and quiet Chorus: And it’s baw baw Big Bill Will the brolgas keep dancing Will the bones rest safe In the caves where they lie Though the people keep coming And the mines keep on growing Who’ll look after the land One day when you die In come the people With machines and their buildings And they take what they want Do they ever give back And they stay only long enough To earn what they can They just couldn’t give a damn They’ll never return Chorus You’re a rich man now But will that really save you Where will you spend it And what will you buy And your culture will change When it’s all you’ve to cling to And they’ll use all the money As a cheap alibi Chorus You’re watching the old people The once proud and bold people They get fewer each day Its hard to survive When the drink takes its hold It soon takes its toll When there’s so much to run from Is it easier to hide Chorus It’s been ten long years now Since they first found uranium And you land has changed more Than in ten thousand years And the scars will live on Once the tears have long gone Will they poison the world While your people disappear Chorus (x2) My intro: Big Bill Neidjie was a traditional owner of the northern Kakadu National Park area. Fearing that he might take his language and traditional secrets to the grave, he shared many of his stories with anthropologists despite the taboo against revealing them to the uninitiated. The English language has a word that closely links human distress to a sense of place. The root meaning of ‘nostalgia’ – nostos, return to home or native land and algia, pain or sickness – was a concept related to a medically diagnosable illness. It is well-documented that dispossessed indigenous peoples worldwide have been likely to experience such a pathology. They have experienced physical and mental illness at rates far beyond those of other groups. Their social problems – unemployment, alcoholism, substance abuse, disproportionate rates of suicide, incarceration etc – have led to community dysfunction and crisis. Yi-Fu Tuan, the eminent pioneering researcher of sense of place, points out that such serious distress of nostalgia can also be produced by a feeling of changes occurring too rapidly and without one’s control. --Stewie |
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01 Sep 20 - 07:54 PM (#4070410) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This is by a Queensland singer/songwriter: HANGING ON FOR THE RAIN (Anne Infante) Well Christmas is coming across this dry land I’m hanging on, I’m hanging on I’ve drawn the line, I’m making a stand Hanging on for the rain The shepherds who watched o’er my flocks have all gone I’m hanging on I’m hanging on The few sheep I’ve left I can watch on my own I’m hanging on for the rain Chorus I’m hanging, on I’m hanging on, this drought can’t last for ever And I’m searching the skies blinking sweat from my eyes While I wait for a break in the weather The wise men flew in to this land scorched and parched They said the drought won’t break til maybe next March Well I’ve sold all the cattle that I can afford And now I’m hand rearing the best of my herd And the kids they’re excited that Christmas is near They’ll think Santa’s a mean old bugger this year For Jill wants a raggy doll, Jack wants a train But my Christmas wish is for good summer rain When they close the long paddock, you know times are hard There’s no use going droving with no grass to be had And I’ve thought about walking off hundreds of times But I’m tied to the land with invisible chains. This song was recorded by Danny Spooner's for his final album 'Home'. Danny's note: Australia is a country of extreme weather patterns: flood and fire, wind and drought are part of the rural weather cycle. In Anne Infante's song, we hear a farmer enduring these devastating extremes to restock when conditions improve. Phil's intro: This song was written about 10 or 15 years ago and, taking away references to toy trains for example, could easily describe the Australia of the 1800s. The fact that it would have been as relevant then as it is now demonstrates how little has changed in the bush. This ancient land changes slowly. Anne Infante --Stewie. |
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01 Sep 20 - 08:03 PM (#4070411) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Andrez Great one Stewie. I'd completeley forgotten about BB big Bill but the tune came right back to me as soon as I read the words. It resonates especially as I spent a long time working in the NT and the Kimberley. One special moment that comes back to me was the time I visited Kalkaringi and took the chance to stand at Wattie Creek and reflect on time past a few years earlier when Gough met Vincent Lingiari. Cheers, Andrez |
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01 Sep 20 - 08:59 PM (#4070416) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Thanks for your comments, Andrez. You remind me that this one should be posted: FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW (Paul Kelly/Kev Carmody) Gather round people I’ll tell you a story An eight-year-long story of power and pride ’Bout British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiari They were opposite men on opposite sides Vestey was fat with money and muscle Beef was his business, broad was his door Vincent was lean and spoke very little He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor From little things big things grow From little things big things grow Gurindji were working for nothing but rations Where once they had gathered the wealth of the land Daily the oppression got tighter and tighter Gurindji decided they must make a stand They picked up their swags and started off walking At Wattie Creek they sat themselves down Now it don’t sound like much but it sure got tongues talking Back at the homestead and then in the town From little things big things grow From little things big things grow Vestey man said, 'I’ll double your wages Seven quid a week you’ll have in your hand' Vincent said, 'Uhuh we’re not talking about wages We’re sitting right here till we get our land' Vestey man roared and Vestey man thundered 'You don’t stand the chance of a cinder in snow' Vince said, 'If we fall others are rising' From little things big things grow From little things big things grow Then Vincent Lingiari boarded an aeroplane Landed in Sydney, big city of lights And daily he went round softly speaking his story To all kinds of men from all walks of life And Vincent sat down with big politicians This affair they told him it's a matter of state 'Let us sort it out, your people are hungry' Vincent said, 'No thanks, we know how to wait' From little things big things grow From little things big things grow Then Vincent Lingiari returned in an aeroplane Back to his country once more to sit down And he told his people let the stars keep on turning We have friends in the south, in the cities and towns Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting Till one day a tall stranger appeared in the land And he came with lawyers and he came with great ceremony And through Vincent’s fingers poured a handful of sand From little things big things grow From little things big things grow That was the story of Vincent Lingiari But this is the story of something much more How power and privilege cannot move a people Who know where they stand and stand in their law From little things big things grow From little things big things grow From little things big things grow From little things big things grow Youtube clip Wave Hill story --Stewie. |
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01 Sep 20 - 09:22 PM (#4070420) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a volume of verse. NO MORE BOOMERANG (Kath Walker) No more boomerang, no more spear Now all civilised, colour bar and beer No more corroboree, gay dance and din Now we got movies and pay to go in No more sharing what the hunter brings Now we work for money and pay it back for things Now we track bosses to catch a few bob Now we go walkabout on bus to the job One time naked who never knew shame Now we put clothes on to hide whatsaname No more gunya, now bungalow Paid by hire purchase in twenty years or so Lay down the stone axe, take up the steel, Work like a nigger for a white man's meal No more firesticks that made whites scoff Now all electric and no better off Bunyip he finish got now instead, Whitefella bunyip, call him Red Abstract pictures now, what they comin' at Cripes, in our caves, we did better than that Black hunted wallaby, white hunt dollar Whitefella witchdoctor wear dog collar No more message lubras and lads Got television now, mostly ads Lay down the woomera, lay down the waddy Now we got atom bomb. End everybody Gerry Hallom put a tune to the poem and recorded it on his 'Old Australian Ways' album. There are some alterations. Youtube clip Oodgeroo Noonuccal --Stewie. |
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02 Sep 20 - 10:18 AM (#4070470) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Phyl Lobl's EP Dark-Eyed Daughter. audio of the EP This EP recording was made in 1968 for the Aboriginal Advancement League of Victoria. All proceeds went to the League. Director Stan Davey and Pastor Doug Nicholls were instrumental in organising the recording with W&G and for the distribution of the disc. “Dark Eyed Daughter” Lobl nee Vinnicombe “Whose hand?” Ian Hills/Margaret Kitamura “No more boomerang” Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) Will you fight, will you dare?” Lobl nee Vinnicombe |
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02 Sep 20 - 08:25 PM (#4070544) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST My apologies, Sandra. I had forgotten that you posted links re 'From little things...' It seems so long ago. Anyhow, the words are now available on this thread. From Union Songs website: THIRTY TON LINE (Don Henderson) Purpose built tugs that like line boats attended berthed bulk coal carriers in open sea. To fulfil that function, the union contended, required four deckhands. The owners said three. Three deckhands and motorman just couldn't handle sixteen inch polyprop, double dead eyes. When the tow-hook was blacked, the company gambled on a tension winched, ten inch, calm sea compromise. Chorus Broadsound. Belyando. Nebo. Sarina. The sea snaps your hawsers like thin strands of twine. Broadsound. Belyando. Nebo. Sarina. Hundred ton bollard pull thirty ton line. At two in the morning we made fast the Martha. By nine the Academy Star had been berthed. Then all tugs and line boats returned to the harbour. Their work being finished, the four crews dispersed. Five the same evening, storm warnings were sounding. Cyclone approaching, no time for delay. At their berths the big bulkies were taking a pounding. Broadsound and Belyando must get them away. To Hay Point at full speed the two tugs went dashing; got lines on the Martha at Wharf Number Two. Though twelve foot green water on our decks was crashing, the order for maximum tow had come through. With the whole hull vibrating, the tension winch slipping, then came the moment that all tugmen dread. The sudden lurch forward, the broken line whipping. The thought of old shipmates; the injured, the dead. The Martha had cleared just as our line had broken. The Academy Star was at Wharf Number One. Though the help we could offer might be but a token, in her plight that help would be better than none. Time and again, we tried to position, so the tow might commence with all possible speed. With a jury-rigged line and in such bad conditions, three deckhands and motorman could not succeed. Well, not fully laden and high in the water, the Academy Star could not be controlled. With a strong on-shore wind by her bow on the quarter, she slammed at the pylons till her hull had holed. And yet the ship owners and those who do their will, send tugs to sea, light on gear, under-manned. One million dollars will be the repair bill. They'd pay that in preference to one more deckhand. Notes Don Henderson wrote: "Arriving in Mackay for me to assess the songwriting situation for "The Flames of Discontent" album created a bit of suspicion among maritime workers. Willsie had stayed C.P.A. when E.V. Elliott had led the union to the S.P.A. and who was this ageing hippy in Chelsea Flair cowboy boots and a burgundy and gold brocade coat that understood the struggle for tug jobs anyway? A well known P&D knuckle man was delegated to ask me why I wore a coat like that. I answered that it got me into a better class of fight. He took back the verdict that I was O.K. After a week's work and no song had appeared, this verdict was being questioned. Back in Brisbane going over notes, a bit of paper appeared on which l'd written down the names of the tugs and line boats as they were tied up at the wharf. Broadsound, Belyando, Nebo, Sarina. Said quickly it seemed to sing. Getting the facts of the night right, I wrote the song and sent a cassette to Mackay. The original O.K. verdict was confirmed. I might look like an old ponce but the song was the one they wanted." Don first recorded this song on the 1979 LP "Flames Of Discontent". It is also on the MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms" The tune can be found here: Union Songs Music and chords are on p176 of Don Henderson '100 Songs & Poems: A Quiet Century' Queensland Folk Federation- Danny Spooner did a fine rendition on his 'Emerging Tradition' CD. --Stewie. |
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02 Sep 20 - 11:31 PM (#4070557) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I did it again. I must stop clearing my website data each evening. But, as Art Thieme would say, when your memory's shot, forget it. The tune to this one is on a Mudcat thread, but not the lyrics. It was very popular back in the early days of the revival. I first heard it on a Declan Affley LP. RAKE AND A RAMBLING MAN (Don Henderson) Chorus I am a rake and a rambling man Fortune I fall to when I can Could I be, would I be, other than A rake and rambling man I travel far, I travel wide From where winds spring to where winds blow And if I walk or if I ride Won't matter only that I go Stay with the friends that I have made I stay with the rich and the poor No welcome has been overstayed I never linger too long for I'm a rake but a rambling man With the police, I know the score Seldom we meet, but now and then I'm called to mind that there are more Police than ever were rambling men Once as I got, I quickly returned I am a man and free Long nights go by and the lesson learned That in jail no one can be A rake or a rambling man Women know men and that talk of the day Pries at the secrets silent nights hold Two thousand miles and ten towns away Names fade and fall from the story that's told Walked into wind whips at the foot fall Night breeze is soft and soon spent Who can't love one might better love all What cares the road of the farewell that went With a rake that's a rambling man I travel far, I travel wide From where winds spring to where winds blow For every hill has an unseen side Cross roads that quarrel the four ways to go I'll take by chances with fortune and fame Heads and tails fall as they will If some know my song who do not know my name It will not matter if I am still A rake and a rambling man The tune and chords may be found at page 63 of the abovemented Don Henderson songbook. Henderson noted: 'Declan Affley sang this song beautifully. He gave it a quality that can't be conveyed on this page, one that I am not sure was even there when I wrote it. Some reviewers have said that this song is autobiographical; so is the information on my driver's licence'. Youtube only gives you a Don Williams song with a similar name. The Affley recording has been reissued on the double CD 'Songs of Don Henderson' on Shoestring Productions label - well worth purchasing: CD --Stewie. |
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03 Sep 20 - 05:16 AM (#4070587) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney it's also on the LP Declan Affley made by Colleen Burke, Mark Gregory & Peter Parkhill in 1987, & I'm lucky enough to have a CD version of it, made by a friend some years back. |
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03 Sep 20 - 08:44 PM (#4070676) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Sandra, also thanks to a good friend, I'm fortunate enough to have 3 Affley LPs on CD and also the Australian Folk Archive vintage live recordings CD. Gary Shearston added a tune to Thomas E. Spencer's lovely 'Bonnie Jess'. Spencer is perhaps best remembered for his 'How McDougal topped the score'. BONNIE JESS (T.Spencer/G.Shearston) Now the shearing time is over, Bonnie Jess And the sheep are in the clover, Bonnie Jess By the creek the kine are lowing And the golden crops are growing While the setting sun is glowing, Bonnie Jess And a kiss to you he's blowing, Bonnie Jess To your face the crimson's rushing, Bonnie Jess Ah! I know why you are blushing, Bonnie Jess ‘Tis the memory appearing Of the promise in the clearing When you said twixt hope and fearing, Bonnie Jess You would wed him after shearing, Bonnie Jess And now the shearing time is over, Bonnie Jess And you're looking for your lover, Bonnie Jess And his horse's hooves are ringing As along the road he's swinging And a song for you he's singing, Bonnie Jess And the wedding ring he's bringing, Bonnie Jess I first heard it on the Cobbers' beaut LP 'Portaits of Australian Women' which is still available as a digital download via Bandcamp. Cobbers Shearston --Stewie |
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03 Sep 20 - 08:59 PM (#4070678) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie GIRLS IN OUR TOWN (Bob Hudson) Girls in our town, they just haven't a care You see them on Saturday floating on air Painting their toenails and washing their hair Maybe tonight it'll happen Girls in our town they leave school at fifteen Work at the counter or behind the machine And spend all their money on making the scene They plan on going to England Girls in our town go to parties in pairs Sit 'round the barbecue, give themselves airs Then they go to the bathroom with their girlfriend who cares Girls in our town are so lonely Girls in our town are too good for the pill But if you keep asking they probably will Sometimes they like you or else for the thrill And explain it away in the morning Girls in our town get no help from their men No one can let them be sixteen again Things might get better but it's hard to say when If they only had someone to talk to Girls in our town can be saucy and bold At seventeen, no one is better to hold Then they start havin' kids and they start gettin' old Girls in our town Girls in our town Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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03 Sep 20 - 09:24 PM (#4070679) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here is another one that I first heard on the Cobbers 'Portraits ...' LP. NED KELLY'S FAREWELL TO GRETA (Traditional) Farewell to my home in Greta, to my sister Kate farewell. It grieves my heart to leave you, but here I must not dwell They placed a price upon my head, my hands are stained with gore And I must roam the forest wild within the Australian shore But if they cross my chequered path, by all I hold on earth I'll give them cause to rue the day their mothers gave them birth I'll shoot them down like carrion crows that roam our country wide And leave their bodies bleaching upon some woodland side Oh, Edward, darling brother, surely you would not go So rashly to encounter with such a mighty foe Now don’t you know that Sydney and Melbourne are combined And for your apprehension, Ned, there are warrants duly signed To eastward lies great Bogong, towering to the sky From east to west and then you’ll find that's Gippsland lying by You know the country well, Ned, go take your comrades there And profit by your knowledge of the wombat and the bear And let no childish quarrels cause trouble in the gang Bear up with one another, Ned, and guard my brother Dan See, yonder ride four troopers; one kiss before we part Now haste and join your comrades, Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart Youtube clip Cobbers note: Greta was a town in central Victoria where the Kellys made their home. The song is supposed to be a conversation between Ned Kelly, the famous bushranger, and his sister Kate. It is one of the many songs collected from the 'Kelly Country' around Benella in Victoria and, despite its dubious authenticity, it is a rather lovely song. --Stewie. |
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03 Sep 20 - 10:39 PM (#4070686) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This jaunty piece of nonsense has long been a favourite of mine. IRISH GIRLS (WILL STEAL YOUR HEART AWAY) (Gary Shearston) From Carlow to Tipperary and martyr Ring of Kerry Waterford, Roscommon, Dingle Bay From Sligo to Connemara, Wicklow to Wexford Harbour Irish girls will steal your heart away Now one day by Shannon water, I met a Kerry daughter Riding on a colt of dapple grey She just said her name was Ethne then rode away and left me Thinking I’d been dreaming in the day So I made a quick inquiry up at the local priory An old monk just winked at me and said ‘Ah, for sure, go down the road there, you’ll find a path that’s quite clear Leading to her home but not her bed For her heart is with a stranger whose grave is marked bush ranger They both used to live ‘round here before And together they cavorted until he got transported To Australia from Erin’s shore’ I just figured he was far gone, been on his knees for too long Heard as much as he could absolve But his words came back to haunt, to tease, perplex and daunt me Leaving me a mystery to solve So next day I went a-courting, sweet apples she was sorting Smiled at me then quickly looked away And said of the rose I brought her, ‘I suppose you think that oughta Make me wanna roll you in the hay’ I just laughed and begged and pleaded, she finally conceded Horses we might ride a little way She brought out the dapple grey, called the bay, she said ‘I might just saddle both of them without delay’ Beneath skies of stormy weather, we rode through mountain heather She said that she did not have long to stay Later, strolling by the river, I promised I would give her Anything she wanted not to stray As her fancy I was seeking, I heard a willow creaking And turned around in time to see it sway But, as it began to tumble, it made me trip and stumble Dragged her to the ground in disarray There our arms and legs entangled, and for a while we dangled Then she said goodbye and rode away And although I tried to follow, up hill, down dale and hollow I kept getting lost along the way Then a mist began a-falling, seemed bent upon forestalling Any hope of sign upon the ground Next thing I heard a fiddle, snare drum, a paradiddle I tell you I shivered at the sound So next day I took the quare path, returned again to her hearth It was just a pile of ruined stones Out the back a cross was hedged in, it bore the strangest legend ‘Here lies one of Johnny Doolan’s bones’ From Carlow to Tipperary and martyr Ring of Kerry Waterford, Roscommon, Dingle Bay From Sligo to Connemara, Wicklow to Wexford Harbour Irish girls will steal your heart away Irish girls will steal your heart away Maybe someone could check the accuracy of my above transcription. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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04 Sep 20 - 07:50 PM (#4070792) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I posted this fine song decades ago: THE KELLY'S TURNING (Larry King) We're meeting by the riggin' For the word has passed around We'll drink our spree on Texas tea So the drills are goin' down Men roll in from everywhere From France and England too Boomers and boll weevils that make up the drillin' crew Chorus The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin' The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard rock floor Rough voices grumblin' The diesel's rumblin' The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door There's Hank and Mac and Paddy From across the sea they've come With Czechs and Swedes, all kinds o' breeds They share a common bond It's music in the air to men Followin' the call When high upon the christmas tree They hear the driller call Chorusr Devil's getting' angry There's a rumblin' in the well For men are cruel who steal the fuel That feeds the fires of hell His heart is big and black as soot And darker is his soul And when he cries, he fills the skies With tears as black as coal Chorus Well, now the drillin's ended So we'll pack our things and go We've drawn a million barrels From a thousand feet below So it's bound for eastern cities Our hard-earned cheques to spend On girls and grog and fancy krog Till the word goes out again Chorus We're meeting by the riggin' For the word has passed around We'll drink our spree on Texas tea So the drills are goin' down Men roll in from everywhere From France and England too Boomers and boll weevils that make up the drillin' crew Chorus Larry King and Alex Hood wrote 2 songs a night for Bill Peach's 'This Day Tonight' show, one of which was telecast. The pair undertook an Arts Council-sponsored tour of Australia as The Prodigal Sons and wrote many songs together. However, 'The Kelly's Turning' is a Larry King solo effort inspired by time spent with the oil rig workers in Exmouth, Western Australia. It is set to a Dutch traditional tune 'The windmill's turning'. Scott Balfour of Alice Springs has recorded it on his excellent CD, 'Mother Land'. --Stewie. |
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04 Sep 20 - 08:29 PM (#4070794) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SONG OF THE SHEETMETAL WORKER (John Dengate) Oh when I was a boy in Carlingford All sixty years ago, The eucalypts grew straight and tall And the creeks did sweetly flow But times were hard when the old man died And the orchard would not pay So I left the land for the factory bench And I'm working there still today. I've earned my bread in the metal shops For forty years and more My hands are hard and acid-scarred As the boards on the workshop floor. My soul is sheathed in Kembla steel And my eyelids have turned to brass And the orchard's gone, and the apple trees Where the wind whispered through the grass. The workbench is my altar Where I come to take the host. Copper, brass and fine sheet steel Father son and holy ghost. The sacramental wine of work Grows sour upon my tongue Oh the fruit was sweet on the apple trees When my brothers and I were young Youtube clip Dengate's tribute to his father. The tune is 'Valley of Knockanure'. John's recording is on John Dengate 'Australian Son: Vollume I' Danny Spooner recorded it on his 'Emerging Tradition' CD. It is also on Declan Affley 'Vintage Recordings' CD --Stewie. |
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04 Sep 20 - 09:12 PM (#4070796) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie DIAMENTINA DROVER (Hugh McDonald) The faces in the photograph have faded And I can't believe he looks so much like me For it's been ten long years today Since I left for Old Cork Station Sayin' I won't be back till the drovin's done Chorus For the rain never falls on the dusty Diamantina And a drover finds it hard to change his mind For the years have surely gone Like the drays from Old Cork Station And I won't be back till the drovin's done It seems like the sun comes up each mornin' Sets me up and then takes it all away For the dreaming by the light Of the campfire at night Ends with the burning light of day Chorus Sometimes I think I'll settle back in Sydney But it's been so long and it's hard to change your mind For the cattle trail goes on and on And the fences roll forever And I won't be back when the drovin's done Chorus Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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04 Sep 20 - 09:40 PM (#4070799) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I WAS ONLY NINETEEN (A walk in the light green) (John Schumann) Mum and dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunya It was a long march from cadets The sixth battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card We did Canungra, Shoalwater before we left And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean And there's me in me slouch hat with me SLR and greens God help me I was only nineteen From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat I'd been in and out of choppers now for months And we made our tents a home - V.B. and pinups on the lockers And an Asian (agent?) orange sunset through the scrub And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep? And night-time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16? And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means? God help me I was only nineteen A four-week operation, when each step can mean your last one on two legs It was a war within yourself But you wouldn't let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off So you closed your eyes and thought about somethin' else And then someone yelled out 'Contact!', and the bloke behind me swore We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar And Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon God help me He was goin' home in June And I can still see Frankie, drinkin' tinnies in the Grand Hotel On a thirty-six hour rec leave in Vung Tau And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle 'Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row And the Anzac legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel God help me I was only nineteen And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep? And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet? And what's this rash that comes and goes Can you tell me what it means? God help me I was only nineteen Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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06 Sep 20 - 12:48 AM (#4070921) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie COURTING THE NET (Bob Wilson) My love is on the Internet again He says he'll come to bed soon, but he never tells me when He's out there surfin' somewhere with imaginary friends He's a little fish in a big pond, dot com.au at the end My love is on the Internet again I fear some horny geek girl is messing with his brain For the Net's an open sewer, and he's peering down the drain Printing out the porn page as I sing this sweet refrain Why won't you come to bed with me We could yahoo all night long for free Make a real connection if we try But every time I hear that modem squeal Like a lover's cry that's not quite real I put a bookmark in my paperback, think about the things I lack And dream about a real time guy My love is on the Internet again I wish he'd kept his motorbike, we'd more in common then But he's moved away from maintenance and he's given up on zen Now he follows the money markets and the fortunes of the yen Oh the information highway is an easy road to be on Kerouac could have travelled it without ever leavin' home It's like a message in a bottle, swept up on the sand But there's a million bottles on the beach, each with a unique message of its own My love is on the Internet again His cyber-infidelity indelibly ingrained He left me with the phone bill, I left him standing in the rain He even took the lap top where I wrote this sweet refrain Why won't you come to bed with me We could yahoo all night long for free Make a real connection if we try But every time I hear that modem squeal Like a lover's cry that's not quite real I put a bookmark in my paperback, think about the things I lack And dream about a real time guy Source: transcription from The Goodwills 'Courting the Net' Bob Wilson is a Kiwi who now lives in Maleny, Queensland. The Goodwills --Stewie. |
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06 Sep 20 - 03:53 AM (#4070931) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I haven't heard that song for years, since they were in Sydney & did a floorspot @ The Dog. sandra |
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06 Sep 20 - 09:09 AM (#4070958) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy The Goodwills are now based in Warwick, Qld, closer to the border, but are practising Grey Nomads for much of the year! R-J :) |
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06 Sep 20 - 08:20 PM (#4071016) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Thanks, R-J. THE MAN WITH THE CONCERTINA {Stewart/Rummery/Kevans Once more I'm away on the bridle track and through the mountains steering With a horse to ride and one to pack, I'm jogging down to shearing At night I pick the driest camp and build a three-log fire And when a man is on the tramp what more could he desire I eat my tucker and drink my tea, perhaps with a piece of damper Then lie for a while upon my back and watch the possums scamper I light my pipe and puff a cloud, you'd think it was a steamer Then 'Finnegan's Wake' I finger out upon the concertina There's a place I long to be, it's on the old Monaro For ryebuck sport and company, you'd have no need to care O For the boys all get together there and we all toss in a deeper And we'll buy some grog and have some tunes upon the concertina Now, my boys, my song is done I find my throat wants clearing I've told you how to have some fun going down the river shearing You'll hear of me I have no doubt all through the Riverina You're sure to hear them talk about the man with the concertina This song is the title track of Bob Rummery's 'The man with the concertina' CD. Bob noted: A poem by Robert Stewart who travelled from the Illawarra to the Riverina for the shearing season. The third verse was sung, and written by, the late Jacko Kevans and the late 1960s Canberra band The Monaro Boys. The tune after verse 3 is 'Cosgroves Schttische'. The Chloe and Jason Roweth tribute to Bob Rummery, mentioned above by Sandra, is now on Youtube - beaut stuff. Roweths on Rummery --Stewie. |
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06 Sep 20 - 09:31 PM (#4071022) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE GLENBURGH WOOL (Jack Sorensen) The ramp outside the woolshed door Holds yet another load: So yolk the camel team once more And take the waggon road. The shafters prop, the leaders pull The wheels creak dismally, And sixty bales of Glenburgh wool Roll westward to the sea On down the winding dusty track From dawn till close of day The punchers shout, the big whips crack While straining camels sway By stony plain, by sandhills brown By wattles o'er the lea The hard-won wool goes rolling down From Glenburgh to the sea Chorus: Come spare a thought for lads outback who shear the Glenburgh wool In summer heat out on the board where the wool fleece bob and pull Our ringer's Tommy Gibson, he's a gun from northern town And he shears his tally every day when the Glenburgh wool goes down A creek to cross, a hill to climb A stretch of sandy track They'll haul it through if given time Though a straw would break each back So a morning breaks, a bright sun wanes Till a day, then a week, is gone. Yet with creaking wheels and clinking chains The Glenburgh wool rolls on Chorus Cool nights of rest while the camels swell As they munch the mulga near While the hobble chain, and the doleful bell Will lull the puncher's ear Two more long days from Rocky Pool And then Carnarvon town So sixty bales of Glenburgh wool From inland heights go down Chorus This song may be found at about 30-min mark of the Roweth concert linked in my previous post. The poem by Sorensen has been set to music by Roger Montgomery, Alan Ferguson et alia. A chorus, written by Wendy Evans, has been added to the poem. I'm not sure of the latter part of the second line - 'where the wool fleece ....' A correction is welcomed. Roger Montgomery's band 'Dingo's Breakfast' issued a CD of Sorensen: 'Jack Sorensen: Weaver of Dreams'. You can listen to it on Spotify. --Stewie. |
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06 Sep 20 - 11:18 PM (#4071025) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie JAIL AWAY FREMANTLE (W.Evans/A.Ferguson) Chorus: Let the rope, soap and calico take me I’ll grin and I’ll hold me head high And the devil take he who can make me Bow low ‘cos I’d far rather die The landlord that fenced in our farmland Was a thief and he left us to die The judge gave 5 years transportation So I downed him and blackened his eye On the boat we fared far worse than cattle I was detailed to clean up the ship The devil take ye, says I, what a battle But I laughed when they gave me the whip Chorus At Fremantle a rat cell awaited Some others had died in that place The guard who released me weeks later Gave a curse as I spat in his face I was sentenced to work on the chain gang Lashed backs as the rocks we did crush But I struck a great blow at a weak link And made a quick dash to the bush Chorus Near starving I met up with Dugan And rode with his wild Irish band And plundered the rich idle squatters When we levelled our guns and cried stand We were caught in an ambush near Collie And most of them died in that fight I was locked up in jail for a dawn dance But I broke through the roof in the night Chorus I have rode with the rustlers at Moora And many the cattle I’ve duffed I’ve ridden the wild trails through the outback And with me swag many miles I have roughed With a new name I joined in the gold rush And was lucky and struck a rich vein For the landowner’s hirelings claim-jumped me So I swore that I’d blacken his name Chorus Now killing don’t make a man suffer It’s others that get to despair But he’s brought his young wife to the diggings So I gave the old bastard an heir And he sent out his hirelings to kill me And I laughed as the bullets did fly And I’ll laugh when I hang in the morning ‘Cos I don’t give a damn if I die Chorus Alan Ferguson put a tune to this ripper Wendy Evans poem. The Settlers, a West Australian band, recorded it on 'Bound for Western Australia' Tempo DBCD 114. Thanks to Phil Beck for checking my above transcription. Info on Wendy Evans may be found here: Wendy Evans --Stewie. |
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06 Sep 20 - 11:50 PM (#4071026) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Joe Offer Oh, gee, these are wonderful. Be sure to look at Australian Folk Song a Day from Cloudstreet and John Thompson. Also "Australian Folk Songs": -Joe- |
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07 Sep 20 - 04:36 AM (#4071041) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Ah, I've always loved that "Let the rope, soap, and calico take me ...." number - Alan and Sean were a great duo, way back when (and as I've said before, when they supported The Dubliners in Perth, The Settlers ran rings around the Dubliners - until the Dubs were shocked into lifting their game, LoL!!) R-J :) |
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07 Sep 20 - 10:50 PM (#4071144) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Hi Joe, irrespective of what happens re 'Rise Up Singing', I reckon it's good to have a collection of Australian songs, particularly less-well-known ones, in one place on this site. It's a pity that it is only Sandra and I doing the bulk of the posting. R-J, Sean's voice was particularly fine on those recordings. THE TOWN OF KIANDRA (THE WEE ONE) I am a young man from the town of Kiandra I married a young woman to comfort my home She goes out and she leaves me and cruelly deceives me She leaves me with a baby that's none o' me own Chorus Oh dear, I rue the day ever I married How I wish I was single again With this weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle And rocking the baby that's none o' me own While I'm at work, my wife's on the rantan On the rantan with some other young man She goes out and she leaves me and cruelly deceives me And leaves me with a baby that's none o' me own Now all you young men with a fancy to marry Be sure you leave them flash gals alone Or by the Lord Harry, if one you should marry They'll leave you with a baby that's none o' your own This is in the DT under the title 'Rocking the Cradle'. Extensive information on its provenance may be had here: Mainly Norfolk Bob Bolton posted this back in the day: The "Wee One" was collected by John Meredith from the wonderful old Australian singer Sally Sloane, late 1950s or early 1960s. A.L. Lloyd would have seen the words in the photocopies of Meredith, Ward and Stewart & Keesing's collection notes lodged with the EFDSS (by Edgar Walters?) and possibly heard the field tapes. Lloyd altered the words "I am a young man, cut down in my blossom..." to "I am a young man from the town of Kiandra..." because he had heard of someone from Kiandra to whom such things had happened. Martyn Wyndham-Read may well have sung the Lloyd version in the 1960s. The modal tune is Sally's and typical of her Irish heritage. The song words come from a long and forked line of songs/parodies/re-works that go all the way back to "The Christ Child Lullaby", in the Erse and, at least as far forward across America as "Get along Little Dogey". The details of Meredith collecting this song (and many others, along with a lot of dance tunes) would be in "Folk Songs of Australian and the men and women who sang them", Volume 1, John Meredith & Hugh Anderson, (Ure Smith ~1967 / University of New South Wales Press ~1988). The song was also published in "Singabout Magazine, the journal of Australian folksong", Vol. 5, No. 2, p5, Bush Music Club, October 1964, and so appears in my anthology "Singabout - Selected Reprints", Bush Music Club, 1985. If you are interested in looking at primary sources, these two publications are still available for the Bush Music Club at $12A and $9A plus $3A post/packaging. Sally Sloane was a wonderful singer and I am proud to have known her - and had her sing for me in concerts in the 1970s. She contributed more songs and tunes than any other single singer of Australian tradional songs. I like to remember her by her original songs, rather than the changed versions of later singers. Danny Spooner recorded it under the title 'The wee one' for his last album 'Home'. Wongawilli recorded it under the title 'The Town of Kiandra (The Wee One)'. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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07 Sep 20 - 11:44 PM (#4071148) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie HUMPING THE DRUM I've humped my drum from Kingdom Come To the back of the Milky WaY I boiled my quart on the Cape of York And I starved last Christmas Day I cast a line on the Condamine And one on the Nebine Creek I've driven through bog, so help me bob Up Mungindi's main street I crossed the Murray and drank at Cloncurry Where they charged me a bob a nip. I worked in the Gulf where the cattle they duff And the squatters they give 'em tip I've worked from morn in the fields of long corn Till the sun was out of sight I've cause to know the Great Byno And the Great Australian Bight I danced with Kit, when the lamps were lit And Doll when the dance broke up I flung my hat on the Myall Track When Bowman won the Cup I laughed aloud with the merry crowd In the city of the plains I sweated too on Omdooroo While bogged in those big bore-drains I wheeled me bike from the shearers' strike Not wanting a funeral shroud And I made the weights for the Flying Stakes And I dodged the lynchin' crowd I've carried a gun through World War One Then went to the track again From Omeo to Bendigo To Bourke and back again I lost some tears in the hungry years When jobs were short and few And I picked up me swag and me old tucker bag There was nothing else to do There are various versions of this song, but the above is what Danny Spooner sang on his final album 'Home'. Danny noted: I like the way that each verse seems to be sung by another travelling character ... these words were adapted by Graham Seal. I first heard the song on an old Larrikin LP by a group named 'Steam Shuttle' of which Graham Seal was a member - 'Steam Shuttle Larrikin LRF-018. Unfortunately, I am unable to play it to check the lyrics against Danny's version as my record player is stuffed. However, the note on the LP sleeve reads: A recitation from Stewart and Keesing's revision of Banjo Pateron's 'Old Bush Songs'. A few verses have been cut out, a couple added and the whole thing set to an Irish tune. As it now stands, the song is essentially a potted history of itinerant labour in Australia up the 1930s. 'Humping the drum' is one of the many terms for carrying a swag. --Stewie. |
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08 Sep 20 - 03:51 AM (#4071157) Subject: LYR Add - The Country Knows The Rest -Graham Seal From: Sandra in Sydney Back of the Milky Way (Humping the Drum) - lyrics & audio Lyrics to Graham's songs, all with audio. Graham Seal writes good songs (he also writes good books) & was Australia's first (& maybe only) Professor of Folklore. interview with Graham The Country Knows The Rest by Graham Seal with audio link. Norman Brown was an innocent bystander, he was not one one the strikers. He was JennieG's mother's cousin The year was nineteen-twenty-nine, the place was Rothbury town, The miners were all locked out and our wage had been knocked down, From March until December we lived on bread and dole, Until the Rothbury mine re-opened, with scabs to dig the coal - And the country knows the rest … So the miners’ dole was cut and our strike pay couldn’t last, But the men and women of Rothbury determined to stand fast. All across the coalfields miners heard the call, On a warm night in December they met at Rothbury, one and all - And the country knows the rest … It was early in the morning upon that fateful day, Many hundred miners gathered there to send the scabs away, A piper played before us in the breaking blood-red dawn, But when we reached the Rothbury mine gates a bloodier day was born - And the country knows the rest … The police were in the bushes with pistols in their hands, There were more of them on horseback to break the miners’ stand, Just how it started I swear I'll never know, But the guns began firing and the blood began to flow - And the country knows the rest … When the firing was all over and the police had broken through, Many miners badly beaten - bullet-wounded, too, Beneath the Rothbury mine gate Norman Brown was lying dead, And the lifeblood from his veins stained the coaldust red - And the country knows the rest … Notes Many thanks to Graham Seal for permission to add this song to the Union Songs website. Graham writes 'The Country Knows the Rest was written in the 1970s while I was researching popular protest in Australia. One of the Kelly ballads used the line the country knows the rest and I was also struck by a few phrases from the oral accounts of miners who had been at Rothbury. The music and lyrics came together from these sources. I recorded the song on my Barbed Wire Ballads in 2005 and Andy Saunders and Tim Glover recorded it as The Symbolics, back around the late 70s/early 80s.' When the depression hit at the end of the 1920s miners everywhere were in trouble. In February 1929 the coalowners of the Hunter Valley NSW demanded a 12.5% wage cut. When the workers refused, the bosses, supported by a conservative State Government, locked them out of the mines for 15 months. Towards the end of 1929 the coalowners tried to open some pits with scab labour. Miners decided to take them on. Around 4000 of them made there way to Rothbury on December 16th and the police opened fire killing the young miner Norman Brown and wounding many others. Veteran miner Jim Comerford, now in his nineties, was at Rothbury when he was just 16 years old, he tells his story in his book The Great Lockout |
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08 Sep 20 - 12:51 PM (#4071203) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Richard Mellish > Lloyd altered the words "I am a young man, cut down in my blossom..." to "I am a young man from the town of Kiandra..." I had heard or read before now that the "town of Kiandra" words were due to Bert, and I had wondered whether we should encourage singers to revert to the version as collected. However "cut down in my blossom" clearly belongs in a different song, not this one. The man is justifiably lamenting having to rock the baby that is not his, but he is not the Unfortunate Rake who really has been cut down. Not for the only time, I think we have to count Bert's work on this song as an improvement. On another matter entirely: it has struck me that a lot of the songs being put forward in this thread are of fairly recent origin. Nothing wrong with that in itself but there are lots of older ones that I think are equally deserving. |
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08 Sep 20 - 08:18 PM (#4071242) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Thank you, Sandra! On a completely differnt note, I quite like Enda Kenny's Earl Grey Tea song - although I never drink tea, I'm a coffee girl. EARL GREY Is it perfume? Is it tea? Whatever it is, it does nothing for me Should I drink it? Or dab it on? Can I swap it for a coffee or has all the water gone. It is hot, it is wet, It is eau de toilette Is it from the House of Lipton or Chanel? I only want a cup of tea, not this stuff you've given me, If you think I'm going to drink it go to..... Help me someone...... Call a doctor or a nurse, Call an ambulance I'm poisoned, And I think it's getting worse. I only wanted a cup of tea But I fear that my last mouthful will be the death of me It is hot, it is wet, It is eau de toilette To my mind it is more toilette than eau. If you want to spoil your day Add the oil of Earl Grey, I'm reliably informed it's bergamot. What a mouthful! Is it perfume? Is it wee? Whatever it's supposed to be it doesn't taste like tea. Should I drink it, or dab it on? Can I swap it for a coffee or has all the water gone. It is hot, it is wet, It is eau de toilette Is it Twinings? is it Tetley? let me see. Go ahead and make my day But please don't make me drink Earl Grey. All I want is a proper cup of tea. Enda Kenny (1995) Earl Grey Tea |
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08 Sep 20 - 08:46 PM (#4071244) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Richard M, well why don't you 'put forward' a few? My impetus has been to post, mainly but not exclusively, worthy songs that have not been posted or have been buried deep in the forum database - songs that are less well known and not as easily accessed as the warhorses. Sandra, thanks to the link to Seal's lyrics. Apart from some reordering, Danny's version is much the same. Two stanzas from the Stewart/Keesing printing, as collected by Bill Bowyang, have been dropped: I courted Flo in Jericho And Jane at old Blackall I said farewell to the Sydney belle At the doors of the Eulo hall And the final one: I've seen and heard upon my word Some strange things on my way But spare my days, I was knocked sideways When I landed here today --Stewie. |
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08 Sep 20 - 09:28 PM (#4071245) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie For those who have not heard Steam Shuttle, there are 2 recordings available on Youtube. The better one imo is their rendition of Duke Tritton's 'Sandy Hollow Line'. They noted that they put it to a traditional tune that Tritton had used for another of his songs, 'The Great Northern Line', 'in preference to the usual dreary melody'. Amen to that! THE SANDY HOLLOW LINE (Duke Tritton) The sun was blazing in the sky and waves of shimmering heat Glared down on the railway cutting, we were half dead on our feet And the ganger stood on the bank of the cut and he snarled at the men below "You'd better keep them shovels full or all you cows 'll go." "I never saw such a useless mob, you'd make a feller sick As shovel men you're hopeless, and you're no good with the pick" There were men in the gang who could belt him with a hand tied at the back But he had power behind him and we dare not risk the sack. So we took his insults in silence, for this was the period when We lived in the great depression and nothing was cheaper than men And we drove the shovels and swung the picks and cursed the choking dust We'd wives and hungry kids to feed so toil in the heat we must And as the sun rose higher and the heat grew more intense The flies were in their millions, the air was thick and dense We found it very hard to breathe, our lungs were hot and tight With the stink of sweating horses and the fumes of gelignite But still the ganger drove us on, we couldn't take much more We prayed for the day we'd get the chance to even up the score A man collapsed in the heat and dust, he was carried away to the side It didn't seem to matter if the poor chap lived or died "He's only a loafer," the ganger said. "A lazy, useless cow I was going to sack him anyway, he's saved me the trouble now" He had no thoughts of the hungry kids, no thought of a woman's tears, As she struggled and fought to feed her brood all down the weary years But one of the government horses fell and died there in the dray They hitched two horses to him and they dragged the corpse away The ganger was a worried man and he said with a heavy sigh "It is a bloody terrible thing to see a good horse die" "You chaps get back now to your work and don't stand loafing ther Get in and trim the batter down, I'll get the engineer" Well the engineer he looked around and he said as he scratched his head "No horse could work in this dreadful heat or all of them will be dead" "They're much too valuable to lose, they cost us quite a lot And I think it is a wicked shame to work them while it's hot So we will take them to the creek and spell them in the shade You men must all knock off at once - of course you'll not be paid" And so we plodded to our camps and it seemed to our weary brains We were no better than convicts, though we didn't wear the chains And in those drear depression days, we were unwanted men But we knew that when a war broke out, we'd all be heroes then And we'd be handed a rifle and forced to fight for the swine Who tortured us and starved us, on the Sandy Hollow Line Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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08 Sep 20 - 09:49 PM (#4071247) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The other Youtube video of Steam Shuttle is one of those warhorses. They noted that their version was based on one collected by John Meredith from Mrs Ewell late of Bathurst NSW. THE STREETS OF FORBES (THE DEATH OF BEN HALL) Come all you Lachlan men and a sorrowful tale I'll tell Concerning of a hero bold who through misfortune fell His name it was Ben Hall, a man of good renown Who was hunted from his station and like a dog shot down Three years he roamed the roads and he showed the traps some fun One thousand pounds was on his head, with Gilbert and John Dunn Ben parted from his comrades, the outlaws did agree To give away bushranging and cross the briny sea Ben went to Goobang Creek and that was his downfall For riddled like a sieve was the valiant Ben Hall 'Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May When the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep they lay Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead The troopers all fired madly and they filled him full of lead They rolled him in his blanket and strapped him to his prad And they led him through the streets of Forbes to show the prize they had Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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08 Sep 20 - 10:39 PM (#4071254) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's a delightful little ditty that has been buried deep in the forum database. It was posted and collected by Joybell, a lady who used to post prolifically to Mudcat. She explained: I believe it deserves its own thread and a place in the DT. It's a Melbourne song probably from around the early 1900s. I learned it from an elderly man, in about 1984, in a pub in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He called it an old Melbourne song. He used the title "Push on the Corner". A friend, Jack Johnson, recorded an almost identical version from an elderly man in a Melbourne nursing home. My informant told me he wanted me to have the song because I was "a Collingwood Lassie". He added that he meant not of the type described in the song. These two appearances of the song are the only ones I've come across. It sounds like somebody's music-hall turn. THE PUSH ON THE CORNER Last night I was driven near crazy By one I both love and adore Now she's packed up her boxes and left me And I ain't gonna see her no more I've written her hundreds of letters, To beg her my faults to forget But now she's found one she loves better And this is the answer I get Oh, wait till the push on the corner Refuses to drink a long beer Wait till the thieves and pickpockets From the streets of Fitzroy disappear When the dear little Collingwood lassies rom powder and paint they are free When the Chinese are coppers on Bourke Street My darling I'll come back to thee The tune may be found on a beaut CD O'Leary & Hildebrand 'Together Again, Again' --Stewie |
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08 Sep 20 - 11:26 PM (#4071255) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's another forgotten gem, also on the Hildebrand and O'Leary CD. It is in the style of CJ Dennis. Below is how Hildebrand sings it. You can find the original and info here: Info BOURKE STREET ON SATURDAY NIGHT (P.C. Cole & Fred Hall) Them ragtime songs got me fair pippy All Hawaii or old dixie land And the same kind of tarts always in ‘em Starry eye, golden hair, china hands Now tell me what’s wrong with Australia And the cliner on which I am shook I don’t need no cotton fields shady And I don’t need no soft purlin’ brook So give me old Melbourne and give me a tart And then I am simply all right Can any bloke point to a better old joint Than Bourke Street on a Saturday night When me and me Maudie goes out for a stroll Me cobbers all try to be smart ‘Get out of their way, here comes Billo’, they say Walkin’ out with his fair dinkum tart On Princes Bridge once we were standin’ And gazed down at the water below In the lamplight we feels sentimental Holdin’ hands, all that rot, don’t you know Says Maud, ‘Prove you’re fond of me really So I looked to see no one was near I gives her a kiss, then she murmurs ’Now you loves me, I know, Billo dear’ Repeat stanzas 2 and 3. --Stewie. |
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09 Sep 20 - 12:54 AM (#4071258) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here is another Ogilvie poem to which Gerry Hallom put a tune. As usual, his version has alterations and omissions - good but! NORTHWARDS TO THE SHEDS (W.Ogilvie/G.Hallom There's a whisper from the regions out beyond the Barwon banks There's a gathering of the legions there's a forming of the ranks There's a murmur coming nearer with the signs that never fail And it's time for every shearer to be out upon the trail (Chorus) For the Western creeks are calling And the idle days are done With the snowy fleeces falling And the Queensland sheds begun There is shortening of the bridle, there's a tightening of the girth There is a grooming of the horse that they love the best on earth Northward from the Lachlan River and the sun-dried Castlereagh Outward to the Never-Never ride the shearers on their way Chorus They will leave their girls behind them and their empty glasses too For there's plenty left to mind them when they cross the dry Barcoo There'll be kissing, there'll be sorrow such as only sweethearts know But before the noon tomorrow, they'll be singing as they go Chorus They will camp below the station, they'll be cutting peg and pole Raising tents for occupation till the boss he calls the roll And it's time the colts were driven, it's time to strap the pack For there's never licence given to the laggards on the track Chorus John Thompson has a version on his site that is close to the original poem. His source is the excellent CD by Alan Musgrave (with Bob McInnes & friends) 'Songs They Used to Sing: A panorama of Australian folksong'.. Hallom Thompson I found this on the Net, but I can't verify its authenticity: As Will wrote in 'My life in the open (Short stories)' (1908): On a big sheep station everything dates from shearing-time. “It was just before last shearing,” they say, or “I will attend to it after shearing,” or “So-and-so was here two shearings ago.” Through the greater part of the year a large station of 50,000 to 80,000 sheep is worked by a staff of ten to fifteen men; but at shearing-time the shed and surrounding buildings contain from fifty to a hundred men, with here and there a white tent starring the plain, and the stir and hum of the work turn this quiet corner into the semblance of a thriving settlement. --Stewie. |
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09 Sep 20 - 01:13 AM (#4071259) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Words and music to "Bourke Street on Saturday night" can be found in "A treasury of favourite Australian songs, with complete words and music" compiled by Therese Radic. Published by Currey O'Neil, Melbourne, 1983. Music by Fred Hall, words by P.C. Cole, 1918. I wonder if this was one of the Cole faimly of "Cole's funny picture books" fame? Whether it is or isn't, this book is a great addition to my book shelf. |
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09 Sep 20 - 02:08 AM (#4071262) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Gurindji Blues Poor bugger me, Gurindji Me bin sit down this country Long time before the Lord Vestey Allabout land belongin' to we Oh poor bugger me, Gurindji. Poor bugger blackfeller; Gurindji Long time work no wages, we, Work for the good old Lord Vestey Little bit flour; sugar and tea For the Gurindji, from Lord Vestey Oh poor bugger me. Poor bugger me, Gurindji, Man called Vincent Lingiari Talk long allabout Gurindji 'Daguragu place for we, Home for we, Gurindji: But poor bugger blackfeller, Gurindji Government boss him talk long we 'We'll build you house with electricity But at Wave Hill, for can't you see Wattie Creek belong to Lord Vestey' Oh poor bugger me. Poor bugger me, Gurindji Up come Mr: Frank Hardy ABSCHOL too and talk long we Givit hand long Gurindji Buildim house and plantim tree Longa Wattie Creek for Gurindji But poor bugger blackfeller Gurindji Government Law him talk long we 'Can't givit land long blackfeller, see Only spoilim Gurindji' Oh poor bugger me. Poor bugger me, Gurindji Peter Nixon talk long we: 'Buy you own land, Gurindji Buyim back from the Lord Vestey' Oh poor bugger me, Gurindji. Poor bugger blackfeller Gurindji Suppose we buyim back country What you reckon proper fee? Might be flour, sugar and tea From the Gurindji to Lord Vestey? Oh poor bugger me. Oh ngaiyu luyurr ngura-u Sorry my country, Gurindji. © Ted Egan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8LcF0kwbjE&t=2s Here is a later version by Galurrwuy Yunupingu with Vincent Lingiari : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLIlyhLewI The importance of Ted's song and this piece of NT history, cannot IMHO, be overestimated. It was also often played on Perth's ABC radio, back in the day. See also the previous post of "From Little Things, Big Things Grow". Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 02:38 AM (#4071264) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy the bush girl (henry lawson) So you rode from the range where your brothers “select” Through the ghostly grey bush in the dawn You rode slowly at first, lest her heart should suspect That you were [so] glad to be gone. You had scarcely the courage to glance back at her By the homestead receding from view And you breathed with relief as you rounded the spur For the world was a wide world to you. Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain Fond heart that is ever more true Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain She’ll wait by the sliprails for you. Ah! The world is a new and a wide one to you But the world to your sweetheart is shut For a change never comes to the lonely Bush Girl From the stockyard, the bush, and the hut. And the only relief from the [its] dullness she feels Is when ridges grow softened and dim And away in the dusk to the sliprails she steals To dream of past meetings [evenings] with him. Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain Fond heart that is ever more true Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain She’ll wait by the sliprails for you. Do you think, where in place of bare fences, dry creeks Clear streams and green hedges are seen Where the girls have the lily and rose in their cheeks And the grass in midsummer is green. Do you think now and then, now or then, in the whirl Of the city, while London is new Of the hut in the bush, and the freckled-faced girl Who is eating her heart out for you? Grey eyes that are sadder than sunset or rain Bruised heart that is ever more true Fond faith [heart] that is firmer for trusting in vain She waits by the sliprails for you. Sung here by the late Gary Shearston (tune by Con Caston) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ9vgyb2S2Y Seeing “Bonnie Jess” posted above, reminded me of this one – a very singable favourite in my teenage years and often heard in Perth’s folkclubs of the 60s-70s! Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 03:16 AM (#4071267) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Richard - I've posted a lot of old songs on Bush Music Club blog, but I'd have to type up the words & that is putting me off - unless I post the URLs of the song image. I've posted 43 articles which include the subject "songs" This article Compilation - Early Song Sheets1950s/60s has links to 14 of them. There are over 600 articles so the blog is heard to search - best way to search is to open a google page & do a site search -(subject) site:blog.bushmusic.org.au & skim down the offerings. Not every song is traditional - The Bush Music Club was founded in 1954 to collect, publish and popularise Australia's traditional songs, dances, music, yarns, recitations and folklore and to encourage the composition of a new kind of song - one that was traditional in style but contemporary in theme. Australian Song Index by Hugh Anderson Being a list of 375 Bush Ballads that have been published between the days of transportation & 1956. The Black Bull Chapbooks No.7, 1957. Here's another good source of early & contemporary Australian songs 2020 Joy Durst Memorial Song Collection download - FREE - Victorian Folk Music Club (est 1959 as Victorian Bush Music Club) 1st ed, 1970, 2nd ed. 1980. It includes audio files sandra |
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09 Sep 20 - 03:21 AM (#4071268) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy YIL LULL ~ Joe Geia I sing, for the black, and the people of this Land I sing, for the red, and the blood that’s been shed Now I’m singing for the gold, of a new year young and old. Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay I sing, unto Him, of the most high I sing, so much praises, it makes me want to cry Now I’m singing, just for you, so all can recognise. Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Sing for the black (Singout!) Sing for the red (Singout!) Sing for the black (Singout!) Sing for the red (Singout!) Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Sing for the black! Sing for the red! And the gold! Stories told, for young and old. Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay. “Yil Lull means Sing!” in Kuku Yalanji language of FNQ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9BvEa9xxvQ The YT clip is from 1988 when Joe first wrote and released the song (now regarded as an anthem!), but he is still going strong and I was lucky to be part of the choir performing with him at Qld's Maleny Festival in 2019! Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 04:19 AM (#4071273) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy OK, the subject of this song may not be commonly regarded as Aussie or Kiwi, or even Southern Hemisphere, BUT, I prefer to think that - just like the ubiquitous Chickenman - "He's EVERYWHERE, He's EVERYWHERE"!! So, this is a session favourite from Qld's CLOUDSTREET. THE GREEN MAN ~ John Thompson Ch. The Green Man’s a traveller, a reveller, unraveller Of dreams and of fancies from first to the last Older than all men, living in all things Son, father and sage, long live The Green Man. First light of first morning saw The Green Man there waiting He saw the creation and joined in the dance All creatures grew round him He grew with them singing The first song of all, sing of The Green Man. Quietly watching and waiting and learning The storms are his fury, the lightning his laugh The first leaf of spring is his beauty and glory His stillness, his power, in the trees in his path. There are fewer trees now, but The Man is not sleeping ‘Though our ruin brings sorrow to Time’s oldest heart In our soul we may find him and remember his wisdom And rekindle the flames, once again make a start. There are a couple of Cloudstreet versions on YT - This is from "Swallow the Concertina" in 2000 (and the second is from 2010's "Circus of Desires") : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIRK0uQs760 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS32e1qWhIM Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 05:36 AM (#4071289) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy DAVEY LOWSTON Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal, I did seal Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal Though my men and I were lost and our very lives it cost I did seal, I did seal, I did seal. We were set down in Open Bay, were set down, were set down We set down in Open Bay, we set down We were left, we gallant men, never more to sail again For to sail, for to sail, for to sail. Our captain, John Bedar, he set sail, he set sail Yes, all for Port Jackson, he set sail “I’ll return men, without fail”, but, he foundered in the gale And went down, and went down, and went down. We cured ten thousand skins for the fur, for the fur We cured ten thousand skins for the fur Brackish water, putrid seal, we did all of us fall ill For to die, for to die, for to die. Come all you lads who sail upon the sea, sail the sea Come all you jacks who sail upon the sea Though the schooner “Governor Bligh”, took on some who did not die Never seal, never seal, never seal. Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal, I did seal Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal Where the icebergs tower high, it’s a pitiful place to die Never seal, never seal, (never) seal. Regarded as a traditional New Zealand song, though many scholars believe it originated on the Sydney docks - and it was collected on t’other side of the world. No matter. It’s a goodun! Here is a version by Qld harmony group “Work in Progress” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvDn3tQ7cTI Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 06:06 AM (#4071291) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy COONAWARRA [HAS] THREE SHADOWS ~ Judith Crossley T’was the ninth of October, in Echuca way she lay A new boat on the river, while the steamers passed away Laid up, forgotten, rotting, just a few were left to trade Of those roaring river steamers, that saw the outback made. Ch. Excelsior keep turning Murrumbidgee, you’ll never die J L Roberts on the water, see the paddles fly Shadow ships go softly with her, drift on all her days Coonawarra, lovely black swan, takes the River Ways. She was built in 1950, for the Murray tourist trade Murray Valley Coaches, lost a boat in ’48 Brave old Murrumbidgee burned, that sad heroic day There was not a soul there perished, but that fine ship passed away. Last barge to work the Murrumbidgee, J L Roberts stood alone For sixty years she had ploughed the rivers, her story was well-known On her hull they have built a lovely boat, to take the ‘Bidgee’s place And they named her for the black swan, Coonawarra, full of grace. For ninety years that redgum hull, has left the river sand For thirty years the Coonawarra, beat across the land Three ghosts they travel with her, from the elder time And three shadows has the Coonawarra, they carry on the line. Lyn and Denis Tracy used to do a really beautiful version of this, but luckily there is a version on YT by Irene Petrie : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJhLeRTyqoU Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 06:32 AM (#4071296) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Davy Lowston is one of my favourite songs, thanks for posting it. |
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09 Sep 20 - 07:36 AM (#4071301) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy FANNIE BAY ~ Doug & Andy Tainsh / and possibly David Charles Tell her I’m droving down Camooweal way Or signed on with pearlers for seas far away You can tell her I’ve gone, I’ll be back some day Please don’t tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay. ch. And on Thursday Island the sun warms her hair As the breeze from the sea blows her hair And she sits by her window and calls me Yes, she calls me. You can say I’ve gone on the old “River Queen” Its whistle a-haunting the bullockys’ dream Down the Murray I’ve gone, I’ll be back some day Please don’t tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay. You can say the bush has called me away And I’m riding the fences for ten bob a day Yes, I needed a job, I needed the pay Please don’t tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay. And they came to the door and they dragged me away From all that I love and I pray That it won’t reach her ears, ‘cause I love her And she’d die - she’d die - she’d die for sure. Just say the gold has taken me down To the places where fortunes are easily found Yes, I’ve gone, but tell her I’ll be back some day Just don’t tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay. I wanted to link to the version by Darwin, NT trio "Tropical Ear" - from the 1980s - but I cannot locate one on YT. However, I found this version which has similarities - it's by FNQ [= Far North Qld] group "Snake Gully" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yniaWFegcE Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 08:00 AM (#4071304) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Miner’s Washing ~ John Warner I come from Durham in 99 Married a laddie from the Coal Creek mine The finest lad that a girl could ever know Til he brought me his washing from the pit below. Ch. Scrubbing the miner's clothes Scrubbing the miner's clothes All piled up in a ghastly stack Heavy as lead and smelly and black And oh, the pain in my aching back! Scrubbing the miner's clothes Well your Currumburra miner is a grimy sort of bloke So I chuck in his duds for an all-night soak I takes me a soap and I'll grate it like a cheese And I'll chuck it in the bucket with his grubby dungarees. And it's haul ‘em from the copper to the rinsing tub Pound ‘em with the dolly and scrub – scrub - scrub Pour away the mucky water, do it all again Haul ‘em through the wringer and pray it doesn't rain. Beyond Cardella, the sky is looking fine Basket out the washing to the old clothes line I bet when they're hung out and I've hauled up the prop The rain'll come a-pouring and the wind will drop. So all you maids who to marriage do incline Never wed a laddie from the Coal Creek mine A squatter may be surly, a merchant may be mean A banker may be boring but they're easier to clean. A great session song - didn't find Margie Walters' version, but here is one from Qld duo, Cloudstreet : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtnwKFjM1Sc Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 08:26 AM (#4071308) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE STATION COOK ~ trad Oz The song I’m going to sing to you, will not detain you long It’s all about a station cook we had at old Pinyong [Penong] His pastry was so beautiful, his cooking was so fine It gave us all a stomach ache, right through the shearing time. Oh, you should see his plum-duffs, his doughboys and his pies I swear by Long Moloney, they’d open a shearer’s eyes He’d say “take your time good fellows” and he’d fix us with a glance Saying “I’ll dish you up much better, if you’ll give me half a chance.” Oh you should see his doughboys, his dumplings and his pies The thought of such luxuries would open a shearer’s eyes He gets up in the morning, gives us plenty of stewed tea And don’t forget when shearing’s done, to sling the cook his fee. But oh dear, I feel so queer, I don’t know what to do The thought of leaving Fowler’s Bay just breaks me heart in two But if ever I catch that slushy, I’ll make him rue the day That he ruined me constitution while shearing at Fowler’s Bay. The Station Cook could often be an old shearer who can no longer do his tally a day, bent over on the board - much like The Old Woman was often an old cowboy who could no longer do long days in the saddle, keeping the cattle in check on the Trails. Fowler's Bay is in South Australia's Eyre Peninsula/Nullarbor Plain region. Here is Gary Shearston's version from 1965 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONE44capghQ Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 08:38 AM (#4071309) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Richard Mellish > Richard M, well why don't you 'put forward' a few? Fair comment! But where do I start? I could just scan the contents lists of a few books (where presumably the editors had already exercised some selection) but I should try to make a personal selection. I'm a bit tied up just now but I'll have a go. |
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09 Sep 20 - 09:03 AM (#4071314) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Mysha's earlier question re if there will be a separate "edition" for Kiwi material, wasn't really answered and I've just come across typed words for one of me EnZed faves, so here goes : PACKING MY THINGS ~ Phil Colquhoun When first to this country I came [when I came and took up my claim] Well, Bill Muggins was me name And though I’m a young man and able Here am I stuck rocking the cradle - And that’s a Bill Muggins game. But I’m awake up – I will break up I’m never more going to roam I've panned in my dugout with never a nugget I’m packing my things to go home. I’ve hunted Otago for gold In the wind and the rain and the cold And I’ve holed up all winter all under the snow All along the winding Molyneux - And that is where you need to have holed! But I’m awake up – I will break up I’m never more going to roam I've panned in my dugout with never a nugget I’m packing my things to go home. In those shanties where you spin Away all your hard-earned tin Nancy’s smiles are so beguiling That’s why Nancy is always smiling! - Landlord says he’s not taking you in. But I’m awake up – I will break up I’m never more going to roam I‘ve panned in my dugout with never a nugget I’m packing my things to go home. I almost gave up hope of finding many Kiwi folk songs on YT until I thought to plug in "Phil Garland"! So here is his version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kH8cLjr0A Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 07:45 PM (#4071377) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie You have posted some good'uns, R-J. Re Gurindji people, are you aware that only 2 days ago (Tuesday 8th Sept) they were finally granted native title over Wave Hill Station at a special sitting of the Federal Court? ABC report --Stewie. |
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09 Sep 20 - 08:53 PM (#4071382) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another Lawson poem adapted by Gerry Hallom. THE FREE SELECTOR'S DAUGHTER (Lawson/Hallom) (Chorus) I met her on the Lachlan side A darling girl I thought her I swore before I left I'd win The free selector's daughter I worked her father's farm a month I brought the wood and water I mended all the broken fence Before I won the daughter. I listened to her father's yarns, I did just what I oughte And what I'd had to do to win The free selector's daughter So I broke my pipe and burnt my twist Gave up my beer for water I had to shave before I kissed The free-selector's daughter Chorus Then, rising in the frosty morn I brought the cows for Mary And when I'd milked a bucketful I took it to the dairy I poured the milk into the dish While Mary held the strainer I summoned heart to speak my wish And, oh, her blush grew plainer Chorus I told her I must leave this place, I said that I would miss her At first she turned away her face But then she let me kiss her. I put my pail upon the ground And in my arms I caught her I'd give the world to hold again The free selector's daughter Chorus Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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09 Sep 20 - 09:58 PM (#4071388) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here is a Hallom original. He recorded it on his 'On the Periphery' album. The fizzer delivered mail in the Northern Territory at the turn of the 20th century. He based it on information in Jeannie Gunn's autobiography. THE FIZZER (Gerry Hallom) A thousand miles in forty days He carries the precious freight To the homes along the bush highways For settlers who yearn and wait Day by day, week by week Keeping tight to the government time Dicing with death on the dried out creeks Yet it’s his face not his heart that bears the lines Chorus A thousand miles ‘cross the great divide Inside mail from the world outside No sooner here than he’s gone With a hale so long The long dry stretch on the open downs That’s where the fizzin’ gets done Eighty miles till a drink is found Then fifty more with none The thirst of the team fixes the time This gamble with death is played Where the searing, scorching heat combines With a downs that holds no shade Chorus A drink at the well, an all night spell To the toughest pinch of all Fifty miles of sunbaked hell With a team that’s fit to fall And here’s where the tracks are vague and tell Of a bushman’s skill and pluck It’s here where the last mailman fell And they talk of the fizzer’s luck Chorus Is it luck to know to the very last drop Just what a horse can do? Luck to know just when to stop To know when to take them through Is it luck to have the courage to play This game when the stakes are high? For only those who’ve been can say What’s faced by a man on the downs in the dry Chorus Sixteen days on the open downs He takes the treacherous run Knowing the folk at Anthony’s town Will come out in the noonday sun To watch for the distant moving frame Away in the quivering glare And death will have won in the dice-throwing game If the fizzer is late getting down there Chorus Youtube clip Ted Egan also wrote a song about the fizzer. Ted Egan --Stewie. |
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09 Sep 20 - 10:13 PM (#4071390) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The reference to Jeannie Gunn reminded me of a very fine song by a good mate of mine, Bob Sharp, who lived for many years in the NT but now lives in Tasmania. BOSS LADY (Bob Sharp) She came to the outback unwanted, unseen By the men who lived their lives hard They could not foresee what life there could be For a lady from Melbourne’s backyard But bold Jeannie Gunn would prove it to them She was as strong in the heart as the rest It did not take long before she proved them all wrong And they found a new type of respect She was the lady of old Elsie Station, arrived from the city in 1902 They called her Boss Lady respected her greatly For all the things that she went through Heard many stories of men and their travels And how they developed new lands Jeannie she wrote of a woman's view In a man’s world of hot fiery sands Their lives were hard in a far different way Their reasons for being there too They would follow their men to the ends of the earth To make far distant dreams come true Chorus Time has moved on and the old homestead's gone White ants have left their mark here Road markers stand where the station once stood Now only the hot springs run clear The legends live on of bold Jeannie Gunn Her stories of good times and bad And what it would be for a lady like thee To experience the times that you had Chorus Bob recorded it on album that he made with Ken Ferguson 'The Windmill Run' - the duo called themselves 'Facial Expressions'. You can find info here: Bob Sharp Phil Beck and I included the song in a themed concert entitled 'Images of Strong Women'. Phil's introduction to the song: Jeannie Gunn (nee Taylor), ‘The Little Missus’, was born on 5 June 1870. Her father was a Presbyterian minister. In the 1890s she met Aeneas James Gunn, son of Rev. Peter Gunn. Gunn had spent most of the 1890s in northern Australia and helped to establish sheep and cattle stations. Aeneas and Jeannie married in December 1901. Just before his marriage Aeneas had agreed to manage the Elsey cattle station on the Roper River, about 300 miles south of Darwin, so on 2 January 1902 the couple sailed for Port Darwin. In Darwin Jeannie was told that as a woman she would be 'out of place' on a station such as the Elsey. The Territory had always been considered a man's world and news of her arrival in Darwin caused an alarm amongst the tough stockmen of the Elsey who attempted to stop this female invasion by forwarding telegraph messages to prevent her coming. This wasn't enough to discourage Jeannie, all five feet of her had always had a determined streak. The Elsey was in a remote part of the NT known locally as the ‘Never-Never’: in fact later on in life Jeannie wrote ‘We of the Never Never’ based on her time there. The homestead when she arrived was a run down, comfortless bush dwelling which Jeannie set about trying to transform into a home. The stockmen were not easily won over. They were men who’d withdrawn from civilisation and were intolerant of anything that wasn't an accepted part of their lifestyle, which included intrusions from women. Jeannie's friendliness and humour as well as her personal courage and refusal to complain showed these bushmen that she would, like them, accept and make the best of conditions. It was this attitude along with her determination that in the end earned their respect and admiration. --Stewie. |
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09 Sep 20 - 11:45 PM (#4071392) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Thanks for that extraordinary Wave Hill news, Stew; I've been off the news radar for a few days! And speaking of Jeannie Gunn, do you have the lyrics/recording to Bob Sharp(?)'s 'Boss Lady'??? I'm having great trouble dredging the singer/songwriter names and songs from my aging memory (and it could be that the continual post-midnight bedtimes and poor diet, are not assisting me?! :( I noted "The Streets of Forbes" posted above and have "The Death of Ben Hall" ready here - but I wanted Tony Lavin's excellent recording to go with it. Haven't found it on YT and Andy Irvine's is just not quite what I wanted. I think Tony's was on "Glenrowan to the Gulf" (Wild Colonial Boys), but I no longer have that LP. I hafta opine that SO MUCH much good earlier Folkie material - esp the HUGE swag of LPs and tapes from 70s-90s - is missing from the Internet, whilst the dross increases by the minute (or am I being too unkind?!) OK, gotta go and werk. Cheers, R-J |
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09 Sep 20 - 11:47 PM (#4071393) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy OMG Stewie - that'll teach me to update the page before I post, haha! But great song choice, eh :) R-J |
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10 Sep 20 - 12:28 AM (#4071394) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I wonder if I still have Ken Ferguson's tapes? - I just leaned to the right & immediately put my hands on them. Franklin & The Singing Wire, not much use tho, unless I buy a plug-in cassette machine, & transcribe them ... The National Library has both cassettes, but there is no other info on line sandra obit for Ken Ferguson https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=124337 |
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10 Sep 20 - 02:34 AM (#4071404) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy I just revisited the interesting 2009 discussion thread re Austn Songs of Influence, for the new (at the time) "Museum of Australian Democracy" in Canberra : https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118102#2552374 However, of the final 30 chosen by the Curating team, at first glance I recognised exactly half - not sure what that says of me, hahaha!! Archer, Robyn Menstruation Blues Blue King Brown Come and Check Your Head Bogle, Eric And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda Carmody, Kev Cannot Buy My Soul Cox, Kerrianne Beagle Bay Dreaming De Bortoli, Lucia [trad] Mama Mia Don me Cento Lire Hewett, Dorothy and Mike Leyden Weevils In The Flour Hicks, Peter and Geoff Francis One day in October Hunter, Ruby Down City Streets Luscombe, Jack [trad] Sam Griffiths Mazella, Kavisha Love and Justice McCormick, Peter Dodds Advance Australia Fair Midnight Oil US Forces Mills Sisters Waltzing Matilda (Wadjimbat Matilda) O'Loughlin, Tim and Angie McGowan No dams Palmer, Helen and Doreen Bridges Ballad of 1891 Randall, Bob My Brown Skin Baby Reddy, Helen and Ray Burton I am Woman Slim Dusty When the Rain Tumbles Down in July Sloan, Sally Ben Hall Small, Judy Mothers Daughters Wives Storer, Sara Land Cries Out The Herd The King is Dead The Saints Stranded Warner, Dan & Dastey, Sally Anthem Warumpi Band Blackfella Whitefella Wiggan, Roy Bardi Ilma Wright, Lola and Ruth Shepherd The Equal Pay Song Youthu Yindi Treaty Wonder if the museum is still going strong and if the song list is still the same?! Cheers, R-J |
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10 Sep 20 - 03:59 AM (#4071410) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I remember that thread search-Austn Songs of Influence at Museum of Australian Democracy 13 results & first one is Songs of Influence - I was only 19! |
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10 Sep 20 - 05:24 PM (#4071478) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG The Museum of Australian Democracy is in the old Parliament House in Canberra. Might check it out, when and if we can ever visit Canberra again. |
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10 Sep 20 - 08:14 PM (#4071485) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE BALLAD OF 1891 (H.Palmer/D.Jacobs) The price of wool was falling in 1891 The men who owned the acres saw something must be done “We will break the Shearers' Union, and show we're masters still And they'll take the terms we give them, or we'll find the ones who will.” From Claremont to Barcaldine, the shearers' camps were full Ten thousand blades were ready to strip the greasy wool. When through the west like thunder, rang out the Union's call: “The sheds'll be shore Union or they won't be shorn at all.” Oh, Billy Lane was with them, his words were like a flame, The flag of blue above them, they spoke Eureka's name. “Tomorrow,” said the squatters, “they'll find it does not pay. We're bringing up free labourers to get the clip away.” “Tomorrow,” said the shearers, “they may not be so keen, We can mount three thousand horses, to show them what we mean.” “Then we'll pack the west with troopers, from Bourke to Charters Towers. You can have your fill of speeches but the final strength is ours.” “Be damned to your six-shooters, your troopers and police, The sheep are growing heavy, the burr is in the fleece.” “Then if Nordenfeldt and Gatling won't bring you to your knees. We'll find a law,” the squatters said, “that's made for times like these.” To trial at Rockhampton the fourteen men were brought, The judge had got his orders, the squatters owned the court. But for every one that's sentenced, ten thousand won't forget, Where they gaol someone for striking, it's a rich man's country yet. Trevor Lucas The Bushwackers Helen Palmer --Stewie. |
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10 Sep 20 - 08:45 PM (#4071486) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J I didn't even reach 50% recognition, but it is pleasing to note the inclusion of the classic kriol rendition of 'Waltzing Matilda' by Darwin girl, Ali Mills. Thanks to a posting a decade ago by Rob Naylor, we have the lyrics. WALTJIM BAT MATILDA one balla carrdia bin cum up langa billabong im bin chid on a groun langa coolibah tree im bin chingum but corobree watchim but him billy boil you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me waltjim bat matilda, waltjim bat matilda, you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me im bin chingum but corobree watchim but him billy boil you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me bum bye datun maaa bin cum up langa billabong carrdia bin gatchim wholly maaa ngee ngee im bin put im dtun maaa inchide langa ducker bag you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me waltjim bat matilda, waltjim bat matilda, you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me im bin put im dtun maaa inchide langa ducker bag you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me bum bye datun marrdagee bin cum up langa dimina pleetjaman bin cum up one, two, three where datun maaa you bin putim langa ducker bag you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me waltjim bat matilda, waltjim bat matilda, you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me where datun maaa you bin putim langa ducker bag you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me bum bye datun carrdia bin jump in langa billabong you gan gatchim me libe one ngee ngee and im pirit jere chingin out inchide langa billabong you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me waltjim bat matilda, waltjim bat matilda, you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me and im pirit jere chingin out inchide langa billabong you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me waltjim bat matilda, waltjim bat matilda, you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me and im koodook (spirit) jere chingin out inchide langa billabong you balla cum n waltjim bat matilda langa me Dibmorr diborr dibmorr diborr dibmorr diborr – whee Youtube clip Mudcat thread --Stewie. |
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10 Sep 20 - 09:44 PM (#4071488) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Yay!! Beats that feckin 'AAF' hands down!! Miss seeing Ali, June, and the girls in those regular Brown's Mart shows, e.g. - it's rather different here in provincial Qld ........... R-J :( |
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11 Sep 20 - 12:27 AM (#4071498) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Here is one of many excellent compositions from the late Kiwi-Quoinslander, Mark Gillet. Little England Our pioneers, many generations lost in time, Sail away, made a home across the world They took this land, transformed it with blood and iron Above it all, the flag of England unfurled They saw clouds like white cliffs on the horizon Above a land that was clean, green and new But when they came they bought Little England with them And it lives on inside me and inside you Ch. And in the lion and the unicorn, Cricket oval and a croquet lawn Carol singers and a hunting horn Little England And though I know it’s just a state of mind Little England can be so unkind I’ll sail away and see what I can find In Little England Echoes from, my childhood so far away The cradle songs, my mamma sang to me Oh Little England when will I let you go Your cradle songs, keep haunting me The beating drum, there’s red coats marching in the square Keeps us in chains, stop our souls from flying free Oh Little England when will you let us go Your beating drums keeps driving me Chorus ..... I’ll sail away and see what I can find In Little England I can see clouds, like white cliffs on the horizon Above a land that‘s clean, green and new But I can’t go Little England’s got this hold on me Till everyone can sail away too More about Mark can be read in the Mudcat "In Memorium" thread. Thanks to his mate, Noel Gardner, for these lyrics. Noel has been learning Mark's 'LE' song of late, for his next CD. Here is a YT clip of Mark singing "Little England" that I only just discovered : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SmVXeq4Jus Cheers, R-J |
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11 Sep 20 - 02:49 AM (#4071502) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE DROVER'S BOY ~ Ted Egan They couldn't understand why the drover cried as they buried the drover's boy, For the drover had always seemed so hard to the men in his employ. A bolting horse, a stirrup lost, and the drover's boy was dead The shovelled dirt, and a mumbled word And it's back to the road ahead And forget about…..the drover's boy. They couldn't understand why the drover cut a lock of the dead boy's hair, Put it in the band of his battered old hat as they watched him standing there. And he told them "Take the cattle on; I'll sit with the boy awhile" A silent thought, a pipe to smoke And it's ride another mile, And forget about …..the drover's boy. They couldn't make out why the drover and the boy always camped so far away, For the tall white man and the slim black boy had never had much to say. And the boy would be gone at the break of dawn; tail the horses, carry on While the drover roused the sleeping men Daylight - hit the road again, And follow…..the drover's boy. In the Camooweal pub they talked about the death of the drover's boy, They drank their rum with the stranger who'd come from the Kimberley round Fitzroy. And he told them of the massacre in the West; barest details, guess the rest Shoot the bucks, grab a gin, Cut her hair, break her in, And call her a boy…..the drover's boy. So when they build that stockman's hall of fame and they talk about the droving game, Remember the girl who was bedmate and guide Rode with the drover side by side Watched the bullocks, flayed the hide Faithful wife, but never a bride Bred his sons for the cattle runs Don't weep…..for the drover's boy, Don't mourn….. for the drover's boy, But don't for-get! The Drover's Boy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ9a0qr7ORY Great song; great story; great bloke. I'm sure it's been discussed on The Cat before. Cheers, R-J |
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11 Sep 20 - 03:05 AM (#4071505) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE RUSTY FORD CORTINA ~ Mark Gillett The vinyl on the dashboard has all faded And I can’t believe the speedo’s reading true Coz it’s been 10 long years today Since I purchased this old station - wagon An’ I’ll drive this hack till the driving’s done. Ch. For the rain always falls on my rusty Ford Cortina Bits keep falling off and get left behind And the muffler’s mighty roar Always causes a sensation An’ I’ll drive this hack till the driving’s done. Seems when I start it up each morning That it’s gonna take me half the day For there’s only one headlight And it isn’t very bright An’ it bucks & jumps and handles like a dray. Sometimes I think, I’ll buy myself a new one But they cost so much, I always change my mind And the tailgate rattles on and on And the front end’s most peculiar But I’ll drive this hack till the driving’s done. Mark wrote this parody c.early 80s - with apologies to Hugh McDonald! Here is Hugh's song and his amended story of the writing of "The Diamantina Drover" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoWJWEr7DO4 Cheers, R-J |
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11 Sep 20 - 03:23 AM (#4071506) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy BILL AND THE BEAR - John Thompson 1. Come listen now, good people here To a story of renown of the day a hundred years ago when the circus came to town Mr Wirth and all his gallant crew They raised the big top high And all the folk for miles around Gathered under a canvas sky Ch. And were you there in the clear night air when William Sinclair he fought the bear Were you there to see William Sinclair When he wrestled the bear to the ground 2. There were dancing ponies and tumbling clowns The best you ever did see A lion tamer and a high wire act A girl on the flying trapeze There was a fat ring-master in a big top hat And he slashed his whip through the air With a roar and a growl, a cage went clang It was Samson the mighty bear 3. He was ten feet high, he was nine feet wide A mountain of muscle and fur A mighty beast just as black as the coal The ground shook with his roar Then the man with the whip He called for quiet not a sound from those who were there I've a crisp ten pounds for any man here Who's brave enough to wrestle a bear. 4. Bill and his family had come to see the show his youngest newly born The strongest man to ever walk the range He'd carry his weight in corn he sized up the beast, with a glance at his wife he slowly raised his hand "I'll have a go", he heard himself say then up struck the band 5. Stripped to the waist, bill entered the ring Circling and bouncing round First left, then right, 'til he lunged right in The crowd didn't make a sound They twisted and they turned as they wrestled and they grappled At the skin and the muscle and the hair With a mighty roar, Bill threw Samson down He raised his fist in the air 6. You've never heard a roar quite like it The shouts split the midnight air Bill was raised above all the heads of the crowd to the cheers of everyone there And to this day, when you see the name of the famous Bill Sinclair Raise your glass and drink to the health Of the only man to ever beat the bear. The true story of a Glaswegian emigrant to Australia, William Sinclair, who became famous in the Maleny District of South-East Queensland for defeating a bear in a wrestling match when a circus visited Landsborough in the early 20th Century. John says his post is dedicated to Bill's grandson, Leslie Norman ("Nugget") Sinclair who died at the age of 92 on 26 August, 2011. With a good chorus for joining in on, this track is on Cloudstreet's 'Circus of Desires' album; but this is a link to a local(ish) live performance of John & Nicole & Emma : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnWcE0ukutU Landsborough is just a few Kays down the bottom of the hill from me, in Qld's Sunshine Coast Hinterland!! Cheers, R-J |
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11 Sep 20 - 04:23 AM (#4071511) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy SUN ARISE ~ Rolf Harris & Harry Butler Sun arise, she bring in the morning. Sun arise, bring in the morning, fluttering her skirts all around. Sun arise, she come with the dawning. Sun arise, come with the dawning, spreading all the light all around. Sun arise, on the kangaroo paw. Sun arise, on the kangaroo paw, glistening the dew all around. Sun arise, filling all the hollows. Sun arise, filling all the hollows, lighting up the hills all around. Sun arise, come with the dawning, Sun arise, she come every day. Sun arise, bring in the morning, Sun arise! Every, every, every, every, day. She drive away the darkness. Every day, drive away the darkness. Bringing back the warmth to the ground. Sun arise, oh, oh, Sun arise, oh, oh. Spreading all the light all around. Sun arise, bring in the morning. Sun arise, bring in the morning, Sun arise, bring in the morning, Spreading all the light all around. Regardless of the circumstances of Rolf’s recent falling from grace and his consequent punishments, I have always maintained that this 1960 song was important, in that it introduced the feel and sound of Aboriginal music to a wide audience, both in Oz and the UK. Remember that Aboriginal music - as heard by the general populace - in those days, was pretty much limited to Jimmy Little’s country style “Royal Telephone” and Harold Blair’s classical singing. After all, The Authorities considered The Aborigines as “a dying race” (or so they seemed to hope.....) But as a West Australian growing up in the ‘burbs of the 50s-60s, I really loved this song (as did my Mother!) – and we weren’t alone – it was often heard on the radio and it is still popular today and has been covered by many artists. “ In his autobiography Rolf Harris recalls the writing of Sun Arise: Another song from that time was 'Sun Arise' which was inspired by the Aboriginal music that Harry Butler had introduced to me. (pp. 159-160) Harry Butler and I wrote 'Sun Arise' together, trying to capture the magic of Aboriginal music by reproducing the repetition of lyrics and music that make it so mesmerizing. The lyrics of the song came from a story Harry told me about Aboriginal beliefs. Some tribes see the sun as a goddess. Each time she wakes in the morning, her skirts of light gradually cover more and more of the land, bringing back warmth and light to the air. (p. 161) - Rolf Harris, Can You Tell Me What It Is Yet? London, Bantam Press, 2001 “ Here is a clip using mostly scenes of nature and Aboriginal life to illustrate – perhaps try to maintain some perspective and not let the odd pic of Rolf disturb your sensibilities : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwtnBm8glPE And with that, I’m taking a break for the night (to await the sun arise - coz "Che gelida manina" :) Cheers, R-J |
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11 Sep 20 - 10:12 PM (#4071581) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Andrez Another great one from days gone by. Turning Steel (The Factory Lad) A song by Colin Dryden ©Colin Dryden 1969 You wake up in the morning, the sky's as black as night, Your mother's shouting up the stairs, you know she's winning the fight, You hurry to the breakfast table and grab a bite to eat, Then out the door and up the road, and through the factory gate. Chorus: Turning steel how do you feel, as in the chuck you spin. If you felt like me you'd roll right out and never roll back in. Cold and dark the morning as you squeeze in the gate. As you clock in, the bell will ring - eight hours is your fate. Off comes the coat and up go the sleeves and "right lads" is the cry. With one eye on the clock, the other on your lathe, you wish that time could fly. But time can't fly as fast as a lathe, and work you must - The grinding, groaning spinning metal, the hot air and the dust. And many's the time I'm with me girl and we're walking through the park, While gazing down at the spinning steel or the welder's blinding spark. Well, old Tom, he left last week - his final bell did ring. His hair as white as the face beneath his oily sunken skin. But he made a speech and he said "good-bye" to a life time working here, As I shook his hand, I thought of hell - a lathe for forty years. When my time comes, as come it must, why then I'll leave this place. I'll walk right out past the chargehand's desk and never turn my face. Out through the gates, into the sun, and I'll leave it all behind, With but one regret for the lads I've left, to carry on the grind. Cheers, Andrez |
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11 Sep 20 - 10:26 PM (#4071582) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Barry Skipsey is a singer/songwriter and professional photographer from Alice Springs. He has written many fine songs. This one is a session favourite in the Northern Territory. OCEAN LINER (Barry Skipsey) When I was fishing back in the west Rollin’ on the foamin’ sea I dream of them pretty girls back on the shore And I wish they was here with me Chorus Step on board the ocean liner Step on board without delay, me lads Step on board there’s nothin’ finer And together we’ll sail away Well, I made up me mind to take to the wave On hearing of a good return So the very next mornin’, I found myself prawnn’ Me stomach it began to churn Chorus I was workin’ twenty four hours a day Me eyes hangin’ out of me head Twenty four hours barely makin’ a wage I wish I was back in me bed Chorus Seven cents a kilo for kings, they said Eight cents a kilo endeavours At ten cents a kilo for tiger prawns For that they want the best out of you Chorus I’m a long way from mother out here on the waves A long way from family And a bloody long way from being a tap dancer That my mother so wanted me to be Chorus The skipper is a big man, he stands so high His head pokes up through the riggin’ And a crew of old dragons and they’re so high I think they’ve left the land of the living Chorus So I’m eatin’ and thinkin’, and sortin’ prawns Till they flamin’ well come out of me ears And the cook gives me the shits in more ways than one So I think I’m on my very last run Chorus Here is a rendition at Top Half Folk Festival in Alice Springs - ragged but right. Youtube clip It's hard to believe that prawns (or shrimps as they are called in the US) were ever that cheap. These days, you almost have to take out a bank loan to purchase a box. --Stewie. |
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11 Sep 20 - 10:33 PM (#4071584) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Andrez Link to Factory Lad by Colin Dryden. https://soundcloud.com/nomeshome/factory-lad-turning-steel-by Cheers, Andrez |
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11 Sep 20 - 10:45 PM (#4071586) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's another one from the NT. Wendy Baarda was a long-time resident at the Yuendumu Aboriginal community out from Alice Springs. Bloodwood, a well-regarded bush band from Alice Springs, adapted a poem that she wrote many years ago. It relates to the serious problem of illegal grog-running into the community. YUENDUMU FLAGON WAGON (Wendy Baarda/Bloodwood) (Chorus) Engine roarin’, tailpipe draggin’ Yuendumu flagon wagon Made it home again Every time, rain or shine Cops are waitin’ far behind Kids clear out and the women are cryin’ Daddy’s comin’ home with a load of wine Airstrip out and the road is clay Rain coming down every night and day No tucker in the store but they dropped in the pay There’s a big mob of flagon in the camp today Chorus Flagon wagon caught in a bog Rain comin’ down, no jack, no log No food, no fire, no blankets, no dog Seven day living off nothing but grog Chorus Every time, rain or shine Cops are waitin’ far behind Kids clear out and the women are cryin’ Daddy’s comin’ home with a load of wine Copper up ahead, too late, cut short ‘Hey black feller, what’s that you bought’ Ten jerry cans full of Four Crown port Talk about it two weeks later in court Chorus A hundred dollar down, hey man you’re on Win this round, get a car and I’m gone Another flagon wagon doin’ the run Up and down the Track to Aileron Chorus Every time, rain or shine Cops are waitin’ far behind Kids clear out and the women are cryin’ Daddy’s comin’ home with a load of wine The song may be found on the 2-CD set 'Bloodwood: the Collection'. --Stewie. |
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11 Sep 20 - 11:21 PM (#4071587) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Stewie, do you have WABO's "The Timbercutters Song" that Tropical Ear used to sing?? ("Keep them logs rolling boys, Down to the mill my boys, Keep them logs a-rolling down ....") How about "Matt Savage - The Boss Drover" - Ted Egan/Bloodwood??? Cheers, R-J BtW, someone mentioned "The Year of the Drum" "This song from Wendy Joseph describes the tragic effects of the World Wars on several generations of the people of Mannum and the use of music to entice young men to war. Mannum is a small town on the lower Murray River and has the distinction of having lost more men per head of population in both World Wars than any other town in South Australia." Here is Wongawilli's version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj7g5v-891s "The Year of the Drum" ~ Wendy Joseph My name is Jack Gresham, I grew up in Mannum, That river boat town I loved well, I married Meg Davis, we had us two children, One day our family bliss turned to Hell. For in nineteen fourteen, 'twas the year of the drum, The guns and the Government called me to come, Past melaleuca and tall shining gums, I drifted away down the Murray. My name is Meg Davis and I work down at Shearers, Making wagons and stirrups and hames, The war it is raging, the men are all fighting, The women toil here making fuel for the flames. For it's nineteen fifteen and the men have all gone, They're fighting in Europe so we carry on, We're keeping the candles lit bright here at home, To light their way back up the Murray. My name it is Mary and I am an orphan, My father was killed in the war, My mother Meg Davis, an upstanding lady, She drowned in the Murray the year I turned four. It was nineteen sixteen when the telegram came, The death of her soldier its message proclaimed, My Mum lost her footing due to tears and the rain, She slipped on the banks of the Murray. My name it is Billy and I am a soldier, I just got my orders to-day, My wife's name is Mary, she's as fair as a sunset, I hate to be leaving her lonely this way. But the year's forty two, 'tis the year of the drum, The guns and the Government call me to come, Past melaleuca and tall shining gums, I'm drifting away down the Murray. But the year doesn't matter, there's always a drum, The guns and the Governments call men to come, But the town still grows strong in her tall shining sons, While her daughters light lamps by the Murray. RjB |
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12 Sep 20 - 12:34 AM (#4071589) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, I had the WABO album, but I gave it to Pembo years ago to convert to CD. He never got a 'round tuit' and I don't know what has happened to his stuff. I have the words to 'Matt Savage' in one of Ted's songbooks. I'll type them out tomorrow. Here is a link to a spirited rendition of 'The Rabbiters' for which Sandra posted the lyrics earlier in this thread. Beaut song. Mucky Duck BB --Stewie. |
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12 Sep 20 - 09:12 PM (#4071692) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy A simple happy song for Sunday, to be sung by saints and sinners alike!! Pass the Song Along ~ Bernard Carney. You can Sing and I can Sing So let’s all Sing together Lift your voice and pass the song along, Sing your joy, Sing your love And we can Sing forever Lift your voice and pass the song along. Share a simple melody When you hit some nasty weather Lift your voice and pass the song along, Don’t care what you sound like If we’re singing it together Lift your voice and pass the song along. Pass the song along, the song is loud, the song is strong The song is old, the song is new, the song is free, The song is helping someone out, The song is laugh and dance and shout The song is anything you want the song to be. So you can Sing and I can Sing So let’s all Sing together Lift your voice and pass the song along, Sing your joy, Sing your love And we can Sing forever Lift your voice and pass the song along. Lift your voice and pass the song along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmKTzRrEBmA Bernard has over 40 years working full-time in the Oz entertainment industry, with numerous overseas and interstate gigs (he resides in WA), has released many CDs, and also works with the “Spirit of the Streets” choir and “Working Voices” combined unions choir. http://www.bernardcarney.com/ |
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12 Sep 20 - 09:19 PM (#4071693) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy KALGOORLIE PIPELINE ~ Alan Ferguson / trad Irish tune Ch. Way Way over the desert, the daylight is fading The camp fires grow bright at the close of the day And over the Darlings, our loved ones are waiting Beyond the Great Ocean, in Ireland far away. Way out in the diggings, the miners are toiling Dry blowing gold in the bright blazing sun They're cursing the price of the water they're drinking And praying O'Connor will get the job done. 300 miles we have toiled for O'Connor Swinging our hammers and heaving the lines A desert in front and a pipeline behind us And C. Y. O'Connor will get there in time. chorus..... Political wrangles have led to this pipeline And I cursed the day that I joined on meself To Kalgoorlie, soon, the water is flowing But that damned Irish foreman will see me in Hell. From Mundaring we're known as the wild pipeline navvies We sing and we booze 'round the campfire at night Through all the long days of typhoid and sickness Laying this pipeline for O'Connor's lone fight. Ch. Way over the desert, the daylight is fading The camp fires grow bright at the close of the day And over the Darlings, our loved ones are waiting Beyond the Great Ocean, in Ireland far away. A song from the pen of Alan Ferguson - half of The Settlers (with Sean Roche) from WA and from their 1979 album "Bound for Western Australia" for WA's 150th anniversary celebrations. The original LP had a wonderful accompanying history/lyric booklet, which sadly, the later CD edition lacked. SUCH a shame that this whole record has not been placed online. Cheers, R-J |
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12 Sep 20 - 09:31 PM (#4071694) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE DEATH OF BEN HALL Come all Australian sons with me, for a hero has been slain Cowardly butchered in his sleep, upon the Lachlan Plains. He never robbed a needy man, as all the records show Staunch and loyal to his mates, and manly to the foe. No brand of Cain e’er stamped his brow, no widow’s curse did fall When tales are read, the squatter’s dread, the name of bold Ben Hall. When first he left his trusty mates, the cause I ne’er did hear The bloodhounds of the law heard this, and after him did steer. Then savagely, they murdered him, those cowardly bluecoat imps Who were led on to where he lay, by informing peelers’ pimps. No more he’ll mount his gallant steed, or range the hills so high The widow’s friend in poverty, bold Ben Hall – goodbye. Pray do not stay your seemly grief, but let the teardrops fall For all Australia mourns today, the death of bold Ben Hall. It’s a pity that the version poignantly sung (in my memory!) by TONY LAVIN (Wild Colonial Boys) does not appear to be online. It was on their 1971 “Glenrowan to the Gulf” LP. WCB were Jacko Kevans, Bob McInnes, Jim Fingleton, Bill Morgan, Tony Lavin, and originally, Declan Affley. They all had a bit part in Tony Richardson’s 1970 film “Ned Kelly” (yes, the Mick Jagger version) – did they even get credited?? IMHO, t’would have been better if they had featured in the soundtrack instead of the Yanks (i.e. Shel Silverstein comps with Waylon Jennings & Kris Kristofferson & Tom Ghent singing, FFS!!!!) But yes, it’s all a long time ago now - and the remakes of Ned just keep on coming :) Cheers, R-J |
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12 Sep 20 - 09:49 PM (#4071695) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie MATT SAVAGE: BOSS DROVER (Ted Egan) At the six-mile in Wyndham the word passed around Matt Savage, the boss drover, has just come to town His plant's on the common, he's looking for men 'Cos he's taking a mob into Queensland He's a legend in the outback, he's a man among men Matt Savage, the boss drover, and he's riding again Two thousand store bullocks, wild ones at that That's the mob that he's taking into Queensland Chorus: Matt Savage, the boss drover, he'll take a mob over Taking the bullocks to Queensland, ah ha! Matt Savage, the boss drover, he'll take a mob over Taking the bullocks to Queensland Six of us ringers with cigarette swags Signed up by Matt Savage and we've each got six nags The cook's all hung over but the boss drover knows That he'll travel ok into Queensland First night, star bright, cattle travelling well Hear the jingle of the hobbles, hear the Condamine bell Sing a song as we watch them, make the buggers lie down Or they'll rush all the way into Queensland Chorus Meat for the packbags as we pass through Wave Hill There's a big Vestey's bullock so we're in for the kill Grilled rib-bones tonight by the campfire's light We'll be fit when we finally hit Queensland But we're haunted by ghosts on the Murranji Track Dead men, dead bullocks, cursed outback Cattle dry-staging and the boss drover's raging Hard times on the way into Queensland Chorus The Murranji's dry but at Newcastle Waters We'll be dancing in the bar with old Bullwaddy's daughter Then it's back in the saddle, keep pushing them cattle Gotta take 'em along into Queensland And when the bullocks all rushed, led by the big roan Matt Savage on the night-horse, he turned them alone He's been on the road now for about forty years Boss drover on the stock routes to Queensland Chorus Four months on the road and the Tableland's bare And it's heat, and it's dust, and there's flies everywhere But when we get to Camooweal, we won't give a damn and we'll Go riding along into Queensland And there's the railway, there's the siding, delivery Dajarra Then as quick as a flash we'll be into the bar Of the pub for a blowout and a gutful of rum 'Cos we just brought a mob into Queensland Ted noted: Bullwaddy Bates was a legendary figure who came on to the Barkly Tableland, acquired several Jingili women as concubines and set up Beetaloo and OT Stations. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bates (or Bathern, which was his correct name) recognised his mix-race children and bequeathed the properties to them when he died. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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12 Sep 20 - 09:52 PM (#4071696) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy WARATAH AND WATTLE ~ Frances Patterson (& Henry Lawson) Though poor and in trouble I wander alone With a rebel cockade in my hand Though friends may desert me and kindred disown My country will never do that! You may sing of the Shamrock, the Thistle, the Rose Or the Three-in-a-Bunch, if you will But I know of a country that’s gathered all those And I love the Great Land where the Waratah grows And the Wattle bough blooms on the hill. In Dreamtime, they tell us, the Great Spirits came They wandered and traveled the land They raised up the mountains and flattened the plains They laid down the rocks and the sand They carved out a course for the long river’s way They planted the forests in shade The great power of forming is joined to their way And the tracks that they traveled are still here today Under the roads we have made. Now under the Wattle I wander alone And I think of the loss and the gain To the land where we live we no longer belong Although it is held in our name This great earth which has borne us we want to disown We have deserted our land We are separate now and we live quite alone And we try to grow roots in a place that we own And bitterly don’t understand And bitterly, we won’t understand. I learnt this great song in the 80s from the singing of Lynne Tracey (now back to being Lynne Muir), who is a most beautiful artist - calligrapher in Victoria and now sings classical music rather than folk. Though the first verse is Lawson's, Frances Paterson of Sydney, wrote the next two and composed the music. If you find Lawson's poem being sung on YT, it's pretty dire, and the tune definitely does not fit this song. Frances recorded her song in 1987 on an album of originals called "Sol Y Sombra" - I cannot find the song online, but I have ordered the LP from EBay! Frances was also in bands like "Okapi Guitar Band" performing "AfroPop" - great-sounding dance music. She died in 2018. Cheers, R-J |
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12 Sep 20 - 11:19 PM (#4071700) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy I am still interested in finding songs relating to C.Y. O'Connor, the brilliant Irish-born engineer who planned/built the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme (aka The Kalgoorlie Pipeline - from Mundaring in the Darling Range of Perth), 1896-1903, amongst other projects in West Aussie and New Zealand. He was hounded to take his own life less than 12 months before the taps were successfully turned on, by MSM rants (esp The Sunday Times) and politicians like Alexander Forrest (though his brother, John Forrest, was a supporter). I have posted songs I have found so far in the following thread : https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=48647&messages=31#4071699 Cheers, R-J (not sure why the Blicky Machine doesn't work for Mudcat threads - I only get 404 messages!) |
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12 Sep 20 - 11:35 PM (#4071701) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Some additional information re 'Waltjim bat Matilda' posted above. Ali Mills is the grand-niece of the late Val McGinness who had an old-time string band in pre-WW2 Darwin. Val was the writer of 'Waltjim but Matilda' (original had 'but' not 'bat') and Ali adapted it by adding some Gurindji and Larrakia words. Jeff Corfield, who lived in Darwin for many years, wrote a book in tribute to the life and music of Val McGinness whom he described as 'one of the last of Darwin's old string band musicians: 'String Bands and Shake Hands'. Val died in 1988. Shortly before Val's death, Jeff made extensive recordings of his songs and tunes and these have been deposited in the Northern Territory Archives. Val's brother, John (Jack), was also a musician. In relation to 'Waltjim but Matilda', Val told Jeff in 1988: We (Johnny and I) would start off singing 'once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong' and the rest of the band would play with us. When we'd finish that first verse, I'd come in and say 'hey you fella, you chingim that song wrong way!' (and they'd say) 'yeah, which right way you chingim?' and I'd say 'you blow that bamboo (that didgeridoo) and I'll chingim proper way for you' ... and Johnny would get the guitar and he'd go dung dung a dung - make noise like a didgeridoo and I'd sing it see! Here is one of Val's songs. His brother wrote the music. ADELAIDE RIVER (V.McGinness/J.McGinness) Have you been on the beautiful Adelaide River? Have you ever seen kangaroos and wallabies at play? Trees are ever green on the beautiful Adelaide River That is where my heart is and where I long to stay Bamboo trees sway in the breeze while moon is rising high Waters rolling, lovers strolling, just like you and I Night birds calling, shadows falling, over silver streams Oh how grand to hold your hand just like I do in dreams We fell in love on the beautiful Adelaide River Moon rose above, lighting love's glorious way You were in my arms on the beautiful Adelaide River Darling, I love you for ever and a day --Stewie. |
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13 Sep 20 - 02:25 AM (#4071704) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Thanks Stew! I'm very fond of Val's "Adelaide River' song!! Hopefully one day it will make it online. Here is the sound of the regenerated Darwin String Bands in The Darwin Rondalla and the famous Shake Hands dance : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol4XPSNHT7E Cheers, R-J |
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13 Sep 20 - 02:49 AM (#4071705) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy RANGITIKI [© BOB WILSON 2014] 1. Life was spartan in England years after the war Few jobs, low wages, prospects were poor No better in Scotland or Ireland too Uncle Jim emigrated so we joined the queue It was life on the prairies or in old Sydney town Dunedin was mentioned, with a worrisome frown Nine families, one bathroom, it was not hard to choose Except for the day they told their parents the news. ch. When the Rangitiki, Rangitane, Rangitata sailed upon the seas They carried troops in the war, then took migrants to the colonies The commonwealth of nations welcomed them with open arms They brought teachers and tradesmen and laborers to work the farms. 2. My dad said “they’ll take us if we’re breathing and warm.” There was ice on the windows, it was a terrible storm He had one small piece of paper to say who we were Paid five english pounds for the seagoing fare We all got vaccinations and smallpox scars Stayed with auntie in London, saw the changing of the guard She drove us to Tilbury on a drizzly day With sad music playing, we sailed away. Ch. When the Rangitiki, Rangitane, Rangitata sailed upon the seas They carried troops in the war, then took migrants to the colonies The commonwealth of nations welcomed them with open arms They brought teachers and tradesmen and laborers to work the farms. People in the new land helped put us at our ease They made fun of our accents but no-one called us refugees Yet we sought asylum in our modest anglo-saxon way Now one in four is born somewhere else, or so they say, 3. There are pictures of her children hanging on the wall Wearing academic gowns, standing proud and tall Some have been to England, some have been to France One moved to Manitoba, a refugee romance Sometimes with her family gathered all around She thinks of what we got for those five english pounds We work and we save and we give what we can To those seeking refuge from their troubled lands. We work and we save and we give what we can To refugees from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan From Burma, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, (spoken) Ch. When the Rangitiki, Rangitane, Rangitata sailed upon the seas, When the Rangitiki, Rangitane, Rangitata sailed upon the seas, When the Rangitiki, Rangitane, Rangitata sailed upon the seas. Here is the link to The Goodwills YT presentation of this song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idnXHKWl01A&t=297s And here is Bob's Blog where he explains the background story : https://bobwords.com.au/rangitiki-migrants-story/ This track is from their latest CD "The Last Waterhole" and their previous recording "Loungeroom Legends", has another great favourite of mine : "Impressions of New Zealand" - a companion migrant song to this one. Watch their YT presentation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3gCGksoS_8 Bob Wilson [The Goodwills] is a lovely songwriter and The Goodwills (now of Warwick, Qld) have 4 CDs , which contain mostly Bob's originals. He paints great pictures with his words and gentle humour. Cheers, R-J |
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13 Sep 20 - 04:20 AM (#4071711) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy When you posted "On the Death of Harold Holt" by JS Manifold, Stewie, I had clean forgotten that it was already up on Paul's YT channel at his 15th National Folk Festival concert in Brisbane at Easter 1981 :)) (I said I thought I was going ga-ga :( It was quite a few posts back, so I'll repeat the lyrics : HAROLD HOLT*** poem by John Streeter Manifold music by Paul Oswald Lawler Only a week before Christmas The happiest day of the year They held a wake for Harold Holt And the big wig guests came here Bonny Prince Charlie came o’er the sea With Wilson who never smiles And L B J from the U S A And the king of the cannibal isles Chaps from Siam and South Vietnam And the Philippines too I think Some for the sake of the free free world And some for the free free drink They made long speeches and shed loud tears To propitiate Harold’s ghost And the king of the cannibal isles got up To propose a final toast He said we have had such a splendid time Such generous Christmas cheer We hope you’ll be able to drown A Prime Minister every year ***JSM’s title was “On the Death of Mr Holt” The track is at 12:55 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kGADIvdG_c Cheers, R-J |
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13 Sep 20 - 05:14 AM (#4071716) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy GREEN AMONG THE GOLD ~ Steve Barnes 1. Dusty plains and iron chains met Erin's sons and daughters Cast upon a barren land, a far-off distant shore They dreamed of misty mountains and their home across the water They sang of Connemara and the home they'd see no more. Now limestone walls are all that's left of times of pain and failure This country yields the secrets of the beauty that it holds And the tunes of Erin's Isle are now the music of Australia For Irish hands have woven strands of green among the gold. Ch. And so beneath the southern cross they sang their songs of Ireland Who sent her sons and daughters there in the hungry days of old They play their jigs and reels beneath the skies of their new homeland For Irish hands have woven strands of green among the gold. 2. Times were hard at home and so they took a crazy notion To start a brand new life upon the far side of the globe And now they find their hearts are stranded somewhere in mid ocean Though their days are full of sunshine and their future's full of hope, Their children sing of a droving life, of shearers, and bushrangers They learn to play the music and to dance the steps of old Though their hearts are in Australia they never will be strangers To the land they left behind them; they're the green among the gold. I didn’t find a recording by WA composers Steve & Ros Barnes, so here is an a cappella version by the Germany-based trio IONTACH : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx1Slp02jE0 Steve Barnes was for many years the Artistic Director of Fairbridge Folk Festival, at Pinjarra in Western Australia. Cheers, R-J |
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13 Sep 20 - 07:37 AM (#4071720) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy ORE TRAIN BLUES © BOB WILSON 2013 V.1 He got a job way out west carting iron ore From the outback mines of the Pilbara to the West Australian shore The hours were long, but the pay was good, but there wasn’t much to do Except strum the ukulele and sing train songs with the crew. CH.1 and they sang: Freight train, Graveyard train, Blow that Lonesome Whistle train The Indian Pacific and the Abalinga Mail Night train, Morning train Roll in m’Baby’s Arms train Picking up the tempo with the rattling of the rails. V.2 Now the bosses and the union called a meeting in the yard They had heard about this trio with the engineer and guard “It’s workplace health and safety, it’s like talking on your phone.” But he knew it wasn’t the music, they just didn’t like the tone. CH.2 and they sang: Ghost train, Poison train, not bound for glory, This train And they all sang la la la la, when They Drove Old Dixie Down Bridal train, Salvation train, Get on Board Little Children train He could have been the King of the Road but he never got the crown. V.3 The boss bought high-tech robots from Korea and Japan And the maiden hands-free journey went pretty much to plan They said: “It’s a boring job, we’ll find you something else to do.” Now he’s in a control room, sharing train songs with the crew. CH.3 and they sang: Freight train, Graveyard train, Blow that Lonesome Whistle train The Indian Pacific and the Abalinga Mail Night train, Morning train Roll in m’Baby’s Arms train Picking up the tempo with the rattling of the rails. CH.4 and they sang: Mail train, Slow train, Desper-ados Waiting for a Train Homeward Bound, John Henry, Engine Engine Number Nine Peace train, Freedom train, Robert Johnston’s Love in Vain And they all sang like Dylan: well, I'm walkin' down the line And they all sang like Dylan: well, I'm walkin' down the line. For all you lovers of Train Songs - another from Bob & Laurel Wilson (aka The Goodwills) and a great one to try and sing along, esp with the 4 chorus variations!! You'll find it here : https://www.thegoodwills.com/store/music-by-the-goodwills/the-last-waterhole/ on their latest CD "The Last Waterhole". Cheers, R-J |
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13 Sep 20 - 07:48 AM (#4071721) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Sorry if Stewie and I have put anyone else off from posting, but there's just so much good music out there (much of it not heard outside of Oz festivals or folkclubs), and when the spirit moves you, well, ya just gotta let it take ya :)) But I think I'm having a break for a coupla days now anyway .... Cheers, R-J |
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13 Sep 20 - 09:40 AM (#4071728) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney does that mean I have to get back to work? |
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13 Sep 20 - 08:52 PM (#4071775) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, well said. Thanks for posting a link to Val McGinness's 'Shake Hands Dance'. Lovely. Sandra, yes. PIONEERS (F.Ophel/R.Rummery) They said, 'Now here is gold The cloth of gold unrolled Lies spread about our feet Now fortune smiles and sweet' The mulga hid the face of fate Watching with ruthless eyes of hate 'Now wealth is ours', they said 'Great wealth and riches red Our journeying is done Guerdon and gold are won' Red were the written words they signed And scenting blood the wild dog whined They said, 'Now ours is fame And honoured glorious name - The name of pioneers And honour as of seers' They turned to take the homeward track And dreamed a joyous welcome back No man knows where they lie None heard their last death cry Unmarked their grave by mound But at the last trump sound Perchance some god who all things hears Will give them praise as pioneers This one is on Bob Rummery's 'Man with the concertina' CD. Bob's note: A poem written by Frederick Ophel in June 1906. A story on WA's goldfields in the early 1890s told that the first prospectors to peg Coolgardie found pegs in the ground with indecipherable writing in red ink. No one knows who pegged the ground'. You can find a rendition at about the 45-min mark of Chloe and Jason's tribute to Bob. Youtube --Stewie. |
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13 Sep 20 - 09:50 PM (#4071777) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THUNDERBOLT'S DREAM (Trad/Anon) One night in Uralla scrub as I lay Strange fancies came o'er me and I thought it was day I thought it was day yet I knew it was night My dreams they all vanished and I woke in a fright I saw scenes of a picnic in a faraway town Of music and dancing and sports all around My mother and father enjoying the fun And schoolmates with whom I once ventured to run Yes my dreams they all vanished and I woke with a jolt To find myself still the outlaw Thunderbolt But the music kept playing, there was a dance on nearby No one would know me so I strolled on inside We were having a spell, we'd just finished a dance When a trooper rode up and his horse it did prance I could tell by his looks he was more than a colt So I thought to myself, 'You'll suit Thunderbolt' While the trooper engaged in having a dance I made for the door, to the horse I soon pranced I sprang to the stirrup, in the saddle with one bound I said, 'My young fellow a rider you've found' Over rivers and valleys and mountains we flew And from the green grass swept the bright morning dew The trooper gave chase but he hadn't a chance With his head hanging down he rode back to the dance To that young policeman a lesson I've taught No more he'll be heard in any police court It was a hundred good miles I made on that colt They put a thousand bright sovereigns on bold Thunderbolt The song is the opening track of Bob Rummery's 'Man with the concertina'. Here is less spirited rendition than Bob's - Bob's nephew, Mark Rummery, and Barry McDonald. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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13 Sep 20 - 09:59 PM (#4071778) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Uralla is just an hour north of here, their local museum has an excellent Thunderbolt display. |
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13 Sep 20 - 10:07 PM (#4071779) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Bob Rummery put a tune to Ian Mudie's poem about Australian soldiers in New Guinea in WW2. NEW GUINEA CAMPAIGN (Mudie/Rummery) Are you there, Peter Lalor, are you there? Ghost with gold-dust in your hair And lean Stuart do you ride to seek your northern tide? Where in greens they're slowly swinging Through the mud, too tired for singing Where the poison of New Guinea fills the ai Are you there, untiring Eyre, are you there? With your heart beyond compare Are you there, you brave wild Kellys where heroes on their bellies Through the jungle now are creeping May their women have no weeping When snipers from their tree-tops cruelly stare? You ghosts that walk beside Do you watch them now with pride? As through green hell and glory, they carry on your story Where in mud their feet are sinking And in dreams they're always thinking Of their homes and of the cobbers who have died --Stewie. |
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14 Sep 20 - 08:52 PM (#4071890) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST As sung by Martyn Wyndham- Read. TOMAHAWKING FRED Now some shearing I have done, and some prizes I have won Through knuckling down so close against the skin But I'd rather tomahawk every day and shear a flock For that's the only way to make some tin Chorus I am just about to head for the Darling River shed To turn a hundred out I know the plan Just give me sufficient cash and you'll see me make a splash For I'm Tomahawking Fred, the lady's man Put me on a shearing floor and I’ll lay you five to four That I'd give any ringer ten sheep start Oh when I’m on the whipping side then away from me they glide Just like any bullet or a dart Chorus Oh of me you might have read for I'm Tomahawking Fred In shearing sheds me fame has travelled far I'm the don of the Riverine, amongst the shearers cut a shine And our tar-boy says I never call for tar Chorus Wire in and go ahead, for I'm Tomahawking Fred In a shearing shed, my lads, I cut a shine There is Roberts and Jack Gunn, shearing laurels they have won But my tally's never under ninety-nine Chorus Youtube clip This belter of a shearing song was preserved for us by the self-styled 'last of the bushrangers', Jack Bradshaw, who had done a bit of shearing when he wasn't horse stealing or planning bank robberies. He served 20 years from 1880 for bank robbery and some business over a stolen cheque. In jail, he put together his 'Highway Robbery Under Arms Without Shedding Blood' and 'Twenty Years of Prison Life in the Gaols of NSW'. These included a number of traditional songs, including this one. It appears in Stewart and Keesing' edition of 'Old Bush Songs' under the title 'Some Shearing I Have Done'. Evidently, the ballad is based on a music hall song 'Fashionable Fred'. --Stewie. |
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14 Sep 20 - 09:43 PM (#4071897) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Once again, I forgot to login. Of course, this Lawson poem should be among any collection of Australian 'folk songs'. FREEDOM ON THE WALLABY (Henry Lawson) Australia's a big country An' Freedom's humping bluey, An' Freedom's on the wallaby Oh! don't you hear 'er cooey? She's just begun to boomerang, She'll knock the tyrants silly, She's goin' to light another fire And boil another billy. Our fathers toiled for bitter bread While loafers thrived beside 'em, But food to eat and clothes to wear, Their native land denied 'em. An' so they left their native land In spite of their devotion, An' so they came, or if they stole, Were sent across the ocean. Then Freedom couldn't stand the glare O' Royalty's regalia, She left the loafers where they were, An' came out to Australia. But now across the mighty main The chains have come ter bind her – She little thought to see again The wrongs she left behind her. Our parents toil'd to make a home – Hard grubbin 'twas an' clearin' – They wasn't crowded much with lords When they was pioneering. But now that we have made the land A garden full of promise, Old Greed must crook 'is dirty hand And come ter take it from us. So we must fly a rebel flag, As others did before us, And we must sing a rebel song And join in rebel chorus. We'll make the tyrants feel the sting O' those that they would throttle; They needn't say the fault is ours If blood should stain the wattle! There are plenty of renditions available on the Net. Unfortunately, my favourite is not - Bob Rummery singing it on Loaded Dog 'Dusty gravel road'. Loaded Dog faithfully keep to Lawson's text. Decades ago, I put together the following intro for a themed concert of Oz songs. It may be of interest: The depression of the early 1890s led to an explosion of the antagonisms that had been simmering between capital and labour. Strikes and lockouts were the order of the day. The shearers' strike of 1891 brought Australia close to the brink of civil war at a time when working people throughout the world were demanding social justice, better pay and improved working conditions. The powerful squatters were aided and abetted by colonial governments, the military and the police. At Barcaldine, over 1500 troopers with cannon and gattling guns confronted 1000 armed shearers who were attacking a train loaded with scabs. This led to hundreds of shearers being arrested and woodsheds being burned to the ground. Lawson published 'Freedom on the Wallaby' in 'The Worker' in Brisbane on 16 May 1891. It was his comment on the use of the military to put down the shearers' strike and some stanzas were read out in the Queensland parliament amid calls for his arrest for sedition. The poem took to the bush and grew itself a tune. A.G. Stephens once said of one of Lawson's poems and would have said of many 'this is not high poetry, but the passion, the grip of it, make it valuable and, in Australia, memorable. It is interesting to note that, as early as 1889, Lawson was writing: 'I don't think I'd live for a week under the freedom or tyranny of unionism, universal brotherhood, glorious liberty or whatever you like to call it'. --Stewie. |
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14 Sep 20 - 10:16 PM (#4071898) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's another Lawson poem for which Bob Rummery provided a tune: THE SHEARERS (H.Lawson/R.Rummery) No church-bell rings them from the Track, No pulpit lights their blindness– ‘Tis hardship, drought, and homelessness That teach those bushmen kindness: The mateship born, in barren lands, Of toil and thirst and danger, The camp-fare for the wanderer set, The first place to the stranger. They do the best they can today– Take no thought of the morrow; Their way is not the old-world way– They live to lend and borrow. When shearing’s done and cheques gone wrong, They call it “time to slither”– They saddle up and say “So-long!” And ride the Lord knows whither. And though he may be brown or black, Or wrong man there, or right man, The mate that’s steadfast to his mates They call that man a “white man!” They tramp in mateship side by side– The Protestant and Roman– They call no biped lord or sir, And touch their hat to no man! They carry in their swags perhaps, A portrait and a letter– And, maybe, deep down in their hearts, The hope of “something better.” Where lonely miles are long to ride, And long, hot days recurrent, There’s lots of time to think of men They might have been–but weren’t. They turn their faces to the west And leave the world behind them (Their drought-dry graves are seldom set Where even mates can find them). They know too little of the world To rise to wealth or greatness; But in these lines I gladly pay My tribute to their straightness It can be found on Loaded Dog 'That there dog o' mine' CD. --Stewie. |
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15 Sep 20 - 12:46 AM (#4071905) Subject: RE: Steamshuttle From: GUEST Hi Mudcatters Sandra Nixon alerted me to this thread and suggested I post on Steamshuttle and my songs. The easiest way to access all this is from my music blog at https://sealsongs.blogspot.com/ I have a selection there, arranged by song title (lyric, link to an audio recording). Just click on the button and it takes you to the recording on my Soundcloud site. There is also a button for Steamshuttle, which takes you to a selection of tracks from the LP, a bit of info about the band, as well as some unreleased tracks intended for a follow-up that didn’t happen. Happy to answer any questions (g.seal@curtin.edu.au) and keep up the good work on a great project. GS |
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15 Sep 20 - 01:53 AM (#4071908) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Seal Songs - Songs by Graham Seal Seal Songs - Stream Shuttle bio & tracks Steam Shuttle at Sydney Opera House, 2nd Bush Music Festival 1979 Review of Steam Shuttle LP, 1977 |
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15 Sep 20 - 03:55 AM (#4071913) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Excellent! I look forward, Graham, to working my way through listening to your tracks. R-J |
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15 Sep 20 - 03:59 AM (#4071914) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy WARRANDYTE MORNING ~ Mark Leehy (PARADIDDLE) Dragonfly morning in the summer heat You bring no warning anytime you feel, And we’ll drift through the air with a tumbling motion And we’ll sift through the sands of an endless ocean. Warrandyte morning in the summer haze If you catch me yawning, wake me up today, And we’ll drift through the air with a tumbling motion And we’ll sift through the sands of an endless ocean. I’ve had the days of dreaming, but today they’ve all gone home I’ve never really had to ramble, but I feel I’m coming home. Dragonfly morning in the summer haze You bring the dawning of my summer days, And we’ll drift through the air with a tumbling motion And we’ll sift through the sands of an endless ocean. I’m coming home But I’ve felt times when I was far beyond my mind……. In a Warrandyte morning in the summer haze If you catch me yawning, wake me up today. From their “Wait Till the Word Gets Around” - 1st of 3 LPs : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db0v2nnUSgY Warrandyte is an old town in a beautiful area about 25kms NE of Melbourne’s CBD . Dunno if it is now possibly a little suburban?? - but the pics still show it as lovely! (if a little bushfire-prone…..) Mark Leehy was a member of Paradiddle folk band from 1978 and he and some other members are part of Bushfire Press. Plus, I believe Mark is still connected with Music in Schools programs and bush dances. Cheers, R-J (this song was a great favourite of my late partner, Paul Lawler)……. |
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15 Sep 20 - 04:04 AM (#4071916) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Bring Out The Banners ©1997 John Warner In faded photo, like a dream, A locomotive under steam Rolls with the ranks of marching feet And union banners on the street. Ch. Bring out the banners once again, You union women, union men, That all around may plainly see The power of our unity. I've seen those banners richly made With symbols fair of craft and trade, The union's names in red and gold, Their aspirations printed bold. Boilermakers, smiths and cooks, Stevedores with cargo hooks, Declare their union strong and proud, Rank on rank before the crowd. They won the eight-hour working day, They won our right to honest pay, Victorious their banners shone, How dare we lose what they have won? Today, when those who rule divide, We must be standing side by side, Our rights were bought with tears and pain, Bring out the banners once again. (Tune: Oxford or See Amid The Winter's Snow by John Goss. 1800-1880) As a good lefty folkie :) My Paul loved to sing "BOTB" in Maleny; this is how they honour John’s song and its sentiments in Minneapolis, MN : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9EqdD7_toA |
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15 Sep 20 - 04:08 AM (#4071917) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy The Miner’s Way ~ Sally Harris (Gone Molly) Cold tunnels, black as night That’s The Miner’s Way Toiling by the candlelight Half a shilling in my pay. Pick and hammer, wedge and wheel That’s The Miner’s Way Blackened lungs that never heal. Half a shilling in my pay. Born to the yoke of misery Not enough to feed our families, While the rich are counting out their pounds We must send our children underground. Working for the rich man’s purse That’s The Miner’s Way Poverty, the worker’s curse Half a shilling in my pay. 12 long hours in the deep That’s The Miner’s Way Still we face a famished sleep Half a shilling in my pay. Born to the yoke of misery Not enough to feed our families, While the rich are counting out their pounds We must send our children underground. When the land no wealth reveals That’s The Miner’s Way Parting wages bankers steal Half a shilling in my pay. Cast out like a deadly blight That’s The Miner’s Way Lords and Ladies dance tonight That’s the bloody miner’s way, That’s the bloody miner’s way, That’s ….. The Miner’s Way. Gone Molly were a delightful duo (singer-songwriter Sally Harris and Rebecca Wright on cello and vocals) and are now a delightful trio with the addition of Lachlan Baldwin on vocals and multi instruments. Sally’s songs often have that quality of making you wonder if it’s traditional :) and are also often great for singing along with! Listen here : https://gonemolly.bandcamp.com/track/the-miners-way They have a CD and an EP so far. Cheers, R-J |
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15 Sep 20 - 06:04 AM (#4071918) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Since 16th August we have posted 144 songs, well done, us! ----------- 1. Date: 16 Aug 20 - 11:00 AM ANDERSON'S COAST © John Warner 8/5/93 2. Date: 18 Aug 20 - 10:41 AM "Now I'm easy" (no words) 3. Date: 18 Aug 20 - 08:11 PM Battler's ballad 4. Date: 18 Aug 20 - 08:53 PM Do You Think That I Do Not Know? 5. Date: 18 Aug 20 - 10:00 PM SERVICE SONG lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson Arranged by Evan Mathieson 6 & 7 - Date: 19 Aug 20 - 02:12 AM One of the has-beens by Don Henderson & One of the has-beens (trad) 8 + 9 Date: 19 Aug 20 - 02:44 PM Where the Brumbies Come to Water + Reedy Lagoon 10. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:04 PM He fades away Alistair Hulett 11. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:21 PM Suicide town Alistair Hulett 12. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:37 PM Rabbit Trapper 13. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:48 PM WHERE THE CANE FIRES BURN (Bill Scott) 14. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 09:02 PM HEY RAIN (Bill Scott) 15. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 09:33 PM Brown skin baby 16. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 09:59 PM Phyl Lobl has written so many great songs lyrics 17. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 10:00 PM Dorothy Hewett's SAILOR HOME FROM THE SEA 18. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 10:11 PM Dorothy Hewett's Weevils in the flour + original poem 19. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 10:16 PM BARE LEGGED KATE words: John Dengate 20. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 10:48 PM My apologies, the transcription that I posted above of 'Sailor home from the sea' needs severe correction. I copied and pasted it from a Mudcat thread. Martyn's version varies a little from Hewett's original, but this is what he sings: SAILOR HOME FROM THE SEA 21. Date: 19 Aug 20 - 11:35 PM THE BROKEN-DOWN SQUATTER (Charles Flower) 22. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 07:36 AM MY DEAR DARWIN © Paul Lawler, 1983 23. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 09:40 AM Australian version of Stephen Foster's 'Gentle Annie'. 24. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 10:17 AM JOHNNY STEWART DROVER (Chris Buch) 25. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 10:45 AM Will Ogilvie, WHEN THE BRUMBIES COME TO WATER 26. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 11:02 AM Waltzing Matilda 27. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 11:04 AM I've just made a quick list of traditional songs, collected & re-popularised in the revival of the 50s/60s. They were all published by the Bush Music Club in Singabout (1956-67) Maggie May, Nine Miles from Gundagai, The Neumerella Shore, The Wild Colonial Boy, The Black Velvet Band & The Old Bark Hut, The Drover's Dream, Wild Rover, Old Black Billy (written in 1938 but thought to be trad. when it was collected), and a couple of other classics which strangely enough were not published in Singabout! - Moreton Bay & Reedy River lyrics & video of Chris Kempster singing 28. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 11:46 AM Gerry Hallom The Outside Track 29. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 08:48 PM AND WHEN THEY DANCE (Roy Abbott) 30. Date: 20 Aug 20 - 09:19 PM WATCHERS OF THE WATER (Paul Hemphill) 31. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 07:56 AM very famous songs in copyright Redgum - I was only 19 lyrics I was only 19 video Paul Kelly & Kev Carmody - From little things big things grow 32. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 08:22 PM TIME IS A TEMPEST John Broomhall / John Thompson 33. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 08:30 PM John Dengate The Answer's Ireland (Tune Rody McCorley) 34. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 08:59 PM AFTER ALL (Henry Lawson/Garnet Rogers) 35. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 09:42 PM THE SLIPRAIL AND THE SPUR (Henry Lawson) 35. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 10:08 PM THE SWAGGIES HAVE ALL WALTZED MATILDA AWAY (Alistair Hulett) 36. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 10:22 PM PAST CARIN’ (Henry Lawson) 37. Date: 21 Aug 20 - 11:52 PM THE REEDY LAGOON (post 50) ====================== 39. Date: 22 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM Ted Egan's 'Sayonara Nakamura' 40. Date: 22 Aug 20 - 10:44 PM Back to Broome - Ted Egan 41. Date: 23 Aug 20 - 10:17 PM NORTHWARD TO THE SHEDS (Will Ogilvie) 42. Date: 24 Aug 20 - 10:02 PM LAST COAL TRAIN (Paul Wookey) 43. Date: 24 Aug 20 - 10:24 PM SERGEANT SMALL 44. Date: 24 Aug 20 - 11:21 PM DUSTY GRAVEL ROAD (Alan Mann) 45. Date: 24 Aug 20 - 11:37 PM THE POISON TRAIN (Michael O'Rourke) 46. Date: 25 Aug 20 - 12:19 AM PADDY'S BACK (Alan Ralph) 47. Date: 25 Aug 20 - 09:08 PM CALL OF THE NORTH (J.Sorensen/R.Rummery) 48. Date: 25 Aug 20 - 09:25 PM THE WINDMILL RUN (Alan Mann) 49. Date: 25 Aug 20 - 10:07 PM DOWN THE RIVER (H. Lawson/I. MacDougall) 50. Date: 25 Aug 20 - 10:41 PM KITTY KANE (John Warner) 51. Date: 25 Aug 20 - 11:15 PM ON THE DEATH OF MR HOLT (John Manifold/Paul Lawler) 52. Date: 26 Aug 20 - 10:57 PM THE SHAME OF GOING BACK (Henry Lawson) 53. Date: 27 Aug 20 - 12:37 AM THE PEOPLE HAVE SONGS (Miguel Heatwole) 54. Date: 27 Aug 20 - 01:25 AM THE SIEGE OF UNION STREET (words & music by Alistair Hulett) 55. Date: 27 Aug 20 - 10:50 PM WINNIPEG IN WINTER (Alan Mann) 56. Date: 27 Aug 20 - 11:41 PM AWAY TO TINTINARA (Mike O'Connor) 57. Date: 28 Aug 20 - 09:04 PM WHEN YOU'RE FLUSH (T.Brittain/R.Rummery) 58. Date: 28 Aug 20 - 09:53 PM MENZIES' SHOUT (HAVE A DRINK ON ME) (Alan Mann) 59. Date: 28 Aug 20 - 11:20 PM SONG OF ARTESIAN WATER (Paterson/O'Sullivan) 60. Date: 29 Aug 20 - 01:35 AM WITH THE CATTLE (Paterson/Hallom) 61. Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:04 AM Kevin Baker - Snowy River Men - video 62. Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:52 AM Kevin Baker - Superstar 63. Date: 29 Aug 20 - 11:08 AM THE RABBITER Words and music: Stan Wakefield 64. Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:37 PM BRUNSWICK ROAD (Steve Groves & Danny Bourke) 65. Date: 29 Aug 20 - 11:03 PM SHEARING IN A BAR (Duke Tritton) 66. Date: 30 Aug 20 - 07:14 PM LEWIS ISLAND LUGGER (M.Murray & L.Silvester) 67. Date: 30 Aug 20 - 07:57 PM BENEATH ULURU (Dave Oakes) 68. Date: 30 Aug 20 - 10:36 PM SHIP REPAIRING MEN (Harry Robertson) 69. Date: 30 Aug 20 - 11:14 PM HOMELESS MAN (Harry Robertson) 70. Date: 30 Aug 20 - 11:43 PM WEE POT STOVE (Harry Robertson) 71. Date: 31 Aug 20 - 12:27 AM Reedy River. 72. Date: 31 Aug 20 - 07:37 AM Weevils in the Flour by Dorothy Hewitt in 1962 (post 100) ===================== 73. Date: 31 Aug 20 - 07:29 PM SONG OF THE WHEAT (Paterson/Hallom) 74. Date: 01 Sep 20 - 07:08 PM This one, relating to the red centre, is by a Scot. SINGING LAND (Dougie Maclean) 75. Date: 01 Sep 20 - 07:21 PM BAW BAW BIG BILL (Terry Piper) 76. Date: 01 Sep 20 - 07:54 PM HANGING ON FOR THE RAIN (Anne Infante) 77. Date: 01 Sep 20 - 08:59 PM FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW (Paul Kelly/Kev Carmody) 78. Date: 01 Sep 20 - 09:22 PM NO MORE BOOMERANG (Kath Walker) Oodgeroo Noonuccal 79. Date: 02 Sep 20 - 08:25 PM THIRTY TON LINE (Don Henderson) 80. Date: 02 Sep 20 - 11:31 PM RAKE AND A RAMBLING MAN (Don Henderson) 81. Date: 03 Sep 20 - 08:44 PM BONNIE JESS (T.Spencer/G.Shearston) 82. Date: 03 Sep 20 - 08:59 PM GIRLS IN OUR TOWN (Bob Hudson) 83. Date: 03 Sep 20 - 09:24 PM NED KELLY'S FAREWELL TO GRETA (Traditional) 84. Date: 03 Sep 20 - 10:39 PM IRISH GIRLS (WILL STEAL YOUR HEART AWAY) (Gary Shearston) 85. Date: 04 Sep 20 - 07:50 PM THE KELLY'S TURNING (Larry King) 86. Date: 04 Sep 20 - 08:29 PM SONG OF THE SHEETMETAL WORKER (John Dengate) 87. Date: 04 Sep 20 - 09:12 PM DIAMENTINA DROVER (Hugh McDonald) 88. Date: 04 Sep 20 - 09:40 PM I WAS ONLY NINETEEN (A walk in the light green) (John Schumann) 89. Date: 06 Sep 20 - 12:48 AM COURTING THE NET (Bob Wilson) 90. Date: 06 Sep 20 - 08:20 PM THE MAN WITH THE CONCERTINA {Stewart/Rummery/Kevans) 91. Date: 06 Sep 20 - 09:31 PM THE GLENBURGH WOOL (Jack Sorensen) 92. Date: 06 Sep 20 - 11:18 PM JAIL AWAY FREMANTLE (W.Evans/A.Ferguson) 93. Date: 07 Sep 20 - 10:50 PM THE TOWN OF KIANDRA (THE WEE ONE) 94. Date: 07 Sep 20 - 11:44 PM HUMPING THE DRUM (Steam Shuttle) 95 & 96. Date: 08 Sep 20 - 03:51 AM Back of the Milky Way (Humping the Drum) - lyrics & audio Lyrics to Graham's songs, all with audio. The Country Knows The Rest by Graham Seal with audio link. 97. Date: 08 Sep 20 - 08:18 PM Enda Kenny's Earl Grey 98. Date: 08 Sep 20 - 09:28 PM THE SANDY HOLLOW LINE (Duke Tritton) 99. Date: 08 Sep 20 - 09:49 PM THE STREETS OF FORBES (THE DEATH OF BEN HALL) 100. Date: 08 Sep 20 - 10:39 PM THE PUSH ON THE CORNER 101. Date: 08 Sep 20 - 11:26 PM BOURKE STREET ON SATURDAY NIGHT (P.C. Cole & Fred Hall) 102. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 12:54 AM NORTHWARDS TO THE SHEDS (W.Ogilvie/G.Hallom 103. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 02:08 AM Gurindji Blues Ted Egan 104. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 02:38 AM the bush girl (henry lawson) 105. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 03:21 AM YIL LULL ~ Joe Geia 106. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 04:19 AM THE GREEN MAN ~ John Thompson 107. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 05:36 AM DAVEY LOWSTON 108. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 06:06 AM COONAWARRA [HAS] THREE SHADOWS ~ Judith Crossley (post 200) ============= 109. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 07:36 AM FANNIE BAY ~ Doug & Andy Tainsh / and possibly David Charles 110. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 08:00 AM Miner’s Washing ~ John Warner 111. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 08:26 AM THE STATION COOK ~ trad Oz 112. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 09:03 AM NZ - PACKING MY THINGS ~ Phil Colquhoun 113. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 08:53 PM THE FREE SELECTOR'S DAUGHTER (Lawson/Hallom) 114. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 09:58 PM THE FIZZER (Gerry Hallom) 115. Date: 09 Sep 20 - 10:13 PM BOSS LADY (Bob Sharp) 116. Date: 10 Sep 20 - 08:14 PM THE BALLAD OF 1891 (H.Palmer/D.Jacobs) 117. Date: 10 Sep 20 - 08:45 PM WALTJIM BAT MATILDA (Ali Mills) 118. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 12:27 AM Little England by late Kiwi-Quoinslander, Mark Gillet. 119. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 02:49 AM THE DROVER'S BOY ~ Ted Egan 120. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 03:05 AM THE RUSTY FORD CORTINA ~ Mark Gillett 121. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 03:23 AM BILL AND THE BEAR - John Thompson 122. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 04:23 AM SUN ARISE ~ Rolf Harris & Harry Butler 123. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:12 PM Turning Steel (The Factory Lad) © Colin Dryden 1969 124. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:26 PM OCEAN LINER (Barry Skipsey) 125. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:45 PM YUENDUMU FLAGON WAGON (Wendy Baarda/Bloodwood) 126. Date: 11 Sep 20 - 11:21 PM "The Year of the Drum" ~ Wendy Joseph 127. Date: 12 Sep 20 - 09:12 PM Pass the Song Along ~ Bernard Carney. 128. Date: 12 Sep 20 - 09:19 PM KALGOORLIE PIPELINE ~ Alan Ferguson / trad Irish tune 129. Date: 12 Sep 20 - 09:31 PM THE DEATH OF BEN HALL 130. Date: 12 Sep 20 - 09:49 PM MATT SAVAGE: BOSS DROVER (Ted Egan) 131. Date: 12 Sep 20 - 09:52 PM WARATAH AND WATTLE ~ Frances Patterson (& Henry Lawson) 132. Date: 12 Sep 20 - 11:35 PM ADELAIDE RIVER (V.McGinness/J.McGinness) 133. Date: 13 Sep 20 - 02:49 AM RANGITIKI [© BOB WILSON 2014] 134. Date: 13 Sep 20 - 05:14 AM GREEN AMONG THE GOLD ~ Steve Barnes 135. Date: 13 Sep 20 - 07:37 AM ORE TRAIN BLUES © BOB WILSON 2013 136. Date: 13 Sep 20 - 08:52 PM PIONEERS (F.Ophel/R.Rummery) 137. Date: 13 Sep 20 - 09:50 PM THUNDERBOLT'S DREAM (Trad/Anon) 138. Date: 13 Sep 20 - 10:07 PM NEW GUINEA CAMPAIGN (Mudie/Rummery) 139. Date: 14 Sep 20 - 08:52 PM As sung by Martyn Wyndham- Read. TOMAHAWKING FRED 140. Date: 14 Sep 20 - 09:43 PM FREEDOM ON THE WALLABY (Henry Lawson) 141. Date: 14 Sep 20 - 10:16 PM THE SHEARERS (H.Lawson/R.Rummery) (post 200) =============== 142. Date: 15 Sep 20 - 03:59 AM WARRANDYTE MORNING ~ Mark Leehy (PARADIDDLE) 143. Date: 15 Sep 20 - 04:04 AM Bring Out The Banners ©1997 John Warner 144. Date: 15 Sep 20 - 04:08 AM The Miner’s Way ~ Sally Harris (Gone Molly) |
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15 Sep 20 - 06:18 AM (#4071919) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Oh, I'm so glad you've done that, Sandra!! I kept thinking I should "make a list" soon, but couldn't quite summon the energy to start!! Excellent Post. Thanks, R-J :) |
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15 Sep 20 - 06:51 AM (#4071925) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney it took me 2 days! I've emailed it to you as a doc - easy to search sandra |
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15 Sep 20 - 09:24 PM (#4072019) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Well done, Sandra. Despite queries from Mysha and R-J, we still haven't had an answer as to whether this thread's focus could be expanded to include songs from our Kiwi brothers/sisters in arms. I reckon it would be a good idea. It would be good to hear in this regard from our thread mediator or Joe. R-J has already posted 'Packing my things'. it should be noted, however, that the attribution to 'Phil Colquhoun' is incorrect. The author of the song is unknown. It was collected by NEIL Colquhoun who reconstructed the music from material collected. His informant was Alistair Swan. In respect of corrections, I had a yarn with Phil Gray of Loaded Dog about 'Glenburgh Wool' by Jack Sorensen the lyrics of which I posted on 6 September. He rejects the addition of the Wendy Evans chorus. He argue that it is inappropriate to the subject of the song. The song is about transportation of wool by camel trains, not about shearers. I agree. Chuck out the chorus! --Stewie. |
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15 Sep 20 - 09:32 PM (#4072020) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Bernard Carney, a West Australian singer/songwriter, has written a delightful song for his grand-children - Tian, Joe and Dan. R-J has already posted one of his songs. THE FEATHER FOOT FAIRY (Bernard Carney) Now gather ‘round folks, I’ll sing you a song Of a feather foot fairy named Tian Chorus: She never grew old and she never grew young She knew every song that had ever been sung And she played in the moon and the stars and sun And she was there when the world began The feather foot fairy named Tian The feathers on her feet were oh so fine She could fly through the mists of time She’d fly ten zillion years or more And she often had lunch with a dinosaur And the dinosaur’s house had the strangest things There were butterfly bats with rainbow wings And the hills were covered in purple trees Where the starfish bird sang delicussly Now ‘delicussly’ is not a real word But it’s often used by the starfish bird And if you’re wondering how I know Well the feather foot fairy told me so And she should know - ‘cos Chorus Now the feather foot fairy named Tian She was there when the world began And she watched all the oceans come and go And her only friend was a fossil named Joe. Now Joe was asleep for a million years ’til she woke him up with her feather foot tears And they played in the sands of time so free And they slept upstairs in the fossilott tree Now the fossilot tree in quite absurd, But it’s often used by the starfish bird And if you’re wondering how I know Well the featherf oot fairy told me so And she should know - ‘cos Chorus Now Tian took Joe on the trout sea trail In a plastic boat with a polythene sail And they dived to the bottom in an old tin can And met with a big seahorse called Dan Now Dan had a pancake stuck to his bum And he brewed his tea in a kettle drum And he knew every horse that lived in the sea And he talked to them equifishously Now ‘equifishously’ is not a real word But it’s often used by the starfish bird And if you’re wondering how I know Well the feather foot fairy told me so And she should know - ‘cos Chorus Now the feather foot fairy and seahorse Dan Took fossil Joe to the big trout dam And they all held hands and disappeared And travelled ahead 10 thousand years. The future all looked a little bit blurred But the first thing they saw was the starfish bird And if you’re wondering how I know Well the feather foot fairy told me so And she should know - ‘cos Chorus Yutube clip --Stewie. |
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15 Sep 20 - 10:32 PM (#4072037) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Cathie O'Sullivan put a tune to this lovely poem by John Shaw Neilson. STONY TOWN (J.S.Neilson/C.O’Sullivan) If ever I go to Stony Town, I’ll go as to a fair With bells and men and a dance-girl with a heat-wave in her hair I’ll ask the birds that live on the road; for I dream (though it may not be) That the eldest song was a forest thought and the singer was a tree Oh, Stony Town is a hard town! It buys and sells and buys It will not pity the plights of youth or any love in the eyes No curve they follow in Stony Town, but the straight line and the square And the girl shall dance them a royal dance, like a blue wren at his prayer Oh, Stony Town is a hard town! It sells and buys and sells Merry men three I will take with me, and seven and twenty bells The bells will laugh and the men will laugh, and the girl shall shine so fair With the scent of love and cinnamon dust shaken out of her hair Her skirts shall be of the gossamer, full thirty inches high And her lips shall move as the flowers move to see the winds go by The men will laugh, and the bells will laugh, to find the world so young And the girl shall go as a velvet bird, with a quick step on her tongue She shall cry aloud that a million moons for a lover is not long And her mouth shall be as the green honey in the honey-eater’s song If ever I go to Stony Town, I’ll go as to a fair, And the girl shall shake with the cinnamon and the heat-wave in her hair Youtube clip John Shaw Neilson --Stewie. |
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15 Sep 20 - 10:56 PM (#4072040) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Jeez, I finally realised that again I hadn't signed in. And Neilson's best-loved poem. THE ORANGE TREE (Neilson/O'Sullivan The young girl stood beside me. I Saw not what her young eyes could see: A light, she said, not of the sky Lives somewhere in the orange tree. Is it, I said, of east or west? The heartbeat of a luminous boy Who with his faltering flute confessed Only the edges of his joy? Was he, I said, borne to the blue In a mad escapade of Spring Ere he could make a fond adieu To his love in the blossoming? Listen! the young girl said. There calls no voice, no music beats on me But it is almost sound: it falls This evening on the orange tree Does he, I said, so fear the spring Ere the white sap too far can climb? See in the full gold evening All happenings of the olden time? Is he so goaded by the green? Does the compulsion of the dew Make him unknowable but keen Asking with beauty of the blue? Listen! the young girl said. For all Your hapless talk you fail to see There is a light, a step, a call This evening on the orange tree Is it, 1 said, a waste of love Imperishably old in pain Moving as an affrighted dove Under the sunlight or the rain? Is it a fluttering heart that gave Too willingly and was reviled? Is it the stammering at a grave, The last word of a little child? Silence! the young girl said. Oh, why Why will you talk to weary me? Plague me no longer now, for I Am listening like the orange tree Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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15 Sep 20 - 10:58 PM (#4072041) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy STORYTIME: Back in 87, I was performing with the Darwin mob at the 21st National Folk Festival in Alice Springs, NT. It was only the 2nd time The Nash had happened outside of a capital city and the 1st was also in The Alice, in 1980. (BtW, it only happened twice more : 1989 was Maleny, Qld and 1990 was Kuranda, Qld, and both of which were financially very successful, somewhat unusual for NFFs up til then). Our lad from The Top End, Paul Lawler, entered into the Declan Affley Songwriting Award competition, his semi-autobiographical song “Son of Rome”***. We all had high hopes for Lawls’ excellent entry. Imagine our chagrin, when a bloody ‘Quoinslander’ walked away with the prize!!! One “Noel Gardner” had come west, to sing his mate’s song in the comp. His mate was Mark Gillett, a Kiwi-born-and-raised Queenslander, and the song was “Watching The Obi Flow”. Many years later, with Paul and I living together in Maleny, Qld and running the ABOFOTS folkclub (where the afore-mentioned Mark Gillett was often welcomed!), well, my sister Alex (who was also at that Alice National), took up with a Sunshine Coast bloke who was a singer-songwriter ..... and now, Noel Gardner is my Brother-in-Law!! The winning song is below. Oh, and Paul’s ‘pipped’ song*** will be posted soon :) WATCHING THE OBI FLOW ~ Mark Gillett (Hinterland Band) The city no longer gave me thrills, so I thought I’d move up to the hills Draw the dole to pay my scratch, sing my songs and tend my patch and Watch The Obi Flow, I’d Watch The Obi Flow Sing my songs and tend my patch and Watch The Obi Flow. Well this countryside had eased my mind, I thought I’d left my cares behind But I have found what many knew : the city will catch up with you No matter how far you go, it doesn’t matter how far you go The city will catch up with you no matter how far you go. Coz down in the gorge where the trees were tall, they’ve gone and built a mighty wall And from a lake that’s dark and still, turned The Obi through the hills To the Sunshine Coast below, to the Sunshine Coast below They’ve turned The Obi through the hills to the Sunshine Coast below. Well, Maleny’s sewage flows right through, and the cow sheds drain to The Obi – POOH!! The water looks a trifle rough, you wouldn’t want to drink the stuff But my, the lawn should grow, my my, the lawns will grow You wouldn’t want to drink this stuff, but my, the lawns will grow. Now down in the gorge where the waters flow, or on the slopes where the bunyas grow Once they bulldoze, burn, and wreck, no earthly power will bring it back And the kids will never know, you can tell’em but they won’t know No earthly power will bring it back and the kids’ll never know. Well, my little house was high and dry, till the Shire Inspector he dropped by Said this house should never have been, tear it down and start again Before the next big blow, it’ll fall down in the next big blow Tear it down and start again, before the next big blow. So I’ll move to Maroochy by the sea, get me a job in a factory And when I come home to my flat, I’ll just turn on my kitchen tap And Watch The Obi Flow, I’ll Watch The Obi Flow I’ll just turn on my kitchen tap and Watch The Obi Flow. I’ll Watch The Obi Flow, I’ll Watch The Obi Flow Just turn on my kitchen tap and Watch The Obi Flow. And Watch The Obi Flow, I’ll be Watching The Obi Flow Just turn on my kitchen tap and ..... (spoken) : Watch The Obi Obi Flow : drip - drip - drip First track of 4 from The Hinterland Band’s EP “Against the Flow” c.1985 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFoIDwyZ0XA with Mark Gillett (also on banjo), Noel Gardner, Jim Maloney, Paul Vella. This song is still in Noel Gardner’s repertoire, but doesn’t seem to be recorded elsewhere. The posthumous CD of Mark’s recordings (Mark Gillett, 1953 – 2007) proposed by friends at his Wake, is apparently still a work-in-progress ..... PS The Obi Obi Creek [which drops around 435m over its 53.2km length], was named after a noted warrior of the local Aboriginal ‘Kabi Kabi’ people. Cheers, R-J (and yes, OK, it's a top little number!!! Thanks to Noel for correcting my lyrics :) |
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15 Sep 20 - 11:40 PM (#4072043) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE DECLARATION (Neilson/Wyndham-Read) Now I shall love you till the birds Have lost the way to sing Until there be no tenderness Upon the face of spring And I shall love you till a babe Shall neither laugh nor cry When men no more are wanderers And women’s tears are dry And I shall love you till the trees Know neither sun nor rain When morning brings no mystery And love can leave no pain And I shall love you till there be No grace in hearts of men When a girl’s eyes will glow no love I’ll love you until then Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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16 Sep 20 - 12:49 AM (#4072044) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Ah, that's a noice one, Stew; never heard it before. R-J |
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16 Sep 20 - 01:23 AM (#4072046) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Noel Gardner won the Dale & John Dengate Parody competition at Illawarra Folk Festival in 2018 & also appeared at the 2020 Memorial zoom get-together Speaking of excellent Australian songs - the winners of the Illawarra (2014-20) & Gulgong (2017-20) Parody competitions are available to download here |
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16 Sep 20 - 01:25 AM (#4072047) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I tried to correct the date of Gulgong FF competition but it wouldn't take. The winners of the Illawarra (2014-20) & Gulgong (2017-19) Parody competitions are available to download sandra |
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16 Sep 20 - 09:12 PM (#4072144) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Impressions of the outback in the late 19th century don't come better than this. ACROSS THE WARREGO (Jim Grahame) I dreamt some dreams of dried up streams Streams that never flow Of men and things misfortune brings Across the Warrego And I could see old faces there Old faces grim and sad Old mates of mine that tramped with me And some are tramping yet And I dreamt then of other men All trudging to and fro With empty bags and cruel swags Across the Warrego And most of them looked straight ahead A few were looking back The bush had claimed their souls and left Their bodies on the track And in my sleep I saw the sheep Heard them bleating low The ringing flocks, the stringing flocks Across the Warrego The young and strong were in the lead The old and weak behind With lagging feet and dragging feet And some of them were blind And in my dreams I saw the teams The teams I used to know The long long teams, the strong strong teams Across the Warrego And lurching wool bales strained the ropes That lashed them fore and aft And every ounce of horse flesh pulled From leader to the shaft I dreamt of nights by campfire lights The flicker and the glow The great white moon, the black gin’s croon Beyond the Warrego And I could hear the bullock bells A-ringing on the plains And thirsty kangaroos loped in And bounded out again And in the scrub I saw a pub A name I do not know But it was there to cash the cheques Across the Warrego A graveyard stood right out in front Two pepper trees were near The goats were camping underneath A skillion at the rear And in my dreams a camel team Was winding in and out Its swaying packs and blistered backs The messengers of drought And as they crossed the sandy ridge The sun went down below I saw them on the skyline then Beyond the Warrego And in the night I woke in fright My pulse was far from slow I thought that I was on the road Beyond the Warrego I thought a mirage danced ahead A dry plain at my back And I was trudging trudging on Alone along the track Youtube clip In 1890, Lawson went to work in Brisbane for 'The Boomerang'. When that collapsed in the depression of 1890-91, he decided to go up country in search of work. With a mate, Jim Grahame, he swagged it to Bourke and out to Hungerford. They worked as house painters and around the sheds as pickers-up, pressers or scourers when shearing was on. Although it was not a long trip, Lawson drew extensive copy from it. Jim Grahame (spelled with and without an 'e'), whose real name was James Gordon, came from Creswick in Victoria and is said to have been born 'under the flap of a tilted cart'. He had intended to become a jockey, with the help of Adam Lindsay Gordon, but went jackarooing instead. The outback certainly made a deep impression on him. Grahame on Lawson --Stewie. |
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16 Sep 20 - 10:12 PM (#4072151) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I can't believe I did it again. Anyhow, despite no answer re Kiwi songs, if R-J can post one, so can I. Here is my favourite - it has an Australian connection with Cobb & Co. Phil Garland put a tune to Peter Cape's lovely poem. THE STABLE LAD (Cape/Garland) When Cobb & Co ran coaches from the Buller to the Grey I went for a livery-stable lad in a halt up Westport way And I gave my heart to a red-haired girl, and left it where she lay By the winding Westland highway from the Buller to the Grey There's Neatsfoot on my fingers, and lamp-black on my face And I've saddle-soaped the harness and hung each piece in place But my heart's not in the stable, it's in Charleston far away Where Cobb & Co goes rolling by from Buller to the Grey There's a red-haired girl in Charleston, and she's dancing in the bar But I know she's not like other girls who dance where miners are And I can't forget her eyes and everything they seemed to say The day I rode with Cobb & Co from Buller to the Grey There's a schooner down from Murchison, I can hear it in the gorge So I'll have to pump the bellows now and redden up the forge And I'll strike that iron so very hard she'll hear it far away In the roaring European that the road runs by from Grey Some day I'll be a teamster with the ribbons in my fist And I'll drive that Cobb & Co Express through rain and snow and mist Drive a four-in-hand to Charleston, and no matter what they say I'll take my girl up on the box and marry her in Grey There's a graveyard down in Charleston where the moss trails from the trees And the Westland wind comes moaning in from off the Tasman seas And it's there they laid my red-haired girl, in a pit of yellow clay As Cobb & Co went rolling by from Buller to the Grey Youtube clip Back in the day, I once introduced with the following - I can't remember where I got the info. This tragic love story of a stable hand and saloon girl is set against the colourful background of Cobb & Co coach travel. Freeman Cobb, an American, began Cobb & Co in Australia in 1853. From small beginnings, it became the biggest and best transport system in the world with branches in all Australian states (except Tasmania) and in NZ, South Africa and Japan. The red-haired girl in the poem is obviously Catholic. There are 2 graveyards in Charleston, one on a hill to the north and the Catholic one by the roadside where camper-vans of Japanese tourists go rolling from the Buller to the Grey River Valley. The 2-storey, corrugated-iron European Hotel eventually collapsed in the 1970s. Cobb & Co passengers all travelled one class, but travellers often paid big money to sit on the 'box seat' next to the driver to listen to his yarns, poetry and songs. Sometimes the box seat was auctioned to the higher bidder. You can find more information here: Click --Stewie. |
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16 Sep 20 - 11:19 PM (#4072154) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This one was a favourite in the Darwin folk scene. Martyn Wydham-Read put a tune to Matt O'Connors' poem. THE SHEARER'S LAMENT (O'Connor/Wyndham-Read) We finished shearing sheep Out west of the Paroo But now it's rained three inches We don't know what to do. A week ago the sand was loose And dust blew every day But now the mud is three feet deep And we can't get away I've just been talking to the boss You all know Hector Cole He says the Bulloo's two miles wide To cross it there's no hope. You hear a lot of people swear About the dough we make But they forget the price of beer And all the combs we break Well, why I took this job on I just can't understand, If the bloody sheep ain't waterlogged The cows are full of sand A man is doubled up all day Half-blinded by his swea; And when the darkness comes around Cooped up in a mozzie net It might have been a good job once Those old hands had their breaks They pushed a bike from shed to shed And lived on johnny cakes They had more time to do the job They worked nine hours a day And after paying for their grub One pound a hundred paid I think I'll give this job away I'm sick of being a greasy I've heard about a fencing job They tell me it's dead easy Youtube clip Martyn noted: 'Some bush poems definitely invite a tune. "A shearer's lament" came from Matt O'Connor who contributed the odd ballad to the "Singabout" magazine in the 60s. This was his last contribution prior to his death in 1965.' --Stewie. |
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17 Sep 20 - 02:24 AM (#4072158) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy DECLAN AFFLEY SONGWRITING AWARD : After mentioning the NFF’s 1987 winner, Mark Gillett, a few posts ago, I thought : “Now there’s a go! Probably many other winners of this competition should have their entry in Mudcat’s Aussie thread!” Well, that was another idea and much time, lost down the rabbithole. When I googled, many artists are proudly claiming to have been a winner (or a runner up) - and rightly so. However, where are the details of this award? Where is the List of previous winners and entries? How does one enter? Is it even still being awarded??? I could find no information on the current National Folk Festival (Australia) website about awards/comps – until, that is, I opened the 2019 Program Book, where a half page was devoted to the idea. It seems that ‘The Declan’ is no more and that the current thing is the Alistair Hulett Memorial Award for the best ‘social justice’ song, which follows on from the original British award. (but where now, do the writers of worthy non-social justice material go?!) OK, there now appears to be a number of other awards (as well as the post-1994 Lis Johnston Awards, for vocal excellence) – but who would know that you have to add “/festival-awards/” up to the main URL, to be able to locate any info on the NFF website?? (and that’s just for 2019!) Surely there should at least be some easily accessible, permanent page of The Nash’s website which acknowledges and celebrates past award winners, and their great music? Because if not there, where is that info? At present it appears that it’s purely up to the actual artist to inform or remind us - IF they still have an online presence, that is – and IF we happen to come across their web data!! So, can any regular Nash attenders (Sandra, Gerry, Graham et al), shed any light on this situation??!! Cheers, R-J :) |
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17 Sep 20 - 02:40 AM (#4072161) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy BOONAROO Don Henderson, 1968 Ch. Oh, who will man the Boonaroo? Who will sail her, be the crew, sailing on the Boonaroo? Is there food and is there store to feed the hungry, clothe the poor? In this world their number isn't few. In her cargo would you find any way for one mankind, sailing on the Boonaroo. Is there bandage by the reel? Is there medicine to heal? Christ knows, there's healing work to do. In her cargo would you find any way for one mankind, sailing on the Boonaroo? Would the hull be filled with material to build, perhaps a bridge for a world that's split in two? In her cargo would you find any way for one mankind, sailing on the Boonaroo? Or jam packed in the hold, is there grief and death untold and asked "Why?" have to answer true. In her cargo would you find any way for one mankind, sailing on the Boonaroo? Thanks to Mark Gregory's Union Songs site : http://unionsong.com/u260.html Don Henderson wrote: "Australian seamen have manned the Australian National Line M.V.s Boonaroo and Jeparit sailing to Vietnam 'under strong protest'. In the case of the Boonaroo, which has already completed one round trip, the crew's continued hostility to the U.S. aggression in Vietnam, and the friendly contacts they established with Australian troops engaged in the war, are already a small part of Australian working-class history." Cheers, R-J |
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17 Sep 20 - 02:58 AM (#4072163) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Another song from the pen of Hendo (I remember this played regularly on the radio) : Put a Light in Ev'ry Country Window" DON HENDERSON Ch. Put a light in every country window High-speed pumps where now the windmills stand Get in and lay the cable so that one day we’ll be able To have electricity all over this wide land. Miners tunnel to feed the fires at Wangi While others scrape the brown coal at Yallourn Turbine blades are yielding to the tumbling tons of Eildon And the Snowy will be finished before long. The little farms and giant outback stations They all are mechanised today For milking cows and shearing sheep to do it fast and do it cheap Electrically is the modern way. The old Coolgardie and the red-hot woodstove They all have seen their day at last For now the ice and fire that is coming on the wire Has made them all relics of the past. Ch. Put a light in every country window High-speed pumps where now the windmills stand Get in and lay the cable so that one day we’ll be able To have electricity all over this wide land. Here is Gary Shearston's version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6NScBO_JWU Who knows if in another 50 years, Electricity will still be "the modern way"?! Coolgardie Safe : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe Cheers, R-J |
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17 Sep 20 - 03:31 AM (#4072164) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Alistair Hulett winners https://www.alistairhulett.com/alistair-hulett-memorial-fund/songs-for-social-justice-award-aus/ (2019 & 2020 winners are not yet on the website, so I contacted one of the organisers) Winner of the 2020 Songs for Social Justice Award: Karen Law for Wildflower Woman. (Qld newspaper) Winner of the 2019 Songs for Social Justice Award: Penelope Swales for Cambridge Analytica (NFF website) Winner of the 2018 Songs for Social Justice Award: Teri Young for ‘Fishing at Okehampton Bay’ Winner of the 2017 Songs for Social Justice Award: Miguel Heatwole for ‘Better Times’ Winner of the 2016 Songs for Social Justice Award: Tony Eardley for ‘Sally Cross the Water’ Winner of the 2015 Songs for Social Justice Award: Paddy McHugh for ‘The Snowmen’ Winner of the 2014 Songs for Social Justice Award: Miriam Jones for ‘Post Post Feminist Revolution’ Winner of the 2013 Songs for Social Justice Award: The Lurkers for ‘Mining Man’ Winner of the 2012 Songs for Social Justice Award: Steph Miller for ‘The Riverside’ |
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17 Sep 20 - 03:39 AM (#4072165) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Greg Hastings - lyrics Greg began his musical career as a founding member of the Mucky Duck Bush Band in 1973, 3 years after he migrated to Australia from Wales. In 1976 the band turned professional and rose to great heights of success in Western Australia. At the beginning of 1979 Greg launched his solo career, travelling to New Zealand, America, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe. He then returned to Australia for a year before setting off once more around the world in 1982. On his return to Australia in 1983, he began touring the continent extensively. For 25 years he has toured almost continually playing Festivals, Clubs, Tourist Resorts, Schools etc. GGreg has traversed over 400,000 kilometres of this vast continent amassing a unique knowledge of Australia and Australians, including some of the most respected elders of the Aboriginal people. Learning to play the didgeridoo from them on his first tour of the Kimberley Aboriginal communities in 1988. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After seeing many a night 'ruined' by mismanaged sound systems, Greg penned this song. TESTING 1, 2, 3 by Greg Hastings For many years I've sung in places all around the world No sweeter than the human voice in chorus can be heard But now with our technology all reason has been lost Sometimes I wonder if the end defeats the cost. CHORUS Cos it's testing, testing 1, 2, 3 We don't need electricity Don't need a microphone to sing a song So nice to hear the music back where we belong. Once not long ago if you had a mind to sing Friends would gather round you and make the rafters ring But now with these amps they run in mortal fear With the booming of a microphone ringing in their ear CHORUS Now the local musos gather round With their ultra quado phonic sound The crowd was stunning nearly yelled for more When one he counted up to four ! His quiet little voice was made to sound Just like Michael Jackson in the London underground With digital delays, effects by the score Just one check blew his audience through the door CHORUS I stayed at that club till just a few were there Speakers the size of tea chests standing on a chair I checked, it buzzed, everything went wrong When I finally got to singing, the audience had gone. Saying why can't you just sing to me Without this testing 1, 2, 3 We long for the day you can do without Because it's far too loud and it hides your mouth. CHORUS Yes, I feel acoustic music is music of the soul Sharing it in harmony should always be our goal The way things are going it's very plain to see Before we can speak we'll have to test 1, 2, 3 But they'll flick a switch and they won't say when Before you know we'll have to sing again But I can sing to you and you can sing to me There'll be no more testing 1, 2, 3 Copyright Greg Hastings © https://www.greghastings.com/asongs.html#top m |
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17 Sep 20 - 03:40 AM (#4072166) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Greg Hastings - lyrics Greg began his musical career as a founding member of the Mucky Duck Bush Band in 1973, 3 years after he migrated to Australia from Wales. In 1976 the band turned professional and rose to great heights of success in Western Australia. At the beginning of 1979 Greg launched his solo career, travelling to New Zealand, America, Canada, United Kingdom and Europe. He then returned to Australia for a year before setting off once more around the world in 1982. On his return to Australia in 1983, he began touring the continent extensively. For 25 years he has toured almost continually playing Festivals, Clubs, Tourist Resorts, Schools etc. GGreg has traversed over 400,000 kilometres of this vast continent amassing a unique knowledge of Australia and Australians, including some of the most respected elders of the Aboriginal people. Learning to play the didgeridoo from them on his first tour of the Kimberley Aboriginal communities in 1988. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ reg's humorous, environmental protest song COCA COLA CAN T'was on the Canning Stock Route, by the Kannanagi Well I parks the four wheel in the shade, the sun was hot as hell I thought that I would have a leak where no man had before But as I strolled off in the bush, imagine what I saw; There were kangaroos, all sweat and flies, playing football in the sand And the ball they were using was a Coca cola can. CHORUS: Why must I always be second (Mate) It can't be part of the plan Why must I always be second To a Coca Cola Can While Climbing up Ben Nevis on a cold and freezing day The sun was falling lightly, so I took an easy way And as I trudged up to the top, the sky began to clear Just my footprints in the snow, no-one else was there. Then I stood in silence, the horizon to scan I spotted below me, a Coca Cola can. CHORUS (Jimmy) Now in the great Grand Canyon, on an early summer's morn I thought if I climbed the side, I could watch the dawn I struggled through the cactus, it must have been 5 miles Thought that when I reached the top, I'd sit there for a while. But as I reached that one last time, I felt beneath my hand Yep, you guessed it, a Coca Cola can. CHORUS (Yee Ha) I thought I'd found an island where no man had ever been No footprints in the sand, the water was so clean So I went in for a swim, to wash the dust away And as I swam down to the rocks to watch the fishes play There, right below me, half buried in the sand Was that red and white monstrosity, a Coca Cola can CHORUS (By Jingo) So if you're walking or you're riding or sailing on the sea Don't throw your empties overboard and leave them there for me I wouldn't come to your place, chuck me rubbish on the lawn And if I did I'm sure you'd be the one to moan But, if you didn't you wouldn't understand Why I don't like coming second to a Coca Cola can If we looked into the future, I wonder what we'd see In a thousand years from now, I wonder where we'll be For since the world begun, many places man has trod Some believe in Einstein, some believe in God But if whoever started it could reveal the plan I am sure it would not include a Coca Cola can Copyright Greg Hastings © 1980 |
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17 Sep 20 - 03:52 AM (#4072167) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Greg Hasstings on didgeridoo traveling down Highway 1 (no words!) |
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17 Sep 20 - 04:05 AM (#4072168) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Greg Hastings! OMG Sandra, I rem'ber when his family first arrived - in Perth - with their Welsh accents and great songs - his shy young sister Val, in particular, had a lovely voice : COCKY BELL is a good song, which I think she wrote ..... But I have to add this one for Stewie! THE GIN AND RASPBERRY Written by Martin Curtis, c.1980 While hunting for fox we first came this way From Lake Pembroke township took many long days We cut through the bush and we found a new rush With a mine called the Gin and Raspberry Ch. Oh, but it's hard, cruel and cold Searching Cardrona for nuggets of gold An ounce to the bucket and we'll all sell our soul For a taste of the gin and raspberry The rumors went out and the thousands poured in A handful grew rich but many grew thin They all hoped to find their own patch of tin As rich as the Gin and Raspberry At first it was summer and we all thought it grand No shirts on our back as we sluiced and we panned But then came the snow and the southern wind's blow And there's ice down the Gin and Raspberry Now Billy McGraw he worked hard and worked long Ready to smile and to give us a song But then he struck gold and was found dead and cold Down in the Gin and Raspberry So I'll work at the mine and I'll stay out of strife I'll save all me gold to send home to me wife And when the gold’s won I’ll leave at the run And to hell with the Gin and Raspberry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwN5A1zeROk Martin Curtis singing his own song. My GGGrandfather left Lancashire in 1857 for a new life in Victoria, but by the early 1860s he was in Sth Isle EnZed in these very same goldfields. He found enough to buy a couple of pubs! Cheers, R-J |
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17 Sep 20 - 04:08 AM (#4072169) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney another NZ song that used to be heard around the Sydney sessions years ago Folksong NZ site The chocolate Song by Marcus Turner (sound) bite of Chocolate When you're tired and depressed, and feeling lonely, When your chequebook's in the red, and you are blue, When you've left the freezer open, or your rubber band is broken, Or you've dropped the toilet paper down the loo, If you feel a sudden urge to wash the bread-knife, Or to sniff at the exhaust-pipe of your car, Or to farewell those you love 'n' take a nap inside the oven, STOP!... Salvation's just a sup from where you are! Chorus: When you're feeling down, the best way up is chocolate: It's the answer that will get you through the day. Let me get my teeth around something small and square and brown, And I'll masticate until I feel O.K. Now, when God had finished making all the heavens, And the valleys and the mountains and the seas, And the weather, and the weasels, and the squid, and German Measles, And the gherkins, and Hong Kong, and all the fleas, On the seventh day, as he was sitting resting, He was feeling in a very chipper mood. There came one more inspiration for one last divine Creation: Something fit to please a God, that could be chewed! Ch. When I see a bar of chocolate lying idle, It always seems to find its way inside my jaws. It's a shame to mess about, 'cos it tastes better in than out, And it's going to a very worthy cause. And although it won't endear me to my dentist, And my doctor will be worried for my health, And it's given me a skinful of enormous oily pimples, I'm still feeling very good about myself! Ch. Just remember, if it's chocolate, you can eat it: Chocolate eggs and chocolate fish and chocolate chips, Chocolate steak and mousse and frogs, chocolate beans and mice and logs, Let a chocolate bomb explode across your lips! Some is crunchy, and is filled with Hokey-pokey, Some is thrown about by cowboys, and is white. There's a whole world out there waiting: don't just sit there salivating, Pull your socks up, brace yourself and Bite! Bite! Bite! Ch. You will never have a bad trip eating chocolate. And it's tastier than sex, and much more fun. Keep your pills and dope and glue, and your gin and whiskey too, 'Cos there's no buzz like a chocolate Buzz - Bar none! If you really, really love me, give me chocolate, Give me chocolate 'till it's coming out my ears. All I crave is just enough so I can indolently stuff myself for years and years and years and years and years! Ch. |
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17 Sep 20 - 04:12 AM (#4072170) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Both Sides Now (known as The Toast Song) (Chris Clarke) - former Mudcatter Canberra Chris In morning time when I arise My breakfast fare is no surprise, I pour the cornflakes, make the tea And then reach for the bread. I turn the gas on, light the grill, And think this time I really will Stay wide awake, make perfect toast and start the day well-fed - I'll lightly toast it both sides now, Both up and down To golden brown, The toasting time I will recall, I really can make toast After all. But then I read, to pass the time, The cornflakes advertising rhyme, I hear the news, but don't take in A single item read. And then an old, familiar smell Invades the dreamworld where I dwell, and fills the room with flames and smoke and fumes of burning bread - I've burnt the toast on both sides now, Both front and back To charcoal black, The toasting time I don't recall, I really can't make toast After all. And so I scrape it in the bin Which makes the slices rather thin, Then wipe the knife upon the cloth Back in my dream-like state. I butter it with marmalade, Then to correct the mess I've made Spread butter on the other side And stick it to the plate - My toast is buttered both sides now, Both left and right, I'm none too bright, The buttering I don't recall, I really can't make toast At all. Written in Perth, Western Australia, early 80s. Chris Clarke |
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17 Sep 20 - 04:16 AM (#4072171) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Randwick Races John Dengate (Tune: "The Galway Races") (D) We arrived at Randwick races, by (Em) taxi from Clovelly. I had (C) money in my trousers, boys, and (G) schooners (D) in my (G) belly. (G) Well the bookies (d) saw us (D) coming and they (Em) panicked in a crisis; They (G) tinkered with the odds and they (Em) shortened (D) all their (G) prices. Chorus: With my (D) whack, fol the do, fol the (Em) diddley idle (Em) day Well the hunger it was gnawing and the thirst was in us rising While the crowd's excited roaring reached a level quite surprising. Oh, we swallowed several middies and demolished pies and sauces And we set to work comparing prices, jockey's weights and horses. Chorus: With my whack, fol the do, fol the diddley idle day Denis Kevans said, "I reckon we will finish rich as Pharaoh If we back the chestnut filly from the district of Monaro. She's a trier, she's a flier, never knock her or decry her - She's sixty-six to one; when she wins we']] all retire." Chorus: With my whack, fol the do, fol the diddley idle day There was every kind of punter from illiterates to scholars; I struggled throuah the betting ring and wagered twenty dollars - Then the horses were away; from the barrier they thundered And we hoped that very day to collect the thirteen hundred. Chorus: With my whack, fol the do, fol the diddley idle day We shouted in despair; Denis Kevans tore his hair, O'Dea began to swear at the filly from Monaro. She was struggling in the pack and our very hearts were bleeding; She was falling further back and the favourite was leading. Chorus: With my whack, fol the do, fol the diddley idle day |
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17 Sep 20 - 04:28 AM (#4072173) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney 2 songs from the Shiny Bum Singers (Canberra Chris was a founding member) I am Speaking [C] – Tune: Frere Jacques I am speaking I am speaking And I’m right And I’m right You shut up and listen You Shut up and listen Or we’ll fight Or we’ll fight ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There’s No Paper Here (tune: A Pub With No Beer) (words ©ShinyBumSingers 2020) It's lonesome away, from your kindred and co. In the throne-room at night, where we all have to go But there's nothing so lonesome, so morbid or drear Than to stand in an aisle, when there’s no paper here Now the public is anxious, for the quota to come There may not be paper, for a-wiping their bum The Mums are all cranky, and the staff’s acting queer What a terrible place, when there’s no paper here Then the stock man rolls up, with his pallet shrink-wrapped Overtaken by hoarders, he screams “Holy Crap!” A mad glint in their eyes, as the rolls disappear As with locusts to Egypt, there’s no paper here There's a Dad on the dunny, for his shopper he’ll wait But she’s a non-starter, having left it too late She searches forlornly, despair ever near There’s no place for a shopper, when there’s no paper here Old Gilly the Greenie, first time in his life Has run out of paper, and now he’s in strife He’d settle for NewsCorp, but the irony’s clear It’s a “digital” world, when there’s no paper here (NewsCorp, Rupert Murdock's papers in Australia) |
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17 Sep 20 - 04:59 AM (#4072175) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I'm going thru my folder of songs - did you know there are 828 species of birds in Australia, one in 10 of the world's 10,000 or so living bird species. BIRD SONG Words and Music John Broomhall Adelaide Hills, it's early mornin', through the window see them yawnin', Lonesome travellers wind their way back home; Misty valleys, lofty ranges, signposts mock our weary strangers: Pack a road map mate next time you roam! There's a Kookaburra, Cuckoo, Bronzewing, Budgerigar, Lorikeet, Cat Bird, Currawong, an old Galah; Frog Mouth, Magpie, Miner, and a White-Winged Chough, A Babbler, a Warbler, and even a bird called Rough. Somewhere up in Northern Queensland, sunshine bright, golden sea sand, We're lyin' on the beach the way that dreamers do. Paradise Lost, ah poor John Milton, he didn't get to stay at the Douglas Hilton, I guess he missed Mossman, Kuranda, and Cooktown too. Seagull, Plover, Petrel, and Ocean Tern, Albatross, Grebe, Shearwater and Frigate Bird; Cormorant, Pelican, Gannet and Cockatoo, Cassowary, Egret, Heron and Jabiru. Life's a breeze in the centre of Australia, corroboree's the only regalia, Wide brown land, and a sky that's big and blue; Camel Drivers wearin' turbans, nothin' here you'd call suburban, They're all dinkum Aussies through and through. Curlew, Drongo, Falcon, Emu, Wren, Brolga, Spoonbill, Duck and Native Hen; Spinebill, Thrush and Lark up in the sky, Swallow, Butcher, Robin, Silver-eye. Soldier, Shoe Maker, Coot and Sooty Owl, Buzzard, Booby, Bell and Mallee Fowl; Rainbow, Sparrow, Crow and Whistling Kite, A Wedge-tailed Eagle and a Boobook late at night. (c) Copyright J. Broomhall 1991 |
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17 Sep 20 - 05:41 AM (#4072178) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney THE WHALE (Terry Fielding and Fred Dyer) - Fred used to post on Mudcat youtube (Am) (G) (Am) Di Di Di Di DA Di DE Di Di (Am) They sailed from port one morning the (G) weather it was (Am) fair A gentle breeze it pushed them and (G) no one gave a (Am) care They sang and danced and (Am7) laughed that night and D opened up a (E) keg They're (Am) out to catch the monster whale that (G) took the captain's leg (Am) Di Di Di Di Da (G) Di DE Di (Am)Di (Am)The Captain said "a piece of gold for (G)him who sees me (Am)whale" So bend your backs and row me boys I(G) know that we won't (Am)fail Chorus (chords as Verse1) So bend your backs and row me lads and take me to me whale. Tonight we'll sing and dance and tomorrow night we'll sail. We'll sail into the harbour no prouder man there'll be; We'll show them all we captured the monster from the sea Di Di Di Di Di Da Di Di They saw the whale one morning the weather it was fair the men were white as ghosts, the Captain didn't care I'll take this whale meself he cried the weak can stay behind The strong can share my glory and tonight they'll share my wine Di Di Di Di Di Da Di Di The whale it came so close it was bigger than the sky they lowered down the longboat and they heard the captain cry Chorus Bend your backs and row me lads and take me to me whale. Tonight we'll sing and dance and tomorrow night we'll sail. We'll sail into the harbour no prouder man there'll be; We'll show them all we captured the monster from the sea Di Di Di Di Di Da Di Di Chorus The whale it came so close it almost tipped the boat The captain took his spear and he rammed it down it's throat the whale it gave a mournfull cry and lifted it's great tail and brought it down a crushing their small boat like a gale (spoken) Now 100 years have passed since the Captain and his men went below to spend their days in Davy Joneses' den The whale it goes on living but inside it bears a scar And if your ever near that place a voice calls from afar Chorus twice, last line: We'll show them all we captured the monster from the sea |
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17 Sep 20 - 07:58 PM (#4072293) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy I AM A TOLERANT MAN anon (from WA Goldfields) I don't mind blokes who digs or stokes, Who fettle or work on derricks; I can even stand a German band, But I draw the line at clerics. Ch. Why strike me pink, I'd sooner drink With a cove sent up for arson, Than a rain-beseeching, preaching, teaching, Blanky, cranky, parson. I snort and jibe at the whole of the tribe, Whatever their sect of class is - From lawn-sleeved ranters to kerbstone canters, From bishops to Army lasses. Give me the blaspheming, scheming, screaming, Barracking football garcons - In preference, to the reverent gents, The blithering, blathering parsons! I couldn't get John Thompson's recording to play on his Oz Folksong a Day website, so here is one from "Les Wayfarers" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTm8_8MvRtc "Words from John Lahey's Great Australian Folk Songs (1965) via Mudcat, where Bob Bolton notes that it is from the Western Australian goldfields." Apparently an early poem in the "Kalgoorlie Sun" newspaper; music by John Lahey. Cheers, R-J |
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17 Sep 20 - 08:03 PM (#4072295) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, I remember Martin Curtis from his days in Tennant Creek back when the world was young. Sandra has also now posted a song by a Kiwi. Let's go for it - our conspicuously absent moderator can always chuck 'em out! Sandra, thanks for the Marcus Turner song. I posted the lyrics of his magnum opus, 'When the boys are on parade', over a decade ago. It is one of finest songs ever about armed forces. Andy Irvine's made it known outside NZ, but my favourite rendition is by Michael Black on his wonderful self-titled CD on Compass Records. Michael Black WHEN THE BOYS ARE ON PARADE (Marcus Turner) Here they come marching past the houses, shiny boots and khaki blouses Stiff as the creases in their trousers, standing tall and straight and strong And they all keep in step together, glint of steel and flash of leather Braving every kind of weather as they boldly march along You may dismiss it as a ploy for the enlistment of the boys Who’ll be impressed to see the toys and play the games that can be played Refrain: And you may well prefer abstention but I feel compelled to mention You’d do well to pay attention when the boys are on parade Look at your sons before they’re older they’ll be stronger, they’ll be bolder Just the thing to make a soldier and we’ll turn them into men And they’ll be taught to follow orders, keep the peace and guard the borders To protect us from marauders and defend us to the end But the position they’ll be filling is to be able and be willing To be killed or do the killing when there’s a price that must be paid Refrain In the pursuit of a community of decency and unity And equal opportunity, we stand prepared to fight And if there’s a threat to our position from aggressive opposition Then, with guns and ammunition, we’ll repel with all our might. We’ll dehumanise and hate them, send in the troops to decimate them As in the name of the nation all it stands for is betrayed Refrain Merely the whim or intuition of an elected politician Makes a melee without conditions as the monster quits the cage It’s a machine that knows no quarter, dealing death and sowing slaughter Raping mothers, wives and daughters in an all-consuming rage We may well decide we need it and we’ll pay to arm and feed it Can you tell me who will lead it when a decision must be made? Refrain Instrumental break Some will wonder what’s to fear and say there is no danger here But there has never been a year when soldiers haven’t been at war And the eternal executions and the bloody revolutions And the ultimate solutions, too, have all been seen before. And there’s always someone scheming and some nights when I am dreaming In the distance, I hear screaming and in my heart I feel afraid Refrain Here they come marching past the houses, shiny boots and khaki blouses Stiff as the creases in their trousers, standing tall and straight and strong And is it any cause for pride that now the women march beside them Will they have wiser gods to guide them in discerning right from wrong? ‘Cause every step is a reminder of the threat that lies behind If we forget the ties that bind us when the decisive game is played Refrain And as the procession passes by, consider the sight before your eyes ‘Cause it’ll be you they’ll kill and die for when called to the crusade And you may love them and adore them, you may hate them and abhor them But, for God’s sake don’t ignore them, when the boys are on parade The late Marcus Turner was fine songwriter. One of his close friends wrote: ‘Multi-instumentalist, singer-songwriter, Marcus Turner, is a New Zealand folk music icon, regularly guesting at folk festivals and clubs for over 30 years … He is renowned for his astute song-writing from the dark to the endearing, from the political to the exceedingly funny’. --Stewie. |
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17 Sep 20 - 08:25 PM (#4072297) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The inimitable Kath Tait was also a NZ icon before fleeing to London. Here's one of her best: THE RIVER OF LIFE (Kath Tait) She was born in a middle-class town She could have gone up, she could have gone down But she just went around and around On a downward spiral One morning so fair and fine She stole away while the moon did shine Strayed on down the wayward line Southwards of survival (Chorus) She could have been a lady She could have been a wife But she fell into the river of life Swimming in a pool of trouble and strife She really loved the danger But the river of life it rolls and flows Down by the banks where the brambles grow Swimming around in trouble and strife Way down low in the river of life Over hills of thorns and valleys of scorn Rambling like she was gypsy born Travelling on through weather and storm Without a thought for danger But she was young and looking for fun And dreaming of things she'd never done So lost in sweet oblivion She welcomed in the stranger But the stranger he was a wanton rake For he took her money and he called her a fake And he shook her around like an old earthquake And left her there for plunder Now a heart gone down might never be found Might lie in the dirt and roll around But she was always on the rebound And she never would go under Chorus Now the woman of character wins in the end The river of life will be your friend Not frail of heart, but a true upstart The river of life has made her And like a flood she did surely rise High as the hills and the clear blue skies She never was a lady but she was wise And nothing much would change her Chorus Lin Van Hek and Joe Dolce did a beaut rendition for their 'Difficult Women' project. Youtube clip Kath Tait has been described as ‘the diva of the dysfunctional’. She departed New Zealand to live in London. The 'Waikato Times' noted: It was inevitable she left New Zealand, having insulted most of her family and friends in her songs. Behind the cheerful guitar and sweet voice lie lyrics of barbed wire. The ironies of modern life are her inspiration, the contrast in her disarming delivery and often explicit words, is her charm. --Stewie |
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17 Sep 20 - 08:40 PM (#4072299) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Way back in this thread (on 19 Aug) Mysha mentioned 'By the dry Cardrona'. Here ya go: BY THE DRY CARDRONA (James K. Baxter) Oh I can tell where the cherries grow By the dry Cardrona Where I picked them long ago On a day when I was sober On a day when I was sober My father wore a parson's coat By the dry Cardrona He made a tally of the sheep and the goats But I was never sober I was never sober My mother sewed her Sunday skirt By the dry Cardrona They say she died of a broken heart For I was never sober I was never sober I loved a young girl, and only one By the dry Cardrona She up and married the banker's son For I was never sober I was never sober I courted a widow of forty-nine By the dry Cardrona She owned a stable and a scheelite mine But I was never sober I was never sober Lay my bones till the judgement crack By the wild Cardrona A blanket swag all on my back To pillow me drunk or sober Pillow me drunk or sober All rivers run to a rimless grave Even the wild Cardrona But never a one will come my way Till I am stone cold sober Till I am stone cold sober I can tell where the cherries grow By the wild Cardrona Where I picked them long ago On a day when I was sober On a day when I was sober One of New Zealand’s best-known poets, James Keir Baxter, featured his poem,'By the Dry Cardrona', in his 1958 radio play, 'Jack Winter’s Dream'. The dry Cardrona is a symbol of the spritual aridity of his early life in contrast with the life-giving? springtime snowmelt waters of the wild Cardrona that nourish the cherry trees along its banks. Scheelite, which is mentioned in the poem, is an important source of tungsten, a very hard metal. English folkie, Steve Turner, always did it justice: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Sep 20 - 09:23 PM (#4072305) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's a tour around NZ. R-J, I think you sent me a copy of the album by 'When the cat's been spayed". TEA AT TE KUITI (Ken Avery) I'm havin' tea at Te Kuiti with my sweetie Then a row at Rotorua on the waves Do a tour of Turangi When the Maoris have a hangi Then I'll wind up in the old Waitomo caves I'm gonna tread the narrow path at Ngar'awahia And dash to Dannevirke before the beer is cut I'm going to town at Taum'runui Wander down the Wangernewy Then I'm go'ng'ta live it up at Upper Hutt I'm gonna chat about the Chateau Tongariro I'm gonna talk about the Tokomaru Bay And when I tell a man or two About the Manawatu They'll wonder why I ever went away I'm gonna crow about the good old Coromandel And tell them where I'd like to see Waiwera shore Although it sounds like Taranaki When I'm shooting at Wairakei I can always hit a geothermal bore I'm gonna have a cuppa tea on Kapati Island And a cup of coffee in Kawhia town Drink a handle or a schooner When I tack at Takapuna Where the Waitamata never lets me down I want to eat a pie at old Paekakariki See the wishing well in Wellington and then When we pull in to Kaiwhara There's a fiver I can borrow So I'll turn around and do it all again Interlude Been there … etc I'm gonna travel in by car to Invercargill Then I’ll meet a man at Manapouri Lake Though I'm not the one to boast I've been toasted on the coast And washed ashore at Taylor's Big Mistake I've eaten oysters in the stew at Stewart Island And met a mutton-birder down at Foveaux Strait I've tried to bluff them at the Bluff Each time I said I'd had enough They put another dozen osters on my plate. I'm gonna canter on the plains at Canterbury I'm gonna rue the day I leave ol' Oamaru I'll spend the winter on the inter - Island ferry, makin' merry An' wait for North and South to come in view Now you can see a lot that's new in ol' New Zealand You c'n keep your Port of Spain an' Mexico But if if you plan to go away Down A-o-tee-a-ro-a way A Kiwi always tells you where to go - "Look out for Trentham" - A Kiwi always tells you where to go My source for this little ditty is an all-female Kiwi group entitled ‘When the cat’s been spayed’. It is from the pen of Ken Avery from Dunedin who was known for his novelty songs featuring wordplay and exotic names – classics such as 'The dog dosing strip', 'When the scrum is on the ball' and 'The way she handled the clutch'. NZ Sheilas --Stewie. |
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17 Sep 20 - 09:45 PM (#4072308) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie STRONG WINDS FOR AUTUMN (Bob McNeill) Strong winds for Autumn Better bring those engines up No sail can carry my love No words will guide her The calling voice is silent And I watched them make turns for ten knots I went each day to the end of the dock Till the day my Annie sailed On the last boat down the weeping loch When the sickness came I suffered with my friends One day I thought the world would end In the dark I called her name The others there heard nothing And I watched them make turns for ten knots I felt her wake with my feet in the surf Till even that was calm And the last boat had gone Sail away my Annan love No breeze can catch you now It's all clear There's only memories here This year will know no winter [Instrumental break] And I watched them make turns for ten knots The cries of the gulls filled the air as I watched The day my Annie sailed On the last boat down the weeping loch Chorus (X2) Strong winds for Autumn Better bring those engines up Bob McNeill moved from Glasgow to New Zealand in 1998 and established himself as one the country’s foremost singer-songwriters. He has twice won the Recording Industry of New Zealand’s award for ‘Best Folk Album’. In relation to his best-known song, 'Strong Winds for Autumn' about a community off the coast of Scotland, he noted: In small coastal communities, there was sometimes a delicate balance between the number of people in the community and the amount of work needed to feed them. If many people died from illness at one time, often this left too few people to get enough food in to enable the community to survive the winter. In the song, a village is evacuated for this reason. The story is told from the perspective of a man who died from the sickness. You can hear Bob introducing and singing this song at about the 5-minute mark of this set: Youtube Emily Smith did a fine cover: Emily --Stewie. |
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17 Sep 20 - 10:14 PM (#4072315) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This one was always a great favourite at the gun turret in Darwin back in the day. GUTBOARD BLUES (Dave Jordan) Well I'm off down the road every mornin' 'bout eight Down on the job, and it's a job (that) I hate, Hackin', cuttin' mutton gut on a contract basis I climb into my overalls and take my place as The boss comes along and he tells me that I’ve got to strip and clip a stomach every second flat So I bust a gut just to get the job all done Hackin', cuttin' mutton gut until the cows come home Sling 'em here, sling 'em there Them guts keep a-comin' in from ev'rywhere I’ve got more trouble than I’m able to use I've got hackin', cuttin', bust-a-guttin' gutboard blues Now down through the 'chute with a slosh and a slop Them sheep guts drop and never seem to stop So I grab me a stomach and I split it wide Then I trim it and I scrape it till it's clean inside Then I turn on the hose and let the water run Chuck it on the pile, and that's another one done The pace is hot, I stop a spot and mop my brow, And my face has all been covered up with digested grass by now Sling 'em here, sling 'em there Them guts keep a-comin' in from everywhere I need the money and a beggar can't choose I got the sloshin', sloppin', never-stoppin' gutboard blues Now there's hydrochloric acid eatin' into my head My hair's turnin' green and I’ll smell like I'm dead There's jokers all around me sloshin' juice on my knees And the temperature's a-hittin' 'bout a hundred degrees I've had a gutsful of guts, I'm tellin' you true I don't think that I could stomach one more ewe It's a way of makin' money and a living, but -- Sheep, I hate your guts! Sling 'em here, sling 'em there Them guts keep a-comin' in from everywhere How else can I afford to live the life that I choose Without them acid-burnin', stomach-churnin' Money-earnin' gutboard blues Go drop dead! The gutboards referred to in Dave Jordan’s 'Gutboard Blues' are now called ‘viscera tables’. At the time, sheep guts earned New Zealand $50 million a year exported as sausage skins. As one freezer said, ‘It’s sometimes what you have to handle that is the guts of the matter’. Dave explained: I worked at Fielding Freezing works in the summer holidays of ’65 and ’66, but as a point-switcher on the mutton/lamb grading lines. My best mate at the time, Graeme Cowley, was on the gutboard. I wrote the song out of sympathy for him after asking him one time why the skin was coming off his hands and his toes appeared to be rotting off, and why he smelled like vomit all the time. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Sep 20 - 11:44 PM (#4072321) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Ah yes! Fond memories of Batey singing 'Gutboard Blues' at the Turret!! My experience of EnZed songs is sadly not much more than Phil Garland and Martin Curtis concerts at the Turret, back in the 80s. Though I recall liking Paul Metser's Farewell to the Gold plus : Hills of Coromandel / Bright Fine Gold / Farewell to Geraldine / Wind Among the Tussocks? / Tuapeka Gold / Long and Friendly Road / Packing My Things, of course as posted ...... and there's always Peter Cape's She'll Be Right Mate! I have to get back to werk now, I'll check in in a few days! Cheers, R-J |
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18 Sep 20 - 02:14 AM (#4072325) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney An Ozzie favourite for you - "Christmas has been cancelled" by Paul Mortimer (nowadays found in the Gaelic Club & at Irish sessions, wot a loss to the folk world!) (Tune: Lili Marlene) K-Tel records were around in the 60s & 70s & Toltoys distributed (original) Star Wars toys. Christmas has been cancelled, Santa Claus is dead. When the scandal broke He put a bullet through his head. Pinned to his chest they found a note Admitting what - the papers wrote: That he was on the payroll Of Toltoys and K-tel. It was bigger still than Lockheed Worse than Watergate. Kids throughout the world Called for his head upon a plate The myth was destroyed and in its wake, Old Santy stood there a callous fake. And evidence is mounting That he was C.I.A. The Church it tried to brand him A charlatan and worse. The Pope said 'Keep off Christmas, mate, We used that number first, As a time when all good Christians sing Of Jesus Christ and cribs and things. Of course it's only bulldust To get the faithful in.' Further allegations Have made the papers wail, That Santa's love for children Was way beyond the pale, He always liked to give out toys To little girls and little boys. It seems that he was harmless But some don't understand. Well we can still be jolly And celebrate New Year, And we'll be nice to other folks More than once a year. With no tinsel trees or plastic snow Or jingle bells or yo ho ho's. And no more f***ing reindeer Or little drummer boys. Repeat first verse. |
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18 Sep 20 - 02:17 AM (#4072326) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney another of Kevin Baker's great songs Aunty Rooney's on a Sunday Getting up on Sunday morning I can hear my parents talking Saying how it's been a long time and it doesn't look like rain And I know it's Aunty Rooney's where my feet will soon be walking First to mass at Kogarah then to Banksia by train And I think Mass will never end, O'Farrell's in the pulpit And I wonder how my father felt to find his mother gone But Aunty Rooney raised him when his mother went to Heaven With the help of Aunty Mary and Uncle Pat and John Soon the Mass is over and to Kogarah we will amble Waiting on the platform looking down the track for trains We spot it in the distance and soon on it we will scramble My sister grabs the window-seat and off we go again We get off at Banksia station with it's many beds of flowers The Station-Master tells us he's won a prize or three We find our way to Short Street but it seems to take us hours As we watch out for the wooden house with it's Frangipani tree Chorus - And they're formerly of Redfern and late of County Galway They tend the Celtic home-fires with a kind of loving hand With each new generation they extend the celebration And keep the green of Ireland growing in this golden land Aunty Rooney tends the oven; Aunty Mary sets the places They take their turns in scolding John who hit the grog last night Uncle Pat returns the book he reads to one of his book-cases And greetings break upon us as we step into the light And after we've had our dinner comes the time that's most exciting All the chairs go in a circle; Uncle Kev is asked to sing He gives us Kevin Barry then my father's up reciting Today I'll play the mouth organ my mother let me bring Chorus Well everyone did something with sometimes some harmonising Though Colleen blushed and giggled and her sister wasn't keen "No politics" calls Mary but just hear the voices rising John has started something with "The Wearing of the Green" So it's "Children to the backyard. Go! Come on now, use your nouses" We'd rather stay inside but still the yard is parent-free We roll and run for hours until Aunty Rooney rouses "Now who has knocked that branch down from my frangipani tree?" Chorus Soon five-o'clock comes round and now the winter sun's declining Grown-ups are startled by the time start straining to get home John says: "Why not stop for tea?" but mum says she's got ironing And things to do before her tribe is fit next week to roam And home in bed before I sleep I catch my memories to me And all those lovely moments get entangled in my dreams And I hope I never get too old to go to Aunty Rooney's To eat and laugh and sing with friends and raise the old roof-beams chorus Recording by Penny Davies and Roger Ilott. |
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18 Sep 20 - 09:21 AM (#4072360) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney PERILOUS GATE (cut down from a 35-verse poem published in 1877) The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser (Toowoomba, Qld. : 1858 - 1880) Sat 29th Dec 1877 refers to the Christmas issue of "The Queenslander" which has a supplement that includes a poem by the author of 'Craddock Head,' entitled 'The Perilous Gate;' (Craddock Head is a 4-part story!) PERILOUS GATE Words & Music: Phyl Lobl audio A tale I tell of a narrow gate upon the eastern coast Of many wrecks and ruins this narrow gate can boast, Beneath Newcastle Harbour waves lie rotting hulls and sailor's graves, Heroes tombs are hidden caves below the Nobby's post. It is a pretty entrance but when you're homebound sail, I'd rather stand far out to sea when it blows a stiffish gale. Blowing from the South or East each huge wave a crest of yeast Comes roaring like a wounded beast and mounts the rolling rail. The sixth day of November round eighteen fifty eight, The Eleanor Lancaster was caught entering the Perilous Gate, We watched those huddled at the top with nothing but a slender prop Which at each blow we thought would drop and all her timbers fail. An awful sea was running and not in all that crew Was one who thought boats could be brought those boiling breakers through But then a little fair haired man pushed and panted as he ran And urged us all the waves to scan and to our mates be true. 'Now lads', he shouted shrill and clear 'Who'll venture it with me? Each minute lost a life might cost in such a tumbling sea. With four good men I’ll wager I'll bring them all to shore Come who will try?' ,three answered 'Aye' and I sir made up four. It was a roughish kind of trip but Chatfield steered us well I see him there with sea drenched hair facing what befell, And when we'd brought them all to shore he shook us by the hand once more. 'I've met no braver men before, the truth to you I tell.' For ten good years the Oyster Bank was beaconed by a spar That stood in witness of the storm that sank the Lancaster Five fathoms deep that rotting shell up reared the slender spar to tell Of brave deed done so nobly well upon that very bar. Then t'ward the close of winter, hard blowin' all the night The great seahorses tearing high raced madly past the bight Many a man came down to see if inbound craft there chanced to be And sailor's wives watched anxiously out on the surging flood. The 'Carrwarra' was coming in, I knew her bow so well We watched her as she struggled on and battled with the swell We stood there watching through the blast and hoped that once the Nobby's past The Harbour she might make at last, none but the god's could tell. She tried to turn again to sea but a snow white whiff of steam Told us that her fires were spent, she drifted on her beam, The engines by the waves were quenched, the men by those same waves were drenched, Watcher's hearts were sorely wrenched with hope a fading gleam. No boat stood out to rescue those still clinging to the deck Though one was there with sea drenched hair who now stood on the deck The beacon pointing to the sky urged us not to let him die But his same noble feat to try no man would risk his neck. Many's the time at midnight I've heard the tempest roar I've lain awake and wished that I could have the chance once more, To be the one to leave the crowd and call his name out clear and loud And free from Neptune's salty shroud bring him back to shore. |
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18 Sep 20 - 09:23 AM (#4072361) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney When the Wind Blows (Eric Bogle) video The evening air lies heavy and sleep it still escapes me A night where hope and courage are still-born Outside the lurking shadows they press against my windows And wait for the coming of the storm They dance, those shadows When the wind blows The shadows are advancing over all the earth they're dancing And everywhere they dance they shall bring death All the priced and even pages that we've written through the ages Shall vanish in the shadow's poisoned breath The story book will close When the wind blows Suddenly I'm frightened, I wish this room were lightened Can no-one light a candle in the dark For I hear the sullen murmour of far-off threatening thunder I feel its menace chill me to the heart Where can I hide, where can I go When the wind blows There is no-one that can save you and nowhere you can run to No shelter in a world that's gone insane In this world that we created in our arrogance and hatred Stand naked 'neath the gentle deadly rain There will be no rainbows When the wind blows In the darkness I am trembling, this night seems never ending It seems the morning sun will never rise And the crashing of the thunder it split my head asunder And lighting burs and heats into my eyes And oh how the darkness grows When the wind blows In a thousand searing flashes the world shall turn to ashes Whirling like a burning coal in endless space This good earth we did inherit we shall leave a smoking desert A headstone for the heedless human race To mark our final flows When the wind blows Oh I must be dreaming for I thought I heard a screaming Like a billion lost souls falling into hell In a thousand tongues bewailing at indifferent fate a-railing Each one calling on the saviour as they fell Shall we reap what we did sow When the wind blows You can call upon your saviour it you think that is the answer But you've called on him so many times before Call on Allah, Buddah, Jesus, I doubt if they can hear us For we let the devil loose, now hear his roar Hell shall overflow When the wind blows ---------------------------------------------------------------------- recorded by Eric Bogle. Copyright Larrikin Music) "This song was inspired by the book of the same name by Raymond Briggs. It's a chilling little book. I'd like to lend a copy to the world leaders, it might frighten them. It certainly frightened me, and this song is the result" - Eric Bogle (The book was also made into an equally chilling animated movie) |
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18 Sep 20 - 09:27 AM (#4072362) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney that makes 195 songs. |
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18 Sep 20 - 07:49 PM (#4072427) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie New spin on an old favourite by pommie pair: Aldridge and Goldsmith At a more familiar pace: The Bushwackers From the forum database: TRAVELLING DOWN THE CASTLEREAGH I'm travellin' down the Castlereagh, and I'm a station-hand I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing an axe all day But there's no demand for a station-hand along the Castlereagh So it's shift, boys, shift, for there isn't the slightest doubt That we've got to make a shift for the stations further out With the pack-horse runnin' after, for he follows me like a dog We must strike across the country at the old jig-jog This old black horse I'm riding, if you notice what's his brand He wears the crooked R, you see, none better in the land He takes a lot of beatin', and the other day we tried For a bit of a joke, with a racing bloke, for twenty pounds a side It was shift, boys, shift, for there wasn't the slightest doubt That I had to make him shift, for the money was nearly out But he cantered home a winner, with the other one at the flog He's a red-hot sort to pick up with his old jig-jog I asked a cove for shearin' once along the Marthaguy "We shear non-union here," says he. "I call it scab," says I I looked along the shearin' floor before I turned to go There were eight or ten non-union men a-shearin' in a row It was shift, boys, shift, for there wasn't the slightest doubt It was time to make a shift with the leprosy about So I saddled up my horses, and I whistled to my dog And I left his scabby station at the old jig-jog I went to Illawarra, where my brother's got a farm He has to ask the landlord's leave before he lifts an arm The landlord owns the countryside - man, woman, dog and cat They haven't the cheek to dare to speak without they touch their hat It was shift, boys, shift, for there wasn't the slightest doubt Their little landlord god and I would soon have fallen out Was I to touch my hat to him? was I his bloomin' dog? So I makes for up the country at the old jig-jog But it's time that I was movin', I've a mighty way to go Till I drink artesian water from a thousand feet below Till I meet the overlanders with the cattle comin' down And I'll work a while till I make a pile, then have a spree in town So it's shift, boys, shift, for there isn't the slightest doubt We've got to make a shift for the stations further out The pack-horse runs behind us, for he follows like a dog And we cross a lot of country at the old jig-jog Notes First published in the Bulletin in 1892 This poem of Banjo Paterson's ('The Bushman's Song') has grown a number of tunes in its time in the bush. Meredith collected three tunes in NSW, and two tunes are given in the Queensland Centenary Pocket Songbook while in his Big Book of Australian Folk Song Ron Edwards gives another two. The most commonly sung tune was collected separately by Geoff Wills and John Manifold. Manifold got it from Mr Hines of Donald, Victoria, and it is in his Penguin Australian Song Book. --Stewie. |
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18 Sep 20 - 08:37 PM (#4072431) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This is another old favourite that Danny Spooner recorded on his final CD. I first heard it sung by a good mate, Ian White, who recorded it on his LP 'Songs from a Busker's Bag'. Here are the lyrics as printed in the booklet to Danny's 'Home' CD. ANOTHER FALL OF RAIN The weather has been sultry for a fortnight now or more And the shearers have been driving might and main, For some have got the century who ne'er got it before But now we all are waiting for the rain. Chorus (after each verse): For the boss is getting rusty and the ringer's caving in, His bandaged wrist is aching with the pain, And the second man I fear will make it hot for him Unless we have another fall of rain. Now some had taken quarters and were keeping well in bunk, When we shore the six-tooth wethers from the plain. And if the sheep get any harder some other blokes'll flunk Unless we have another fall of rain. But the sky is clouding over and the thunder's muttering loud And the clouds are driving eastward o'er the plain. And I see the lightning flashing round the edge of yon black cloud And I hear the gentle patter of the rain. So, lads, put on your stoppers and let us to the hut And we'll gather round and have a friendly game, While some are playing music and some play ante up And some just a-gazing at the rain. Some cockies come here shearing, they would fill a little book About this sad dry weather for the grain. But here is lunch a-coming, make way for Dick the cook, Old Dick is nigh as welcome as the rain. But now the rain is over let the pressers spin the screw, Let the teamsters back their wagons in again. We'll block the classer's table by the way we push them through, For everything goes merry since the rain. So it's, “Boss bring out the bottle” and let us wet the final flock, For the shearers here may never meet again. While some may meet next season and some not even then, And some they will just vanish like the rain. Final Chorus: And the boss he won't be rusty when his sheep they all are shore, And the ringer's wrist won't ache much with the pain Of pocketing a season's cheque for a hundred quid or more— And the second man will press him hard again. Danny's note: Also known as 'Waiting for the Rain', John Meredith collected a version from wharfie Leo Dixon, who had been a bush worker and shearer and was born at Eugowra. Meredith stated that the words were written by John Neilson of Penola, a bush worker, farmer, and balladist, and the father of John Shaw Neilson. The last verse in this version was sent me by email and comes from Dave de Hugard"s record 'Freedom on the Wallaby'. Martyn Wyndham-Read recorded it on his 'Starlit Skies' album at a more leisurely pace. Martyn's note: A song that goes back many years for me. Just recently I played it with a different rhythm and it took on a new life. The beauty of these old songs is that they will stand any interpretation and still come back to the same shape and form. The song may be based on the poem by Australian poet John Shaw Neilson to a tune of his time 'The Little Low Log Cabin in the Lane'. Wyndham-Read Was it written by John Shaw Neilson or his dad? --Stewie. |
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18 Sep 20 - 08:46 PM (#4072432) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie In New Zealand, loggers and forestry workers were known as bushmen. In 1976, Phil Garland collected 'The Dying Bushman' from Ken Hart of Palmerston North who first heard it from bushmen in the Otaki area during the 1930s. Apparently, it is still sung by a younger generation of bushmen. THE DYING BUSHMAN (Anon) I've knocked around the logging camps since early boyhood days I've seen the famous axemen come and go Now me chopping days are over, I shall swing that axe no more On the hillsides where the native timbers grow (Chorus) For me slasher is all rusty, and my axe handle's broke I've laid them both behind the whare door For the rata and the rimu have got so goddamn tough That I really cannot cut them any more The tramways in the valley, I shall never tread again No more I'll hear the hauler's whistle blow Well, oft times I look back as I travel down the track Please don't take me from the only home I know Chorus I'm a poor old worn-out bushman and my chopping days are done Soon this world shall know I'll be no more Down the valley of the shadow, I'll soon be on the track Where oft times I've seen bushmen go before Chorus And when I sleep that last long sleep, I pray that it may be Where the tawa and the matai and the pine And the hinau and the ngaio and the koromiko tree Grow forever by that lonely grave of mine Chorus Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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18 Sep 20 - 08:54 PM (#4072435) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, here's one of your Kiwi favourites. FAREWELL TO GERALDINE (J.Fleming/Trad/P.Garland) (Chorus) Oh, fare well to you, old Geraldine I am now upon the track I'm travellin' down that long and weary road With a swag all on me back I'm headin' towards Temuka town And if work I cannot find I'll make me way on towards Washdyke Leave Temuka far behind Chorus Perhaps I'll call in at Timaru And round there take a look But if no farmer should want me there I'll drop on down to the Hook Chorus I'll push ahead then to Oamaru Ngapara and Duntroon Where farmers often work late at night By the pale light of the moon Chorus When harvest days are over And corn is in the sack I'll shoulder bluey once again By the rattler I'll be comin' back Chorus Joe Fleming was a swagger poet who roamed through South Canterbury and North Otago. He always wintered in the town of Geraldine. His little rhymes would appear on hut doors throughout the countryside. Joe died along the track, a frozen corpse by the side of the road. He left the itinerary of his regular round which Phil Garland set to a traditional tune. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Sep 20 - 01:32 AM (#4072442) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney From Phyl - I wrote it because my father Roy Vinnicombe went to the Somme aged 18 and was injured a couple of years later. He recovered or I would not be writing this e-mail. He went to WW 2 when I was 3 and was invalided home but died when I was 8. A recording of my lyrics accompanied on Uilleann pipes played by Declan Affley is freely available on my web site website The recording was made somewhere in the 80’s I think. It was performed at a concert in the Sydney Town Hall. BATTLE OF THE SOMME, Sung by Phyl Lobl with Pipe accompaniment from Declan Affley Words: Phyl Lobl Tune: Pipe Major William Laurie adapted by Phyl Lobl. The lark in the evening she drops to the ground now Bidding farewell to the long summer day. High on a ridge hear a gun hit the silence, Flames like a flower brighten the sky. Dugouts are quiet we wait for the morning Feeling a thrill as the battle draws near. As dawn with her pale flush, silvers the grey sky Sharp tongues of shell fire call up the day. Glory, vain glory, you beckoned us onward, Kitchener’s call and your light led the way. Then just when we seem to be near You turn into darkness Splashed with the mud and the pain of the day. The lines they are formed and the orders are given While General Haig sends his prayers to the sky. As we move onward our bayonets before us We know that those prayers were no better than lies. Rising and twisting the smoke curls above us I see by the green glow there's gas in its domes. We stumble and fall through the craters and shell holes, Watching the bombs turning trenches to tombs. We're over the rise now, the line is before us, Enemy gun fire taking its toll What hope have the bayonets and the rifles we carry Against a machine gun here on the Somme. Day's nearly done now the battlefield empties, The living are hidden the dead lying still. The wounded are calling for someone to save them But no one can help them, no body will. *‘What's to be said of the life-time of man now, Shifting from sorrow to sorrow again. You button up one cause for man kind's vexation Only to find there's another undone.'* Each generation has freedom to fight for, Choose between gun fire or words for your tools. Freedom's a phantom but reason could find her. Honour and glory a haven for fools. • Words between the stars are a direct quote from the book. The rest are mine distilled from the revelations of people Guy Chapman interviewed for his book. |
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19 Sep 20 - 01:47 AM (#4072443) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney DEVLIN'S GENERAL STORE, words: © John Warner 19/10/93 tune: John Warner/Margaret Walters Where can I get a cross-cut saw? Devlin's General Store. You can get a cross-cut saw And anything else you're looking for, It's been there since '94, Has Devlin's General Store. Where can I go to collect me mail? Devlin's General Store There you can collect your mail That came from Melbourne town by rail You can get a cross-cut saw [etc] Where can I get a dozen eggs? Devlin's General Store You can get a dozen eggs A washing line, some dolly pegs There you can collect your mail [etc] [And so on until the last verse:] Where can I get some sly grog, mate? Devlin's General Store, You can get some sly grog, mate, We just sold some to the magistrate, * You can get a length of fuse Several types from which to choose You can get some gelignite, Samsonite or dynamite, * You can get some 12 gauge shot, Powder, wadding, they've got the lot You can get a liquorice strap, A tupenny bunger, a rabbit trap, You can get a carbide lamp, A miner's pick or a ha'penny stamp, You can get a set of spurs, Flannel underwear, his or hers, You can get a dozen eggs, A washing line, some dolly pegs, There you can collect your mail That came from Melbourne town by rail, You can get a cross-cut saw, And anything else you're looking for, It's been there since '94, Has Devlin's General Store. |
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19 Sep 20 - 01:48 AM (#4072444) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney now we are 200! |
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19 Sep 20 - 07:26 PM (#4072510) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE DUST OF URUZGAN (Fred Smith) In the ring they called me ‘Warlord’ my mother calls me ‘Paul’ You can call me ‘Private Warren’ when you're filing your report As to how I came to be here, this is what I understand In this hospital in Germany from the dust of Uruzgan I had just turned twenty eight, just bought a new car When you joined the first Battalion of the Big 1 RAR We were next up for deployment into South Afghanistan To combat the insurgence in the dust of Uruzgan It took seven months of training just to get into the joint There were push-ups and procedures, there was death by powerpoint Then the RSO&I course in Ali Al Salaam But nothing can prepare you for the dust of Uruzgan Me and Benny sat together flying into Kandahar Sucked back on our near beers in the Camp Baker Bar Then up at 05:30 and on the Herc and out In twenty flying minutes, we were in to Tarin Kowt We shook hands as the boys ripped out from MRTF one And pretty soon were out patrolling in the Afghan summer sun Walking through the green zones with a Styer in my hand Body armour chafing through the dust of Uruzgan We started up near Chora working fourteen hours a day Mentoring a Kandak from the Afghan 4th Brigade Down through the Baluchi into eastern Dorafshan Working under open skies in the dust of Uruzgan It's a long, long way from Townsville not like any place you’ll see Suddenly you're walking through from the fourteenth century Women under burkhas, tribal warlords rule a land Full of goats and huts and jingle trucks in the dust of Uruzgan And the Education Minister can neither read nor write And the Minister for Women runs a knock shop there at night They've been fighting there forever over water, food and land Murdering each other in the dust of Uruzgan There's nothing about the province that's remotely fair or just But worse than the corruption is the endless fucking dust It's as fine as talcum powder on the ground and in the air And it gets into your eyes and it gets into your hair And it gets in to your weapon and it gets in to your boots When bureaucrats all show up there, it gets in to their suits It gets in the machinery, it foils every plan There's something quite symbolic about the dust of Uruzgan Still the people can be gracious and they’re funny and they’re smart And when the children look into your eyes, they walk into your heart They face each day with courage and each year without a plan Beyond scratching for survival in the dust of Uruzgan But the Taliban are ruthless, they keep the people terrorised With roadside bombs and hangings and leaving letters in the night And they have no useful vision for the children of this land But to keep them praying on their knees in the dust of Uruzgan It was a quiet Saturday morning when the ’2 Shop’ made a call On a compound of interest to the east of COP Mashal We had some information, they were building IEDs So we cordoned and we searched it in accord with SOPs I was on the west flank picket, propped there with Ben There to keep a watchful eye out while the other blokes went in We knew what to look for from the TTPs we'd learned But the Nationals were moving back and forth without concern We'd been standing still for hours when I took a quick step back Kicked a small AP mine and everything went black I woke up on a gurney, flat out on my back I had to ask them seven times just to get the facts I lived to tell the story through a simple twist of fate The main charge lay ten foot away from the pressure plate You see the mine was linked by det cord to a big charge laid by hand Hidden under Benny by the dust of Uruzgan I was a Queensland champ Thai Boxer now I look south on my knee And all I see is bed sheets where my right foot use to be Benny's dead and buried underneath Australian sand But his spirit's out there wandering through the dust - the dust of Uruzgan Now I'm going back to Townsville, it's the city of my birth Some go back to Ballarat and some go back to Perth I'll be living with my mother who's still trying to understand Why we're spending blood and treasure in the dust - in the dust of Uruzgan Youtube clip Fred noted: In July 2009, passing through the United Arab Emirates on my way into Afghanistan, I attended a memorial service for Ben Ranaudo, a young guy from Springvale, Victoria. This was the first of over a dozen memorial services and ramp ceremonies I went to in my 18 month stint working for Foreign Affairs in Uruzgan Province, Southern Afghanistan. You never really get used to them, but I had just arrived and was unprepared. In the months that followed, through conversations with staff in the headquarters of the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force, I developed some understanding of what happened on the morning of 18 July, 2009, when Ben was killed. I read the unclassified version of the Commission of Inquiry Report into the incident when it was released in December that year, and found myself imagining an interview between the colonel who wrote the report and one of Ben’s mates, a guy called Paul. You can find explanations of acronyms in the glossary at this site which details Fred's Afghanistan experiences: Click --Stewie. |
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19 Sep 20 - 09:38 PM (#4072528) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The late John Munro lived for a time here in Darwin towards the end of his life. He was a very fine musician and singer, but I must admit that not many of his original songs sparked my clod. However, I really loved this one. SNOWDROP (John Munro) It’s minus six as Alex stands in line The grim procession that’s motionless in time He’ll wash and share some bread But there’s no warmth, there’s no bed At Sanitation Station Number 9 And he thinks about the harsh words with his son But there’s no way back, the damage has been done His thinking’s not so clear now From the vodka and the beer now And not a living soul goes where he’s gone And when all the snows have melted All the papers blown away There you are, there you are Just another snowdrop blooming in the spring A silent voice without a song to sing And this brave new world you fought for Didn’t turn out like you thought For all the lost and lonely snowdrops in the spring Now Alex knows a place where he can go A quiet stair-well where there’s shelter from the snow And as he makes a bed, does he think what lies ahead Or is lying down his head all that he knows There’s money now but Alex wouldn’t know But the news is good, the papers tell us so But for all the lies he stood for, now all the news is good for Is a blanket that won’t quite keep out the cold And when all the snows have melted All the papers blown away There you are, there you are Just another snowdrop blooming in the spring A silent voice without a song to sing And this brave new world you fought for Didn’t turn out like you thought For all the lost and lonely snowdrops in the spring Alex sleeps and sleeps and never dreams And passes out of life somewhere between The darkness and the light, the daytime and the night Unnoticed, unremarked, unloved, unseen And when all the snows have melted All the papers blown away There you are, there you are Just another snowdrop blooming in the spring A silent voice without a song to sing And this brave new world you fought for Didn’t turn out like you thought For all the lost and lonely snowdrops in the spring I transcribed the lyrics from John's singing on Eric Bogle's 2009 album 'The Dreamer'. Corrections welcomed. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Sep 20 - 10:02 PM (#4072530) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie In 1840, around two-thirds of New Zealand was still covered in forest and this provided the basis for a strong indigenous timber industry for more than 100 years. A fine timber industry song, 'The Mill', was first published in Neil Colquhoun’s excellent ‘Song of a Young Country’ in 1977. It is attributed to a C.H. Winter about whom nothing is known. THE MILL (C.H. Winter attributed) Beside a clump o’ needlewood we anchored down the mill The engine’s by the blue-clay tank and further up the hill The men are marking out the trees and the chips are on the wing So early in the morning you can hear the axes ring (Chorus) With a jigger and a jemmy and a shigger and a shammy And the sawdust in the sky I keep thinking will he gimme up all of me money Or wait till the big ‘uns lie We’ve laid the bench and trued the saw and given her one spin The benchman eyes his pet with pride and pats the packing in He chocked the engines rolling wheels and backed the watercart And heaped a stack of shortening wood in readiness to start Chorus We have no tearing vertical, we run no twin saws here No clanking winches, swinging cranes, no wealth of yankee gear No office clerk with collar white, no gangs of many men We run a simple clearing mill and number nine or ten Chorus We grease the transports, oil the trucks, the benchman gives a sign The engine starts, the big belt flaps and saw begins to whine The sun comes out a scorcher and the bullocks raise the dust The waterbags gets covered and our throats begin to rust Chorus The hill is looking strange and bare, the bigger trees are cut And through the gaps we catch a sight of some gum digger’s hut The ground is scoured by dragging logs, the grog is put to rout And now it’s just a few more days and we’ll be all cut out Chorus At first, some timber was milled near the logging site. Logs were jammed into position on a platform over a pit. They were then cut by 2 men using a crosscut saw, one standing on top of the log and one beneath. Pit-sawing, however, could not keep up with demand for timber and, after 1865, steam-driven mills were developed with steam generated by burning wood waste. The logs were hauled by bullock teams or rolled by means of timber jacks. --Stewie. |
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19 Sep 20 - 11:16 PM (#4072531) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie FALZIBAD (Fred Smith) Falzibad, the post-modern muslim Had a thing for those modern women Started out feeling sentimental Left us feeling so existential Falzibad, Falzibad (after each stanza) Falzibad though he was Islamic Liked his vinegar pure balsamic Playing tennis like Boris Becker Kept forgetting to pray to Mecca Falzibad he went to Karachi Met a woman like Greta Scacchi Sang her the song of the mariachi All the mullah got very touchy Muslim boys should not sing in Spanish ‘Falizad’, they said, ‘you are banished To a land where there’s no falafel’ As for english, well he knew stuff all So Falzibad he went into exile Selling rugs and imported textiles Driving down to the hippy market In a porsche and there he’d park it All the women said, ‘Hey habibi You’re the one we’ve seen on tv But we find you more appetising Than the rugs you’ve been advertising’ Falzibad he went to a disco Spanish quarter of San Francisco Wound up with a Latino dancer Woke up wondering where his pants were And as he awoke from his bender There were kisses wet, warm and tender The dancer’s body was long and slender Some uncertainty as to gender Falzibad he was a chick magnet Pulled them in like he had a dragnet Plain to see he’d forgotten Allah Lying there in the massage parlour God so terrible, god so frightening Struck poor Falzibad down with lightning ’That’ll teach you’, he said, ‘for messin’ ‘Round with women without my blessin’’ One of my favourite Fred Smith songs. I reckon the best recording of it is on his album with the Spooky Men's Chorale - 'Urban Sea Shanties' - but that track is not available on YT. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Sep 20 - 05:18 AM (#4072553) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Richard Mellish Sandra in Sydney 17 Sep 20 - 04:16 AM Randwick Races There are more verses. Do you have them, Sandra? I learnt the song from a recording so there will be some differences from the words in my head and those originally written, but I can post mine if you don't have them. |
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20 Sep 20 - 09:33 AM (#4072576) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Gidday, Richard I copied a post from this thread http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=79383 but it only had 5 verses, I hadn't noticed. A later post on that thread lists the entire song copied from John's first book - which I have & just used to count the verses, so I know there are 8. I'll ask Joe if he can add the extra verses to my original post so it's perfect! The Randwick Races (Words: John Dengate - Tune: "The Galway Races") We arrived at Randwick races, by taxi from Clovelly. I had money in my trousers, boys, and schooners in my belly. Well the bookies saw us coming and they panicked in a crisis; They tinkered with the odds and they shortened all their prices. CHORUS: With my whack, fol the do, fol the diddley idle day. Well the hunger it was gnawing and the thirst was in us rising While the crowd's excited roaring reached a level quite surprising. Oh, we swallowed several middies and demolished pies and sauces And we set to work comparing prices, jockey's weights and horses. CHORUS: Denis Kevans said, "I reckon we will finish rich as Pharaoh If we back the chestnut filly from the district of Monaro. She's a trier, she's a flier, never knock her or decry her - She's sixty-six to one; when she wins we'll all retire." CHORUS: There was every kind of punter from illiterates to scholars; I struggled through the betting ring and wagered twenty dollars - Then the horses were away; from the barrier they thundered And we hoped that very day to collect the thirteen hundred. CHORUS: We shouted in despair; Denis Kevans tore his hair, O'Dea began to swear at the filly from Monaro. She was struggling in the pack and our very hearts were bleeding; She was falling further back and the favourite was leading. CHORUS: It seems the filly heard us for suddenly she sprinted. She raced around the ruck with a purpose quite unstinted. At the ledger she was third, oh you should have seen her flying; I got so damned excited that I choked upon my pie, singing – CHORUS: They stormed into the straight like cavalry invading; The filly was improving and the favourite was fading: "She's won it by a nose ... but a protest has been entered; The stewards have upheld it; curse the day they were invented!' CHORUS: We walked back to Clovelly from the blasted Randwick races, With ulcers in our bellies, boys, and gloom upon our faces. We cursed the filly's jockey and we cursed the Randwick stewards Then drowned our disappointment in a flood of amber fluids. CHORUS: |
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20 Sep 20 - 07:21 PM (#4072615) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I posted this one to the forum almost 20 years ago. At the height of the 'revival' in Oz, the first 3 interstate guest singers we had to the Top End Folk Club in Darwin were Declan Affley, Danny Spooner and Bernard Bolan. UNCLE FRED (Bernard Bolan) My uncle Fred retired last week at the age of 82 So we thought it only proper to prepare a little do My uncle Fred's a lawyer and he works in Sydney town At the offices of Brindle, Bogle, Trimble, Cock and Brown It had always been intended I should follow in his steps And not become a parson or else one of Waltons' reps So I studied for my exams though it nearly split my head And soon I took my proper place alongside Uncle Fred Uncle Fred is 82 today Time to take his specs off and put his books away Time to say farewell to Torrens title and the courts And no more thinking complicated excise duty thoughts Mr Bogle brought the gin and Bogle brought the beer But Trimble, Cock and Brown had not been round for many years The office girls appeared in pearls and some with purple eyes And, in the usual fashion, I was sent to get the pies A wooden chiming clock was bought at very great expense And a little card with flowers on cost petty cash 10 cents At the office bar, with a pencil jar, the cashier lost his head And drank lemonade and a razor blade to the health of uncle Fred Uncle Fred is 82 today Time now for the Law Society's pension fund to pay No more hereunto, aforesaid, thee and thou But time to pay attention to the herein after now Mr Bogle had begun his speech in praise of uncle Fred When he choked upon a cherry and he turned a fearful red They beat him on the back until his teeth fell on the floor And in the pandemonium no one saw the office door But standing there as large as life was a banker known as Max For whom old Fred had once prepared a scheme for saving tax He said, 'So Fred is leaving, I am glad he hasn't gone 'Cos I just got out of jail this week and I'd like to join the fun Uncle Fred is 82 today Time to say goodbye to all his friends up in Long Bay No more telling clients that adultery is wrong And tracking correspondents down and wishing he was young After Max came Mr Phelps who lives at Wollongong He bought a flat in Wollstonecraft but Fred had got things wrong Then poor Herbert Wilkins' missus shedding floods of tears On a speeding charge he'd gone to Fred and he'd got him 14 years But then a hush fell over all as from the ground beneath Came smoke and flames and 20 names framed in a fiery wreath 'God bless you Fred from the grateful dead', Satan's chorus sang, 'For down in hell are the clientele that you managed to get hanged' Uncle Fred, you're 82 today Time to hang your wig up and to give the game away Time to leave your office in the middle of the town With the compliments of Brindle, Bogle, Trimble, Cock and Brown Youtube clip A tribute concert to the great man: Click --Stewie. |
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20 Sep 20 - 08:02 PM (#4072620) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie ROSE BAY FERRY (Bernard Bolan) Every morning at 8:25 Down to the Rose Bay wharf I drive Park my Humber underneath a tree Pop along the gangplank and then I'm free Free says you, but how can that be? When you always finish up at Circular Quay So doubting Tom I shall explain When I get on board I sing this sweet refrain Where are we going today, Mr Nicholson? Where is it the going to be? Don't turn left, turn right down the harbour And out to the open sea Throw away your compass, right hand down And it's out through the heads we’ll go Yo ho! let's be merry on the Rose Bay ferry If we run out of petrol, we'll row, yo hoYo Ho! If we run out of petrol, we'll row Monday Java, Tuesday Spain Wednesday's it's Tokyo and back again The only trouble is, there isn't any Gents But what do you want for 20 cents? Off with me raincoat and me woolly vest See the naked ladies on my chest Today is Friday, so hold on tight 'Cos it’s off to Trinidad and back tonight Where are we going today, Mr Nicholson? Where is the going to be? Don't turn left, turn right down the harbour And out to the open sea Pull up your anchor, pull your finger out And wave goodbye to your home We're off to Nantucket, so give that man a bucket 'Cos it's choppy when you're out on the foam, yo ho It's choppy when you're out on the foam Now sometimes if I get up late I only reach the jetty at half past 8 But that doesn't ruin my world-wide trip 'Cos the 8:37 is a battleship Off on the dot with our guns on high Mince up Manly as we pass by We need another rocket so just pop upstairs We can get 'em from the chappy who collects the fares But now, left turn’s right today, Mr Nicholson Trouble in town, you see Let's hear three cheers, we're brave buccaneers The saviours of Circular Quay With patch on high and brollies to the sky Every pollie from his folly must flee With knuckles and chuckles, we'll swash their buckles If they bugger up Circular Quay Then we'll heave to (or three) at Circular Quay Bernard's original final chorus was: Where are we going today, Mr. Nicholson? Where is the going to be? Don't turn left, turn right down the harbour And out to the open sea For though we look like dudes and doctors At heart we are men of the sea Yo ho, let's be merry on the Rose Bay ferry Until we get to Circular Quay We finish up at Circular Quay Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Sep 20 - 08:28 PM (#4072621) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie FAREWELL TO THE GOLD (Paul Metsers) Shotover River, your gold it is waning It's weeks since the colour I've seen. But it's no use just sitting and Lady Luck blaming I'll pack up and make the break clean (Chorus) Farewell to the gold that never I found Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound For it's only when dreaming that I see the gleaming Down in the dark deep underground It's nearly two years since I left my old mother For adventure and gold by the pound With Jimmy the prospector, he was another For the hills of Otago we were bound Chorus Well we worked the Cardrona's dry valleys all over Old Jimmy Williams and me. They were panning good dirt on the winding Shotover So we headed down there just to see Chorus We sluiced and we cradled for day after day Barely making enough to get by 'Til a terrible flood swept poor Jimmy away During six stormy days in July Chorus One of the best-loved New Zealand folk idiom songs. It was written by Paul Metsers, but popularised by Phil Garland, Nic Jones, Gordon Bok and others. Metsers wrote about its composition: I'm afraid there is no mystery source for the song, no distant broadside or doggerel from which it gained its inspiration. It's all out of my head as it happens. I got hold of a pictorial history of gold mining, a small but fascinating book called ‘The Goldfields of Central Otago’. When I read of the tragic flash flood of July 1863, I knew I had the basis of a story. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Sep 20 - 08:33 PM (#4072622) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Then there's the splendid parody by the late Marcus Turner. HUNG OVER LIVER (Marcus Turner) Hungover liver. my head it is aching; It's weeks since the daylight I've seen I'm sitting here thinking "This shit I've been drinking Is rotting a hole in my spleen." Farewell to the gold that never I've seen. Goodbye to the acres of New Zealand green. I'm feeling quite plastered; my brain is half-masted. Put me down, you don't know where I've been. It's nearly two weeks since I left my old lady To have a quiet beer with the boys With Acid Head Jimmy and crazy Marie And Zelda with her rubber toys. Farewell to my house, my family and wife. I knew I was heading for all kinds of strife. We really were raving, I knew I was having The best bloody time of my life. We spent the next fortnight in acts of perversion, Old Jimmy Williams and me 'Til we heard of a party where no one had clothes on So we headed down there just to see. We drank and we chundered for night after night. Jug after jug we threw down 'Til two great big p'licemen took Jimmy away In a bust in the east end of town. Farewell lovely Zelda wherever you are. Your knickers are still in the back of my car, And thanks for the games with Marie and with James And I hope the rash doesn't spread far. --Stewie. |
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20 Sep 20 - 08:49 PM (#4072625) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie The late great John Clarke was a national treasure on both sides of the Tasman. Before relocating to Australia in 1977 and starting anew as a political satirist, Clarke had created an enduring Kiwi icon in the imagination of New Zealanders – the hilariously laconic, black-singleted, gumbooted farmer, Fred Dagg. Billy Connelly had modified a traditional song, 'The Work of the Weavers, to create his 'Welly Boot Song'. In turn, Clarke transmogrified Connelly’s piece into 'The Gumboot Song', one of Fred Dagg’s greatest hits. THE GUMBOOT SONG (John Clarke aka Fred Dagg) [Spoken] Kick it in the guts, Trev ... Gumboots, they are wonderful, gumboots, they are swell 'Cos they keep out the water, and they keep in the smell And when you're sittin' round at home, you can always tell When one of the Trevs has taken off his gumboots (Chorus) If it weren't for your gumboots, where would ya be? You'd be in the hospital or infirmary 'Cos you would have a dose of the flu, or even pleurisy If ya didn't have yer feet in yer gumboots Now there's rugby boots and racing boots, and boots for drinkin' rum But the only boots I'm never without, are the ones that start with ‘gum’ I've got short ones and long ones, and some up to me belt I'm never dressed 'till I've got on me gumboots Chorus Whenever I sing at the opera, my gumboots are a must They help me hit the high notes, and protect me feet from dust They keep the water well away, so me voice won't get no rust You will not never see me without me gumboots Chorus Now Rob Muldoon and Rowling, they haven't made a hit They're ruining the country, more than just a bit If they keep on the way they're going, we'll all be in turd So you'd better get yer feet up yer gumboots Chorus (x2) Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Sep 20 - 09:08 PM (#4072627) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney good one, Stewie I have no idea when I last heard it, but I remember the chorus, I'll probably be singing it all day. sandra |
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20 Sep 20 - 10:05 PM (#4072629) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG How about "Basingstoke" by Bernard Bolan? Poor old Basingstoke......very funny. |
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21 Sep 20 - 01:19 AM (#4072632) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney here 'tis https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=105012 Date: 24 Sep 07 - 10:05 AM & here's Bernard singing Basingstoke in 1981 BASINGSTOKE © Bernard Bolan I've got a cat called Basingstoke. he's a cat you must admire. He's black and white, or he was, till the night that he jumped into the fire. What a night! The tale it must be told, So grip your seat, for you're in for a treat that will make your blood run cold. Basingstoke, he used to be so furry Till he tried to kung-fu the canary. Up he jumped, soaring ever higher, Then the soaring stopped and down he dropped in the middle of the fire. In flames and smoke my Basingstoke went roaring round the room. His fiery tum and his blackened bum appeared to spell his doom. What a cat! Whoever would have guessed He could stick his rear in a pint of beer while beating out his chest? Basingstoke, he truly is a trier. It takes guts to sing when you're on fire. What a cat! You should have seen him strain, Stuck like glue in the bottom of the loo and trying to pull the chain. Now life's no joke for Basingstoke; so runs the ugly rumour That the fiery hob did not just rob him of his sense of humour. Poor old chap! The prospect it appals. Just one jump and down with a bump and he's burnt off all his undergrowth. Basingstoke, his tale is truly tragic. Fire and smoke, they have robbed him of his magic. The former spring-pawed terror of the tiles Just sits and sighs with tears in his eyes 'cause he only raises smiles. Basingstoke, he used to be a charmer. Now ladies joke, they talk of fried banana. Poor old chap! He was too young to retire. Once he was happy, handsome and hairy, Just a red-blooded pussy with a taste for canary. Now he comes somewhere between a fritter and a fairy Since he walked the fire. Bernard & friends in the 2019 Bernard Bolan tribute concert |
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21 Sep 20 - 08:12 PM (#4072714) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE WOOL COMMANDEER (George Meek w/Frank Fyfe t) The commandeer is under way, and blimey what a fuss The blinkin’ din and clatter sure would make a parson cuss There's covees tearing up the floors and blokes in overalls Slap-dapping cans of whitewash on the rafters and the walls (Chorus) Well it’s come from Haka Valley and it's come from Sunny Peak It's come from up the river and down Waitaki Creek She’s come from the back of nowhere up the wild McKenzie way And a clip from Tipperary will get here any day There's stackers swinging bale hooks and there's barrows shifting wool, There's covees humping baskets, some half empty, some half full There's classers squealing loudly for more bales of wool to class And someone yelling,’Where do you want this wool from Dansey's Pass?’ Chorus There's wool on every siding and there's wool on every street There's wool on every lorry and every bus you meet There's wool on every trailer and there's wool on every train And the stock-and-station diggers have got it on the brain Chorus There's wool on every corner and there's wool on every floor There's wool dumped in the basement and jammed behind the door There's wool in the old dairy and there's wool down at the dump There's wool in the old freezer and still more bales to hump Chorus. There's shaggy bales and baggy bales, there's fadges, sacks and bags Thank heavens Wally Nash cut out the blinkin’, stinkin’ dags There's belly wool and smelly wool and wool, well spare me days And the old jumbuck that grew it, I'll swear's seen better days. Chorus In 1940, the New Zealand government decided to commandeer all available wool bales and store them for eventual use in the war effort. George Meek of Oamaru was amused by this huge stockpiling and subsequently wrote this ballad. It was set to music by Frank Fyfe. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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21 Sep 20 - 08:20 PM (#4072715) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie MY MAN’S GONE NOW (Anon) My man’s gone now, he had to go Couldn’t find no work around this town Not for ages, used his wages Got up this morning and he was gone Monday morning, it starts to rain Around the curve there comes a south-bound train Under a tarpaulin rides a bum called John He was a strange man, but now he’s gone Morning sunshine, the rooster crows Along the highway where, goodness knows Where’s John sleeping, how’s he keeping? When will he take the homeward road? Repeat stanza 1. A few months after the 1929 Wall Street crash, farm produce prices in New Zealand collapsed. Since the economy depended almost entirely on farm exports, the effects were disastrous. By 1931, over 50,000 New Zealand men were walking, looking for work. A sad effect of the upheaval was the break-up of family life. This little song was collected by Neil Colquhoun from May Simpson. --Stewie. |
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21 Sep 20 - 09:39 PM (#4072721) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie ON THE WALLABY (Henry Lawson) Now the tent poles are rotting, the camp fires are dead, And the possums may gambol in trees overhead; I am humping my bluey far out on the land, And the prints of my bluchers sink deep in the sand: I am out on the wallaby humping my drum, And I came by the tracks where the sundowners come. It is nor'-west and west o'er the ranges and far To the plains where the cattle and sheep stations are, With the sky for my roof and the grass for my bunk, And a calico bag for my damper and junk; And scarcely a comrade my memory reveals, Save the spiritless dingo in tow of my heels. But I think of the honest old light of my home When the stars hang in clusters like lamps from the dome, And I think of the hearth where the dark shadows fall, When my camp fire is built on the widest of all; But I'm following Fate, for I know she knows best, I follow, she leads, and it's nor'-west by west. When my tent is all torn and my blankets are damp, And the rising flood waters flow fast by the camp, When the cold water rises in jets from the floor, I lie in my bunk and I list to the roar, And I think how to-morrow my footsteps will lag When I tramp 'neath the weight of a rain-sodden swag. Though the way of the swagman is mostly up-hill, There are joys to be found on the wallaby still. When the day has gone by with its tramp or its toil, And your camp-fire you light, and your billy you boil, There is comfort and peace in the bowl of your clay Or the yarn of a mate who is tramping that way. But beware of the town—there is poison for years In the pleasure you find in the depths of long beers; For the bushman gets bushed in the streets of a town, Where he loses his friends when his cheque is knocked down; He is right till his pockets are empty, and then— He can hump his old bluey up country again. Above is the Lawson poem. As a song, the title is usually 'The tent poles are rotten' with a variety of changes to the text - eg the possums 'ramble' and the 'spiritless dingo' becomes 'the spirit it tingles in my toe ...'. In all the recordings that I have (de Hugard, Loaded Dog, Wyndham-Read, Spooner) the third stanza is omitted. Danny Spooner's note in booklet to his 'Ard Tack' album: This song by Henry Lawson appears in Chris Kempster's tribute to the poet, The Songs of Henry Lawson with Music (Viking O'Neil 1989). Chris cites three tunes and I probably sing a combination of the first two. The song was first collected by Stan Arthur, Bob Michell and Ken McGoldrick in the 1960s from the singing of E. and A. Nesbitt of Bundaberg, Queensland, and Dave de Hugard has adapted that tune. The words explore the toils and rewards of the itinerant life—so much a part of the Australia's nineteenth century culture and identity. Here is a live rendition by Wyndham-Read Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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21 Sep 20 - 10:29 PM (#4072724) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This piece of nonsense was popular. FERGIE TRACTOR (Peter Pentland) Well I run a few acres, pays a few quids rent And I overcome troubles when they be sent Be they flood or drought or some other factor I takes them in stride on me fergie tractor (Chorus) Oh me beaut little fergie tractor Be dad she goes like the clappers I can plough me fields and increase me yields Even comes with a silage extractor Me beaut little fergie tractor The fergie she's a wondrous machine I love to sniff her exhaust because she always runs clean There's no other machine I e’er took a jack to As fewer times as me fergie tractor Chorus Well the missus was naggin’ at me for years Her mouth was always flapping’ around me ears She’d nag about me, me dog and me farm So I ran over her on me ferguson Chorus I once had this milk maid working for me And the material in her blouse filled me with glee I gave her a wink, but I then had to sack her For although she liked me, she hated me tractor Chorus Now some folk say that I'd be an idiot And if brains be lightbulbs that I'd burned out me filament But people like that I just turn me back to And I go in the shed and I sit on me tractor Chorus Recording of a live performance at the Dan O'Connell in Melbourne in 1979. Youtube --Stewie. |
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22 Sep 20 - 01:15 AM (#4072731) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Thank you for the Fergie tractor song, Stewie, I haven't heard it for ages! A small village half an hour north of here has a "Grey Fergie Muster" every three years - would have been due next March, but due to the covid plague has been put off to 2022. Mind you, the Fergies at the Muster aren't all grey......I have seen bright pink, lurid purple...... |
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22 Sep 20 - 07:44 PM (#4072799) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE BROKEN-HEARTED SHEARER I'm a broken-hearted shearer and ashamed to show my face For the way that I've been treated is a shame and a disgrace Now I’ve got me cheque together and I thought that it would do So I went down to Bendigo to spend a week or two Now I knew I wasn’t flat so resolved to cut it fat And I dressed meself from top to toe, put a pugg'ree round me hat Then I went to get a nobbier at a certain house in town Where the barmaid was a caution for to lamb a shearer down She had all the slang and flash talk that was going round the town And she'd sling it at me right and left while I was lambing down Well me money being nearly spent, I resolved to know my fate So I asked that pretty barmaid if she would be me mate “Well the fact is this, young man, on my feelings don't encroach I'm a decent married woman and my husband drives the coach" So I’ve sold me good old horse and I'll get some work, I hope I've a pipe and some tobaccy and half a bar of soap So I’m leaving Sandhurst now with me billy and jackshay And a pair of old torn leggings and a jar of Holloways That’s why I’m a broken-hearted shearer and ashamed to show me face For the way that I’ve been treated is a shame and a disgrace This is the version sung by Martyn Wyndham-Read. Martyn noted that he got it from David Lumsden who learnt it from his grandmother who spent much of her childhood in the Riverina. The tune is 'The wearing of the green'. 'Lambed down' was the term given to a luckless shearer after the barmaid had prised the last drop out of his cheque. A 'pugg'ree' is a thin muslim cloth (from the word for a turban). 'Holloways' was a family ointment sold in a earthenware jar. Youtube clip The first publication of the song in 1886 here: Click On Thompson's blog, you can find a different version collected by Meredith. --Stewie. |
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22 Sep 20 - 08:54 PM (#4072807) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another little ripper from the pen of Kath Tait. STEEL-HEARTED ANNIE (Kath Tate) Steel-hearted Annie came home from work Through the park in the dark where the rapist lurked Behind the bushes and about to attack With the cold winds whistling across his back He pounced on Annie 'cos she was slim 'Cos she looked so frail and feminine But he wouldn't have done it if he only knew That she was a master of kung fu (Chorus) Steel-hearted Annie with an iron will Looks about as frail as a daffodil But you don't take a chance on a small thin dame With a punch like a piston on a steam train Steel-hearted Annie don't like to pose Like a trembling victim in a movie show She gets mad when she's in distress Like an animal in the wilderness There's nothing that she wouldn't do to survive She's got a strong desire to stay alive And she looks cute in pink or blue But she is a master of kung fu Chorus Steel-hearted Annie lived near a jail Where a psycho killer was released on bail He crept stealthily through the night He broke into her house to give her a fright And a cold wind whistled 'round the window frames Made a sound like a ghost rattlin' chains But the psycho killer ran for his life When he saw Annie coming with a carving knife Chorus Steel-hearted Annie told all her friends, 'We've got to stand up to violence' She went to classes and learned to fight Now she's not afraid to walk around at night She's a great big shark in a little tin can A little fire-cracker with a great big bang So just be careful what you do, 'Cos she is a master of kung fu Kath Tait: 'Steel-hearted Annie' came from watching Doris Day in an Alfred Hitchcock movie behave in such a pathetic manner that it seemed out of character with the fact that she was quite a tall, well-built woman and at least as strong as the male character who was pursuing her. We should remember that a hell of a lot of people live risky, adventurous lives and don't have lots of bad things happen to them. We don't want to let stories of victimisation scare us into leading excessively safe and boring lives. Therefore I try to make the characters in my songs survivors rather than victims. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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22 Sep 20 - 09:41 PM (#4072810) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Phil Beck and I have been known to recite a beaut poem by Jim Haynes titled 'Dipso Dan' which we got via Campbell the Swaggie whom many Oz folkies would know. Here is another splendid bit of nonsense from Haynes. SINCE CHERYL WENT FERAL (Jim Haynes) Watching ’60 Minutes’ one night As soon as it was over we got into a fight Because Cheryl said alternative was the way to go And the very next day she bought a sarong A sheepskin jacket and a brand new bong And before I knew it we hit the road Since Cheryl went feral Everything's weird And all our friends have disappeared She shaved her head and I've grown a beard Since Cheryl went feral It took us ages to hitch our way From Pennant Hills up to Byron Bay If we’d left those kids at home, we'd have been all right Well living off the land is all very well But the mung bean diet was giving me hell And I had to put that wigwam up each night Since Cheryl went feral Everything's crook And all our food is now uncooked I'd kill for a burger or a piece of chook Since Cheryl went feral Our little girl was called Narelle And we had a little boy called Bruce as well But now she's Crystal Flower and he's Leaf But Leaf's pretty happy since we left home Because he hasn't seen a bath or a shower or a comb And it's been three months since he brushed his teeth Since Cheryl went feral Everything's changed And I'm quite sure I've become deranged And I can't remember anyone's name Since Cheryl went feral Cheryl took a vow of celibacy She said she needed no input from me She got her navel pierced and stared at it all day long So I read the tarot with Leaf and Flower And dreamed about a nice cold shower While I waited for my turn on the bong Since Cheryl went feral Everything's pierced Rings through me nose and rings through me ears I haven't been this pierced for years Since Cheryl went feral I began to change me tune As soon as we joined that big commune And everyone took their clothes off straight away Their cosmic philosophy appealed to me It's multiple serial polygamy And I think the feral lifestyle's here to stay Since Cheryl went feral There's a real traffic jam Of naked women in our wigwam And I'm pretty happy right where I am Since Cheryl went feral Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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22 Sep 20 - 10:17 PM (#4072813) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Well done, Stewie......I haven't heard that one for ages. |
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22 Sep 20 - 10:56 PM (#4072815) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's one from my mate Dave Evans of Bloodwood fame. There was a YT clip of Bloodwood performing this, but it seems to have disappeared. It is always a favourite at Top End festivals. PLAY SOMETHING WE KNOW MATE (Dave Evans) I've a fan who follows me everywhere I go He's always there at the club waiting for me to show If you want to know what I mean and how the hell I tell I grab my guitar, move to the bar and this voice begins to yell (Chorus) Play something we know mate so we can sing along None of your foreign rubbish mate just give us an Aussie song Waltzing Matilda, Ryebuck Shearer, plenty of guts so we can hear yer We'll sing the chorus - play something we know mate It's Sunday night in Alice Springs, the folk club's on tonight Guitar in hand I'm feeling grand, I think I'll do all right But just as I begin to sing, a voice decides me fate From across the floor, comes a terrible roar - play something we know mate Chorus This fellar's really getting me down, he follows me all day long Waiting for that moment for me to sing me song I took my wife out to tea for a little tête-à-tête When across the room came a terrible boom - play something we know mate Chorus I summoned all my courage up late one Sunday night Left my guitar and went to the bar, spoiling for a fight But he floored me with his very first words, he left me all irate "I don't like to boast but I'm deaf as a post & I can't sing a note, mate" "No I can't sing a note, mate, or even hum along As for your foreign rubbish, mate, well I'm a bloody Pom Waltzing Matilda Ryebuck Shearer, loud as you like 'cos I can't hear yer As for the chorus, it'll probably bore us - play something we know mate" Repeat chorus --Stewie. |
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23 Sep 20 - 04:44 AM (#4072836) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Some great songs here, thanks guys! The Jim Haynes song reminded me of another favourite by Jim called "Mow Ya Lawn". Used to hear it on the 'Australia All Over' radio show, but I can't find it on youtube or elsewhere. Has anyone got the lyrics? cheers, Ian |
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23 Sep 20 - 07:40 PM (#4072928) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie LEAVING THE LAND (Eric Bogle) It's time to go now, Jenny No need to close the door What if the dust gets in the house It doesn't matter any more You and the dust have been at war for far too many years Now the war is over Jenny dear (Chorus) Leaving the land Leaving the land Leaving all I’ve ever been and everything I am Leaving the land Remember when I brought you here Those long bright years ago For all that time you've been my heart But this land has been my soul The long bright days are over now though still the heart beats on But, Jenny dear, the soul is gone. And all I see around me Seems to me of the best For generations loved this land Never thought I’d be the last All that toiling, all that dreaming, birth and death and joy and pain It was all for nothing, all in vain Chorus It’s time to go now, Jenny Drive quickly down the track We'll never see what lies ahead if we keep on looking back Behind is just an empty house Old memories and ghosts And our small dreams gathering dust Chorus Going far away, far away Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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23 Sep 20 - 08:01 PM (#4072931) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE SHEARING’S COMING ROUND (Wright/Jessett) There's a sound of many voices in the camp and on the track And letters coming up in shoals to stations at the back And every boat that crosses from the sunny other side Is bringing waves of shearers for the swelling of the tide (Chorus) And the shearing's coming round, boys, the shearing's coming round The stations of the mountains have begun to hear the sound They'll be talking up at Laghmor of the tallies that were shore And the bloke who broke the record is remembered at Benmore And the yarns of strikes and barneys will be told till all is blue And the ringers and the bosses will be passed in long review Chorus. The great Orari muster and the drafting of the men Like a mob of ewes and wethers will be surely told again And a lot of heathen places that will rhyme with kangaroo Will be named along with ringers and the things that they can do Chorus At last the crowds have gathered for the morning of the start And the slowest of the jokers will be trying to look smart And a few will get the bullet, and high hopes will have a fall, And the bloke that talks the loudest stands a show of looking small Chorus With the arrival of Australian shearers working under contract on high country stations during the 1890s, NZ locals were exposed to Australian songs and especially the verse of Lawson and Paterson. The latter inspired Kiwi balladeers such as David McKee Wright who has been described as New Zealand’s ‘outback laureate’. His fine poem, 'The Shearing’s Coming Round,' references 3 large Canterbury stations – Laghmore, Benmore and Orari Gorge. The tune is by Michael Jessett. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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23 Sep 20 - 08:16 PM (#4072933) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BLUE SMOKE (Ruru Karaitiana) Blue smoke goes drifting by into the deep blue sky And when I think of home, I sadly sigh Oh I can see you there, with loving tears in your eyes As we fondly said our last goodbyes And as I sailed away with a longing to stay I promised I'd be true and to love only you Blue smoke goes drifting by into the deep blue sky My memories of home will never die Spoken [Women’s part] Smoke drifts away high into the sky And the memories come flooding back. ‘Aue!’ Those overwhelming feelings, and the tears " ... You are going, you are going ... I travel with you on the wings of my love Oh Tama, my love is all for you." Smoke drifts away high into the sky I will never forget you. I will never never forget you. And as I sailed away with a longing to stay I promised I'd be true and to love only you Blue smoke goes drifting by into the deep blue sky My memories of home will never die Ruru Karaitiana served in the Middle East in WW2 with the 28th New Zealand (Maori) Battalion. He wrote 'Blue Smoke' on a troop ship in 1940 when a friend drew his attention to some passing smoke. In 1947, he formed an Hawaiian-style quintet and recorded it with singer, Pixi Williams. It was the first song written by a New Zealander to be recorded and released on a New Zealand record label. It was a massive hit locally and was later recorded by Dean Martin and other overseas luminaries. It is a tad sentimental but as G.K Chesterton wisely pointed out ‘sentimentality is simply having feelings and not troubling to invent a new way of expressing them’. This recording omits the spoken women's part: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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23 Sep 20 - 09:57 PM (#4072941) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy SON OF ROME ~ © Paul Lawler, 1984 Born and bred, reared and rutted The Parish Priest, over me he muttered Water on the head, salt on the tongue For ensuing pain, this song is sung. Five years old, can’t understand schism Catechism, cataclysm Peter, Judas, rise up Zach Days of religion, minutes of math ... Seven years of age, church seasoned Can you beat the Jesuits’ reason Hymns and bells, indoctrination Another name, confirmation. Through the skin and through the bone You are now a Son of Rome Square one starts at sixty four Other views – close the door … Hindu, Protestant, Muslim, Jew Can’t you see it’s the same for you Steeped in doctrine, day and night Have you really seen the Light? Heretics, skeptics, sages, witches Burned and scorned, so history teaches Dared to question Life above Murdered by a mythical dove … Don’t look behind your stained glass window Your gods are here, they’re all around you Love your neighbour, love him fair Love him just because he’s there. Here is an early folkclub recording of Paul’s “semi-autobiographical” composition “Son of Rome”, before a couple of lyric adjustments! GO TO 20:47 ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7PsCsWL6Pk&t=3s Stewie has previously posted Dorothy Hewitt’s lovely poem “Sailor Home from the Sea”. Known as “Cock of the North” in the Top End, where folks used Martyn Wyndham-Read’s tune, down here in Queensland around Briso, they use Chris Kempster’s tune. But here is a Darwin folkclub recording from Paul, slightly folk-processed :) GO TO 03:54 ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVIJ3zc-M4 Helen (via Sandra) has also already posted “One of the Has-Beens” (Robert Stewart/Trad) and here is a Darwin folkclub recording of Paul singing it (similarly folk-processed :) GO TO 28:20 ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVIJ3zc-M4 Cheers, R-J |
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23 Sep 20 - 10:10 PM (#4072944) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy NB I confess I lifted this whole section (lyrics, notes, clip) from Evan & Lyn Mathieson's very excellent homage website to the music and memories of Queenslander, Harry Robertson, and for his widow Rita, and family. http://www.harryrobertson.net/NorfolkWhalers.html Some great stuff on there and I trust they will forgive me if I similarly add a couple more favourites too! NORFOLK WHALERS Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson (As performed by Marian Henderson on Harry’s 1971 LP “WHALE CHASING MEN”) High on the cliffs of Norfolk’s green isle, Women and children are waiting the while, Far down below the whale boatmen row, As after the Humpback the Norfolk men go. Each man in the boat strains hard at his oar, They head for the whale, and away from the shore, Up at the bow the harpoon man stands, A steel-shafted harpoon clutched tight in his hands. Chorus Row, my love row, and bring back to me, The king of the ocean, the prize of the sea. Ship the oars lads, and quiet as we go, The harpoon strikes deep, and the blood starts to flow, Then hell’s violent furies break out on the waves, One blow from its tail could mean watery graves. For hours the whale drags the boat through the sea, And tires from its effort to break the rope free, Exhausted at last, it floats in the sun, Sharp lances complete what the harpoon begun. Chorus Back to the island, ’twill be a long row, If darkness comes down, the lantern will glow, For high on the cliffs the Islanders stand, And wait for their men to return to the land. With backs nearly broken, and blistered hands sore, The boatmen at last reach the isle’s rocky shore, The joy on friends’ faces, what pleasure to see, Their loved ones return with the prize of the sea. Chorus © Harry Robertson, and subsequently ©1995 Mrs Rita Robertson, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA Registered with APRA/AMCOS www.apra-amcos.com.au Click to play the track by [the late and great] Marian Henderson http://www.harryrobertson.net/sound/WCM_Norfolk_Whalers.mp3 NORFOLK WHALERS "The first thing I noticed on my arrival at Norfolk Island was the number of people who lined the cliff tops, some three hundred feet high at Cascade Bay, to watch our arrival. As a penal settlement, Norfolk Island had been the scene of brutal floggings and inhumane treatment of desperate prisoners condemned for stealing a loaf of bread, or poaching a rabbit ? capital crimes no doubt! Eventually the scene of the crime was changed by removing the prisoners to be ill-treated elsewhere, and the island was granted to the descendants of the Mutineers of the fine ship ‘Bounty‘, who had, by this time, begun to overpopulate Pitcairn Island. Like most migrants, some settled there, and some returned to Pitcairn Island. During my visits ashore to the homes of various people on Norfolk Island, I learned that we were not the first whaling company to operate there. Later, on a visit to Ball Bay, I saw the remnants of what had been large cooking pots and various other debris. Apparently this whaling venture terminated suddenly one night when the plant caught fire and burned down. Cause of the fire ? unknown. One night while in conversation with one of the older inhabitants, I learned of whaling expeditions by the Islanders themselves ? using rowboats and hand harpoon. He described how the whale, once harpooned, would sometimes drag the boat so far away that by the time the whale was killed and towed back to land ? the sharks had almost eaten the lot! Were they fortunate enough to get a whale to the shore in good condition, then the Islanders would descend from the cliff tops, where they had watched their men chase and kill the whale, and each person would carry pieces of blubber, meat etc to the top of the cliff where it was cooked. To me, the cliff top vigil was a repeat of history. You will find the story as it was told to me, in my song ‘Norfolk Whalers’. HR http://www.harryrobertson.net/NorfolkWhalers.html |
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23 Sep 20 - 10:23 PM (#4072946) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Great stuff, R-J. Lawls was a very fine singer. PO ATA RAU (Anon/tune based on Swiss Cradle Song} Pö atarau E moea iho nei E haere ana Koe ki pämamao Haere rä Ka hoki mai anö Ki i te tau E tangi atu nei Now is the hour When we must say goodbye Soon you'll be sailing Far across the sea While you're away Oh please remember me When you return You'll find me waiting here In New Zealand, the opening theme of a piano piece, 'Swiss Cradle Song', composed in Australia by Clement Scott was modified for the singing of Po Atarua to farewell WWI Maori soldiers. In 1920, 'This Is the Hour' verse was added. On a visit to NZ in 1945, Gracie Fields learned the song and her version, known as 'Now Is the Hour', became a world-wide hit in 1948. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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23 Sep 20 - 11:29 PM (#4072952) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy LIFT #2 : NB I confess I lifted this whole section (lyrics, notes, clip) from Evan & Lyn Mathieson's very excellent homage website to the music and memories of Queenslander, Harry Robertson, and for his widow Rita, and family. http://www.harryrobertson.net/index.html Some great stuff on there and I trust they will forgive me if I similarly add a couple more favourites too! THE ANTARCTIC FLEET Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson I went down south a-whaling, to the land of ice and snow, And eight-and-twenty pounds a month, was all I had to show, For being on a little ship like a sardine in a can, And eating salty pork and beef, they stewed up in a pan. Chorus Heigh-ho! Whale-oh! Wi’ the Antarctic fleet, I’ve got a drip upon me nose and I’m frozen in the feet. South Georgia is an island, it is a Whaling Base, And only men in search of whales, would go to such a place, No entertainment does exist unless you make home brew, Then we would have some singing and, we’d have some fighting too. Chorus Our gunner came from Norway, like many of the crew, And others spoke wi’ Scottish tongues, as whalers often do, But when the ship was closing in to make the bloody kill, The Scotsmen and Norwegians worked, together with a will. Chorus We sailed down to the Weddell Sea, where the big Blues can be found, We chased between the icebergs and, we chased them round and round, And when they couldn’t run no more, and fought to draw their breath, Our gunner shot harpoons in them, ’til they floated still in death. Chorus For months we sailed the ocean, and wearied with the toil, Of slaughter and of killing just to get that smelly oil, And when the savage storms blew and snow kept falling down, I often wished that I was back, in dear old Glasgow town. Chorus It’s twenty years since I’ve been there, and I won’t go there again, I didn’t like the climate but, I liked the whaling men, And even in the sunshine now when I walk along the street, I’ve got a drip upon me nose, and I’ve still got frozen feet. Chorus © Harry Robertson, and subsequently ©1995 Mrs Rita Robertson, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA Registered with APRA-AMCOS www.apra-amcos.com.au Click to play the song : http://www.harryrobertson.net/sound/WCM_The_Antarctic_Fleet.mp3 THE ANTARCTIC FLEET "I finished taking the slack out of a bottom end bearing on the main engine at St Vincents, Cape Verde Islands, just off the west coast of Africa, our first stop since leaving Britain and our last before we reached Leith Harbour Whaling Base on the island of South Georgia. While fuel and stores were being taken on board, I joined my shipmates in buying, begging, bartering, or stealing, flagons of ‘alco pura’ (gutrot booze) from the ‘Bumboat’ men. Otherwise it would be a dry trip through the ‘Roaring Forties’ degrees south where the weather is worse than any government’s policy — though not consistently so — to the grog-dry Whaling Station and even drier Whaling Men who had spent the winter there. They knew we were coming, we knew they were there and the traditional obligation of bringing supplies must be honoured. Stand your watch, oil the engines, retell old incidents — for news is scarce now. Quite suddenly, out of the mist one morning, appeared the ice-cragged peaks of South Georgia — conversation sparkled once more as we threaded our way towards Leith Harbour and all its majestic squalor." HR http://www.harryrobertson.net/TheAntarcticFleet.html Cheers, R-J |
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23 Sep 20 - 11:37 PM (#4072953) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy LIFT #3 : NB I confess I lifted this whole section (lyrics, notes, clip) from Evan & Lyn Mathieson's very excellent homage website to the music and memories of Queenslander, Harry Robertson, and for his widow Rita, and family. http://www.harryrobertson.net/index.html Some great stuff on there and I trust they will forgive me if I similarly add a couple more favourites too! QUEENSLAND WHALERS Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson I’ve sailed the North Atlantic, where ice blows in the breeze, And roamed the Dutch West Indies in the calm blue sunny seas. When I think of ships and seamen, my thoughts return again, To a season spent in Moreton Bay with Queensland Whaling Men. Chorus Sing Ho! You Queensland whalers, who have cut the sugar cane, And drove the herds of cattle o’er the dry and dusty plain, You’ve dug the ore at Isa, laid countless miles of rail, And now you’ve come to Moreton Bay, to catch the Humpback whale. For men who’ve chased the brumbies, caught bullocks by the tail, It really is no problem to catch a Humpback whale. Just spur your iron seahorse, put the gun through rigging struts, And when he runs from the coral scrub, you belt him in the guts. Chorus The man up in the crows nest, as whaling legend goes, Looks out across the water and then cries, “Thar she blows!” But here in sunny Queensland you’ll sometimes hear them shout, “There goes a bloody beauty, mate, so get your finger out!” Chorus From Moreton to Caloundra, bronze whaler sharks abound, They wait like dingoes in the scrub for a wounded beast that’s down. But their taste for blood and savagery, it never could compare With the bite that Inland Revenue took from our bonus share. Chorus When fuel tanks were running low, we’d sail to Brisbane town And at the nearest boozer our sorrows we would drown, With beer and fiery whiskey and plonk of vintage rare We’d steer a steady zigzag course without a blasted care. Chorus Hooray, the season’s over and we can all return, To greet our wives and sweethearts and have a little fun, We’ll rant like cattle drovers, we’ll roar like whaling men, But when the season starts next year you’ll find us back again. Chorus © Harry Robertson, and subsequently ©1995 Mrs Rita Robertson, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA Registered with APRA/AMCOS www.apra-amcos.com.au Click to play the track http://www.harryrobertson.net/sound/WCM_Queensland_Whalers.mp3 QUEENSLAND WHALERS "I listened to the words of the song, “And Captain Logan he had us mangled, At the triangles of Moreton Bay”. That such a placid sunlit place was once the scene of inhuman brutality, was hard to believe. Later I walked along Logan Road named after the bloody Captain and I have since wondered just how many historical and present-day bastards are immortalised in such a manner. Perhaps debasement is easier to remember than achievement. Personally I prefer achievement. Consequently, in the following song ‘Queensland Whalers’, I once again refer to the adaptability of men who had indeed worked at everything prior to stepping on board the whale ships. The early fires of struggle in Australia surely forged a metal of its own. I found the temper of this metal in the character of the ‘Have-a-go, Aussies!’ when I whaled at Moreton Bay." HR Click to play the introduction http://www.harryrobertson.net/QueenslandWhalers.html Cheers, R-J |
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23 Sep 20 - 11:45 PM (#4072954) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy LIFT #4 : NB I confess I lifted this whole section (lyrics, notes, clip) from Evan & Lyn Mathieson's very excellent homage website to the music and memories of Queenslander, Harry Robertson, and for his widow Rita, and family. http://www.harryrobertson.net/index.html Some great stuff on there and I trust they will forgive me if I similarly add a couple more favourites too! WHALING WIFE Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson (As performed by Marian Henderson on Harry’s 1971 LP “WHALE CHASING MEN”) Aye! I’m waiting here at hame and I always feel the same Whenever my guid man goes tae the whaling, Seven months he’ll be awa’ doon amongst the ice and snow And there’s times my lonely heart is nearly breaking. Now it’s time the kids were fed, and I’ll put them into bed, And to them a story then I might be telling, That their Daddy’s gone tae sea, to buy food for them and me, And it’s many whales we hope he will be catching. If the whaling catch is fine, we will have an easy time, New clothes and food we ought to have in plenty, But if the blubber’s thin on the Blue Whale and the Fin, Then for us between the seasons could be scanty. So it’s waiting that I am, and I’m thinking of my man, And the pleasure when I know that he’s returning, But in case ye should forget — he hasna’ come hame yet, And wi’ tears my eyes at times are fairly burning. © Harry Robertson and subsequently ©1995 Mrs Rita Robertson, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA Registered with APRA/AMCOS www.apra-amcos.com.au Click to play the track by [the late and great] Marian Henderson http://www.harryrobertson.net/sound/WCM_Whaling_Wife.mp3 WHALING WIFE "I often thought as I watched whaling men working, what brought most of them down south year after year. Some knew little else — others had backgrounds of a professional nature and yet all of them seemed to have one thing in common — an attraction to the bleak wilderness of Antarctica. The financial motive existed in all and a keen eye was kept on the production figures — yet one suspected that money was the secondary motive — it could perhaps be explained that without being ‘Shackeltons’ or ‘Scotts’ they still sought new frontiers — or rather — the avoidance of existing ones in cities, towns, etc. Whatever the reason, there they were, and probably would be back the following year. Such a pattern often led me to wonder, not only about the whalers, but about the other people in their lives. A great number of people connected with the Whaling Industry never go whaling. In 1950-51 some twelve thousand men of various nationalities operated in the Antarctic season. Surely they each left at least one friend behind. So we find, scattered throughout the world, thousands of people who know of, and depend upon, the return of whaling men and the result of a good catch — such is the — ‘Whaling Wife’." HR Click to play the introduction http://www.harryrobertson.net/WhalingWife.html Cheers, R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 12:34 AM (#4072955) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE YOBBO’S REQUEST ~ Jean Memery Ch. Sing us a song please, Mr Folksinger Sing us the one we forgot You know the one, it’s a bloody humdinger And better than hit parade rot. Sing us a song about life in the bush Make us all proud to be Aussies You know the one, you sang it last week It’s all about blowflies and mozzies. Sing us an Irish one, all full of tears All about torture and pain And drunkards and rebels and famine and fears And then sing it all over again. Sing us a protest song, lay it on thick Tell us what bastards we are Thoughtless and greedy and selfish and sick It was guilt that made Bogle a star. When there’s a chorus, we’ll all sing along It must drive you stark-staring mad Though we can’t hold a tune and the words are all wrong Our intentions are not wholly bad. Jean Memery is a Beechworth (Victoria) resident – poet and retired English teacher – who taught all over, including the NT, which I presume, is how this song became popular up there! It is sung to the tune of the traditional old timey (or even earlier) song “All the Good Times (are past and gone)”, but rather more using the Bob & Carolanne Pegg (aka Mr Fox) variations (though a bit faster than this rendition!) I recall it was good for late, end-of-night harmonies!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IYnKhgdGw Was it a Bloodwood number, Stew?? I just can’t recall. Also, why are there practically no Bloodwood tracks on YT?? (pretty tragic) Cheers, R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 01:52 AM (#4072959) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy RIGHT OF THE LINE ~ Dermott Ryder Where are you going me fine young blade, With your bright blue jacket and your red cockade, Hauling the gun in the sun and the shade, For to fight 'for the right' in the morning. Sold your soul for the shilling of the king. To follow the gun in the winter & the spring And fight for the crown the sceptre and the ring And the 'right of the line' in the morning. Fired the gun in Germany and France On the wild raw veldt where the Zulu dance They buried your body with hardly a glance Where you died 'for the right' in the morning. Stable belt hangin' on a wagon wheel Red for the blood and blue for the steel Gold the gunners who made the bastards reel, For 'the right' and the glory in the morning The guns stand silent as you march away to the Jungle green, at the break of day. 'Everywhere', I can hear you say, for the right and glory in the morning. Battle honours wove in steel and gold Fought for the youth of a nation sold In the snow and the rain & the heat and the cold For the 'right of the line' in the morning. The pastures are green where the guns once stood The trees grow tall on nations blood, Spilled and mixed with tears and the mud, Where 'the right' was won in the morning. Remember the battles you fought and won, for God and for Country, and for duty done. In freedom's cause your time will come, when you fight for the right in the morning. Where are you going my fine young blade, with your bright blue jacket and your red cockade? Hauling the gun in the sun and the shade, for to fight for the right in the morning. Click for recording by Andy Saunders & Phyl Lobl : https://phyllobl.net/songs/on-my-selection-album/right-of-the-line/ Phyl writes : “In the British Army the Royal Artillary had the first right to movement of guns and troops in the battle line. Dermott Ryder who wrote the song served in the British Army and informed me that 'red cockade' refers to a bloodstain on a head bandage.” (the late) Dermott Ryder “says he wrote “Right of the Line” not as an anti-war song, as some singers assert, but rather as a pro-peace song because I believe that the secondary role of the military of a Christian Nation is to justly gain and humanely maintain the democratic peace……” See also “Dermott’s Last Ride” by Paul Hemphill : https://howlinginfinite.com/2015/03/05/dermotts-last-ride/ Cheers, R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 03:59 AM (#4072962) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE CONSERVATIONISTS by Mick Flanagan, c.1970s? The year was 1964 when Morgan found the nickel ore And the miners headed westward with a will From Rum Jungle, Broken Hill, Leigh Creek and Collinsville The western lands they soon began to fill, began to fill The western lands they soon began to fill. First the Durkin Shaft went down, and up sprang Kambalda town With employment for a thousand mining men Be you Aussie, Scot or Turk, you were well-paid for your work Whether underground or working in the mill, in the mill Whether underground or working in the mill. Next Poseidon made a find, the stock market it went wild As the trading reached a fever on the floor Soon the brokers' knees grew weak as Poseidon hit its peak For the like of it they'd never seen before, seen before The like of it they'd never seen before. Now the shafts are sinking fast and they're spreading through the West The beasts of nature don't know what to do Soon the emu and the ‘roo, there will be no room for you Your extinction seems to be so close at hand, close at hand Your extinction seems to be so close at hand. Conservationists they say, if we carry on this way There's no doubt that we are headed for our doom For the big companies don't mind if the minerals they find For the Dollar God, it rules them every day, every day The Dollar God, it rules them every day. So stand up while you can, think of your fellow man And the children that will follow after you For I'm sure they'd like to see all the animals that we Are killing every day throughout the land, throughout the land Are killing every day throughout the land. Though born in Galway, Mick Flanagan now resides in Georgetown, Tasmania. Click this link for a recording by John Thompson : http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/2011/01/conservationists-song.html Cheers, R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 04:36 AM (#4072963) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy FOUR LITTLE JOHNNY CAKES Hurrah for the Lachlan, boys, and join me in a cheer That's the place to go to make an easy cheque each year With a toad-skin in my pocket I borrowed from a friend Oh, isn't it nice and cosy to be camping in the bend? Ch. With my little round flour-bag sitting on a stump My little tea-and-sugar bag looking nice and plump A little fat cod-fish just off the hook And four little johnny-cakes, a credit to the cook I've a loaf or two of bread and some "murphies" that I shook Perhaps a loaf of brownie that I snaffled from a cook A nice leg of mutton ... just a bit cut off the end Oh, isn't it nice and jolly to be whaling in the bend? I have a little book and some papers for to read Plenty of matches and a good supply of weed I wouldn't be a squatter as beside my fire I sit With a paper in my hand and my old clay lit When shearing-time comes, I'm in all my glory then I saddle up my moke and I soon secure a pen I canter through the valley and gallop o'er the plain I shoot a turkey, stick a pig, and off to camp again Last Chorus With my little round flour-bag sitting on a stump My little tea-and-sugar bag looking nice and plump A little fat cod-fish just off the hook And four little johnny-cakes, I'm proud to be the cook! “collected by” Banjo Paterson . There are a couple of Mudcat threads that discuss this song and the meanings/derivation of the lyrics. Mark Gregory’s book notes : “Printed in Paterson's Old Bush Songs, Johnny Cakes are small dampers or scones cooked in a pan rather than in the ashes of a camp fire. Recipe : Mix 250 g of flour with 1 tablespoon of baking powder and a little salt. Slowly mix enough water to make a dough. Divide the dough into small cakes and fry for about 10 minutes each side. Serve cold with jam, honey or cockies' joy (golden syrup)” I was after Dave de Hugard’s singing of it, but sadly,found very little of his online :( However, here is the late Bill Berry, one-time Queenslander, and sounding of course, very authentic! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiAVO0ZDs8Q Cheers, R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 05:22 AM (#4072965) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Well, the way things are heading in Americal with Roe Vs Wade, someone had better crank this little device into production, pronto! THE I.P.D. Song By Sue Edmonds I'll sing you all a song about a wondorous new device The nation's latest contraceptive plan That funny little object they call the I.U.D Has recently been changed to fit a man. Ch. The I.P.D., the I.P.D. It may not feel too good to you, But it's not hurting me So every time the pain begins to fill your eyes with tears Remember I put up with it for years. They tested it on whales and tried it out on mice They used it in the poorer parts of town It's the cleverest invention since the automatic lift Guaranteed to never let you down. It was proven to be safe for the average human male Though testing showed some minor side affects There were two died from infection and six were sterilized But only ten percent were too depressed. Ah, but you know some people are never satisfied So scientists are working once again They've got something even better than the good old IPD It’s called the morning-after pill for men. It's the pill – it’s better than the IPD It may not be too safe but we'll just have to wait and see So put away your worries and put away your fears And remember I put up with it for years! Here is Sue Edmonds singing with her Ovarian Sisters in Tasmania, from their 1980 LP “Beat Your Breasts” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otJ-SUmWCdI And another version by Judy Small : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDRrTFxVs60 Cheers! R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 05:33 AM (#4072966) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Darn! I forgot to say that on the Ovarian Sisters recording, GO TO 03:20 for the song, coz the whole LP is there. R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 06:07 AM (#4072968) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Well, after that, reckon we could all do with a nice Cup of Tea, eh! Billy of Tea From The Native Companion Songster, c.1889 You can talk of your whiskey, talk of your beer, There's something much nicer that's waiting us here. It sits on the fire beneath the gum tree: There's nothing much nicer than a billy of tea. Ch. So fill up your tumbler as high as you can, And don't you dare tell me it's not the best blend. You can let all your beer and your spirits go free, I'll stick to my darling old billy of tea. I rise in the morning as soon as it's light And go to the nosebag to see it's alright, That the ants on the sugar no mortgage have got And straight away sling my old black billy pot. And while it is boiling the horses I seek, And follow them down as far as the creek. I take off their hobbles and let them run free, Then haste to tuck into my billy of tea. And at night when I camp, if the day has been warm, I give to my horses their tucker of corn. From the two in the pole, to the one in the lead, A billy for each holds a comfortable feed. Then the fire I make and the water I get, And corned beef and damper in order I set. But I don't touch the grub – though so hungry I be – I wait 'til it's ready; the billy of tea. This version by Bruised Knees : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHwYolLLuIc Cheers! (and it's Time for Tea), R-J |
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24 Sep 20 - 09:42 PM (#4073048) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie MOUNT OUSLEY BREAKDOWN (Robin Connaughton) I drove from Austral’s in my little Commer knocker Two coils of reject copper going back to ERS She was slightly overloaded and the brakes needed relining But I didn’t think it mattered, only one trip more or less I detoured through the suburbs, missed the mermaids down at Sutherland Hammered on past Helensburgh, then out through Maddens plains Screaming sixty down the hills, like the one past Appin turn-off And chugging back to twenty going up the slope again Chorus: Nearer my God, nearer my God, nearer my God to thee I was going down Mount Ousley doing eighty miles an hour Singing, ’Nearer my God to thee’ I changed to third at Ousley, but when I went in for second The preselector gearbox locked out any cog but top I pulled left and hit the anchors, but the front brakes stripped their linings Four miles of hill, ten tons of coil, no bloody way to stop I scraped the kink at fifty, missed the safety ramp at sixty The Commer’s engine knocking like a demolition drill Then it’s through the shute and down the straight, there’s nothing left but houses And the traffic light T-junction at the bottom of the hill Chorus You can lose speed through the cutting if you scape the truck against the side They’ve never bloody tried it doing eighty miles an hour You hit the edge too hard, the load just keeps on going Ten tons of copper coil would press me flatter than a flower I went through the intersection like an angel with its arse on fire Cannoned off a Morris and a Holden lost its back When the front wheels hit the gutter, the cabin left the chassis I could hear the chain links breaking as the coils took up the slack Chorus Suddenly it’s silent, I am sitting in a paddock Crying like a baby, ‘cos I’m still alive to cry Sitting in the wreckage of the cabin of me Commer Between two copper carpets, stretching pink towards the sky And thanking God almighty for that canny little loader Who’d chocked the coils off-centre when he’d chained them down, you see So that when I hit the gutter and the coils came smashing forwards Well, one went right and one went left and both of them missed me Chorus (x2) From The Roaring Forties 'We Made the Steel'. The tune is 'Wreck of the Old '97'. Mt Ousley descent --Stewie. |
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24 Sep 20 - 10:32 PM (#4073050) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I DON’T GO SHEARING NOW (Woods/Wyndham-Read) So you're off to Riverina where the sun is shining clear The ewes and lambs are bleating calling shearers far and near The musterers are busy where the grass is always high And the July fogs are climbing up the sunbeams to the sky And the carpenters are busy fixing gates and pens and bins While the pressers just to kill time press in bales the winter's skins I have been there in the past and I know exactly how The shearing sheds'll get you—though I don't go shearing now No I don't go shearing now Three clear days if you are lucky you'll be there before the roll And the splendour of the springtime will suffice your youthful soul And you'll pay an early visit to your working pen I'll bet Perhaps upon your own old rig the oil rag's lying yet And you'll wander up and down the silent boards with heart quite full As you smell old recollections when you sniff the greasy wool Ah my lad you needn't smile for I know exactly how These little things affect you—though I don't go shearing now No I don't go shearing now Each man his neighbour watching noting well the other's pace As you move a little faster feeling fitter for the race And the pace begins to quicken and the sweat soon starts to drop Each man has found his pacer and is going at his top But ere many days are over weak ones fall down one by one Hit by chips and flying bullets from the boss's little gun I've been there in the past and I know exactly how The fight gets fairly started—though I don't go shearing now No I don't go shearing now How I'd love to travel with you where the Murrumbidgee flows Where the days are always sunny and the noisy quirking crows Are flying round the washpen and the sweating pens are full And to have some tea and damper and be all among the wool Every year I get this longing when the shearing time draws nigh But to saddle up and slipper and to have another try But these days are now behind me for I know exactly how The rheumatism gets me so I don't go shearing now No I don't go shearing now Martyn Wyndham-Read took this poem by Walter William Woods (aka John Drayman) from Stewart and Keesing's Australian bush ballads collection. He noted that he 'penned it in and clipped it short' to make it more singable. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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24 Sep 20 - 11:05 PM (#4073052) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, thanks for posting the songs by Ryder and Flanagan - they are definitely old favourites. I am always amazed by Mick Flanagan's memory - he sings Irish ballads that rival Icelandic sagas. Dermott Ryder wrote a piece on Colin Dryden which should be of interest to some Mudcatters. It took me a while to re-find a copy on the Net. It was titled 'North Country Gentleman'. Ryder on Dryden --Stewie. |
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25 Sep 20 - 12:54 AM (#4073055) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy okay, so we've made 300 posts - who'da thunkit! R-J :) |
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25 Sep 20 - 01:10 AM (#4073056) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Mention of Colin Dryden reminded me of the VERY prolific songwriter and YT poster, Daniel Kelly, down in Yass. I can't keep up with all he does, but I did rather like his song "The Frederick" about which he says : "I caught a bit of this interview with Peter Grose about the book he has written called Ten Rogues, covering the story of 10 convicts that stole a ship from the camp on Sarah Island in 1834 and sailed to Chile: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/..." Listen here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae7BAeyTKAM Check out his other vidclips here : https://www.youtube.com/c/DanielKellyFolkMusic/videos Cheers, R-J |
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25 Sep 20 - 08:14 PM (#4073127) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie FAREWELL TO ANZAC (C.F Smith/M.Wyndham-Read) Oh, hump your swag and leave, me lads, the ships are in the bay We've got our marching orders now, it's time to come away And a long goodbye to Anzac Beach where blood has flowed in vain And we're leaving, leaving, leaving it and game to fight again But some there are who will not leave that bleak and bloody shore And some that marched and fought with us will fight and march no more Their blood has bought 'til judgment day the slopes they stormed so well And we're leaving, leaving, leaving them lying where they fell Australia's sons are lying there, the bravest and the best We're leaving them behind us now, their days have come to rest We've done our best with yesterday, tomorrow's still our own And we're leaving, leaving, leaving them lying all alone Oh they are gone beyond it all, the praising and the blame And many a man will win renown, but none more fair a fame; They showed the world Australia's sons knew well the way to die And we're leaving, leaving, leaving them quiet where they lie We will leave these lads behind us now lying where they died They are in our hearts and in our minds, their glory and their pride. Round them the sea and barren land, over them the sky Oh we're leaving, leaving, leaving them quiet where they lie We are leaving, leaving, leaving them quiet where they lie Martyn Wyndham-Read put a tune to this poem by English poet, Cicely Fox Smith. He made some alterations to the original text. His studio version on his album 'Back to you': Click A live rendition with lengthy, but interesting, introduction: Click Mudcatter, Charley Noble, also put a tune to the poem. You can find it here: Mudcat thread --Stewie. |
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25 Sep 20 - 09:19 PM (#4073131) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BELLS AND BULLOCKS (M.Gilmore/R.Rummery) Ben the bullocky sits by the fire On the long slow hours adrift Bowed is the back that could never could tire Whatever the hoist or lift. Ask him stories of the teams, only get him talking He will waken from his dreams, on the roads go walking. There, though the body sags to the knees His mind is out on the road Watching the play of the axle-trees Marking the swing of the load 'Bullocks, ay I knowed them then - no one knowed ‘em better Spelt them just the same as men, letter after letter' Once in a while we ask if he hears The sound of Mennecke’s bells Deep in the pits of his ancient ears Repeating their olden spells 'Mennecke’s bells', then he'll say, 'never heard none like ‘em Mennecke, he had the way, no one else could strike ‘em' Bred to the yoke, old Bullocky Ben Bullock-boy, that was his start Says with a laugh, remembering men 'Them were the days- they were smart' Written in his own queer way, bullock-whip the scriber He made history in his day – Ben the bullock driver Chloe and Jason Roweth sing this poem by Mary Gilmore on their tribute to Bob Rummery concert - go to 10:55 mark. Yutube clip Menneke bell --Stewie. |
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25 Sep 20 - 09:37 PM (#4073132) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy A hugely popular song for many years - and one of the earliest Australian folksongs that I loved and learnt. Springtime Brings on the Shearing EJ Overbury / trad Oh the springtime it brings on the shearing And it's then you will see them in droves To the west country stations all steering A seeking a job off the coves. Ch. With a ragged old swag on my shoulder And a billy quart pot in my hand I tell you we'll astonish the new chums To see how we travel the land. You may talk of your mighty exploring Of Landsborough McKinley and King But I feel I should only be boring On such frivolous subjects to sing. For discovering mountains and rivers There's one for a gallon I'd back Who'd beat all your Stuart's to shivers It's the men on the Wallaby Track. From Billabone Murray and Loddon To the far Tartiara and back The hills and the plains are well trodden By the men on the Wallaby Track. And after the shearing is over And the wool season's all at an end It is then that you will see those flash shearers Making johnny cakes round in the bend. This clip of Tina Lawton & Marian Henderson singing, is taken from the ABC-TV production "The Restless Years" in 1967, (which is available online…..) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcBGopVHd7g and as the YT channel says : “You can call it dated, you could possibly call it twee - but it's also a rare duo performance by two of Australia's most respected female folk singers of the 1960s. Both were also quite under recorded, and certainly film of either artist is very rare nowadays.” But the version that was dearest to my teenage heart was this one by Gary Shearston from 1965 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXpNx2bWjnI&list=OLAK5uy_nZIa73rGV7M3pNuDYzwsv37qbQS1e_jXg Consequently, I think I learnt just about every lyric from his LP “The Springtime it Brings on the Shearing” :) John Thompson, on his Oz Folksong a Day website, says : “The following notes are from the liner notes for this song from Gary Shearston's CD re-release of earlier recordings "Here and There: Now and Then". "One of the best known of all Australian folk songs, this was collected in Victoria by Dr. Percy Jones. John Meredith found a rather different version in New South Wales, and most of Dr. Jones' words turn up in some verses called The Wallaby Track, which were published by a bush poet called E.J. Overbury in 1865. Maybe some bush singer read Overbury's words and set some of them to a tune; that was a common habit with bush singers. Maybe Overbury heard a bush song, and took some of the words into one of his own poems; that was a common habit with bush poets. coves: station managers or owners. billy quart pot: an indispensable item of the bush nomads' gear; a can, here of quart capacity, in which water could be boiled and food cooked. new-chums: newly arrived immigrants. Flash shearers making johnny-cakes round in the bend: a contrast in the lot of the shearer at different seasons of the year is implied; during the shearing season he is fl ash (shows an exaggerated sense of his own importance), because he is earning good wages and respect for his skill; when the shearing season is over, and he is unemployed, he is reduced to camping out in the open by some river bend, and living on a diet consisting mainly of camp-made bread (a johnny cake is, roughly speaking, a kind of small damper). Note: from the original album notes by Edgar Waters, supplemented by Stuart Heather.” Now the springtime Down Under means I must get off the 'puter and go and werk!! Cheers, R-J |
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25 Sep 20 - 09:49 PM (#4073133) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie TIMELESS LAND (Phyl Lobl) Once she was a timeless land Where time ran on forever To the dreaming people there She was land of never-never Fish and fowl she had in plenty And her stones were given worth In their hearts they held her holy And they thought of her as earth Once she was an open land Where few would bow to bosses And the working people there Thought they called or barred the tosses Where the convict and the settler Earned their freedom by their toil In their hearts they freely thanked her And they thought of her as the soil Once she was a lucky land Where living easy came And the clever people there Learned to play the power game Soon they sold her stony hillsides Then she lost her very heart In the greed of their intentions They thought of her as dirt Now she is a changing land Upon the point of turning Where she'll go it's hard to say Are we wise or lost in learning? For the ones who are to follow She's the land we hold in trust Will she be to them the earth Will they call her only dust? Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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26 Sep 20 - 06:53 AM (#4073169) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney egads, I come back after 24 hours of no internet to 22 new songs - now we have 239, one of which was a song I wanted to post (after the writer sent me the lyrics, which he hasn't done yet) well done OzCatters! |
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26 Sep 20 - 10:18 PM (#4073271) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I first heard this Kiwi classic on Declan Affley's LP of the same name. THE DAY THE PUB BURNED DOWN (Bob Edwards/Anon) Pull up a stump and lend an ear and a story I'll relate About a sinful waste of beer I will elucidate I'll tell of how calamity struck Wapakiwi town And caused a gruesome tragedy, the day the pub burned down The boys had gathered in the bar upon that fateful day. By horse and foot and motor-car they all had made their way While listening to Manuka Jones, New Zealand's finest liar They heard a cry that chilled the bones: ‘The flamin' pub's on fire!’ There'd been a drought for weeks and weeks, the wells and tanks were dry No water flowed along the creeks, we had no town supply The blazing sun, without relent, turned all the green to brown Imagine our predicament, the day the pub burned down Through smoke and flame, we dragged the booze to safety out the door Then thought of what we stood to lose and rushed back in for more ‘Stand by - the fire brigade is here!’ (those men of high renown) ‘Oh, fireman, fireman, save the beer and let the Pub burn down!' They bashed the tops of barrels in while strong men knelt to pray, Shoved their flippin' hoses in and shouted ‘Pumps away!’ They fought with beer and lemonade, that raging fire to drown And we fought and cursed the fire brigade, the day the pub burned down Now moreporks haunt the old pub site 'round Wapakiwi town And shikkers roam the hills at night to hunt the firemen down They curse the cash they cannot spend, their raging thirst to drown Dry horrors drove them 'round the bend, the day the pub burned down Youtube clip Neil Colquhoun included it at p53 of his 'Song of a young country'. He also included this delightful excerpt from a poem by James K. Baxter, the author of 'By the dry Cardrona'. The poem is 'Lament for Barney Flanagan: Licensee of the Hespeus Hotel'. Flanagan got up on a Saturday morning Pulled on his pants while the coffee was warming Didn't remember the doctor's warning: 'Your heart's too big, Mr Flanagan ...' Barney Flanagan ripe for the coffin Eighteen stone and brandy rotten Patted the house-maid's velvet bottom 'Oh, is it you, Mr Flanagan ...' While publicans drink their profits still While lawyers flock to be in at the kill While Aussie barmen milk the till We will remember him, Flanagan Colquhoun also references James McNeish's 'Tavern in the town' as well worth reading in respect of country pubs. There is no such town as Wapakiwi. --Stewie. |
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26 Sep 20 - 10:43 PM (#4073275) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE OTHER OLDER NATION (Louisa Wise) In Australia towns have an avenue of trees Each poplar planted for a young man fallen In a whiteman's war faraway There's just such a town Near here where we stand And there's a marsh hard by the avenue of trees Where men and women and children were killed one day In a one-sided war that was very much here to stay And where are the trees for these dark-skinned fallen Do they merit a tear or a tree? If we planted a tree for each dark one fallen The wetland would give way to woodland The killings avenged a killing before A white landowner died by the spear Of a black man who had come to take back his wife Take her on back from the whiteman's service The service of flesh - if she would give it or no And for this the people died They were all chased down To the marsh by the road That would be planted with trees Some time in the next generation Trees for the boys of the nation But what of the other nation? The other older nation? And where are the trees for these dark-skinned fallen Do they merit a tear or a tree? If we planted a tree for each dark one fallen The wetland would give way to woodland I got the song from Bob Rummery's 'The Man with the Concertina'. I reproduced the line structure as printed in the booklet for that CD. I presume Bob got it directly from Louisa. As Bob points out, this one incident in WA was replicated across the country. Lest we forget. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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26 Sep 20 - 11:39 PM (#4073279) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I first came across 'The New Road' on a limited edition CD titled 'The Guilford Tapes' given to me yonks ago by Keryn Randall, a fine singer. The recording was of its author, John Beavis, performing at the Guilford Folk Club in Victoria. The song has been recorded by Danny Spooner on his 'Emerging Tradition' CD and by Martyn Wyndham-Read on his 'Oceans in the Sky' CD. Martyn calls it a 'gypsy hymn' and reflects that it is about 'the redemptive pattern of human nature'. Even us non-believers can recognise it as a good'un. THE NEW ROAD (John Beavis) You who puzzle on the saviour’s deeds Won't you stop and listen where the new road leads First born child of the refugees He was raised in Nazareth, schooled in charity And found salvation on His knees. Manhood brought him to the Jordan shore Where the baptist shivered in the rags he wore Plunged his cousin in the pilgrim stream And the dove descended and the old oad ended And the new road wakened from a dream Red sun sinking over Galilee Saw the stranger walking by an inland sea Four young fishermen around entwine For the new road heading to a Canaan wedding Where he turned the water into wine Thousands listened on the mountain slope As they dined on miracles and breathed in hope Blind men followed with the light restored As the sightless Pharisees condemned as heresies The wide-eyed workings of the lord Alleluja, how the people cheer The palm leaves rustle as the king draws near Woe, Jerusalem, the truth you shun And your sins ensuing are your own undoing Till your stones lie broken in the sun Thirteen gathered in an upstairs room As the high priest plotted for the saviour’s doom Blood and body in the wine and bread Then he kissed his enemy in sweet Gethsemane Twelve hours later he was dead. Mary wondered at the stone flung wide And the tomb rang hollow as she stepped inside Angels seated where the christ had lain Bid her quit the prison for the son had risen And would speak in Galilee again Show by living what the lord had done In the selfless giving of his only son Chart this passage to the last amen For the climb is steady if the pilgrim’s ready The new road reaches out again Here's a live recording of Martyn Wyndham-Read. He omits the final stanza. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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27 Sep 20 - 06:24 AM (#4073307) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Among The Refugees by Pat Drummond dateline: Port Headland, W.A. 16/01/02 Matthew, 1 - 28 The angel came to Joseph late one night And said, "You must be gone gather up your wife and infant son for you must leave this place Herod seeks you, death awaits through Israel's dark and bloodstained gates to Egypt you must flee" Jesus was a child when he became a refugee Chorus: At The Mercy of the stranger Seeking shelter from the fates Fleeing certain death and danger uncertainty awaits Speak to me, my country Tell me what you see Underneath the razor wire In those same dark and frightened eyes Tell me do you recognize Who is that refugee? The Bible tells us Herod slew each child below the age of two years old to save his dynasty political expediency really isn't something new politicians always do what their ambitions tell them to and truth is sacrificed but shame is all a nation buys when children pay the price Bridge: They didn't speak the language but they prayed God would provide through the kindness of the stranger until the day the tyrant king had died Perhaps sold all they that owned to pay for their escape look at your children, And if you love them tell me then which of you would hesitate? 600 children, heaven sent living in imprisonment for years for the crime of being poor fleeing famine, poverty and war I hear you say to me "It's not our responsibility They came unasked across the sea" Yes, and so did we. And if you lived back in Egypt when that family fled from Herod's men Would we have imprisoned them among the refugees? Chorus: At The Mercy of the stranger Seeking shelter from the fates Fleeing certain death and danger uncertainty awaits Speak to me, my country Tell me what you see Underneath the razor wire In those same dark and frightened eyes Tell me do you recognize Who is that refugee? |
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27 Sep 20 - 08:54 PM (#4073402) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here is Martyn Wyndham-Read's version of Sally Sloane's 'The banks of Claudy'. There are minor changes to the text as printed in Meredith & Anderson 'Folk Songs of Australia'. THE BANKS OF CLAUDY It was on a summer's morning all in the month of May Down by the banks of Claudy I carelessly did stray I overheard a fair maid in sorrow did complain All for her absent lover who ploughed the raging main I stepped up unto her and gave her a big surprise I hoped she would not know me, I being in such disguise I said, ‘My pretty fair maid, my joy and heart's delight How far do you mean to wander this dark and dreary night?’ ‘It's to the banks of Claudy, if you'll be kind to show Take pity on a fair maid who knows not where to go. I'm searching for a young man, and Johnnyis his name And on the banks of Claudy I'm told he does remain’ ‘These are the banks of Claudy, fair maid, you’re standing on But don’t depend on Johnny for he's a false young man But don’t depend on Johnny for he'll not meet you here But tarry with me in yon green woods, no danger need you fear’ ‘If Johnny he was here this night, he’d keep me from all harm He's in the field of battle, all in his uniform He's in the field of battle and his foes he does destroy Like the loyal king of honour all on the walls of Troy’ ‘It's six long weeks and better since Johnny left this shore A-crossing the main ocean where thundering billows roar A-crossing the main ocean for honour and for fame, But I'm told his ship was wrecked nigh to the coast of Spain’ Now when she heard this dreadful news, she flew in deep despair A-wringing of her hands and a-tearing of her hair Saying, ‘If my Johnny’s drowned, no man alive I'll take Through lonesome shades and valleys I'll wander for his sake’ When he saw her loyalty, he could no longer stand He flew into her arms, crying, ‘Betsy, I'm your man’ Crying, ‘Betsy, I'm the young man, the cause of all your pain Now since we've met on Claudy banks, we'll never part again’ Youtube clip For a discussion of the song's provenance, see this Mudcat thread: Click --Stewie. |
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27 Sep 20 - 10:18 PM (#4073407) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE CATALPA A noble whale ship the Catalpa Set out from New Bedford one day She sailed off to Western Australia And took six poor Fenians away Chorus So come all you screw warders and jailers Remember Perth regatta day Take care of the rest of your Fenians Or the yankees will steal them away Seven long years they had served here And seven long more had to stay For defending their country old Ireland They were ta’en and transported away You kept them in Western Australia Till their hair had begun to turn grey When a brave whaling ship and commander Came out here and stole them away Now all the Perth boats were a-racing And making short tacks for the spot But the yankee tacked into Fremantle And took the best prize of the lot The Georgette she sailed out with guns ready Intending the yankee to take But they hoisted their star-spangled banner And left the Georgette in their wake So remember those six Fenians heroes Who escaped o’er to Amerikay And join in a toast the bravery of the yankees who stole them away Now they've landed safe in New York harbour And the crowd there to greet them did cry ’So we’ll hoist up the green flag and shamrock For old Ireland we’ll fight or we’ll die There are many versions of 'The Catalpa'. I reckon the above is a good'un. Youtube clip For info on publications, check out Mark Gregory's site: Click Mudcat thread --Stewie. |
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27 Sep 20 - 11:51 PM (#4073412) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie RED FOX (Lynne Muir) Where the red fox runs, we will hunt him down We will chase him o’er the mountains ‘till the sun goes down, Poor old fox, we mean no harm But the fire’s in our blood and so we must follow far from the lights of home Chorus For we’re men of the bush And we’re part of the land And we do not kill for pleasure That we’d have you understand. With the sun on our brow or the moonlight on our path We will follow the tracks of our fathers gone before We roam the plains and we’ll set a rout Be it fair or stormy weather, we will seek and hunt him out Where the rabbit runs, we will set our snare But you must not think us heartless men or men who do not care For we do not thrill to the blood and the kill But we live from the land and so we will eat from it when we can, We’re tired old men on a worn-out trail When the tables are turned, maybe the fox will be hunting for the man Danny Spooner recorded this on his 'Emerging Traditions' and 'The Fox, the Hare and the Poacher's Fate' CDs. There is also a live recording on the 'Guilford Tapes' CD that I referred to above. Danny's note: Lynne Muir wrote this great hunting song about her grandfather in 1986. Geoff Muir had spent most of his life in the shadow of Hanging Rock in Victoria and like most country-bred men he knew the best places in the area to fish, shoot and trap. These skills often helped keep families fed, especially during times of Depression. Lynne's song is her tribute to her grandfather and his values. --Stewie. |
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28 Sep 20 - 12:26 AM (#4073413) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SIXTEEN MILLION PEOPLE (Don Henderson) Have you ever had the feeling, being introduced to someone You think that you’ve already met But you really can’t be certain, 'cause the names aren't familiar But there’s something about the face you can’t forget And it turns out that really, after quite a bit of talking You went to kindergarten and such And the people that surround you, there’s only sixteen million And sixteen million people isn’t much Well you walk into a bar and a bloke says, 'G’day Charlie' And you tell him that Charlie’s not yer name And he says that he is sorry but he thought yer name was Charlie But he reckons that he knows yer just the same And it turns out that his sister’s married to your uncle’s second cousin Yes, of course now he remembers you You were seated four rows down at the table in a grey suit At the wedding in nineteen fifty-two Well, you’re at the country-dance and you’re dancin’ with a stranger To tell the truth you wouldn’t know from Eve But with faint heart and all that stuff you say, 'aven’t we met somewhere?' And she says, 'Why yes! I do believe' And it turned out that once you were on a train to Brisbane And it didn’t have a dining car, don’t cry And she was the waitress at South Grafton Station And you ordered black coffee and a pie. Well, you are in the one horse town and the horse has long since bolted There’s nothing but a hotel and a jail And a copper and a publican and a liver-coloured kelpie And the dog comes up to you and wags his tail Now it turns out that really the dog’s never met yer Just thought that he’d come over and say hi! But the copper and the publican, they reckon they both know yer But they didn’t want to say so, they were shy Another one that Danny recorded on his 'Emerging Tradition' CD. Danny's note: I remember falling about myself when I first heard Don Henderson sing this at the Troubadour in Sydney when Australia only had sixteen million population. The experience of being mistaken for someone else might be common enough, but Don's exquisite sense of humour and imagination suggests endless possibilities. This is the only rendition I could find on the Net: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Sep 20 - 06:36 AM (#4073439) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy When Stewie posted “The Catalpa”, it reminded me that I’d never seen or heard a song about Sam Isaacs and Grace Bussell’s gallant rescues via horseback, in December 1876 (think West Aussie’s own “Grace Darling”). So I was pleased to come across this recent piece by WA’s current 11-man Shanty group, “The Lost Quays”. Their song, “The Georgette”, was apparently a product of The Great Covid Scare of 2020, as can be seen here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXYvmpQzs4 “Heave Away, Haul away, the Georgette’s going down, me boys Heave Away, Haul away, the Georgette’s going down” It tells of Aboriginal stockman, Sam Isaacs, sighting the distressed SS Georgette (built 1872, 211 tons, steam/sail), from the clifftops around Calgardup Bay (her cargo of mainly jarrah timber had shifted and holed the vessel and the incoming water stuffed the boilers). Sam ran the 20 Kms to Wallcliffe House where 16 year old Grace Bussell then joined him and together they rode their horses back and forth from ship to shore for around 4 hours (and remember, West Aussie does rather a good line in sharks!), and rescued many of the 50 or so remaining passengers (some had drowned, but some had already made it to shore). I sure hope the horses were okay. Grace was naturally and rightly claimed a heroine (Australia’s youngest) and plaques and citations followed. As can be expected, recognition for Sam, took somewhat longer………….. WA’s generally inhospitable coastline, with its tricky winds, strong surf and currents, chilling water and unusual underwater topography, is (literally) littered with shipwrecks and “lost vessels” that will probably never be found. However, the Georgette’s final resting place is at Redgate Beach, near Margaret River, in about 5metres of water. https://www.tracesmagazine.com.au/2013/11/saving-grace-western-australias-shipwreck-rescuer-grace-bussell/ The Lost Quays, formed in 2015, can currently be found here, on Shore Leave : https://www.facebook.com/TheLostQuays/ http://www.thelostquays.com/ Also, they have been known to perform, on occasion, with those ballsy Ladies of the Sea : SHE SHANTS : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZaHkorfvK0 The LQ’s also have a (more country-sounding) song which commemorates Dutchman, Dirk Hartog, in the Eendracht, and his visit to West Aussie over 400 years ago, in 1616; the second recorded European landing on the continent, but the first on the Western coastline (he left an inscribed pewter plaque as proof - the Hartog Plate - in the Shark Bay region). He also mapped much of the northern WA coastline : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN4_82y1lzA&t=116s The Lost Quays have written too, of the grisly Batavia shipwreck story (if and when I find the Batavia number, I’ll post the links), and the City of York, wrecked off Rottnest : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAoARak1IjA&list=PLIogTlAtxC8F2h-mqxJGS0yL4VqYylUqA&index=6 Here is their 2017 song “Holes in the Nets” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojiNjXvoXWQ and about which they say : “Our new song "Holes in the Nets" is a whimsical take on the seriously scary subject of ocean fish depletion. It makes reference to the classic dystopian film "Soylent Green" (1973) in which the population subsist on an allegedly algae-based protein ... which is of course made from people!” I also found reference amongst Lost Quays, to another West Aussie duo Tingley Turner (Jennifer Tingley & Nick Turner) and in particular his song “Shackleton” about the explorer Ernest Shackleton and his Antarctic expeditions : https://www.reverbnation.com/tingleyturner They had a 2012 CD called “Heroes & Dreamers”, but I’m yet to locate more info on that. Cheers, R-J |
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28 Sep 20 - 06:47 AM (#4073440) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney THE WITCHES AND THE WHALES, John Warner © 18/10/2010 A friend loaned John a Scottish heritage magazine in which he read a story of bay whalers being outwitted by a trio of women who mysteriously disappeared … The whaleboat came when the mist was thin, And drifted up the bay. Upon the tide she ghosted in, Where the whales all feeding lay x 2 They’ll trap the whales on the falling tide, Upon the shingle beach, And slay each one for the oil and bone, When the sea is out of reach x 2 So softly then they drove the whales, Up from the heaving sea, But down the wind came a small, small craft, And aboard were women three, One was a fair and shapely maid, The older nursed a child, oh, The oldest grinned a gap-toothed grin, And they all sang drunken wild, oh. Swift did she go, though none did row, Her gaps and splits gaped wide, And as she rolled such a music came, A drifting up the tide x 2 For those on board sang drunken songs, That echoed round the bay, And no man nigh dared raise a cry, For fear he start the prey x 2 The angry whalers waved their hands, To bid the three be still, But louder yet they clashed their cups And aye they sang more shrill x 2 One was a fair and shapely maid, The older nursed a child, oh, The oldest grinned a gap-toothed grin, And they all sang drunken wild, oh. The youngest seized on an iron pot, And beat it without rest, The older chanted ribaldry, As the child nursed at her breast x 2 The oldest blew on a great bagpipe, A reel to rouse the dead, And at that sound, the boat turned round, And towards the whales it sped x 2 The frightened whales turned up their tails, And dived beneath the swell, And from the three in the reeling tub, Came a fierce triumphant yell, One was a fair and shapely maid, The older nursed a child oh, The oldest grinned a gap-toothed grin, And they all sang drunken wild oh. And in that moment a burst of spray, Hid all the three from sight, But aye what mocking laughter rose, To fade in the gathering night x 2 The whaling men cried out in rage, And brandished stave and fist, But the night was still, for the boat and all, Had vanished like the mist x 2 And down that steep and rocky coast, They say, who hear such tales, The threefold Goddess rides that boat, And thus she guards the whales. One was a fair and shapely maid, The older nursed a child oh, The oldest grinned a gap-toothed grin, And they all sang drunken wild oh |
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28 Sep 20 - 07:24 AM (#4073445) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy WESTERN AUSTRALIA FOR ME Composed by an Irish Australian Lawyer in 1831 NB all info taken from the WASONG website : https://wasong.com.au/wasong/ The song ‘Western Australia for me’ was written by the Irish Lawyer George Fletcher Moore. It was first sung by George Fletcher Moore at the first Ball at the governor’s house in 1831 enjoyed by 180 ladies and gentlemen to the wee hours of 6 a.m. ”Swans were so abundant on the river when first discovered as to give the name Swan River Settlement. I dare not say that I christened the colony, but certainly after the above song, the name of Western Australia was adopted.” George Fletcher Moore graduated in law in Ireland in1820. Seeing little prospect of advancement he decided to pursue a legal career in the English colonies. He sailed from Dublin to Western Australia on board the Cleopatra, arriving at the Swan River Colony on 30 October 1830. In February 1832, he was appointed a Commissioner of the Civil Court. Rewarded with land and a regular salary, Moore purchased stock and by 1833 he had one of the largest flocks of sheep in the colony. Moore was unusual amongst his contemporaries in a number of ways. He was vocal about the colonies economic problems being brought about by mismanagement. His criticisms made him unpopular with many of the colonies establishment. Moore also developed friendly, lasting relationships with the Indigenous Australians of the area. He began to take a scholarly interest in their language and customs and in1833, Moore published in the Perth Gazette the first account of the customs of the Aborigines of the area. He later co produced a book with John Hutt called A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia. Moore was an active explorer and the Moore River (near New Norcia) was named after him. In about 1878, the editor of The West Australian, Sir Thomas Cockburn Campbell, sought and was granted permission to serialise Moore’s letters. The letters appeared in the West Australian in 1881 and 1882. On seeing them in print, Moore decided to republish them in book form. They were published in 1884 as Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia. Graphics and text from Wikipedia. ".....We have come to explore, the wilds of this Western Australian Shore, In search of a country, we’ve ventured to roam, and now we’ve found it, let’s make it our home. And what though the Colony’s new, Sirs, And inhabitants may be few, Sirs, We see them increasing here, Sirs, So Western Australia for me. With care and experience, I’m sure ’twill be found, Two crops in the year we may get from the ground; There’s good wood and good water, good flesh and good fish, Good soil and good clime, and what more could you wish. Then let everyone earnestly strive, Sirs, Do his best, be alert and alive, Sirs, So Western Australia for me. No lions or tigers we here dread to meet, Our innocent quadrupeds hop on two feet, No tithes and no taxes we now have to pay, And our Geese are all Swans, as some witty folks say, Then we live without trouble or stealth, Sirs, Our currency’s all sterling wealth, Sirs, So here’s to our Governor’s health, Sirs, And Western Australia for me.” The song is sung on Vimeo, by St Hilda’s Choir at : https://wasong.com.au/wasong/ I note that two of my forebears preceded Mr Moore into the Swan River Colony. Sadly however, they did not have his kind of money and education. Actually, I’m not so sure they had any of either necessity – as one was an indentured servant (i.e. female white slave) on the Rockingham, and one was an emancipated East End convict, who was doing all right - until he married the Rockingham female!! C’est la Vie. Cheers, R-J |
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28 Sep 20 - 08:12 AM (#4073455) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy COCKY (COCKIE) BELL By Val Hastings You took up your selection west of Karlowin Well. You ploughed the land and fenced it in. The seasons did you well. In '29 you were sowing wheat with a horse team of the best When a combine point came springing down and stabbed you through the chest. CH. Cocky Bell, you were a tough man, one of our pioneers. You were a wheatbelt cocky for only fourteen years. You were a cocky through and through Though it was the death of you, Cocky Bell. For two long days and freezing nights you lay out on the ground. Your faithful team of horses never moved nor made a sound; But you were getting weaker as in the dirt you lay. You prayed to God to give you strength to see another day. Well, when your neighbour found you, you couldn't even cry, For the blasted ants of our fair land had eaten out your eyes; And as he held you in his arms, he marvelled at your pluck. Then it's eighty miles to a hospital bed on the back of a Chevrolet truck. You held hard, hard to the hand of a mate and you swore for evermore, You swore an oath that if you lived you'd kill every ant you saw; But your beaten body couldn't take any more. It'd had just about enough. Cocky Bell, it got the best of you, but by Jesus, you were tough! Catter Bugsy (Peter Bugden), tracked down the lyrics in this Mudcat thread : https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=97418&messages=18#4073450 “This song was sung in memory of those farmers out on the WA wheatfields who in days gone by, used their tractor with a rope slung over to fell trees but often the tractor would flip and they would be trapped underneath -often stuck out in the isolated paddock maybe for days and if they were lucky somebody found them.........” I can relate to this not uncommon occurrence in my own Family History, where my G-Grandmother’s brother was impaled by his own harvester, in rural Victoria :( “…..Cocky / Cockie arose in the 1870s and is an abbreviation of cockatoo farmer. This was then a disparaging term for small-scale farmers, probably because of their habit of using a small area of land for a short time and then moving on, in the perceived manner of cockatoos feeding…..” A.N.U. NB Does anyone know of a copy of this song anywhere online??? Cheers, R-J |
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28 Sep 20 - 09:00 AM (#4073458) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy BRIDAL TRAIN The Waifs A telegram arrived today, It’s time to catch the Monterey Cause the man I wed he waits for me, and a daughter that he's yet to see. The U.S. Navy beamed its message, we'll deliver brides on a one-way passage It made big news across the nation, the bridal train leaves from Perth station. All the girls around Australia, married to a yankee sailor Your fare is paid across the sea, to the home of the brave and the land of the free, From west to east the young girls came, all aboard the Bridal Train It was a farewell crossing over land, she's gone to meet her sailor man. No time for sad goodbyes, she held her mother as she cried And then waited there in the Freo rain, to climb aboard the bridal train. Well she was holding her future in her hand, yeah the faded photo of a man Catch a sailor if you can, yeah the war bride leaves her southern land. All the girls around Australia, married to a yankee sailor Your fare is paid across the sea, to the home of the brave and the land of the free, From west to east the young girls came, all aboard the Bridal Train It was a farewell crossing over land, she's gone to meet her sailor man. This is the story of the starry nights, through desert plains and city lights Through burning sun and driving rain, she left aboard the Bridal Train. All the girls around Australia, married to a yankee sailor Your fare is paid across the sea, to the home of the brave and the land of the free, From west to east the young girls came, all aboard the Bridal Train It was a farewell crossing over land, she's gone to meet her sailing man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7OncTVHkI “It is estimated that between 12,000 and 15,000 Australian women married American servicemen during World War Two. Some made a life in the USA, while others returned to Australia with or without their husbands in the years following the war. While public perception about war brides paints a narrow picture, it is clear that there are many different reasons why Australian women married American servicemen…… https://www.sea.museum/discover/online-exhibitions/war-brides Cheers, R-J |
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28 Sep 20 - 09:48 AM (#4073460) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy (What Will We Do With) Maud Butler by John Thompson Maud Butler had a brother in the army And so she made her way to Sydney town At 17 she knew her mind She wouldn't just be left behind And so Maud tried to join the army Chorus: Oh, what will we do with Maud Butler? She dresses as a soldier and she wants to go to war She jumped a ship to cross the foam Better than any stay-at-home The prettiest little soldier-boy the Army ever saw. A lovely farmer's daughter from old Kurri Kurri town When she tried to sign on as a nurse they turned the poor girl down. So she bought herself some soldier's gear Cut her hair and wiped her tears And she climbed up a rope to board a transport Three days in a life-raft with not a bite to eat Til bold as brass she walked the decks, the sailor-boys to meet An officer saw her walking about Her boots were wrong, they found her out. Poor Maud was put ashore in dear old Melbourne Only two months later, Maud was back on board again Another attempt to see the front, in the company of men “I'll do my bit to help the war” She told them when she was back on shore "I just want to be a soldier" This young girl's an example to all of those who shirk Where other's would have given up, Maud Butler went to work A lesser girl would have had enough But Maud was made of sterner stuff So raise a cheer and sing of Miss Maud Butler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wtxja9EX0A Notes by John Thompson : Mark Cryle was kind enough to tell me about the amazing Maud Butler, a seventeen-year-old girl who was so keen to help the war effort in 1915, that she bought up a uniform one piece at a time and then stowed away on a troop ship. Twice! Her amazing story is well worth telling. There are some especially good links online to original news stories about her exploits: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/129568967? and for her persistent offending: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/109949097? Cheers, R-J |
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28 Sep 20 - 09:54 AM (#4073462) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE TIMBERCUTTERS SONG W,A, Bush Orchestra at long last, here is the song link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jw_7_7wjEc The chords are online, but not the lyrics. (and I no longer have the energy! My little truckle bed is calling me :) R-J |
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28 Sep 20 - 08:56 PM (#4073548) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, great posts. I was unaware of the Georgette rescue story. 'Bridal Train' and the Waifs' early albums are great favourites of my wife. I recently recovered my 'West Australian Bush Bands' LP from its long-borrowed status. Alas, there is no insert or sleeve notes. However, Phil Beck has the lyrics for 'Timbercutters Song' and will send them to me. --Stewie. |
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28 Sep 20 - 09:18 PM (#4073550) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie NOVEMBER (Junior - Adelaide band) There’s no colour like blood, there’s no feeling like sun on your skin There’s no place like home after all the things we’ve seen One more for the road, one more you can carry me home Pour me another, I don’t want to be alone There’s nobody like you and there sure ain’t nobody like me Not a single soul can know what we feel or see When you wake at dawn, love the light you see ‘Cos if you see the light, there’s a chance for you and me Jacarandas in November All the colours I’ll remember Lined up down your street in springtime When the air tastes sweet Jacarandas in November, I’ll remember Oh, I - I’ll remember you The eleventh hour, last stand, you went down We had our plans just like every man You and me and Desie in Sydney when we’re free We made it there in nineteen fifty-three Jacarandas in November All the colours I’ll remember Lined up down your street in springtime When the air tastes sweet Jacarandas in November, I’ll remember Oh, I - I’ll remember you And your slouch hat and your photographs Only me you left behind I’ll never forget you, you’re forever young In my mind, forever young Jacarandas in November All the colours I’ll remember Lined up down your street in springtime When the air tastes sweet Jacarandas in November, I’ll remember Oh, I - I’ll remember you There’s no colour like blood, there’s no feeling like sun on your skin I reckon 'November' is a ripper little song, but I'm probably prejudiced because I was born and raised in Adelaide before moving to Darwin. It is from folk rock group Junior's 'Fibro Majestic' CD. You can listen to the CD on Spotify. The above is my transcription from YT video. I don't know which member or members of the band wrote the song. It's a beaut video of jacarandas. Youtube clip Junior bio --Stewie. |
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28 Sep 20 - 10:44 PM (#4073552) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, Phil excelled himself - lyrics arrived an hour after my request. Great song. THE TIMBERCUTTERS SONG (Alan Mann) In the timber tall and green along the line You can hear the magpies call and the crickets sing These sounds the steel will join as the bush saws scrape and whine You’ll hear the echoes as our axes ring The teamster all too soon he moves on in And the logs we cleared to the line he moves away Eight horses four-be-two and the two-wheel wooden whim And that axle groans at least six times a day (Chorus) Keep those logs rolling boys, down to the mill me boys Keep those logs a-rolling down And we'll push the cross cuts through just to show what we can do And we’ll pave all the streets of London Town Well the mill train sweats and strains most all the day Down the twenty mile of track that feeds the mill Stoker keeps the firebox full with the off-cuts from the day So later on she’ll make the three-mile hill And at the mill first tails grip and bark the logs And then roll them to the benchman standing by And he’ll slip the mill saw through ne'er care she slips or bogs And it's then you’ll see the chips and sawdust fly Chorus And the planks to the world we’ll ship away When the weather’s fine, they'll go the Hamelin side When the nor-wester comes on in, then it’s round by Flinders Bay On that rolling surf you’ll see the good ships ride Spare a thought for those chaps who're workin' hard Next time you walk the streets of London Town In the forest, at the mill, on the line or in the yard Just keeping those logs a-rolling down Chorus |
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28 Sep 20 - 11:27 PM (#4073554) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie A BUSHMAN CAN'T SURVIVE (John Williamson) A city girl is happy with her friends and family life Appreciates a wine with him at night She tries to find the sparkle, she searches but it's gone With lots of love she hopes he'll be alright Her man has gone all quiet, he's not at ease He doesn't feel at home, he's hard to please He gets itchy feet, he's tired of noises in the street He needs to walk for hours through the trees CHORUS No a bushman can't survive on city lights Opera, rock and roll and height of heights His moon shines on the silver brigalow Shimmers down the inland river flow Out there where the yellow belly bites He's working with his hands today on a building site He can smell the cypress on the floor It takes him to a sandy ridge out amongst the pines No shearin’, no ploughin' anymore His kelpie dog is tired and fast asleep Sick of searchin' gardens for the sheep His master doesn't whistle tunes, he's not in the mood His love for open spaces runs too deep Chorus He tries to please his woman, the lady of his life He's standing at a party with a plate She finds him on the balcony staring at the moon An old familiar face he can relate His moon shines on the silver brigalow Shimmers down the inand river Out there where the yellow belly bites My friend, Scott Balfour, made a moving recording of this on his 'Mother Land' CD. He said the song had particular poignancy for him because it encapsulates the spirit of his friend Bill Hayes of Deep Well Station - the consummate bushman - who died tragically in a mustering accident. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 12:06 AM (#4073556) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie COOTAMUNDRA WATTLE (John Williamson) Don't go lookin' through that old camphor box woman You know those old things only make you cry When you dream upon that little bunny rug It makes you think that life has passed you by There are days when you wish the world would stop woman But then you know some wounds would never heal But when I browse the early pages of the children It's then I know exactly how you feel. (Chorus) Hey it's July and the winter sun is shining And the cootamundra wattle is my friend For all at once my childhood never left me 'Cause wattle blossoms bring it back again It's Sunday and you should stop the worry woman Come out here and sit down in the sun Can't you hear the magpies in the distance Don't you feel the new day has begun Can't you hear the bees making honey woman In the spotted gums where the bellbirds ring You might grow old and bitter cause you missed it You know some people never hear such things Chorus Don't buy the daily papers any more woman Read all about what's going on in hell They don't care to tell the world of kindness Good news never made a paper sell There's all the colours of the rainbow in the garden woman And symphonies of music in the sky Heaven's all around us if you're looking But how can you see it if you cry Chorus This lovely song always reminds me of the late Chris Pemberton who would trot it out from time to time at the gun turret. Chris was a very fine singer and he had Mississippi John Hurt's guitar style down to a T. Here is a live rendition from John Williamson. I can relate to the background sound - we often have lorikeets carrying-on in our garden. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 12:29 AM (#4073557) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Geez, Stewie.......You have started the fingernails-on-a-blackboard thing, for me. I can't stand that Cootamundra wattle song. A long-ago bloke used to call me "woman"; I hated it then, and I still hate it now. But that's all right. The world would be a dull place indeed if we all sang the same songs. |
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29 Sep 20 - 01:27 AM (#4073560) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy LoL JennieG! I know what you mean though. An ex often called me "Missus" but that didn't really worry me. But "Woman" is somehow "different"...... :) Stew, thanks so much to you and Phil for Alan Mann's comp. Paul-the-Stockman digitised the LP and offered it up on his Blog of 11 May 2015, but mentions the lack of liner notes. Have to get WA's super-sleuth Becky back onto it!! : http://australianfolk.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-08-10T21:00:00%2B10:00&max-results=10&start=40&by-date=false Plus, I was wondering if you have any of Phil's comps that could be featured on this thread??? Cheers, R-J |
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29 Sep 20 - 02:22 AM (#4073562) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy TENTERFIELD SADDLER By Peter Allen The late George Woolnough worked on High Street and lived on Manners 52 years he sat on his veranda and made his saddles And if you had questions about sheep or flowers or dogs You just ask the saddler, he lived without sin; they're building a library for him. Ch. Time is a traveller, Tenterfield Saddler, turn your head Ride again Jackaroo, think I see kangaroo up ahead The son of George Woolnough went off and got married and had a war baby But something was wrong and it's easier to drink than go crazy And if there were questions about why the end was so sad Well George had no answers about why a son, ever has need of a gun Time is a traveller, Tenterfield Saddler, turn your head Ride again Jackaroo, think I see kangaroo up ahead The grandson of George has been all around the world and lives no special place Changed his last name and he married a girl with an interesting face He'd almost forgotten them both because in the life that he leads There's nowhere for George and his library, or the son with his gun, to belong - except in this song Time is a traveller, Tenterfield Saddler, turn your head Ride again Jackaroo, think I see kangaroo up ahead Time is a meddler, Tenterfield Saddler, make your bed Fly away cockatoo, down on the ground emu up ahead Time is a tale teller,Tenterfield Saddler, turn your head ………………… The late Peter Allen (singer/songwriter/dancer and all-round entertainer), was married for a while to Liza Minelli (“the girl with an interesting face”!). My Sister and B-in-Law do a lovely harmony version of this, but it’s not on-line yet. Many recordings available are overloaded by loud, intrusive instrumentation. So I have chosen this lovely version by Rick Price. Hope you enjoy this song; I never seem to tire of it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtM4a3bheIU Cheers, R-J |
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29 Sep 20 - 09:20 AM (#4073597) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy NOT MANY FISH By Bernard Bolan From Mortlake to Mosman for thirty-five years, In a twenty-six footer I’ve sailed. It paid for me grub and a couple of beers, But not now since the fishing has failed. There used to be Blackfish there used to be Bream, And there used to be Jewies to tame. But now there’s old beer cans and polythene bags, And things too repulsive to name. Ch. But the sun is still shining and the sky is still blue, You can still taste the salt on the spray. Me lines are all baited and me net’s over too, But there’s not many fish in the harbour today. Once the catches you’d get nearly made your boat sink, And the three of you filling the barge. But now all you get is terrible stink, With typhoid at no extra charge. What you need is a craft that can sail the high seas, Where the Herring and King Fishes play. All you bring up in the Harbour is dead dogs and cats, Not to mention that Mrs MacRae. So go for a sail with your Sally and Sue, Take Roger and Rufous as well. Remember to throw (chuck) your muck over the side, Then complain of the hideous smell. Well a fisherman’s known for not getting upset, When he sails through the wind and the rain. But a man can but think when he’s sailing through this, What a pity you can’t pull the chain. Here is Bernard Bolan singing : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqRfyPekBEo (NB apparently Sydney Harbour is much cleaner, these days!) Cheers, R-J |
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29 Sep 20 - 11:07 AM (#4073612) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney we now have 258 songs. |
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29 Sep 20 - 11:31 AM (#4073616) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney A very popular song at sessions, it was the winner of the Parody mug at the inaugural John & Dale Dengate Parody Competition at Illawarra Folk Festival in 2014, a very appropriate winner as John had loved it. Dale giving Cathy the box it came in. PRECIOUS GIFT (The Tony Abbott Song) by Cathy Rytmeister, February 2010 When I was a young girl, pure and whole I lived the clean life of a virgin I had no idea that my precious gift Was important to some politicians. So when I turned 18 and the boy up the road Said hey, how about it? I didn't say "no". But dear Tony Abbott, if only I'd known I'd have waited at least one more fortnight. For I was now bereft of true value By choosing a life full of sin My precious gift gone, just a memory in song All I've left is the box it came in. And well I remember relief on those days That my blood stained the sheets and the blankets I took many risks but was mostly OK I look back and for that I'm most thankful. But I wonder, if only I'd kept meself nice, Wore lippy and heels and played sugar and spice – I'd have landed a man who'd have treated me right – Someone just like that hypocrite Tony. For I was now bereft of true value By choosing a life full of sin My precious gift gone, just a memory in song All I've left is the box it came in. I grew older and wiser and carried a pack- et of three, just in case I got lucky And I did pretty well, despite no advice From Abbott or Andrews or Tuckey. Johnny Turk he was ready, he'd primed himself well, But that wasn't enough, I had Tommy as well And Paddy, and Jock, and Pierre and Manuel I had a right multicultural party. With my precious gift thoroughly squandered I still somehow managed with men I swore and I drank and I danced and I skanked While the band played Wild Rover Again. Now I've settled down, with a rather good bloke, Who with second-hand gifts seems delighted. And I've a daughter myself, of that age when you might Give advice, about life to enlighten. I've told her to give what she wishes and when To respect herself and be respected by men And above all before she is settled and wed To make sure she gets plenty of practice. For a woman is more than a hymen She has much more to offer the world And if Abbott can't see all that we wish to be He can keep his advice to himself. For I've filled my life with true value By choosing to live it in sin My precious gift gone, just a memory in song But I've still got the box it came in! |
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29 Sep 20 - 05:30 PM (#4073638) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG One of my favourites, Sandra! |
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29 Sep 20 - 07:43 PM (#4073650) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie JennieG, I know what you mean about 'woman' in the Williamson song. I can sympathise with your experience with an insensitive sod. However, given the song's structure, what other term could he have used? You wouldn't want the American 'babe' or 'baby' - 'darling', 'wife', 'love', 'dear' et alia wouldn't really work either. Back on 15 September (it seems so long ago), I noted that Phil Gray of Loaded Dog opposed the insertion of a Wendy Evans chorus about shearers in Sorensen's 'Glenburgh Wool' which is about the transportation of wool not shearing. Phil has recently recorded the song sans the inappropriate chorus and with his own tune. He recorded it in the shearer' kitchen at Glenbugh Station. His note for the clip: This is a set of verse by Jack Sorensen - I put my tune on it. In early September Yvonne, myself and our trusty Border Collie Cobber, did a 'mini tour' up through the Gascoyne and Murchison regions of Western Australia. I played at Gascoyne Junction, Glenburgh Station and Murchison Settlement. One of the pleasures of my life was to record this in the Shearers' Kitchen at Glenburgh Station, where Jack Sorensen spent time shearing, and to tread where he trod and probably ate 80 years ago. In Jack's words .......'and from those roaring yesterdays the echoes linger yet'..... Youtube clip The text of all of Sorensen's poems may be found here: Click --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 09:40 PM (#4073659) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Gerry Hallom put a tune to Banjo Paterson's 'By the grey gulf water'. He made multiple changes to make it more accessible as a song. A good'un. BY THE GREY GULF WATER (Paterson/Hallom) Far to the north there lies a land A wonderful land where the winds blow over And none may guess or understand The charm it holds for the restless rover A wild grey land, a land half made Where nature craves a share of slaughter Many indeed are the nameless graves Where victims sleep by the grey gulf water Slowly, slowly those grey streams glide, Drifting along with languid motion Lapping the reed on either side Wending their way to the northern ocean And the strength of a man is a young child’s strength In the face of that mighty plain and river And the life of a man is a moment’s length To the life of a stream that runs forever And so it comes they take no part In life’s small cares - each hardy rover Rides ahead like Bonaparte The plains around and the blue skies over Way up above a brown lark sings The songs the strange wild land has taught her Full of joy her sweet song rings I wish I were back by the grey gulf water Way up above a brown lark sings The songs the strange wild land has taught her Full of joy her sweet song rings I wish I were back by the grey gulf water Youtube clip The original poem as published in 'The Bulletin': Click --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 09:55 PM (#4073660) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Perhaps 'woman' in the song actually has a name which could be used? Certainly better than 'darling', 'darl', 'sugar', 'honey', etc. Actually, I must admit to not being much of a Williamson fan. I know his songs are popular, he has sold a squillion gold records and stuff like that, but there are other writers I prefer - probably sacriligeous to say given that we live in Tamworth, but there you go. |
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29 Sep 20 - 10:07 PM (#4073661) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie JOG ALONG TILL SHEARING The truth is in my song so clear Without a word of gammon The swagmen travel all the year Waiting for the lambin' Now when this dirty work is done To the nearest shanty steerin’ They meet a friend, their money spend Then jog along till shearing. Chorus Home sweet home That is what they left it for Their home sweet home Now when the shearing season comes They hear the price that's going New arrivals meet old chums And then they start their blowin’ They say that they can shear each day Their hundred pretty handy But eighty sheep is bloody hard When the wool is close and sandy When the sheds are all cut out They get their bit of paper To the nearest pub they run They cut a dashing caper They call for liquor plenty They're happy when they're drinkin’ But where to go when the money's spent It's little they are thinking. Sick and sore next morning They are when they awaken To have a drink of course they must To keep their nerves from shakin' They call for one and then for two In a way that's rather funny Till the landlord says, ‘Now this won't do You blokes have got no money’ They're sleeping on verandahs They're lounging on the sofas Then to finish off their spree They're ordered off as loafers They've got no friends, their money's spent And at their disappearing They give three cheers for the river bend And jog along till shearing. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 10:32 PM (#4073662) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, I just remembered that, courtesy of Colin Smiley, I have a CD of the Lost Quays - 'Live at the Whalers' Tunnel'. The concert was recorded in the Whalers' Tunnel as part of Fremantle's Heritage Festival in 2016. The tunnel was excavated by convicts shortly after the first whale was taken in the area in 1837, and not long after the founding of the colony. The concert consisted almost entirely of shanty warhorses. However, they did adapt 'Bound for South Australia' for a Fremantle flavour. FREO GIRLS (Lost Quays) Freo girls ain’t got no combs Heave away, haul away They combs their hair with cod fish bones And we’re bound for Australia Heave away me bully, bully boys Heave away, haul away You gotta make a noise And we’re bound for Australia Well Freo lads ain’t got no frills They drink their beer with cod fish gills Well Freo kids ain’t got no sleds They slide downhill on cod fish heads Well Freo mums don’t bake no pies It’s tofu king with toasted chives Well Freo dads don’t brew no stout There down at Clancy’s hanging about Well Freo Dogs ain’t got no bite If their bark don’t scare, the Sharks just might Well Freo cats ain’t go no tails They lost them all to the south-west gales The Freo doctor’s got no pills She blows from the west our sails to fill Heave away, haul away … Above is my transcription. I couldn't make out the 'tofu' line - can someone correct it? For non-Aussies, the Dogs and Sharks are Fremantle football teams. Clancy's is a popular Fremantle pub and the Fremantle doctor is a cooling afternoon sea breeze. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 11:26 PM (#4073664) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST JennieG, fair point - a name would work. I'm not much of a Williamson fan either, but I like a handful of his songs. He was a featured guest at a Top Half Festival in Alice Springs a few years ago. He no attempt to mix with other performers and punters or join in any sessions. Sod him! --Stewie. |
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29 Sep 20 - 11:34 PM (#4073665) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I forgot to login again. I'll have to cease clearing my website data during the day. Anyhow, it gives me a chance to correct an error in my 'Freo Girls' transcription. In the 'dads' stanza, it should read 'they're' not 'there'. --Stewie. |
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30 Sep 20 - 08:08 PM (#4073807) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Stewie, Perhaps that Tofu line is something to do with Lattes and Chai - his gravelly voice sure is hard to understand!! Cheers, R-J :) |
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30 Sep 20 - 08:18 PM (#4073812) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE GIFT OF YEARS (Eric Bogle) Well, old friend, here I am I told you I'd be back And as usual, mate, I'm bloody late It's seventy-five years down the track For the last time, here I stand In this familiar foreign land Back with the mates I left behind Fixed forever in their time And of all the ghosts of all the boys That haunt this lonely place Only one of them wears your cheeky grin And your Queensland joker's face And as I drown in old and bloody dreams Of helpless young men's dying screams I feel your hand give my arm a shake And your voice say, "Steady, mate!" And the country that you died for, mate You would not know it now And the future that we dreamed of, mate Got all twisted up somehow. The peace that we were fighting for The end to stupid senseless war So it couldn't happen to our kids Well, old mate, it did! And thank you for the gift of years And the flame that brightly burns For the time you bought and the lessons taught So often wasted and unlearned "Lest we forget," cries the multitude As if I ever, ever could So forgive an old man's tears And thank you for the years Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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30 Sep 20 - 09:16 PM (#4073813) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie WHERE SILENCE REIGNS (Woods/Wyndham-Read) Out back where silence reigns on the great grey western plains The sunlit plains of Clancy's where it hardly ever rains Where the traveller's always thirsty and the water never near The creaking of the saddle is the only sound you hear Where the quart pot doesn't rattle, the stirrup doesn't clink And the emu stalks in freedom and it's far too hot to think Where the tracks are dry and dusty, the air is seldom clear The creaking of the saddle is the only sound you hear Where the fences reach to sundown and are mostly made of wire And the sun goes down each evening like a glowing ball of fire Where the water-bag is empty and the tucker dry and drear The creaking of the saddle is the only sound you hear In shades of gidgee bushes lies a great red kangaroo Asleep in the noonday sunshine while a doleful-looking crow With a voiceless gape salutes us as we come and disappear The creaking of the saddle is the only sound you hear In sultry shades of silence bounded by a shimmering sky Make a man feel very lonely, very small and very dry I would cry in desolation but I cannot shed a tear The creaking of the saddle is the only sound you hear Another poem by Walter Woods that Wyndham-Read clipped and adapted. The full poem may be found at page 207 of Stewart and Keesing's 'Australian Bush Ballads'. The full text of the previously posted 'I don't go shearing now' may be found at page 245 - it is indeed a saga that stretches over 3 pages. Woods was an interesting character - a journalist and politician. Read about him here: Click Where silence reigns --Stewie. |
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30 Sep 20 - 10:35 PM (#4073820) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie NEW LIFE, NEW LOVE (Lawson/Wyndham-Read) The breezes blow on the river below the fleecy clouds float by And I mark how the dark green gum trees match The bright blue dome of the sky The grass is green where rains have been And the earth is bare and brown I see the things that I used to see In the days ere my heart was down I've seen the light in the long dark night Brighter than stars or moon I've lost the fear of the winter drear the sadness of afternoon Here let us stand while I hold your hand With the light on your golden hair And I feel the things that I used to feel In the days ere my heart was dead The storms are by and my lips are dry The old wrong rankles yet Sweetheart or wife, I must take new life From your red lips warm and wet So let it be, you may cling to me There is nothing on earth to dread For I'll be the man that I used to be In the days ere my heart was dead Youtube clip This was also recorded on 'All Around Down Under', an album by Martyn and Danny Spooner. Liner note: Henry Lawson wrote the poem in 1903 and Martyn put the tune to it. Australia's best known balladist for 20 years, in middle age, Lawson was drinking heavily and living a hand-to-mouth existence. He had a love and a marriage behind him at this stage when he was taken in hand by Mrs Isobel Byers and penned this in a tone of promise. R-J, I believe you've nailed 'lattes' and 'chai' but there's something else after 'tofu'. --Stewie. |
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30 Sep 20 - 11:27 PM (#4073822) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Gordon Bok recorded a couple of Kiwi songs on his 'In The Kind Land' CD. The text of this one differs from the version printed in 'Song of a Young Country' and also the version recorded by Phil Garland but, as they say here in the Territory, good but. BRIGHT FINE GOLD (Anon/music reconstructed by N.Colquhoun) Spend it in the winter Or die in the cold One apecker, Tuapecka Bright fine gold Bright fine gold, bright fine gold One apecka, Tuapecka Bright fine gold Two little children lying in bed Both of them hungry, lord They can't raise up their heads Bright fine gold, bright fine gold One apecka, Tuapecka Bright fine gold Some are sons of fortune And my man came to see But the riches of the river Are not for such as he Bright fine gold, bright fine gold One apecka, Tuapecka Bright fine gold I'm weary of Otago Weary of the snow Let my man strike it rich And then we'll go Bright fine gold, bright fine gold One apecka, Tuapecka Bright fine gold Repeat stanza 1 and chorus Gordon's note: Because of the NZ gold rush in the 1860s, the Tuapecka River in Otago Province became the richest place in New Zealand. The results were the same as other gold rushes, mostly misery and poverty. I think that Phil Lobl taught it to me when she came to Maine many years ago. Bok Garland --Stewie. |
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30 Sep 20 - 11:56 PM (#4073823) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie HOW GILBERT DIED (Paterson/Roweth) There's never a stone at the sleeper's head There's never a fence beside And the wandering stock on the grave may tread Unnoticed and undenied But the smallest child on the Watershed Can tell you how Gilbert died For he rode at dusk with his comrade Dunn To the hut at the Stockman's Ford In the waning light of the sinking sun They peered with a fierce accord They were outlaws both and on each man's head Was a thousand pounds reward They had taken toll of the country round And the troopers came behind With a black who tracked like a human hound In the scrub and the ranges blind He could run the trail where a white man's eye No sign of track could find He had hunted them out of the One Tree Hill And over the Old Man Plain But they wheeled their tracks with a wild beast's skill And they made for the range again Then away to the hut where their grandsire dwelt They rode with a loosened rein And their grandsire gave them a greeting bold "Come in and rest in peace No safer place does the country hold With the night pursuit must cease And we'll drink success to the roving boys And to hell with the black police." But they went to death when they entered there In the hut at the Stockman's Ford For their grandsire's words were as false as fair They were doomed to the hangman's cord He had sold them both to the black police For the sake of the big reward In the depth of night, there are forms that glide As stealthily as serpents creep And around the hut where the outlaws hide They plant in the shadows deep And they wait till the first faint flush of dawn Shall waken their prey from sleep. But Gilbert wakes while the night is dark A restless sleeper aye He has heard the sound of a sheep dog's bark, And his horse's warning neigh And he says to his mate, "There are hawks abroad And it's time that we went away." Their rifles stood at the stretcher head Their bridles lay to hand They wakened the old man out of his bed When they heard the sharp command "In the name of the Queen ,lay down your arms, Now, Dunn and Gilbert, stand!" Then Gilbert reached for his rifle true That close at hand he kept He pointed straight at the voice and drew But never a flash out-leapt For the water ran from the rifle breech It was drenched while the outlaws slept Then he dropped the piece with a bitter oath And he turned to his comrade Dunn "We are sold," he said, "we are dead men both Still, there may be a chance for one I'll stop and I'll fight with the pistol here You take to your heels and run." So Dunn crept out on his hands and knees In the dim, half-dawning light And he made his way to a patch of trees And was lost in the black of night And the trackers hunted his tracks all day But they never could trace his flight But Gilbert walked from the open door In a confident style and rash He heard at his side the rifles roar And he heard the bullets crash But he laughed as he lifted his pistol hand, And he fired at the rifle flash Then out of the shadows the troopers aimed At his voice and the pistol sound With rifle flashes the darkness flamed He staggered and spun around And they riddled his body with rifle balls As it lay on the blood-soaked ground. There's never a stone at the sleeper's head There's never a fence beside And the wandering stock on the grave may tread Unnoticed and undenied But the smallest child on the Watershed Can tell you how Gilbert died Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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01 Oct 20 - 02:54 AM (#4073830) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy SOMETIME LOVING By Gary Shearston I don't want your sometime lovin' That falls like summer's rain Coz I've slept through two long winters And love's been where my head has lain. When you’ve travelled with the North wind Blowing on your window pane When you’ve found the warmth she brings you Come and find me once again. And when you've wandered through the snowfall Through the pines on which she's lain When you've seen the way she holds them Come and hold me once again. And when you've heard a river laughing As she bends the rocks and sand Seen her wave crossing an ocean Come and take me by the hand. And when you've seen a hungry grassland Reach out to kiss the rain When you've seen how strong her kiss is Come and kiss me once again. And when the earth has turned her season And her love has brought the grain If you find that love inside you Come and live with me again. The late Gary Shearston’s 1967 rendition : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb4nd5lryAU A long-time favourite and possessed of a timeless beauty, I feel. Apparently when Peter, Paul & Mary sang it in concert in Australia, they introduced it as “the most beautiful song that has ever been written” …… Cheers, R-J |
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01 Oct 20 - 10:01 PM (#4073953) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SHE’LL BE RIGHT (Peter Cape) When you're huntin' in the mountains And your dogs put up a chase And this porker's comin' at you And he doesn't like your face And you're runnin' and he's runnin' And he's crowdin' on the pace Don't worry mate, she'll be right She'll be right, mate, she'll be right Don't worry mate, she'll be right You can get your feed of pork When he slows down to a walk So don't worry mate, she'll be right When you're loggin' on the saddle And you're drivin' down the bluff With a thousand feet of timber Bouncin' right behind your chuff And the clutch has started slippin' And the brakes are worse than rough Don't worry mate, she'll be right She'll be right, mate, she'll be right Don't worry mate, she'll be right If you give all you can give her She'll just fly into the river So don't worry mate, she'll be right When you've walked out on the missus And you've gone to watch the race And you took her shopping money And you didn't get a place And you're comin' home flat stoney And she sees it in your face Don’t worry mate, she’ll be right She'll be right, mate, she'll be right Don't worry mate, she'll be right You can save a lot of trouble If you say you won the double So don't worry mate, she'll be right When you've had yer copper goin' And you've boiled a ton of hops And you've brewed your brew And bottled 'er and hammered on the tops And your missus keeps on askin' Where you left your footy socks Don't worry mate, she'll be right She'll be right, mate, she'll be right Don't worry mate, she'll be right Shove a shot o' metho in And you'll swear you're drinkin' gin So don't worry mate, she'll be right When they've finished off yer forwards And yer backs are wearin' thin And the second spell's half over And you've forty points to win And this hulkin' wing-three-quarter's Got his teeth stuck in your shin Don't worry mate, she'll be right She'll be right, mate, she'll be right Don't worry mate, she'll be right You won't worry who's the loser When you meet them down at the boozer So don't worry mate, she'll be right Peter Cape was a Kiwi treasure. His 'Stable Lad' is posted above. 'She'll be right' was a great favourite. For a variety of additions since this 1955 original: Click Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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01 Oct 20 - 10:12 PM (#4073956) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie TAUMARUNUI (Peter Cape) I’m an ordinary joke, growin’ old before me time ‘Cause me heart’s in Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line Taumarunui, Taumarunui Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line You can get to Taumarunui going north or going south And you end up their at midnight and there’s cinders in your mouth You got cinders in your whiskers and a cinder in your eye So you hop off for refreshments, for a cuppa tea and pie Taumarunui, Taumarunui Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line There's a sheila in Refreshments and she's pouring cups'a tea And me heart jumps like a rabbit when she pours a cup for me She's got hair a flamin' yeller and a mouth a flamin' red And I'll love that flamin' sheila till I'm up and gone and dead In Taumarunui, Taumarunui Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line You can get a job in Wellington or get a job up north But you can't in Taumarunui though you try for all you're worth If I want to see this shiela, then I've got to take a train Get ten minutes for Refresments then they cart me off again From Taumarunui, Taumarunui Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line Well they took me on as fireman on the Limited Express And I thought that she'd be jake but now she's all a flamin' mess That shiela wouldn't take to me - I thought she'd be a gift She's gone and changed her duty hours and works the daylight shift From Taumarunui, Taumarunui Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line I’m an ordinary joke, growin’ old before me time ‘Cause me heart’s in Taumarunui on the Main Trunk line For info on this song: Click Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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02 Oct 20 - 10:37 PM (#4074095) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie KNOCKED UP (Lawson/Wyndham-Read) I'm lyin' on this barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought And don’t know if my legs or back or heart is most wore out I've got no spirit left to raise and ease my achin' brow I'm too knocked up to light a fire and boil the billy now A long dry stretch of thirty miles I've tramped this broiling day All for the off-chance of a job a hundred miles away There's twenty hungry beggars wild for any work this year And maybe fifty at the sheds while I am lying here The sinews in my legs seem drawn, red hot and that's the truth I seem to weigh a ton, and ache like one tremendous tooth I'm stung between my shoulder blades, my blessed back seems broke I'm too knocked up to eat a bite, I’m too knocked up to smoke The blessed rains are coming too, there's oceans in the sky And I suppose I should get up and rig that blasted fly The heat is bad, the food is bad, the flies a crimson curse Mosquitoes damned, the water’s bad, but rheumatism's worse I don’t know why poor blokes like me will cling so hard to breath Though Shakespeare says it is a thing we fear after death And though eternity be cursed by God's almighty curse Whatever that same somethin' is I swear it can't be worse Martyn Wyndham-Read's adaptation of the Lawson poem. He has omitted several stanzas. Youtube clip Full poem: Click --Stewie. |
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02 Oct 20 - 10:53 PM (#4074096) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE LIGHTS OF COBB AND CO (Lawson/Hallom) Fire lighted, on the table a meal for sleepy men A lantern in the stable, a jingle now and then The mail coach looming darkly by light of moon and star The growl of sleepy voices, a candle in the bar A stumble in the passage of folk with wits abroad A swear word from the driver, the shout of ‘All aboard!’ ‘Git-up! ‘Hold fast there!’ and down the range we go One hundred miles will see tonight the lights of Cobb and Co Chorus Past the haunted halway houses where the convicts laid the stones The scrub yards and the bark huts where the shearers made their homes Through stringybark and blue gum and box and pine we go One hundred miles will see tonight the lights of Cobb and Co Past old coaching towns already decaying for their sins Uncounted halfway houses and scores of ten-mile inns The riders from the stations by the lonely granite peaks The black-boys for the shepherds by sheep and cattle creeks The roaring camps of Gulgong, and many a digger’s rest The diggers on the Lachlan, the huts out farthest west Some twenty thousand exiles who sailed for weal or woe The bravest hearts of twenty lands will watch for Cobb and Co Chorus The morning star has vanished now, the frost and fog are gone It’s one of those grand mornings which but on mountains dawn A flask of friendly whisky and each other’s hopes we share And throw our top-coats open wide and take the mountain air The roads are rare to travel and life seems all complete The grind of wheels on gravel, the trot of horses’ feet The trot, trot, trot and canter as down the spur we go The green sweeps to horizons blue that call for Cobb and Co Chorus We take a bright girl actress through the western dust and damps To bear the home-world message and sing for miners’ camps To stir our hearts and break them, wild hearts that hope and ache And when she thinks again of these, her own must surely break Five miles this side the goldfield, a loud, triumphant shout Five hundred cheering miners have snatched the horses out With an ‘Auld Lang Syne’ in chorus through roaring camps they go That cheer for her, and cheer for home, and cheer for Cobb and Co Chorus Swift scramble up the hillside where teams climb inch by inch Pausing bird-like on the summit, then breakneck down the pinch By the clear, ridge-country rivers and hills where tracks run high Where waits the lonely horseman cut clear against the sky Across the swollen river a flash beyond the ford Ride hard to warn the driver, he’s drunk or mad, good lord It’s on the bank and westward with a broad and cheerful glow New camps extend across the plains the routes of Cobb and Co Chorus Hallom made the Lawson poem into a fine song, including the creation of a chorus from scattered lines. Youtube clip Poem |
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02 Oct 20 - 11:13 PM (#4074097) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE OLD AUSTRALIAN WAYS (Paterson/Hallom) The London lights are far abeam Behind a bank of cloud Along the shore the gaslights gleam The gale is piping loud And down the Channel, groping blind We drive her through the haze Towards the land we left behind The good old land of `never mind' And old Australian ways The city folk go to and fro Behind a prison's bars They never feel the breezes blow They never see the stars And all our roads are new and strange As through our blood there runs The wanderer’s love of change That drove us westward of the range And westward of the suns Our fathers came of roving stock That could not fixed abide So we have followed field and flock Since e'er we learnt to ride By mining camp and shearing shed In days of heat and drought We followed where our fortunes led With fortune always on ahead And always farther out So cast the weary pen aside And let the papers rest We must saddle up and ride Towards the blue hill's breast We must travel far and fast Across their rugged maze To find the spring of youth at last And call back from the buried past The old Australian ways. And if it be that you would know Where Clancy used to ride You must saddle up and go Beyond the Queensland side Beyond the reach of rule or law You ride the long day through In nature's homestead filled with awe You then might see what Clancy saw And know what Clancy knew Hallom's adaptation of another Paterson poem. Youtube clip Poem --Stewie. |
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03 Oct 20 - 06:15 AM (#4074128) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy MALENY WASHING LINE by Paul Lawler, 1999 I love the cool, south easterly breeze Green rolling hills, and lots of trees, I would go out, I’ve washed my hair But alas I have, not a thing to wear. It’s one more day, on Maleny’s Washing Line. The finest silks, I wore with class Now lie in tatters on the grass, My towels that fresh, from soap and sud Are lying now, in pools of mud. It’s one more day, on Maleny’s Washing Line. Last night it blew, such a heavy gale My undies now, are in Conondale, I thought I’d seen, it all by far Till I spied a cow, in a D cup bra. It’s one more day, on Maleny’s Washing Line. My clothes were white, in the washing machine Now on the line, they turn to green, I think I’ll burn, them in the fi-yer And invest in, tumble dryer. It’s one more day, on Maleny’s ... Washing ... Line. Paul wrote this to Cyril Tawney's "Grey Funnel Line", sung here in harmony by June Tabor & Maddy Prior (Silly Sisters) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHOokpi9hUw We never ceased to be amazed that, after moving from the hot and lush Tropics in flat, coastal Darwin, NT, to the cooler Sub-Tropics of the inland, forested, hills and dales of Maleny, Qld, we were beset by both mould and cobwebs (plus leeches and ticks and funnel web spiders), like never before - and rain that often lasted days without letup!!! ....... Pretty but. Cheers, R-J :) |
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03 Oct 20 - 06:33 AM (#4074130) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy HERE’S TO THE SINGER ~ Jeff Corfield, c.1997 There’s songs that are written and songs that are played To keep the cash registers ringing, But give me a song that the people have made A song that’s been made for the singing, There’s songs about work and there’s songs about play There’s songs about struggle and glory Ah give me a song where the folk have their say A song that can tell us a story. Ch. So here’s to the singers and here’s to the songs That down through the decades come ringing, May the gift of your tunes WITH the people belong And long may the people keep singing Be you Paddy from Ireland or Joe from Geelong Be you Russian or French or Swahili The people have long put their lives into song With a passion delivered so freely For a song is a wild bird, a song is a dove That soars in the heavens before us With the laughter, the freedom, the joy and the love Of humanity woven in chorus. CHORUS In times when this world’s full of trouble and pain And freedoms long fought for are waning Just remember those struggles that led to the gains And the songs that recall the campaigning For a song on its own cannot right all that’s wrong One singer, the storm cannot weather But the people united will always be strong Whether working or singing together. CHORUS So sing us a song about hauling a rope Sing of a sloop that’s still sailing Sing us a song, full of life, full of hope Pete : long may your banjo keep frailing Sing of one people, the whole world around And the joys of those freedom bells ringing May the songs that you taught us forever resound And long may the people keep singing. CHORUS x 2 A note to me from Jeff says : "I wrote it originally in honour of Pete Seeger’s 80th birthday, in May 1999, after we had visited him following our week on The Clearwater back in 1997. So, in one sense it’s a bit specific (2nd verse reference to Swahili is a Seeger in-joke and also last verse reference to The Clearwater), though I also wrote it as a celebration of all the songs and singers we love. Like many of my efforts it’s a bit sentimental and clichéd, and the tune “adapted” from a hotch-potch of traditional songs (esp “All the Good Times”!), but the chorus is robust and folks seem to like it. What it really needs is to grow, change and adapt, in true folk style, to become more generic, so I pass it on to you with that in mind." Jeff Corfield 03.05.1999 Jeff is a singer / songwriter / collector / musician / researcher / writer / scientist / proud family man - and more! - now of Townsville, Qld, but originally from Sydney - Perth - Kununurra - Darwin, too! Sorry, I can't find the song on-line; the tape is here somewhere though ....... :) Cheers, R-J |
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03 Oct 20 - 07:30 AM (#4074133) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy MY OLD BLACK BILLY I've humped my bluey in all the states With my old black billy the best of mates, For years I've camped and toiled and tramped Over roads that are rough and hilly, With my highly sensible, indispensable, Old Black Billy Ch. My old black billy, my old black billy whether the wind is warm or chilly I always find when shadows fall My old black billy's the best mate of all. I've carried my swag on the parched Paroo Where water is scarce and the houses few, On many a track on the great outback Where the heat would drive you silly, I've carried my sensible, indispensable, Old Black Billy. When my tramping days are o'er And I drop my swag at the Golden Door, Saint Peter will stare when he sees me there Then he'll say, "Poor wandering Willie, Come in with your sensible, indispensable, Old Black Billy." Like with a lot of songs, I can’t find my preferred version that’s in my memory, but here is one from “Me 'n Me Mates” who seem to be a trio of blokes from South Australia : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuHbdlfcaU I think this song (once presumed traditional) was written by Edward Harrington and was featured in the famous “Reedy River” Aussie musical of 1953. One source has a Roy Jeffries writing the chune, but I have others that state Edith Harrhy – I dunno, but Catter, Sandra-in-Sydney, will no doubt have all The Gen. Cheers, R-J |
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03 Oct 20 - 09:11 AM (#4074140) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy LIFE IS CHANGE by Paul Lawler A caterpillar chews along a new leaf A bird lands on a twig just nearby And the game of life is played among the branches Blessed with fruit we lose a butterfly. Ch. Life is change, Life is change, The only permanent thing about Life is change. Life is change, Change, is Life, The only permanent thing about Life is change. A seed lies dormant on the forest litter It seems, that only chance surrounds its fate But, before this seed can take up water It may need a fire to germinate. Chorus Springtime melts the icecap on the mountains Rushing waters, form an ox-bow way downstream And maybe in a thousand years or later Where waters meet an island will be seen. Chorus Middle 8 No one reads the same book We all colour words we say Sometimes we read in black and white what’s Meant in shades of grey Meant in shades of grey Sunbeams chase the rainbows o’er the green hills Lightning strikes and flashes all around Clouds descend and block out the horizon Paradise is lost, but also found. Chorus Paul wrote this song in 2004, adapting Coope, Boyes and Simpson’s “Thurnscoe Rain” - which is a Ray Hearne composition where the melody is based upon Colohan’s classic “Galway Bay” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MksRyIKjSLg It was only performed once, by Work in Progress, just after writing, and is partly recorded here : GO TO 02:18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCxx1-vrJfY&t=321s Apologies for the rendition, but, the whole performance in this venue was just not a comfortable gig, and it shows ………………… :( Cheers, R-J |
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03 Oct 20 - 09:37 AM (#4074146) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy The Wallaby Track One morning I rolled up the few things I'd got And I strapped to my saddle my quart and pint pot And I told the boss, I said I'd soon be back I was off for a trip on the wallaby track, Oh the morning was fine, though it blew rather cold And the sun was just topping the mountains with gold And my favourite old dingo travelling close to the back And he knew we were off on the wallaby track. Ch. With me tooraleye, ooraleye, tooraleye ooral, With me tooraleye, ooraleye, tooraleye -aye. We'd a fair way to go to an old camping place So we're rattling along at a pretty good pace Where friends we would meet when provisions were slack And they all live close by to the wallaby track, Oh well we hadn't gone very far I suppose When we met with the girl who said, "G'day Joe" I said, "You're mistaken, my name it is Jack" "And I'm off for a trip on the wallaby track". She said, "Get off your horse and rest yourself now" "Did you see on your travels me old Poland cow?" "You remember the one that we used to call Black" "I'm afraid she has gone on the wallaby track", So I got off my horse and I patted my dog And we both sat together on the stringybark log And I made up the fire and I ratted the pack And we both had a meal on the wallaby track. So we sat in the shade of the stringy bark tree As fine a young girl as you ever did see She asks where I'm going; when will I be back And why am I off on the wallaby track, So I told her then I was looking for a wife And would she take on a partner for life And like a sensible girl, well, she said "It's a whack" That was the end of my trip on the wallaby track. A favourite as sung by '80s Top Enders "Tropical Ear", but in the absence of their rendition online, here is John Thompson's somewhat different version : http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/wallaby-track.html Cheers, R-J |
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03 Oct 20 - 09:33 PM (#4074225) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy TOMORROW, I’m Going Down to Sydney By Chris Buch Tomorrow, I’m going down to Sydney In the morning, they’ll see me city-bound Tomorrow, I’m going down to Sydney In the hope, that you’ll still be around. You used to lie beside me in the morning Your eyes still closed, your hair all tumbling down Then one day, without a word of warning You packed your bags, and headed for the town. I still have, your picture and your letters When I read them now, they cause a bit of pain You won’t find anyone, to love you better And I ask you, won’t you try me once again. I know you wanted, what I couldn’t give you Fancy clothes and shiny silver rings But the love I have inside of me to give you Is worth more, than all those fancy things. Tomorrow, I’m going down to Sydney In the morning, they’ll see me city bound Tomorrow, I’m going down to Sydney In the hope, that you’ll still be around. Tomorrow, I’m going down to Sydney………. I haven’t found this online, but one day I may come across a recording of Chris, or even Paul Lawler, singing it at the Gun Turret in Darwin ..... The late Chris Buch (born London 1936 – died Brisbane 2016), founder of the Mt Isa Folk Club, The Rafferty Band (aka Rafferty’s Rules) and others (e.g. Rantan, in Brisbane), author of “Johnny Stewart, Drover” (posted Aug 20th by Stewie), “Australia Two” and others, trad jazz lover/player, also wrote his biography Hello Sunshine (A Blitz Kid’s Journey to the Sunshine State) in 2011. Cheers, R-J Haha! Just found it on YT under “The Rafferty Band” – their only LP, from 1984 – GO TO 34:00 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5RnWcAVuCo |
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03 Oct 20 - 09:59 PM (#4074229) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie OUR JACK (Anon) Our Jack's come out of jail today To Pentridge he has been For many a day he's been away His face we ne'er have seen MacMannamy arrested Jack And with a gentle jerk Pounced down upon our old friend Jack With jemmy hard at work Chorus (after each verse): Our Jack's come home today Our Jack's come home today Quite wan and pale from out of jail Our Jack's come home today Our Jack came out of jail today And ain’t his Polly glad She had to pawn the things he'd shook And found that she’d been had The price she got it weren't enough To keep her for a day But all is past, she's right at last Our Jack's come home today When Jack came out of quad today We had a glorious spree And did a tour of Melbourne pubs As jovial as could be With wine and beer and brandy punch We started out ad lib When Jack proposed a partnership To crack another crib With jemmies and with skeleton keys Of cribs we went in search But seeing Dave O'Donnell there We left Jack in the lurch Undaunted Jack he set to work Another crib to crack O'Donnell like a ton of bricks Came down to lumber Jack Final chorus Our Jack's gone back today Our Jack's gone back today White wan and pale back into gaol Our Jack's gone back today Recorded on Danny Spooner 'Bold Brave Boys' It was collected by Joy Durst and Ron Edwards in August 1956 from a Mr R. Ure of Gembrook, Victoria. --Stewie. |
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03 Oct 20 - 10:07 PM (#4074231) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy FOR NEARLY 60 YEARS, I’VE BEEN A FOLKIE By Bob Townshend For nearly sixty years, I’ve been a Folkie Festivals and concerts, sat through plenty In this country’s clubs and pubs, I’ve shed tears and coughed up blood The things some people smoke Make me queasy. I found an old guitar when I was twenty I’d learned to play three chords when I was thirty D and A and G, They were good enough for me Didn’t practise anymore They were easy. In 1974, I went to Darwin Heard there was a very active folk scene I didn’t stay too long, When I woke the house was gone And my guitar blown away It was breezy. To the National in North Queensland, made my own way My guitar is buried by Kuranda’s railway The train driver was a mate, Let me ride on the footplate My guitar slid to its fate The floor was greasy. Young people of today despise The Folkie With our Fal-de-Lal –de-La’s, they think we’re crazy But their swearing and hip-hop, And their bland suburban rock Won’t last two hundred years Because it’s sleazy. For nearly 60 years, I’ve been a Folkie Sung so much my voice is getting croaky But I strum my old guitar, And dream that I’m a star My song is nearly over now Now I’m easy. This song’s really over now Now I’m wheezy ..... Yes, it’s really over now, Now I’m wheezy ..... “Yorkie Bob” was last heard of living in the chilly Stanthorpe region near Qld’s border with NSW. He says this was written with apologies to Eric Bogle, but that “It was all Roger’s fault” (i.e. Roger Holmes aka Catter “Hrothgar”!) Eric’s poignant song “Now I’m Easy” was, I thought, posted at the beginning of this thread, but maybe not??? Anyway, here is a version by Scots-Canadian singer, Jim Brannigan, for your chune : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey0MiB4RNCs Cheers, R-J |
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03 Oct 20 - 10:44 PM (#4074232) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy LEAVING MY HOMELAND by Noel Gardner I’ve ridden all that outback and walked those dusty roads I’ve seen my aspirations disappear My father pushed the mulga like his father did before My family worked this land for sixty years. Drought flood and fire on the sunburnt ravished block We thought we could tame this last frontier But foreclosure and nature it takes its toll my friend A generations fold of mother’s tears. Ch. I am leaving my homeland, I am waving goodbye I am holding onto memories, as that gate disappears from my eye Another day another hope another clear blue sky Another round of ravished stock to feed A prayer a thought nostalgia, is etched upon my lines Of ten years of faded hopes and dreams. Chorus This naked land was taken, possession was the law King and country immigrant pioneers But there are still laws of nature out on those western plains As overstocked pastures disappear. Chorus Noel Gardner copyright (Corrugated Music) I can’t find this country-folk number to hear online, unfortunately (and it’s good to sing along with!), though the 1994 CD “Justicce & Pride” is still for sale. (some other compositions by Noel and friends are available to listen to, though…….) https://www.noelgardner.com/pages/justice.html Cheers, R-J |
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03 Oct 20 - 10:49 PM (#4074233) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie GOORIANAWA (Duke Tritton) I’ve been many years a shearer and fancied I could shear, I’ve shorn for Rouse of Guntawang and always missed the spear I’ve shorn for Nicholas Bayleyand I declare to you That on his pure merinos I could always struggle through. Chorus But oh my, I never saw before The way we had to knuckle down at Goorianawa I’ve been shearing down the Bogan as far as Dandaloo For good old Reid of Tabratong I’ve often cut a few Haddon Rig and Quambone and even Wingadee I could close my shears at six o’clock with a quiet century Chorus I’ve been shearing on the Goulburn side and down at Douglas Park Where every day ‘twas ‘Wool Away!’ and Toby did his work I’ve shorn for General Stewart whose tomb is on The Mount And the sprees I’ve had with Scrammy Jack are more than I could count Chorus I’ve shorn for Bob McMaster down on the Rockedgiel Creek And I could always dish him up with thirty score a week I’ve shore at Terramungamine, and on the Talbraga And I ran McDermott for the cobbler when we shore at Buckingbar Chorus I’ve been shearing at Eugowra – I’ll not forget the name Where Gardiner robbed the escort which from the Lachlan came I’ve shorn for Bob Fitzgerald down at the Dabee Rocks, McPhillamy of Charlton and Mister Henry Cox Chorus But that was in the good old days – you might have heard them say How Skillycorn from Bathurst rode to Sydney in a day Now I'm broken-mouthed and my shearing's at an end And though they call me Whalebone, I was never known to bend But spare me flamin’ days, I never saw before The way we had to knuckle down at Goorianawa As recorded by Martyn Wyndham-Read on ‘Beneath a Southern Sky’. Martyn’s note: I obtained the text from the John Meredith book on Duke called ‘Duke of the Outback’. As Meredith says in his book ‘Duke’s notes on the song almost constitute an outback social history’. My attraction to it is two-fold. I did a tour with Duke Tritton in the early 1960s along with other singers and it was truly an experience to have been in the company of this man. Also, in the second verse, it mentions Haddon Rig. The sheep and cattle station I worked on, Emu Springs in South Australia, was a subsidiary of Haddon Rig. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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04 Oct 20 - 12:25 AM (#4074241) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Albany Emigrants Trad, arr. Ferguson & Roche We sailed from Cork on a windy day, with a dark and a cloudy sky Our friends were standing on the quay, the women stood and cried But we were young and out for fun and the riches we could find So lift your glass and drink a toast to the girls we’ll leave behind. Ch. Oh Paddy dear, drink up your beer, we're leaving in the morn Aboard the ship, the Alice Grey - for West Australia, Round the Horn. Our brother Jack was a sailor man, with the Black Ball Line He jumped his ship in Albany and now he's doing fine And the letter that he wrote to us said “come out and join me here” So we're off to Albany in the morn without a doubt or fear. Jack has a farm near Albany with livestock by the score He says the trees near touch the sky, King Karri, so we're told And sailing ships arrive each day with diggers off for gold And a hundred whales are plainly seen to frolic in the Sound. And now we're under way me boys, the ship's bell loudly sounds The quay is now well out of sight and we are seaward bound And as we round Passage West the good ship gives full sail And a parting glass to Erin's Isle from the swaying ship-deck rail. Another top little number from The Settlers 1979 LP for West Aussie’s sesquicentennial celebrations. Here is their rendering :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3OgLRa4YdY “West Australia, Round the Horn” here refers to the southern most tip of WA - Cape Leeuwin - which has something of a reputation and was known to early sailors as the “Cape Horn of Australia”. Cheers, R-J |
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04 Oct 20 - 12:54 AM (#4074242) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy We're All Boat People" (~ a gentle history lesson / social commentary for Australians ~) by Paul Lawler The rain on the Ark went pitter-pat There’s one more river to cross Noah got stuck on Ararat There’s one more river to cross Chorus We’re all boat people We’re all boat people together We’re all boat people There’s one more river to cross Way back in 1493 Columbus hit the West Indies Magellan in 1521 Circumnavigation ( sir - cum - navvy - gay - shy - on ) Sir Francis Drake - new lands to find Floated away on the Golden Hind Tasman was Abel company He had a mania for the sea 1770 ropes belayed Anchored Cook in Botany Bay alternative ending, depending upon your audience!! The **Liberal Government’s full o’pricks Take them o’er the River Styx **of course this refers to the political Liberal Party down in Oz!! Paul Lawler, 2002 He based his chune on "One More River to Cross" (NO, not the gospel number!!) This here is the closest I have found to that which he sang (as I have no recording :( and strangely, very few sing this particular melody (but it's also the one I recall from my childhood) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0dk-cv1Cy8 Cheers, R-J |
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04 Oct 20 - 01:10 AM (#4074243) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy My finger slipped to the "submit" button before I had finished! Just wanted to explain re Paul's song above : "We're All Boat People", that the Liberal/Country parties have done their darnedest over the years to make the average Aussie believe that anyone arriving by sea, (particularly those "Refugees" - quelle horreur!) are illegal and undeserving and should quite properly be held in detention forever and a day. But this thread is "above the line" so I'll say no more!! R-J |
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04 Oct 20 - 03:07 AM (#4074249) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Dance Up The Sun (John Thompson) Dance up the sun on a fine May morning, Dance up the sun to call in the Spring, Dance away the dark while the new day's dawning, All is new when we dance and we sing. Ch. And the bells will ring when the morris men come, As we call in the Spring and we dance up the sun. The bells will ring when the morris men come, As we call in the Spring and we dance up the sun. Gather in the dark, recall the Winter Celebrate the tales that the old ones bring The music rises with the first light's gleaming, The dawn will break and the bells will ring. Form the lines and turn together Hear the clash of the staff as we shout and we sing, The tunes all sound to the tattercoat's flying, We call up the light as the day comes in. Ancient ways with the season's turning, The passing years see the dance go on We sing the past as we dance to the future We celebrate the year with the dawn of the sun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtiKW32aVAE CLOUDSTREET from “Dance Up the Sun” CD. Nic (Nicole Murray, one half (and now one third) of the renowned Cloudstreet, with John Thompson) dances with SE Qld’s Belswagger Morris side and they are usually all to be found on the 1st May, Dancing Up the Sun on top of Brisbane’s Mt Coo-tha. Cheers, R-J |
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04 Oct 20 - 03:24 AM (#4074251) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy DOWN IN THE GOLDMINE Words: Unknown / Tune: Joseph Bryan Geoghegan Researched and arranged: John Thompson Coolgardie folk remember well, the torrent from the sky Westralia's tunnels took the flood, men were forced to fly It chilled the blood to have to hear the wailing whistle blow As miner Vareschetti lay, a thousand feet below. CH. It's down in the goldmine, underneath the ground Floods are apt to fill the mine, men are apt to drown Dare the dark and the dreary water, send a diver down Deep down in the gold mine, underneath the ground. They heard a hammer down below and ran to break the news To dare the gloomy catacomb, they sent for diver Hughes It's half a hope or sudden death, no are you game to go Where miner Vareschetti lies, a thousand feet below. Fremantle found the diving gear, a train began to roar The engine got the right of way, a hundred miles or more It hit the track at 65 and it set the night aglow Where miner Vareschetti lay, a thousand feet below. A million gallons rose above the captive in the cave Then diver Hughes, he brought him up and he left an empty grave And life can keep a lamp alight if we are game to go Where miner Vareschetti lay, a thousand feet below. Cloudy John says : “A song I found in a folio entitled, Moondyne Joe and Other Sandgroper Ballads. It is a parody of a music hall song, Down in the Coal Mine. This link is to the story which I first read about the rescue of this Italian miner from a flooded goldmine in the desert in 1907 : https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-great-survival-20060506-gdnhry.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 Enquiries around the folk scene in Australia have not revealed the songwriter's name. Any advice would be appreciated.” This recording taken from CLOUDSTREET’s album, “The Circus of Desires” : http://ozfolksongaday.blogspot.com/search?q=Down+in+the+Goldmine Cheers, R-J |
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04 Oct 20 - 03:24 AM (#4074252) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney days ago Rich-Joy referred to My Old Black Billy - a song I vaguely remember my father singing I think this song (once presumed traditional) was written by Edward Harrington and was featured in the famous “Reedy River” Aussie musical of 1953. One source has a Roy Jeffries writing the chune, but I have others that state Edith Harrhy – I dunno, but Catter, Sandra-in-Sydney, will no doubt have all The Gen. As I said in all my decades in Libraries - I know all the answers as long as you ask the right question, of course, occasionally my reply was - Wrong question!, but not for this one. this article was one of many treasure in BMC archives How the "anonymous folk song" My Old Black Billy came to be in Reedy River page from the first Sydney Reedy River songbook with the answer - Ron Jeffries sandra |
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04 Oct 20 - 03:30 AM (#4074253) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Thanks Sandra - knew you'd come through with the goods!! R-J :) |
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04 Oct 20 - 04:14 AM (#4074255) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE PROSECUTION (Don Henderson) Young, free and white, woke up this morning Looked out the window and he saw In the east a new day was dawning A day that had never been before And he wonders, could it be That, in some way, mightn't he Be as singularly unique as this new day? Or was it simply true There are 'Them' and 'They' and 'You' And to 'Them' you are just another 'They'? Ch. And his hopes of acquittal are sinking For the charges on which he'll appear Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking' And 'possession of a dangerous idea'. The family is all seated round the table The children eat their meal and ask for more Mother says she's done the best she's able Father swears and, leaving, slams the door He is poor and some are not His two hands are all he's got His two hands built the world and hold it high Could he build a new world where Working men all have a share? He wonders if he's brave enough to try. And his hopes of acquittal are sinking For the charges on which he'll appear Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking' And 'possession of a dangerous idea'. Saturday night and the camp is getting jumpy As white men after 'velvet' offer port Jackie sits there in his scrap heap humpy And thinks 'If this is life, thank God it's short' On the wind faint voices came Called him by his tribal name And asked him what of his Dreaming, his people's land? Then, rising from the dirt, he threw down the mission shirt And, proud again, put on the red headband. And his hopes of acquittal are sinking For the charges on which he'll appear Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking' And 'possession of a dangerous idea'. The court has been rehearsed in preparation The executioner is well prepared All services will join the operation Leave is cancelled, no expense is spared Knowing what it was he said, Nothing's safe till he is dead He said: "Every man's his own man in the end!" He said: "Slaves are black and white, The divided will unite" He said: "Every man's his own man in the end!" And his hopes of acquittal are sinking For the charges on which he'll appear Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking' And 'possession of a dangerous idea'. And his hopes of acquittal are sinking For the charges on which he'll appear Are 'suspicion of unauthorised thinking' And 'possession of a dangerous idea'... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHjheDR-J_4 as sung by Tommy Leonard, c.2010 - in the now very sadly defunct UpFront Club in Maleny, Qld Cheers, R-J |
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04 Oct 20 - 10:28 PM (#4074348) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, this should be of interest to you since your beloved made instruments for hydrographers in Darwin. THE WAYWARD HYDROGRAPHER (Mic Travers) Well come listen all my merry friends, I’ll tell to you this yarn It is of a young apprentice who was living up in Darwin Water was his trade and his indentures had been signed That was his undoing as sure as you’re a friend of mine Da da li li etc Well despite his youthful countenance and credit where it’s due Our youth had had experience and he’d seen a few things too He’d travelled round about the place, a few trips beneath his belt But he’d never been down south in spring when snow begins to melt Refrain He set off one morn from Darwin and the weather it was fine It was mid-to-late September and most morns are then you’ll find He travelled south by east, stopping briefly here and there But he never stopped for good till he breathed cool mountain air Refrain Well at this point in my story, it is fair I tell to you The few things he had with him that he thought would see him through He had a guage, a rod, a rain guage, a book of useful facts An inner tube, a swag and a few things in a pack Refrain Well he’d been camped up there a few weeks, taking guagings of the stream Looking for some correlation, some new insight he might glean When he saw it in his readings and confirmed it with his eyes That within the space of hours, the mountain stream began to rise Refrain Well at first he thought nought of it, still he made some little note For it may have proved of interest to some academic bloke But as the stream became a torrent, interest gave way to alarm And he scampered over rocks, still with his rod under his arm Refrain Now without the hint of panic, our old mate knew what to do He reached straight for his old inner tube and into it he blew And blew with all his might, barely stopping for a spell He had thing damn near inflated ‘fore into the stream he fell Refrain And so quick were his reflexes, he had time before he went To grab his book of useful facts and to take one last measurement He rode the old tube like a pro, steering with his guage and rod Thumbing the index of his book for flashing floods and acts of god Refrain Mic spent some time in Darwin with his young family before heading to Brisbane - a fine performer and song writer. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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05 Oct 20 - 01:19 AM (#4074356) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Sandra posted a couple of Greg Hastings songs above, and I remembered this one : NULLARBORING PLAIN Written while driving across the Nullarbor in a Diatsu 500cc Handy Van CHORUS Curse the blessed highway that's been going on for miles Across the Nullaboring Plain the lonesome traveler drives Counting cans and gum trees there isn't much to choose But the skeletons of burnt out cars and flattend kangaroos. You've loaded up your roof racks, supplies aare stacked and stored You take along your best cassettes to stop from getting bored. Maybe you've a friend or two in your car or your can or your truck But by the time you get to Eucla mate you won't give a ..... damn. CHORUS You start off waving at the cars you meet along the track And then you give up hoping you ever will wave back You get so flaming bored that to stop yourself from sleep You start waving at the cows, the birds, the signposts and the sheep. CHORUS If by chance you break down with a station miles away There'll be no need to panic as on your knees you pray You'll never be very lonely no matter how hard you tries Cos you've always got the company of sixty million flies. CHORUS If you like your fauna as you're driving on your way There's very little of it if you're driving in the day You may just catch the odd roo or rabbit in the rough But they're usually quite motionless and absolutely stuffed. CHORUS Then at night they jump you and they'll give you quite a scare You'll even see them moving when they're never there Still you've got those insects, whose guts just must be seen And you've got the time to watch it as it spreads across the screen. CHORUS There's roadtrains to the left of you, roadtrains to the right Things can get quite hairy when you're driving in the night They look like giant Christmas trees as they cut off every bend But you'll wind up like a fairy with one stuffed right up your end. CHORUS And when at last you get there be it Perth or Sydney town A sense of great achievement no doubt you will have found You may be tired and sweaty, your back all stiff and sore But at least you've got your sticker says you've crossed the Nullarbor. CHORUS Copyright Greg Hastings © 1982 Sample excerpt : https://www.greghastings.com/files/Greg%20Hastings%20-%20Wandering%20Man%20-%2015%20-%20Nullaboring%20Plain.mp3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T845HV-1yP0&feature=youtu.be Greg at Roleystone Performer’s Night, 2011 In 2020, it is a roughly 3935 kilometre (or 2445 mile) journey, on Highway 1, taking maybe 41 hours with shared driving. Apparently. Most West Aussie Baby Boomers would have done the overland trip along the old Eyre Highway (and many of us, more than once) in the ‘bulldust’ days, long before all the roads were sealed and vehicles were air conditioned. Where you had to carry jerry cans of spare fuel and water – just in case. The roads were mostly long, hot, dry, dusty tracks (until it rained, when it was slippery mud) - covered in potholes (if large and hit at speed there goes your front end), teeth-rattling corrugations, and limestone outcrops to shred the tyres of the tired and unwary, with mostly only the occasional truck-cum-roadtrain for fleeting company (or sometimes a Speleo Expedition of cavers, as the land is littered with huge underground cave systems and sinkholes). And the road just went on for Bloody Miles and Miles!! Great fun. The only relief was stopping at the bore water tanks where you could sluice off the grime with hot - very salty – undrinkable water. I recall my Aunt and Uncle, then resident in Tasmania, visiting their Perth families in the mid 1950s - with 3 kids under 5, in a small sedan car. And they did it again a few years later, with an extra child! West Aussies (and Returned Soldiers), sure were built tough!! I’ve now a mind to revisit some of the books written about the early post-WWII journeys undertaken (like by Ion Idriess), and about the famous Redex trials that started in 1953 (with drivers like “Gelignite Jack” Murray and Jack Brabbham), and films of which excited everyone so much at the local flicks! https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/redex_trials_the_legend Cheers, R-J |
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05 Oct 20 - 10:23 PM (#4074448) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SOON MAY THE WELLERMAN COME (Anon) There was a ship that put to sea The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea The winds blew up, her bow dipped down Oh blow me bully boys blow Chorus Soon may the Wellerman come And bring us sugar and tea and rum One day when the tonguin’ is done We’ll take our leave and go She had not been two weeks from shore When down on her a wright whale bore The captain called all hands and swore He’d take that whale in tow Before the boat had hit the water The whale’s tail came up and caught her All hands to the side, harpooned and fought her When she dived down below No line was cut, no whale was freed The captain’s mind was not of greed But he belonged to the wheelman’s creed She took the ship in tow For forty days or even more The line went slack, then tight once more All boats were lost - there were only four But still the whale did go As far as I’ve heard, the fight’s still on The line’s not cut and the whale’s not gone The Wellerman makes his regular call To encourage the captain, crew and all Shore-whalers, unlike whalers on ships, could not return to their native lands. Even if there were a ship, they couldn’t afford the passage for they saw no money. Whaling companies, such as Wellers of Sydney, sent agents across the Tasman to collect the bone and oil and to pay the men in sugar and rum. When the companies ceased to operate, the men began to work on their own - whaling, some fishing, a little farming.’Song of a Young Country’ p10. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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05 Oct 20 - 10:42 PM (#4074449) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie ODE TO STREAM (Mic Travers) Well I’m cuttin’ all my ties and I’ve sung all my goodbyes There’s no tellin’ when I might return For I’ve heard it in the streams and I’m out to catch my dreams There’s a light within my soul that does burn Chorus Yes, pack your bags, girl, be my friend on the road Together we will find again the good times that we know’d And our love emerge unscathed from the baptism of waves It’s written in the sands, in the lines upon our hands It will be so From life’s impossible defeats to her euphoric craigie peaks I’ve staggered over many the ragged mile From this material mirage, I leap for the universe at large Blind and trusting as a new-born child Chorus And now I close my eyes and dream of that gentle flowing stream And the words of wisdom it must whisper still I drink deeply from its banks and I offer up my thanks Oh will I return again, I probably will Chorus Now it’s time to press upon the road, sing a song to light our load Let the hook and fire rekindle our soul But there’s every chance we’ll weather if we can but stick together Whatever tempest mother nature throws Chorus Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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06 Oct 20 - 02:54 AM (#4074454) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy HARD TACK trad I'm a shearer, yes, I am, and I’ve shorn both sheep and lamb From the Wimmera to the Darling Downs and back And I've run a shed or two when the fleece was tough as glue But I'll tell you where I struck the ’ardest tack. I was down round Yenda way, killin' time from day to day Till the big sheds started movin' further out When I met a bloke by chance that I summed up at a glance As a cocky from a vineyard round about. Now it seems he picked me too—well, it wasn't hard to do 'Cause I had me tongs a-hangin' at me hip “Well, I got a mob,” he said, “just about two hundred head And I'd give a ten pound note to get the clip.” I says, “Right, I'll take the stand”, it meant gettin’ in me hand And by nine o’clock we'd rounded up the mob In a shed sunk in the ground with wine-casks all around And that was where I started on me job. I goes easy for a bit whilst me hand was gettin’ fit And by dinner time I'd done about a score With the cockie pickin' up, and handin' me a cup Of pinkie after every sheep I shore. Well, he had to go away about the seventh day After showin’ me the kind of casks to use Then I'd do the pickin' up, and manipulate the cup Strollin' round them wine-casks just to pick and choose. Then I'd stagger to the pen, grab a sheep and start again With a sound between an 'iccup and a sob And sometimes I'd fall asleep with me arms around a sheep Worn and weary from me over-arduous job. And so six weeks went by, till one day, with a sigh I shoved the dear old cobbler through the door I gathered in the cocky's pay, and staggered on me way From the hardest flamin' shed I'd ever shorn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaisYXk0tsE&list=PLETVuiXKS2qBiKClqcaTxb5V5juZC7tdf&index=13 sung here by Declan Affley on LP “The Day the Pub Burned Down” Notes by A.L.Lloyd are taken from LP “The Great Australian Legend” : “Already in the nineteenth.century, in South Australia and Victoria, vineyards were being planted, mostly by German settlers. And notably in the period between the World wars, with the establishment of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, the orchard and vineyard districts of New South Wales began to spread and encroach on regions that formerly had been devoted to sheep. To their astonishment, shearers found themselves drinking wine instead of their famed staple beverage, beer. The culture collision between vineyard and sheep land, wine and beer, is well expressed in the Hard Tack song.” tongs: hand shears / pickin’ up: picking up and baling the fleeces as they are shorn / pinkie: wine / cobbler: last sheep to be shorn https://www.topicrecords.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/TSDL203.pdf Cheers, R-J |
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06 Oct 20 - 03:02 AM (#4074456) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Just came across Greg Windred on YT. He's from Armidale, NSW and likes a wide range of music and styles. Have a listen to his powerful "BLOOD ON THE WATTLE", set to a great slideshow : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crNVyuRtZFM Cheers, R-J |
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06 Oct 20 - 04:43 AM (#4074465) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy A song not often heard, but a goodun nonetheless. On the Road with Liddy William Miller, 1934 I'm on the road with Liddy with five hundred head of fats. We string' em on the stony ground and wheel 'em on the flats, And when the evenin' stars come out, with laughter and with song, We round the cattle up, and camp by some quiet billabong. Our cook's a ball of muscles when he's rustling up a feed, And Bob Delany's home and dried when steadying the lead, And if the cattle run at night, there's one chap out in front Striking matches on the bullock's horns, a chap named Georgie Hunt. And when we get to Wyndham, there's Tom Cole with his whip To steer the lead across the hill and put 'em on the ship. And when the mob is all on board, we'll have some blasted fun, We'll get Jack Roberts with his car to take us for a run. We'll try and dig Bob Cooper up, then to that bag of tricks, The pub that's kept by Teddy Clark they call the Double-Six. We'll sing again them drovin' songs we sang along the track, Have a show on the screen for an hour or two, then off again out-back. Sung here by A.L. Lloyd : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_PN6XMFQXw He notes on the afore-mentioned LP “The Great Australian Legend : “They used to say that the heart of Australian nation was the nomad tribe - the teamsters, shearers, drovers—always on the move across the continent. Men with plenty of resourcefulness and few responsibilities. At the head of the nomad tribe were the drovers, the overlanders, who shifted herds and flocks across the plains to distant stations or sale-yards. With the spread of railways, the need for the long drives diminished, but they haven't quite disappeared yet. The old forms of bush life have lasted best in the remote country of the Northern Territories and the northern part of West Australia. Mateship is a basic necessity in such empty country; a free and easy hospitability makes up for a life that is otherwise monotonous, repetitious, terribly short of event. Slowness, a certain melancholy, and eager snatch at chance for diversion characterises the existence of the cattlemen of the far outback, even today. The relatively recent North-west drover's song, On the Road with Liddy, shows it all. This unusual lyric was made, presumably in the 1920s, by a Northern Territory cattle-hand named William Miller. Tommy Liddy was a well-known drover and horseman of the time. The narrative concerns a cattle-drive to the north-west Australian port of Wyndham. I've not seen this one in print.” All that info was pulled from the excellent Mainly Norfolk website: https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/ontheroadwithliddy.html The info following is from the also excellent Folkstream.com website by Mark Gregory : See also the original published version from the Darwin Newspaper the Northern Standard The Droving Days in this collection From the singing of A.L.Lloyd. Printed in Australian Tradition , Oct 1971 Wyndham - port town in northern WA / Lloyd describes Liddy as a well known drover of the area and Liddy's is also known as a bottle tree near Cockatoo Bore, the other side of Kununurra / Fats - road bullocks / Tom Cole - contract musterer and station manager who settled in Wyndham in 1924 / Georgie Hunt - drover on the VRD, Victoria River Downs in the Northern Territory / Teddy Clark's wife ran a pub called the Six Mile in about 1923 / Filmshows were put on at the meatworks in Wyndham in those days. My previous hearing of this song was an a cappella group harmony version, but just by whom, has now been lost to me! Cheers, R-J |
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06 Oct 20 - 07:11 PM (#4074543) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG Today would be a good day for John Dengate's 'Dying Treasurer' song......if I have time later. |
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06 Oct 20 - 07:37 PM (#4074547) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Indeed! JennieG - and we haven't had near enough here from John, have we??! Go for it! R-J |
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06 Oct 20 - 08:39 PM (#4074553) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I'm on my way out, but Ive just gathered my Dengate books & will check Leyne's website - The John Dengate Collection A library of John Dengate words, music, videos, photos and memories - when I get back - assuming you haven't checked the Lyrics & Poems page & posted stuff yourselves! ps. we now have 292 songs, I've sent you a copy of the list, Jennie |
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06 Oct 20 - 08:42 PM (#4074554) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE FORBES FLOOD Another great disaster has come upon this land Out where the Lachlan River flows on its way so grand Was in the month of August and the town was bright and gay And the folks out on the lachlan they were happy all the day And then the skies grew cloudy and the rain came fallen down All day the mighty torrents came falling to the ground The streams throughout the country kept swelling day by day Until the angry Lachlan, it was roaring on its way And then there came a warning , the levees cannot stand A brave important struggle to save their native land But still the raging water kept pounding at the shores Until it broke the levee banks and into Forbes it poured How many homes were flooded and brave men knelt to pray As all that they had cherished was madly swept away The world will gladly help them to pay the awful cost But no-one can ever give them back the treasures they have lost We can't explain the reason these great disasters come But we all must remember to say "Thy will be done" And though the good may suffer for other people's sins There is a crown awaiting where eternal life begins. As recorded on Alan Musgrave 'Songs They Used to Sing: A Panorama of Australian Folksong'. Traditional singer, Ebb Wren, made a few minor changes to Carson Robison's 'The Mississippi Flood'. Full details, including Robison's original text, may been found on this 20-year-old Mudcat thread: Click Since then, a video of Ebb Wren has been posted to YT. Go to circa 1 minute mark. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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06 Oct 20 - 09:04 PM (#4074555) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie NEWELL HIGHWAY (J.Warner/G.Parry) Awake before the dawn, within the spires of range Where magpies ornate melodies Engrave the chilly morning breeze Beneath the towering stone Beneath the towering stone On nights of silver moon, too rich to waste on sleep In silence make your way to seek The choirs of frogs in swamp and creek That sing beneath the stars That sing beneath the stars Out on the Western Plain beside the roaring road Where trucks snarl by without a care Are billabongs with ibis there And wedge-tail eagles soar And wedge-tail eagles soar All you that love the earth and make her ways your choice Cry out against the noise of trade Demand that silence should be made So that all may hear her voice Her ancient, matchless voice Recorded on Danny Spooner 'Emerging Tradition'. Danny noted: John Warner penned this piece in 1985, after a visit to the Warrumbungle Mountains in inland New South Wales. A committed conservationist, John borrowed the tune of the well-loved Anglican hymn 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' (G.H.H. Parry) to remind us how ‘progress’ has encroached upon and damaged some of our most precious assets and continues to do so. --Stewie. Recording by Kerr, Fagan, Harbron. |
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06 Oct 20 - 09:38 PM (#4074556) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie MURDERERS ROCK (N.Colquhoun) Murderer’s Rock stands on the track And watches all that passes Victorian miners, hard old-timers And wash-a-bit move-along asses For the Dunstan, just as the Tuapek did That gave us all gold fever Has little that’s left of payable dirt And we are bound to leave her (x2) Let your ears flap as they hears A tale that’ll certain displease you About four wild colonial men Begetting their gold at leisure Dick Burgess, Kelly and Phillip Levy That now stand trial in the dock They butchered poor Mathieu and his friends For their gold at Murderers Rock (2) The four had planned their evil work When Mathieu spoke up louder And told the company in the bar Hard savings - no man prouder They travelled ahead to wait and rob And not one was fair fighter If a single robber has stood with fists My story could have been brighter (x2) Hang down your head, Dick Burgess ’Twill make no difference further You know you’ll hang from the gallows tree And pay for your terrible murder For Kelly too I haven’t much time Though for Levy I am warmer The jury has to make up its mind On the evidence of an informer (x2) Murderer’s Rock stands on the track And watches all that passes Victorian miners, hard old-timers And wash-a-bit move-along asses My story’s ended, I am done And all take warning from it Don’t take another man’s life for gold Or the gallows you’ll hang upon it (x2) This beaut rendition by Tamburlaine makes up for the doggerel verse: Youtube clip Full details of the incident may be found here: Click —Stewie. |
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06 Oct 20 - 10:27 PM (#4074557) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie RERENGA’S WOOL (B.Paterson (attributed)/m.Anon) ’Twas down at Wellington A noble Maori came A Rangatira of the best Rerenga was his name He stalked into the bank they call The Great Financial Hell And told the Chief Financial Fiend The tribe had wool to sell The bold bank manager looked grave The price of wool was high He said, ‘We’ll lend you what you need We’re not disposed to buy You ship the wool to England, Chief You’ll find it’s good advice And meanwhile you can draw from us The local market price’ Rerenga thanked him courteously And said he wished to state In all th Rotoiti tribe His mana would be great Wedged into a cargo ship Full up from stem to bow A mighty clip of wool went Home Form Rotoiti-au It was the bold bank manager Who made the heavy cheque Rerenga cashed it thoughtfully Then clasped him round the neck ‘To show my gratitude’, he said As he pouched the pelf ‘I’ll haha for you, generous sir In honour of yourself’ He haka’d most effectively Then with an airy grace Pressed noses with the manager And vanished into space And when the wool return came back Aha what sighs and groans For every bale of Maori wool Was loaded up with stones As recorded by Tommy and Margaret Wood on 'Song of a Young Country' LP. Youtube clip It is attibuted to Banjo Paterson. The full poem as printed in 'Saltbush Bill JP, And Other Verses': Click Note in 'Song of a Young Country': Since the 1840s, first the Company's agents, then the government's agents, had been buying land from the Maori for resale to the settlers. Land ownership was complicated and anyone who presented himself as a great Chief with sole selling rights to a block of land was welcomed with open arms - his claims not too closely investigated and an advance quickly given to help prevent a change of mind ... Anybody could be chief, and sell his enemy's land from under him. --Stewie. |
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06 Oct 20 - 10:48 PM (#4074560) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG As (sort of) promised. Dying Treasurer John Dengate Tune: Dying Stockman A Federal Treasurer lay dying, His budget supporting his head. The cabinet stood plausibly lying As he raised on his elbow and said - Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery, Wrap me round in my legerdemain. Bury me deep in the rhetoric Right next to the monetary drain. There's booze in the cut-glass decanter, Place the tumblers all in a row And toast more and more unemployment - May the total continue to grow. Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery, Wrap me round in my legerdemain. Bury me deep in the rhetoric Right next to the monetary drain. Cut down the consumer price index Put wages and salaries on ice. Lock up one or two union leaders To help me attain paradise. Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery, Wrap me round in my legerdemain. Bury me deep in the rhetoric Right next to the monetary drain. Oh, had I the flight of a bronze-wing Instead of a blind silver-tail I'd fly in the face of all reason And I'd write my last Budget in Braille. Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery, Wrap me round in my legerdemain. Bury me deep in the rhetoric Right next to the monetary drain. Alternate last verse: Oh, had I the flight of an emu, I'd desperately run round and round, And try to soar into the sunset And never get up off the ground. The last verse is a doozy, considering that emus don't fly. |
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06 Oct 20 - 11:54 PM (#4074561) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy EXcellent, JennieG - don't stop there!! R-J :) |
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07 Oct 20 - 01:03 AM (#4074562) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE AMITY MEN Composer? (presumed to be one/some of the Albany Shanytmen, in WA) Ch. A town they made those Amity Men, A town that set them free A town they made those Amity Men, A town called Albany. 1. From New Bruswick, Canada, borne in the icy breeze A block and square-rigged sailing brig, she steered fine weatherly With top forebones? of Hackmatack, she crossed the Atlantic seas Ploughing through the ocean troughs, she’s bound for Albany. 2. From Scotland to Tasmania, a new world there to see The Roaring Forties, blazing sun, she steered fine weatherly Then off to West Australia, set off the old barque(-ee)? In Eighteen Hundred and Twenty Six, sailed into Albany. 3. Major Lockyer’s convict crew, with McCabe, Dinneen, Magee ???……………………craftsmen, she steered fine weatherly For five days they unloaded her, salt pork, cut tacks, split peas Timber, rifles, tools, and tents, they founded Albany. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qql0bTPmWjY The Amity Men (The Albany Shantymen) Thanks to Stewie for helping discern some of those lyrics - and any Old Salts’ further suggestions are very welcome! Plus, does anyone know the composer/s?? The Amity is the (relatively small) vessel which in 1826, brought Major Edmund Lockyer (with crew and naval party, 19 soldiers of the 39th Foot, 23 convicts (11 each English & Irish, + 1 Yank), storekeeper, gardener, 2 overseers, 3 women, 2 kids, animals, building materials, and stores) from the Colony of New South Wales to establish a British presence on the West Coast, thus greatly reducing the chance of a feared claim by the French. There is a replica ship on the foreshore in Albany (in the SW corner of WA), built in the mid 1970s to mark Albany’s 150th anniversary. Incidentally, The Amity also featured strongly in the Moreton Bay area’s convict history, on the East Coast (and the land now known as Qld, was only formerly excised from NSW in 1859 – quite late in the scheme of things!) Now this may not be the most brilliant song going, but I must confess that my interest in it is because my GGGrandfather, William Thacker, a Londoner, was amongst this initial trusted Convict crew of 23 to sail with the Amity from Sydney (landing in Dec 1826) and he gained his freedom at King George Sound / Frederickstown (later known as Albany), and in Dec 1830, headed up to the Swan River Colony (newly founded, June 1829) via the Nimrod, eventually taking up land in Upper Swan. There he met and married young Eliza Cook, a Peel Estater, who had arrived May 1830 on the ill-fated Rockingham. So the family regard him as one of West Aussie’s earliest (if not THE earliest!) settlers (esp as he stayed in WA when many new arrivees balked at the place and promptly shot-through to the Eastern States). However, I fear the Landed Gentry still do not approve of such a low-class wretch (Crikey! He was only an opportunistic thief!!), being accorded any high civil and historical status, LoL!! (sniff) Cheers, R-J (doffing cap and tugging forelock :) |
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07 Oct 20 - 01:35 AM (#4074564) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This one was a great favourite back in the Joh and Flo days. As posted by Tony in Darwin a good few years ago. CUNNAMULLA (John Dengate) [Tune: It's a Long Way to Tipperary] First verse and chorus: It's a long way to Cunnamulla, it's a long way to go, It's a long way to Cunnamulla on the River Warrego. I know there's been a gerrymander and I know it isn't fair, But I have to rely on Cunnamulla; they vote for me there. Mr. Bjelke Petersen is a genius, it's true. Mr. Bjelke Petersen makes five votes equal two. He divides up the whole electorate, subtracts Aunt Edna's twins, And he multiplies the rural fraction and that's how he wins. Chorus [Tune: Pack up Your Troubles] Here is your ticket to the Senate, Flo, That's guile, guile, guile. Pack up your pumpkin scones and portmanteau; goose-step round the pile. Tell the mob in Canberra, I waltzed you down the aisle, So here is your nepotistic ticket, Flo, seig Heil! Heil! Heil! [Tune: It's a Long Way to Tipperary] Chorus Old Caligula the Roman, so the history text books say, Put his horse into the Senate where it always voted "neigh". But a horse is still considered useful on the River Warrego, So! The ancient Romans got an old grey mare and Queensland got Flo. Chorus Why not go to sunny Queensland, why not venture forth? Why not join the Country Party in that lovely land up north? Ignore the electorate in Brisbane; to hell with Moreton Bay; As long as you win in Cunnamulla, you'll be O.K. Chorus From "My Shout: Songs and Poems by John Dengate" pub. Bush Music Club, Sydney, Easter, 1982. --Stewie. |
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07 Oct 20 - 02:28 AM (#4074569) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG A member of my ukulele group (currently in recession due to the plague) once suggested doing "It's a long way to Tipperary"......I couldn't. I kept singing John's words for 'Cunnamulla'. We never did do 'Tipperary'. |
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07 Oct 20 - 03:36 AM (#4074573) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Sure, the days of Joh & Flo are over and the infamous Brown Paper Bag gone with them ....... or has it??? However, years later, we are still saddled with their mate in the form of Australia’s 11th richest billionaire, who is some kind of Loki, causing expensive and heart-breaking chaos everywhere - and who “coincidentally” was Joh’s big supporter and backer, particularly in his push to become Prime Minister. (Perish the Thought, indeed!) WHERE then, are the songs about this character and his questionable deeds????? Surely Master Dengate should be sending them to Dale, from Beyond, in the form of automatic writing perhaps???!!! R-J |
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07 Oct 20 - 03:38 AM (#4074574) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney congratulations, Stewie Cunnamulla is no. 300! & it can only be followed by 2 more of John's great songs that were going to end the show about the centenary of John Meredith's birth at the 2020 National - cancelled due to covid! penultimate song - Queensland Medley aka Farewell to Joh. ultimate song - The Melbourne Medley The relevance of singing J.D’s Farewell and Adieu was that Merro enjoyed J.D’s protest songs and anti-Joh with strong criticism, but No swearing, songs. He especially liked the use of traditional ‘Farewell’ songs including ‘Farewell and adieu to you Brisbane Ladies’ It is a fine example of parody and Ralph and I felt it had a great chorus to sing as the penultimate song. (Ralph Pride joined BMC in the early 60s, around the same time John & Dale joined.) Queensland Medley - Farewell to Joh. Tune: Brisbane Ladies - Augathella Station Farewell and adieu to the Premier of Queensland Farewell and adieu and goodbye to Sir Joh You useless old bastard, too long you have lasted Now your mates have decided that you have to go. Chorus - You ranted and roared at the reds and the greenies, You ranted and roared at the black and the white; You postured and strutted, just like Mussolini ... Now your mates have betrayed you and that serves you right. You pineapple vandal, they've snuffed out your candle, Get back to your peanuts, you senile old sod; Take Flo and her pumpkins, you great pair of bumpkins, You can start playing lawn bowls and stop playing God. Chorus You Lutheran pastor cum paw paw disaster You Darling Downs despot, you Kingaroy clown Get back to your tractor, you seventh rate actor You pious, hypocritical, adjective noun. Stick that up your jumper, you old Bible-thumper, You second-rate Hitler, you goose-stepping goose; The poisonous old cane toad's in gone-down-the-drain mode, Like a dribble of Bundaberg sugar cane juice. Chorus Tune changes to It's a Long Way to Tipperary It's a long way to Cunnamulla, it's a long way to go. It's a long way to Cunnamulla on the River Warrago. I know there's been a gerrymander and I know it isn't fair. But I have to rely on Cunnamulla, they vote for me there. After some devastating serves to Joh B-J, John had just about run out of ‘Dengate expletives’ but ‘adjective noun’, with the innuendo of too terrible to say it, always gets a laugh. (email from Dale, 15/04/20) to be followed by The Melbourne Medley What does the Melbourne do on a cruise from Jervis Bay? She sails on the briny blue with the Voyager in the way. So it’s hard a-port for who’d’ve thought on a peaceful summer’s night. A destroyer would sail and a carrier fail to give way on the right. Oh, the weather was fair for a Boson’s chair so the Captain went for a ride. He piped all hands to elastic bands as it loomed on the starboard side. “A ship” cries he “It’s the enemy! Whatever shall I do?” So they cut her in half just for a laugh, and drowned one third of the crew. Box the compass, port the helm and all that nautical stuff. The whistle blew and the Captain flew to the bridge in an awful huff, Crying East by West is the course that’s best, so come on all you men. There was great distress in the officer’s mess that night in the RAN. So, sing with Pride of the suicide and cheer for the Commonwealth. Who needs a war? There’s a wind off-shore, we’ll go and sink our-self. ……………. HMAS Melbourne goes sailing the world, With her radar antenna and her ensign unfurled. Here is a fact that I’m sure will astound, The Melbourne goes over what the others go ‘round. CHORUS And it’s duck for cover, quickly before she arrives, Here comes the Melbourne my jolly brave tars, So swim, swim for your lives. There’s a man on the Melbourne and he gets double pay, His job is to keep shouting “Out of the way”. Sing ho for a carrier out on the blue, If you get in their way they will cut you in two. All you destroyers take warning by me, Beware for the Melbourne is out on the sea. Subs go below, planes above and it’s true, Most ships go around but the Melbourne goes through. CHORUS |
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07 Oct 20 - 05:38 AM (#4074588) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Thank you for that post, Sandra - they are indeed GEMS!!! (and so many of us were waiting for Joh to be deposed before migrating to QLD - and now there are SO many newcomers who really don't know why he was so bad, and probably don't particularly care :( R-J |
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07 Oct 20 - 05:42 AM (#4074590) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Dale does a bit of song writing |
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07 Oct 20 - 06:09 AM (#4074594) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Ask her from me to CHANNEL John!! :) R-J |
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07 Oct 20 - 08:16 PM (#4074694) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE WATERWITCH (Trad) A neat little packet from Hobart set sail To cruise the wide oceans for the monster sperm whale To cruise to the wide oceans where the stormy winds blow Bound away in the Waterwitch to the west'ard we'll go Chorus Bound away, bound away, where the stormy winds blow Bound away in the Waterwitch to the west'ard we'll go Oh ‘twas early one morning just as the sun rose The man from her mast head cries out, 'There she blows' ‘Where away' cries our skipper and springing aloft ‘Three points off yer lee bow and scarce three miles off' Chorus We sailed off the west wind and came up a pace The whale boats was lowered and set for the chase Get yer lines in the boats see yer box line is clear And lower her down boys and after him steer Chorus We fought him alongside, the harpoon thrust in In just over an hour, he rolled out his fin The whale was cut in boys, tried out and stowed down He's worth more to us, boys, than five hundred pound Chorus When the ship she gets full boys to Hobart we'll steer Where there's plenty of pretty girls and plenty good beer We'll spend our money freely with the girls on the shore And when it's all gone go a-whaling for more Chorus As recorded in Danny Spooner 'The Great Leviathan' Danny's note: From the singing of a Mr Jack Davies of Hobart, this is similar to The Coast of Peru and New Zealand Whales. It recalls the days when Tasmanian whalers hunted the Southern Right Whale from the Derwent across the Tasman sea. I got the words originally from Lloyd Robson, who with Norm O'Connor, recorded Mr Davies in the early 1960s. Also recorded in Alan Musgrave 'Songs They Used To Sing' Youtube clip You can hear Jack Davies sing it on Mark Gregory's site: Click --Stewie. |
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07 Oct 20 - 09:21 PM (#4074698) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST BOB MAHONEY AND HIS CREW (Trad) While outward bound far o’er the deep Slung in me hammock I fell asleep I had a dream which I thought was true Concerning Mahoney and his boat’s crew With a crew of seamen he sailed away To hunt the black whale in Recherche Bay Off yon green Island, not far from here There we lost Mahoney and his boat’s gear There’s Captain Kennedy of Hobart town There’s Captain Reynolds of high renown There’s Captain Robertson and many, many more They’ve long been cruising Macquarie’s shore They cruised east and they cruised west Round the sou’west cape where they thought best No tide nor tale could they see or hear Concerning Mahoney or his boat’s gear In Recherche Bay where the black whale blow The tale of Mahoney they all do know They say he’s gone like many, many more He left his home to return no more As we draw nearer to Hobart’s shore I saw a fair maid in deep deplore She was sobbing, sighing, saying ‘Pity me I’ve lost my brother poor Bob Mahoney She wrung her hands and she tore her hair Like a maid distracted in deep despair ‘I’ve lost my brother no more to see I’ve lost my brother poor Bob Mahoney And now my burden it brings me pain For long-lost Mahoney I’ve searched in vain A thousand pounds I would give to you To see Bob Mahoney and his boat’s crew As recorded in Alan Musgrave ’Songs They Used To Sing’. A Danny Spooner recording, ‘The Loss of Mahoney’, can be found in ’The Great Leviathan’ and ’Song Lines’: Youtube clip The song came from the singing of Jack Davies. You can hear him here: Click --Stewie. |
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07 Oct 20 - 10:13 PM (#4074702) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST THE BALLINA WHALERS (Harry Robertson) In ‘56 I sailed on board a ship called Byron One She carried trawler men on deck and a harpoon whaling gun With a tractor for a whale winch, our ship an old Fairmile Twin diesels turned the screws around and we whaled the Aussie style Chorus Heigh ho ye trawler men come on, forget the snapper and the prawn And it’s out of Ballina we’ll sail a-fishing for the humpback whale So keep a sharp lookout me lads, for the whale is on the run And we’ll chase him into Byron Bay and kill him with our gun The harpoon and the line fly true, bedding deep into the whale But she split the timbers of our ship with a flurry of her tail Chorus Our rigging struts were snapped in two, we reeled beneath the blow But the gunner fired a killer shot and the humpback sank below Chorus Now make her tail fast to the bow, we’ve got no time for bed For four and twenty hours each day we kept that factory fed The flensing men upon the land, some had been jackaroos But they skinned the blubber off them whales like they’d skinned the kangaroos Chorus One hundred whales, then fifty more, to the factory we did send Till a message said, ‘Knock off me lads' - the season’s at an end Back into Ballina we sailed, tied up and stowed the gear Then all hands headed for the pub and we filled ourselves with beer As recorded by Danny Spooner - 'The Great Leviathan' CD. Danny's note: Another of Harry Robertson's songs sings the praise of the adaptable Aussie worker. The men who manned the old ex-naval Fairmile to hunt humpback whales out of Byron Bay were trawler men used to fishing and prawning with nets. Now with a tractor mounted on the deck for a whale winch and a harpoon gut mounted forward, they went whale hunting Aussie Style. Danny's recording is not on the Net, but Nic Jones recorded it as 'The Humpback Whale' on his 'Penguin Eggs' LP. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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08 Oct 20 - 07:33 PM (#4074800) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie LOOK OUT BELOW (Charles Thatcher – Tune ‘The Pirate King’) A young man left his native shore For trade was bad at home To seek his fortune in this land He crossed the briny foam And when he came to Ballarat It put him in a glow, To hear the sound of the windlasses And the cry, ‘Look out below’ Wherever he turned his wandering eyes Great wealth he did behold And peace and plenty hand in hand By the magic power of gold Quoth he, ‘As I am young and strong To the diggings I will go For I like the sound of the windlasses And the cry, "Look out below"’ Amongst the rest he took his chance And his luck at first was vile But still he resolved to persevere And at length he made his pile So says he, ‘I'll take my passage And home again I'll go And say farewell to the windlasses And the cry, “Look out below”’ Arrived in London once again His gold he freely spent And into every gaiety And dissipation went But pleasure, if prolonged too much Oft causes pain you know And he missed the sound of the windlasses And the cry, ‘Look out below’ And thus he reasoned with himself ‘Oh why did I return? For a digger's independent life I now begin to yearn’ Here, purse-proud lords the poor oppress, But there it is not so Give me the sound of the windlasses And the cry, ‘Look out below’ So he started for this land once again With a charming little wife. And he finds there's nothing comes up to A jolly digger's life Ask him if he'll go back one day He'll quickly answer, ‘No’ for he loves the sound of the windlasses And the cry, "Look out below’ Some great images in this video: Youtube clip Information on Thatcher: Australian Dictionary of Biography NZ Dictionary of Biography Robert Hoskins 'Goldfield Balladeer' Collins 1977. --Stewie. |
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08 Oct 20 - 08:06 PM (#4074802) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie WHERE'S YOUR LICENCE (Charles Thatcher - Tune 'The Cavalier') The morning was fine, The sun brightly did shine The diggers were working away When the inspector of traps Said now my fine chaps We'll go licence hunting today Some went this way, some that Some to Bendigo Flat And a lot to the White Hills did tramp Whilst others did bear Up towards Golden Square And the rest of them kept round the camp Each turned his eye To the holes close by Expecting on some down to drop But not one could they nail For they'd give 'em leg bail Diggers aren't often caught on the hop The little word 'Joe' That most of you know Is a signal the traps are quite near Made them all cut their sticks And they hooked it like bricks I believe you, my boys, no fear Now a tall, ugly trap He espied a young chap Up the gully a-cutting like fun So he quickly gave chase But 'twas a hard race For mind you, the digger could run Down the hole he did pop While the bobby up top Says - 'just come up', shaking his staff 'Young man of the crown. If yer wants me come down For I'm not to be caught with such chaff' Of course you'd have thought The sly fox he'd have caught By lugging him out of the hole But this crusher no fear Quite scorned the idea Of burrowing the earth like a mole But wiser by half He put by his staff And as onward he went sung he 'When a cove's down a drive Whether dead or alive He may stay there till doomsday for me' Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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08 Oct 20 - 08:56 PM (#4074804) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE WAKAMARINA (C.Thatcher/N.Colquhoun) On the banks of the Wakamarina a walk Out from Nelson about thirty miles A splendid gold yield’s been discovered, a field Where dozens are making their piles Well they work with a pan in the river-bed sand And in many a crevice I’m told With knives they can dig out the nuggets so big A nice easy way to get gold Chorus I am waiting for fresh information and yes If the gold is all there you will see I’m off to the golden location I guess It’s the Wakamarina for me It’s affecting just pretty well all of the city Provisions have gone up in price And servants and tradesmen have started to fade To the diggings, all scorning advice Milkmen give customers warning and most Are leaving their usual walks And off to the Wakamarina the cart And old Dobbin are walking the chalks The crews all desert from the ships and I’ve heard That the skipper on board vainly grieves To help to discharge the ship’s cargo it’s hard But he’s got to turn up in shirt-sleeves Blacksmiths and bakers get cheeky when they Get to think of the new golden ground And butchers are talking of raising by fourpence Pleuro to a shilling a pound The rush will soon clear out Otago I hear how For passengers ships advertise Each steamer will bring up a cargo of dinkum Victorian diggers – no flies They are the men that can drop on the metal And when from Dunedin they come They’ll all get the gold from the river I’m told There’ll be nothing left for a new chum As printed in ‘Song of a Young Country’. Colquhoun shortened and made minor alterations to Thatcher’s original text. He also supplied a tune. Thatcher intended it to be sung to ‘Twig of the Shannon'. Youtube clip Colquhoun’s note: They sang their songs while panning for nuggets along the river banks … From where many of these songs came, we’ll never know except that they are ‘folk’ - examples of the parody-process that takes hold of anonymous verse. But some are clearly introduced by the ‘pop star’ of the day – the goldfields entertainer. Most famous of these was Charles Thatcher who sang his own topical song to Irish ballad-tunes. 'Song of a Young Country' p31. --Stewie. |
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10 Oct 20 - 05:35 AM (#4074947) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney no Judy Small - wot kind of session is this??? Mothers, Daughters, Wives Chorus (after every other verse): The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons, And in between your husbands marched away with drums and guns. And you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives, For all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives. You can only just remember the tears your mother shed; As she sat and read their papers, through the lists and lists of dead. And the gold frames held the photographs that mothers kissed each night, And the doorframes held the shocked and silent strangers from the fight. And twenty-one years later, with children of your own, The trumpets sounded once again and the soldier boys were gone. And you drove their trucks and made their guns and tended to their wounds, And at night you kissed the photographs and prayed for safe returns. And after it was over, you had to learn again To just be wives and mothers when you’d done the work of men, So you worked to help the needy and you never trod on toes And the photos on the pianos they struck a happy family pose. Then your daughters grew to women and your little boys to men, And you prayed that you were dreaming when the call-up came again. But you proudly smiled and held your tears as they bravely waved goodbye And the photos on the mantelpiece, they always made you cry. And now you’re getting older and with times the photos fade And in widowhood you're sitting, and reflect on the parade, Of the passing of your memories as your daughters change their lives, Seeing more to their existence than just mothers, daughters, wives. Final chorus: The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons, And in between your husbands marched away with drums and guns. And you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives, For all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives, And you believed them. |
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10 Oct 20 - 05:52 AM (#4074949) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney a song I love - even tho I'm a very atypical Australian. I can't swim, hate summer heat, glare & humidity & never go to The Beach (I do like looking at beaches & oceans etc, & taking photos of them, tho - I also hate seeing places spoiled by over-development) CHARLESWORTH BAY by Judy Small I have heard the songs about the coal mines stripping mountainsides of beauty Heard the songs of whales to make a marble statue weep And I have wept to see the ice run crimson For the sake of human fashion Heard the forests groaning as the axes cut them deep But it never touched me deeper than the tears upon my face And it never lasted than a day Until that summer when I went back home to visit friends and family And I saw what they have done to Charlesworth Bay. Now it's not the kind of place that ad-men want to glorify in posters Not the kind of place to set a greenies heart alight And I can't say that it filled my dreams or even held a special memory But when I look back on my life It's in my line of sight And the cry left my lips that day came not from conscience thinking I had no chance to think of what to say It was a grief so pure and deep that I cannot tell where it came from When I saw what they had done to Charlesworth Bay. Now I have spent my holidays in hotels at the seaside I have stood on sun-drenched balconies and breathed the salt sea mist But not again shall I lie by some pool or stroll some private shoreline Without wandering whose Charlesworth Bay was this? So now when I hear songs of coalmines or of forests gone forever Or of city buildings sacrificed to feed the millionaires I see again the giant shadow cast where once the marsh and swamp were Feel again the rising anger and the bitter sting of tears For I have never felt so frightened for the future as that morning When I saw what they had done to Charlesworth Bay Oh just look at what they've done to Charlesworth Bay |
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10 Oct 20 - 05:54 AM (#4074950) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney another favourite - From the Lambing to the Wool (Judy Small) My father was a cocky as his father was before him And I married me a cocky nearly fifty years ago And I've lived here on this station and I've seen the seasons changing From the drought round to the flooding, from the lambing to the wool And there've been times when I've wondered If it all was worth the doing And there've been times when I've thought This was the finest place there is For though the life here's never easy And the hours are long and heavy I'm quite contented nowadays To have joined my life to his Together through the thirties while others' lives were broken We worked from dawn to twilight to hold on to what was ours And at night we'd sit exhausted and I'd stroke his dusty forehead With him too tired to talk to me and me too tired to care CHORUS Then the children came unbidden bringing laughter to the homestead And I thanked the Lord my sons were young, too young for battle then And I counted myself lucky to lose no-one close to family Though the neighbours lost their only son, sold up and moved to town CHORUS And the children have grown and left me for careers in town and city And I'm proud of them but sadly for none chose station life And now I smile to hear them talking of the hard slog in the office For when I think of working hard I see a cocky and his wife CHORUS |
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10 Oct 20 - 08:20 PM (#4075082) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy The Westgate Bridge Disaster A song by Ken Mansell ©Ken Mansell Oh time is a power that is precious and golden That's needed so much by a working class bloke. It's ours in the cradle then sold, seized and stolen. If you're caught off your guard it is snuffed at a stroke. Oh time is our own when we wake in the morning, When stomachs are empty we clock on each day. And high on the scaffold you are given no warning; If a pylon comes crashing it will take you away. There are men with more time than they know what to do with; Who decided one day that a bridge we would build. We rushed the job through to save costs on its finance; The structure it split and cost thirty five killed. It's safe in the boardroom when wind a bridge seizes. When you hear the bolts snapping you can't strike for more pay. They can hire more and fire more, start again when it pleases, But the man who builds bridges, he is crushed in the clay. The concreted decks bore down hard on the girders; The foremen were blind when we looked down with fear. While experts debate, who will punish these murderers? 'It's tragic; some say, 'for our two engineers', For each one that forgets us there'll be two who remember That profit, the culprit, in its greed was revealed. Though many will stand by me, now I'm only an ember, The lips of the judges have a price, and are sealed. You can speed through the Westgate, AItona and Newport, Past widows and children whose memories can't fade, And use it for business or use it for pleasure, Spare a thought for the men from whose flesh it was made. Don't wait for the inquest or coroner's verdict; Don't send for the priest to place me below; But tell all my mates, if there's any still breathin' To fight for the day when our time is our own. Listen to this song here : https://unionsong.com/u317.html The tune being based on the (trad Scots?) song "The Blantyre Explosion" “Notes : Many thanks to Ken Mansell for permission to add this songs to the Union Songs collection. This song details the tragic events of the 15th October 1970 when a steel span on the west bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne collapsed and 35 workers were killed. Visit the West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee web site at http://www.westgatebridge.org/ “ All data has been taken from Mark Gregory’s excellent “Union Songs” website, with thanks. I was reminded of it because of this article on today’s ABC news website regarding the 15th Oct,1970 bridge collapse : West Gate Bridge disaster still haunts the men who were there, 50 years on : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-11/west-gate-bridge-collapse-haunts-survivors-50-years-on/12739324 R-J |
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10 Oct 20 - 09:31 PM (#4075089) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie AROUND THE BOREE LOG (John O’Brien) Oh stick me in the old caboose this night of wind and rain And let the doves of fancy loose to bill and coo again I want to feel the pulse of love that warmed the blood like wine I want to see the smile above this kind old land of mine So come you by your parted ways that wind the wide world through And make a ring around the blaze the way we used to do The fountain on the sooted crane will sing the old, old song Of common joys in homely vein forgotten, ah, too long The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog? Yet spend another night with me around the boree log Now someone driving through the rain will happen in I bet So fill the fountain up again and leave the table set For this was ours with pride to say - and all the world defy No stranger ever turned away, no neighbour passed us by Bedad, he'll have to stay the night, the rain is going to pour So make the rattling windows tight and close the kitchen door And bring the old lopsided chair, the tattered cushion too We'll make the stranger happy there, the way we used to do The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?Y Yet spend another night with me around the boree log He'll fill his pipe and good and well and all aglow within We'll hear the news he has to tell, the yarns he has to spin Yarns, yes, and super yarns, forsooth, to set the eyes agog And freeze the blood of trusting youth around the boree log Then stir it up and make it burn, the poker’s next to you Come let us poke it all in turn, the way we used to do There's many a memory bright and fair will tingle at a name But leave unstirred the embers there we cannot fan to flame For years have turned the rusted key and time is on the jog ?Still, spend the fleeting night with me around the boree log Youtube clip John O'Brien was pseudonym for Patrick Hartigan who was a Catholic priest. My mother, a devout Catholic, used to read his poetry to me. By the time I was in my teens, she correctly pointed out that I had 'no more religion in me than the cat'. However, I maintain a great fondness for the poems in the collection 'Around the Boree Log'. Australian Dictionary of Biography --Stewie. |
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10 Oct 20 - 10:03 PM (#4075091) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THEY THOUGHT I WAS ASLEEP (Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys) We were driving back from the country one night Mum and dad up the front and the rest of us snug and tight My kid brother grizzled for a little minute 'Til my big sister told him he'd better quit it or die It had been a long day in the countryside Playing with the cousins on my mother's side The sound of the radio closed our eyes, drifting across the seat And then I fell asleep Well, I don’t know what woke me up Maybe a country song or a big truck passing by But I could hear mama and papa talking Papa said something, then mama began to cry No more words then, just soft sobs and my head began to throb I just lay there playing dog, breathing slow and deep They thought I was asleep They thought I was asleep It seemed like forever ’til the sobbing stopped Then they talked a little, but just too soft to hear Daddy kept looking at the side of her face One hand on the wheel and one hand stroking her hair The headlights shining from the other way Showed tears on the cheeks of daddy’s face I prayed for Jesus to send his grace And all our souls to keep Back then I believed They thought I was asleep The night was dark and deep How I wishedI was asleep Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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10 Oct 20 - 10:18 PM (#4075092) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BEDS ARE BURNING (P.Garrett et alia) Out where the river broke The bloodwood and the desert oak Holden wrecks and boiling diesels Steam in forty five degrees The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent To pay our share The time has come A fact's a fact It belongs to them Let's give it back How can we dance when our earth is turning How do we sleep while our beds are burning How can we dance when our earth is turning How do we sleep while our beds are burning The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent, now To pay our share Four wheels scare the cockatoos From Kintore East to Yuendemu The western desert lives and breathes In forty five degrees The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent To pay our share The time has come A fact's a fact It belongs to them Let's give it back How can we dance when our earth is turning How do we sleep while our beds are burning How can we dance when our earth is turning How do we sleep while our beds are burning The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent, now To pay our share The time has come A fact's a fact It belongs to them We're gonna give it back How can we dance when our earth is turning How do we sleep while our beds are burning Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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11 Oct 20 - 01:52 AM (#4075099) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney 314 songs! |
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11 Oct 20 - 08:53 PM (#4075179) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Wongawilli's reworking of a Lawson - a good'un: SONG OF THE BULLOCK DRIVER (Henry Lawson) Far back in the days when the blacks used to ramble In long single file 'neath the evergreen tree The wool teams in season came down from Coonamble And journeyed for weeks on their way to the sea With mates who have gone to the great Never-Never And mates whom I've not seen for many a day I camped on the banks of the Cudgegong River And yarned at the fire by the old bullock-dray We rose with the dawn, were it ever so chilly When yokes and tarpaulins were covered with frost And toasted the bacon and boiled the black billy Where high on the campfire the branches were tossed On flats where the air was suggestive of 'possums And homesteads and fences were hinting of change We saw the faint glimmer of appletree blossoms And far in the distance the blue of the range And here in the rain, there was small use in flogging The poor, tortured bullocks that tugged at the load When down to the axles the wagons were bogging And traffic was making a marsh of the road Then slowly we crawled by the trees that kept tally Of miles that were passed on the long journey down. We saw the wild beauty of Capertee Valley As slowly we rounded the base of the Crown Twas hard on the beasts on the terrible pinches Where two teams of bullocks were yoked to a load And tugging and slipping, and moving by inches Halfway to the summit they clung to the road And then, when the last of the pinches was bested (You'll surely not say that a glass was a sin?) The bullocks lay down 'neath the gum trees and rested The bullockies steered for the bar of the inn And, oh! but the best-paying load that I carried Was one to the run where my sweetheart was nurse We courted awhile, and agreed to get married And couple our futures for better or worse And as my old feet grew too weary to drag on The miles of rough metal they met by the way My eldest grew up and I gave him the wagon He's plodding along by the bullocks today Youtube clip Poem --Stewie. |
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11 Oct 20 - 09:38 PM (#4075183) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie LOVE'S REQUEST (Traditional) Thy form it is airy and slight, love Its graces are free from restraint Thy hair sheds a halo of light, love Round features like those of a saint Oh, to bathe in the light of thine eyes What destiny sweeter could be But visions of doubt will arise, love Could you make me a damper for tea? Thy mouth is a fountain of song, love Whence melody flows like a stream To list to thee all the day long, love Would be pleasure too sweet for a dream But my courage to ask for thee fails, love To accept my hand, oh would you stoop And again, if I brought you the tails, love Would you make me some kangaroo soup? And so then I bid thee farewell, love And my claims to another I yield But you will not grieve, I can tell, love There are others than me in the field You can sing, you can play, you can dance, love But your feelings I don't mean to hurt Your charms you would greatly enhance, love Could you make me a Crimean shirt? As printed at p226 of Ron Edwards 'The Big Book of Australian Folk Song'. Ron's note: 'Love's Request' is a gently ironical song, based on the form of the popular love song of the day, but with a sting in its tail. It is from 'The Native Companion Songster 1889' and is to the tune of 'We have lived and loved together' by Nicolo. Crimean shirts, mentioned in the last line, were introduced into Australia during the period of the gold rushes and, together with cabbage tree hats, became the mark of the bushman of the period. Martyn Wyndham-read recorded it and penned a new penultimate stanza: Oh to be with you out in the day, love With pride I’d take hold of your hand And at night with the stars shining brightly We would dance to a shearers’ bush band But I wonder at times if your heart, love Would take me to be your good mate And again, if I asked you right now, love Would you wash all the dishes and plates? Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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13 Oct 20 - 04:32 AM (#4075339) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Great Northern Line collected from Duke Tritton by John Meredith My love he is a teamster, a handsome man is he, Red shirt, white moleskin trousers, and hat of cabbage-tree; He drives a team of bullocks, and whether it's wet or fine You will hear his whip a-cracking on the Great Northern Line. Chorus: Watch him, pipe him, twig him how he goes, With his little team of bullocks, he cuts no dirty shows; He's one of the flash young carriers that on the road do shine, With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line. And when he swings the greenhide whip he raises skin and hair; His bullocks all have shrivelled horns, for, Lordy, can he swear! ut I will always love him, this splendid man of mine, With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line. When he bogged at Mundowie and the bullocks took the yoke, y strained with bellies on the ground until the bar-chain broke. e fixed it up with wire and brought wool from Bundamine With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line. When he comes into Tamworth you will hear the ladies sigh, And parents guard their daughters, for he has a roving eye; But he signals with his bullock-whip as he comes through the pine, With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line. |
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13 Oct 20 - 04:48 AM (#4075343) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Hughie by Duke Tritton Halfway through the shearing and the weather was very dry, But the clouds were gathering, and lowdown in the sky; Just as we were having a smoke, a shower came over the plain, And we heard from the shearing shed the rouseabouts roaring refrain: Chorus: Send it down a little bit harder, dear old Hughie do! Send it down a little bit harder and we'll love you; Send it down for a week or two, All the rousies will stick like glue, Just a little bit harder - dear old Hughie do! It is known as the rouseabouts prayer, it's been sung in every shed, For when the sheep are too wet to shear the rousies get board and bed, And their pay goes on if it's wet or dry, and they haven't a worry or care, So they lay in their bunk and sleep or read, and sing the rouseabouts' prayer: CHORUS Ten points of rain and the shearers vote on whether it's wet or dry, And if they all decide to shear, you will hear the rouseabouts sigh, 'Spare me days', you will hear them say, 'There's frogs in the blanky wool”, And they stare over the counting pens and sing, for their hearts are full: CHORUS When the rain is tumbling down the shearers grumble and curse, And the boss goes round with a hungry look, for it hits him in the purse; So he prowls about the shed all day like a bull in a stockyard ring, And grinds his teeth in futile rage when he hears the rouseabout sing: CHORUS |
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13 Oct 20 - 04:49 AM (#4075344) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney ps. we now have 318 songs. |
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13 Oct 20 - 05:44 AM (#4075347) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG I must have missed him when he came through on the Great Northern Line....... |
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13 Oct 20 - 08:44 PM (#4075450) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie There is some interesting stuff in Roger Montgomery's fascinating 'Pilbara Connection' compilation. He included a song by my good mate, Alex Green, who spent several years in Darwin before moving to Queensland after Cyclone Tracy. 'Mile Seven' was written when he was working for a mining company in the Pilbara. The tune may be found at p138 of 'Pilbara Connection'. MILE SEVEN (Alex Green) The sun comes o'er the red rock hills To the east of Dampier town It breathes its fire upon the earth It turns the dust red-brown It breathes its fire upon the men who work upon the track It burns their minds and it burns their souls It turns their bodies black Into this hell of flies and sweat For money men are driven To work upon the railroad track At a place they call Mile Seven To earn their pay, to buy their drinks To earn a young gin's smile Down in the camp they share their bunks Just like a prison cell In the pubs, they drink and talk Of girls they once knew well They drink and talk of girls they knew Until their hearts are sore Then back into the empty room And close the money door Repeat stanza 1 --Stewie. |
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13 Oct 20 - 09:15 PM (#4075453) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE MAYOR OF PARABURDOO (J.Wain/R.Montgomery) I would have to blame the missus For the reason I got caught 'Cos we wintered up in England Through a raffle she had bought We had seen most of the places And were ready to shoot through But I was tonguing for a tinnier Like we have in Paraburdoo So I'm standing in a London pub When this joke stands by me And I can tell by his expression That he'd like some company When ya drinking in strange places Ya sometimes shoot a line or two So I hits him with a beauty 'I'm the mayor of Paraburdoo' He sounded posh and proper When he said, 'By jove, that's nice' So I thinks, the mug's a pommy Won't know wheat from bloody rice I'll dish him up some bull-o He wouldn't have a bloody clue 'I'm a cocky and my station's On the plains of Paraburdoo' I thought that that would rock him But he asked me, 'Stock or sheep?' 'Naw, I'm keeping bloody goannas And we milk them once a week Ya must have heard of goanna oil And about the good they do Keeping white ants out of jumbo jets That land in Paraburdoo' No, he said, he hadn't heard it As he handed me a drink So I tells him, 'Not to worry It was scarcer than you think Soon we'll start the season shearing I've forty thousand jack-a-roo Grazing out upon the alpine slopes Just above from Paraburdoo' 'Forty thousand, why that's amazing But I find it hard to guess Will you use the wide combs and cutters With a cradle and a press?' 'Naw, shearing jack-o's them are different For their legs are only two Which makes the crutching harder In the sheds at Parabadoo' Then I thought I'd better lay off Try and think of some grand thing To praise this flamin' ice-block They call the Mother Land I says, 'Ya beer is bloody lousy For you get a bonza brew Drinking H.I. Export Lager When it's made in Paraburdoo' 'Oh', he said, 'I'm not a pommy And I hope I've not misled But I come from bally Melbourne Where the woolly bunyip's bred Like you, I'm just a farmer Growing something I find nice Easter eggs on my selection Down south from Mount Tom Price Words: S.J. (Jack) Wain, Paraburdoo, WA. Tune: Roger Montgomery. --Stewie. |
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13 Oct 20 - 09:19 PM (#4075454) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Apologies, in the penultimate line of the first stanza, the word should be 'tinnie' - a can of beer. --Stewie. |
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14 Oct 20 - 12:13 AM (#4075465) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I just noticed another ridiculous typo. In the last line of 'Mile Seven' the word should be 'lonely' not 'money'. |
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14 Oct 20 - 01:57 AM (#4075467) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney typos noted on my list of 320 songs! |
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14 Oct 20 - 08:19 PM (#4075529) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie TOOK THE CHILDREN AWAY (Archie Roach) This story's right, this story's true I would not tell lies to you Like the promises they did not keep And how they fenced us in like sheep Said to us come take our hand Sent us off to mission land. Taught us to read, to write and pray Then they took the children away Took the children away The children away Snatched from their mother's breast Said this is for the best Took them away The welfare and the policeman Said you've got to understand We'll give them what you can't give Teach them how to really live Teach them how to live they said Humiliated them instead Taught them that and taught them this And others taught them prejudice You took the children away The children away Breaking their mother’s heart Tearing us all apart Took them away One dark day on Framingham Came and didn't give a damn My mother cried go get their dad He came running, fighting mad Mother's tears were falling down Dad shaped up and stood his ground He said 'You touch my kids and you fight me' And they took us from our family Took us away They took us away Snatched from our mother's breast Said this was for the best Took us away Told us what to do and say Told us all the white man's ways Then they split us up again And gave us gifts to ease the pain Sent us off to foster homes As we grew up we felt alone Cause we were acting white Yet feeling black One sweet day all the children came back The children came back The children came back Back where their hearts grow strong Back where they all belong The children came back Said the children came back The children came back Back where they understand Back to their mother's land The children come back Back to their mother Back to their father Back to their sister Back to their brother Back to their people Back to their land All the children came back The children came back The children came back Yes I came back Youtube clip The Story --Stewie. |
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14 Oct 20 - 09:44 PM (#4075532) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie A song from 'Pilbara Connection' relating to an even darker side of the horrendous ill-treatment of Aboriginal people. Editor's note: Early Western Australian history tells us of slave trading. Aboriginal women out collecting mai (food) were captured by the two Shay Brothers and sold to fishermen at the port of Broome. THE SHAY BROTHERS (Laughton/Lambert) Here's another lubra, Bill Just push her down the back Our cart is full of native girls And who cares if they're black We've earned some gold this side of Broome Then brought it to the port Let's hope this load brings fifty pounds And none of us gets caught It's stinking hot around these hills Those bucks might miss these here I'd hate to cop a boomerang Or stop an Abo spear The horses sweat too much, I guess Some camels may be best We'd better get those women there And we can stop and rest The sun sinks low in bed of gold There's thirty miles to sea I hoped to be in town 'fore dark ... those blacks are after me You use the gun and kill a few If someone starts to fight By looks of faces on our dray They'd have our guts by night Another mile, another turn I need another drink The water's low - don't give them much I'm glad they're black, not pink Yeah! Perfect pearls inside that bay Are paid to me with price I'll hand this mob to China Joe And keep the one that's nice We've made the grade - a sun-up sale There's some they train to dive If we go out again next week Can we get back alive? Now shove 'em up ... the stubborn ...cuss! She bit me on me 'and I'll use the whip - it keeps them right To make them understand Another week - it's time to go Bought camels from a Jap I hired a man who's seen some tribe That's camped along our gap Hold on, Bill - we're ambushed here So there's no turning back I dunno why these blasted blacks Decided to attack! Written by V.J. Laughton of South Hedland. Source: pp148-150 'Pilbara Connection' compiled by Roger Montgomery. I couldn't find anything specifically about the Shay Brothers on the Net, but there is plenty of info about black birding and the pearling industry. --Stewie. |
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15 Oct 20 - 07:34 AM (#4075559) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST,henryp Andy Irvine sang The Dandenong on his 2013 CD with Rens van der Zalm, Parachilna. In his chorus he changed the phrases “I dream of” to “I long for”. He noted: The Dandenong, a song that Australian folk singer Kate Burke found in the archives of the National Library of Australia. Collected in 1954 by John Meredith from a Mrs Mary Byrnes, an old lady of Irish descent, the song tells the story of the loss of the Dandenong and most of its passengers during a voyage from Melbourne to Newcastle, NSW in 1876. From Mainly Norfolk |
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15 Oct 20 - 09:20 AM (#4075571) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney thanks, henryp I've found 3 items in the Meredith collection about the Byrnes siblings, Tom Byrnes, Mary Byrnes and Alf Fuller interviewed by John Meredith & Mary Byrnes interviewed by John Meredith & Mary Byrnes & others interviewed by John Meredith - this one includes The Dandenong sandra |
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15 Oct 20 - 07:17 PM (#4075622) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This song is a favourite with Alice Springs folkies. OLD BAMBOO CHAIR (Alan Hughes) He sits on his porch in his old bamboo chair, his old eyes straining to see The smoke curling up from a campfire so clear as the sun rose on men making tea He could see the first rays strike the wattle in bloom, he could smell the sweet tang of the trees Don’t pity this tired old man who is blind for he surely sees more than we see Chorus: For he’s been around, he’s walked to the gulf, he’s driven a steer or two From Barcaldine down to Narromine, he’s seen a lot it’s true He’s a bushy, a drover, a man of the land, a poet and a sage Now he sits on his porch in his old bamboo chair for his eyes have died of old age Now pity is not what this old man needs, he needs time for memories to flow He can still hear the cracks of the whips in the hills, the snorting of cattle in snow And the old blue dog running with joy at the heels of the pony he’s had for so long And young Sandy Duggin edging the herd, crooning the cattle a song Chorus His mind wandered back to those days long gone by and the mates that he knew e’er so well To the stock camps and shearing sheds out to the west on the plains where the summers are hell To the high country streams with their tinkling sweet wine and mountain ash grow straight and tall His mind drew him back to a vision sublime, but his eyes would not heed the call Chorus Now far, far away from the outer Barcoo in a township down by the sea This weary old man sits alone on his porch and dreams of black billy tea And he dreams of returning to those rolling plains where the myall and sheoak still stand And his heart swells with pride as he recalls his life in that wide and wonderful land Chorus Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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15 Oct 20 - 07:42 PM (#4075625) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BUNDABERG RUM (Bill Scott) God made the sugar cane grow where it's hot And teetotal abstainers to grow where it's not Let the sin bosun warn of perdition to come We'll drink it and chance it, so bring on the rum Chorus: Bundaberg rum, and it's overproof rum Will tan your inside and grow hair on your bum Let the blue ribbon beat on his empty old drum Or his waterlogged belly, but we'll stick to our rum We're men who drink it, oh yes, men indeed Of the bushranging hairy-necked olden time breed We shave with our axes, we dress in old rags We feed on old boots and we sleep on old bags Chorus Dull care flies away when our voices resound And the grass shrivels up when we spit on the ground When we finally die and are buried in clay Our bodies are pickled and never decay Chorus On the Morning of Judgment, when the skies are rolled back We'll stroll from our graves up the long golden track And our voices will echo throughout kingdom come As we toast the archangels in Bundaberg rum Chorus Source: Graham Jenkin 'Great Australian Balladists' p130. Youtube clip Bill Scott --Stewie. |
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15 Oct 20 - 08:27 PM (#4075627) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie As sung by Trevor Lucas: ON THE BANKS OF THE CONDAMINE Oh hark! The dogs are barking now, I can no longer stay The men have all gone mustering and it is nearly day And I must be off in the morning, love, before the sun does shine To meet the Sydney shearers on the banks of the Condamine Oh Willie, dearest Willie, oh let me go with you I'll cut off all of my auburn fringe and I'll be a shearer too And I'll help you count your tally, love, while ringer-o you shine And I'll wash your greasy moleskins on the banks of the Condamine Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know you cannot go The boss has given his orders, love, no woman shall do so And your delicate constitution isn't equal unto mine To stand that constant tigering on the banks of the Condamine Oh Willie, dearest Willie, then stay at home with me We'll take up a selection, love, and a farmer's wife I'll be And I'll help you husk the corn, my love, and I'll cook your meals so fine You'll forget that ram-stag mutton on the banks of the Condamine Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know I cannot stay The men have all gone mustering, I heard the publican say So here's a goodbye kiss, my love, to homeward I'll incline When we've shorn the last of the jumbucks on the banks of the Condamine Youtube clip Note from Mark Gregory's Australian Folk Songs site: Folklorist Dr Edgar Waters writes (Australian Tradition Oct 1966) : "The Banks of the Condamine seems to have been one of the most widely distributed bush songs. In recent years it has been reported from singers in northern Victoria and the Northern Territory, and a number of different versions have been recorded in New South Wales and in Queensland. Sometimes the man is going off to a horse-breaking camp rather than a shearing shed. In Victoria, and at least in southern New South Wales, it seems to have been known as 'The Banks of the Riverine', and perhaps this was the original form. The words of 'The Banks of the Condamine' were made over from 'The Banks of the Nile', a British Ballad of the beginning of the nineteenth century." --Stewie. |
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16 Oct 20 - 08:54 PM (#4075709) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie WEST BY NORTH AGAIN (Harry Morant) We've drunk our wine, we've kissed our girls and funds are sinking low The horses must be thinking it's a fair thing now to go Sling the swags on Condamine and strap the billies fast And stuff a bottle in the bags and let's be off at last What matter if the creeks are up - the cash, alas, runs down A very sure and certain sign we're long enough in town Old Bobby rides the boko and you'd better take the bay Quart Pot will do to carry me the stage we go today No grass this side the border fence and all the mulga's dead The horses for a day or two will have to spiel ahead Man never yet from Queensland brought a bullock or a hack But lost condition on that God-abandoned border track When once we're through the rabbit-proof - it's certain since the rain There's whips o' grass and water so it's west by north again There's feed on Tyson's country - we can spell the mokes a week Where Billy Stevens last year trapped his brumbies on Bough Creek The Paroo may be quickly crossed - the Eulo Common's bare And, anyhow, it isn't wise, old man, to dally there Alack-a-day, far wiser men than you and I succumb To woman's wiles, and potency of Queensland wayside rum Then over sand and spinifex and o'er the ridge and plain The nags are fresh - besides, they know we’re north by west again The brand upon old Darkie's thigh is that upon the hide Of bullocks we must muster on the Diamantina side We'll light our campfires where we may and yarn beside their blaze The jingling hobble-chains shall make a music through the days And while the tuckerbags are right, and we've a stick of weed A swagman shall be welcome to a pipe-full and a feed So, fill your pipe and, ere we mount, we'll drink another nip Here's how that west by north again may prove a lucky trip Then back again - I trust you'll find your best girl's merry face Or, if she jilts you, may you get a better in her place Repeat stanza 1 Youtube clip Harry 'Breaker' Morant --Stewie. |
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16 Oct 20 - 09:28 PM (#4075710) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE BRIGALOW BRIGADE (Harry Morant) There’s a band of decent fellows On a cattle run outback You’ll hear the timber smashing If you follow in their track Their ways are rough and hearty And they call a spade a spade And a pretty rapid party Are the Brigalow Brigade They are mostly short of sugar And their pockets if turned out Would scarcely yield the needful For a decent four-man shout But they’ll scramble through a tight place Or a big fence unafraid And their hearts are in the right place In the Brigalow Brigade They’ve painted Parkes vermilion They’ve coloured Orange blue They broken lots of top-rails ‘Twixt the sea and Dandaloo They like their grog and palings Just as stiff as they are made These are two little failings Of the Brigalow Brigade The Brigalow Brigade are Fastidious in their taste In the matter of a maiden And the inches of her waist She must be sweet and tender And her eyes a decent shade Then her Ma can safely send her To the Brigalow Brigade But women, grog and horses With polo in between Are mighty potent forces In keeping purses lean But the spurs are never rusty Though they seldom need their aid For the cuddles ain’t too dusty In the Brigalow Brigade Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) is a wattle occurring in inland areas of NSW and Queensland. The Brigalow Brigade refers to stockmen and drovers who worked in remote areas. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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16 Oct 20 - 10:28 PM (#4075712) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie A softer side of the breaker: WHEN STOCK GO BY (Harry Morant) Tom rode a bonny dark bay nag He wore a battered cabbage-tree And as I filled our water-bag He came and asked a drink from me The cattle passed our hometead gate Beside our well I watched them pass While dad was in a fearful state About his water and his grass Tom said that drink was just like wine He said my eyes were soft and brown He said there were no eyes like mine From Dandaloo to Sydney Town I watched him with a trembling lip Yet little thought I then that he Who asked a drink from me that trip Would next trip ask my dad for me Tom's droving days long since are done The wet tear oft has dimmed my eye For days when I was woo’d and won Come back to me when stock go by Brad Tate put a tune to this little poem: Youtube clip Graham Jenkin also put a tune to it. It can be found at page 74 of his 'Great Australian Balladists'. Both Jenkin and Davies & Ilott omit the second stanza. The final stanza suggests unhappiness in the marriage. At one stage, Breaker Morant was briefly married to Daisy Bates. My mate Colin Smiley from Perth compiled a themed concert relating to the Morant/Bates relationship which was presented at a Top Half Folk Festival and repeated in Perth. There is some info on this interesting relationship here: Breaker and Bates --Stewie. |
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17 Oct 20 - 05:49 AM (#4075733) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Daisy Bates as sung by Cobbers Bush Band; composed by ?? Oh Daisy, if they’d only heard the things you had to say How differently we might have read the history of your day But what was one white woman’s word against the whole white nation Alone you could not stem the tide of our civilisation. Our bureaucratic government could never understand The beauty of the culture of the people of this land Simplicity was far beyond the white man’s complex mind And to the beauty of your love he was completely blind. He couldn’t see that in his own uneducated way The aborigine might have some worthwhile things to say The time had come for him to get a decent education That he became a token white was our main obligation. So why waste time in listening to you who lived with them Your whole eccentric lifestyle was a reason to condemn A woman of the wilderness who shunned society To live beneath the desert sun with aborigines. But, even so, for fifty years you fought against the odds While ignorant white leaders played their game of being gods And if you eased the suffering of one among their race Your life has served to counteract a part of our disgrace. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-o-4N0JIgc I had meant to post this a few weeks back! I thought there’d be more info about Kabbarli (Daisy Bates) online. The 60minute documentary promised on YT turned out to be a 3+ minute clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7_EkDSJ84A Maybe Stewie has some other songs too?? R-J |
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17 Oct 20 - 09:26 PM (#4075800) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, lyrics and music for 'Daisy Bates' were composed by Chris Armstrong of the Cobbers. I don't have any other songs specifically about Daisy Bates. NED KELLY'S FAREWELL TO GRETA Farewell to home in Greta, to my sister Kate farewell It grieves my heart to leave you, but here I must not dwell They placed a price upon my head, my hands are stained with gore And I must roam the forest wild within the Australian shore But if they cross my chequered path, for all I hold on earth I'll give them cause to rue the day their mothers gave them birth I'll shoot them down like carrion crows that roam our country wide And leave their bodies bleaching upon some woodland side Oh, Edward, dearest brother, surely you would not go So rashly to encounter with such a mighty foe Now don’t you know that Sydney and Melbourne are combined And for your apprehension Ned, there are warrants duly signed To eastward lies great Bogong, towering to the sky From east to west and then you’ll find that Gippsland’s lying by You know the country well dear Ned, go take your comrades there And profit by your knowledge of the wombat and the bear And let no childish quarrels cause trouble in the gang Bear up with one another, Ned, and guard my brother Dan See, yonder ride four troopers. One kiss before we part Now haste and join your comrades, Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Oct 20 - 09:43 PM (#4075801) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie MARY CALLED HIM MISTER (H.Lawson/J.Armstrong) They’d parted just a year ago - she’d thought he’d ne’er come back She stammered, blushed, held out her hand and called him 'Mister Mack' How could he know that all the while she longed to murmur, 'John'? He called her 'Miss le Brook' and asked how she was getting on They’d parted just a year before; they’d loved each other well But he’d been down to Sydney since and come back such a swell They longed to meet in fond embrace, they hungered for a kiss, But Mary called him 'Mister' and the idiot called her 'Miss' He paused, and leaned against the door - a stupid chap was he And when she asked if he’d come in and have a cup of tea He looked to left, he looked to right, and then he glanced behind And slowly doffed his cabbage-tree and said he didn’t mind She made a shy apology because the meat was tough Then asked if he was quite quite sure the tea was sweet enough He stirred his tea and sipped it twice, and answered 'plenty quite' And cut himself a slice of beef and said that it was 'right' She glanced at him at times and coughed an awkward little cough He stared at anything but her and said 'I must be off' That evening he went riding north - a sad and lonely ride She locked herself inside her room and sat her down and cried They’d parted but a year before; they’d loved each other well But she was such a country girl and he’d grown such a swell They longed to meet in fond embrace, they hungered for a kiss But Mary called him 'Mister' and the idiot called her 'Miss' Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Oct 20 - 10:03 PM (#4075803) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie ACROSS THE WESTERN SUBURBS (Denis Kevans & Seamus Gill) Tune: traditional 'All for Me Grog' Oh, me name it is Fred I'm Sydney born and bred And the inner-city used to be me home, boys But it's caused me heart to grieve For I've had to take me leave Now across the western suburbs I must wander Chorus: Under concrete and glass Sydney's disappearing fast It's all gone for profit and for plunder Though we really want to stay They keep driving us away Now across the western suburbs we must wande Now where is me house, Me little terrace house It's all gone for profit and for plunder For the wreckers of the town Just came up and knocked it down; Now across the Western Suburbs we must wander Before I even knew it We were shifted to Mount Druitt And the planners never gave me any say, boys Now it really makes me weep I am just at home to sleep For it takes me hours to get to work each day, boys What's happened to the pub Our little local pub Where we used to have a drink when we were dry, boys Now we can't get in the door For there's carpets on the floor And you won't be served a beer without a tie, boys Now I'm living in a box In the west suburban blocks And the place is nearly driving me to tears, boys Poorly planned and badly built And it's mortgaged to the hilt But they say it will be mine in forty years, boys Now before the city's wrecked Those developers must be decked For it's plain to see they do not give a bugger Or we soon will see the day If those bandits have their way We will all be driven out past Wagga Wagga Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Oct 20 - 10:27 PM (#4075804) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie WIND IN THE TUSSOCK (Phil Garland) Chorus: There's snow on the hills and frost in the gullies Where winters are keen and the air tastes like wine My heart feels the pull of the wind in the tussock Calling me back to the mountains again The scent of the speargrass is drawing my heart in As I long again for the High Country air The wind in the tussock is calling me homewards To the valleys and ridges that I love so dear There's a fragrance in the tussock fire as it's burning Wisps of smoke curling up to the sky The dew in the dawning of a clear spring morning As the sun warms the tops all white skiffed with snow There's pleasure in working the snow crested mountains In boiling a billy and watching stars fall To be lost in a world remote from the city With the mist far below like a great rolling sea When the old man nor-wester blows hot down the valley Reminds me of a girl that I knew long ago Her hair was as fair as the snowgrass in summer Breaking my heart when she drifted away There are dreams in the twilight of long autumn evenings When the embers of memory still flicker and fade The tussock reflecting the deep golden sunset Gently caressed by the evening breeze Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Oct 20 - 10:43 PM (#4075805) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie LEATHERMAN (Anon) I'm a stockman and my work is droving cattle With my whip and dog, I set them at a rattle Droving down the dusty road I'm the roughest kind o' bloke you'll ever know Chorus: Jog along, jog along, jog along, leatherman In the wind and in the rain, driving cattle for the can At night I just sleep underneath a tree There's no feather mattress poster-bed for me Ridin' 'till I'm saddle worn I'm the roughest kind o' bloke 'twas ever born In the early morning when the sun is up I roll up me swag and whistle to me pup Go in Darkie, bite their tails Go back them up along the dusty trail Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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17 Oct 20 - 11:22 PM (#4075806) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie OLD PALMER SONG (Traditional) The wind is fair and free, my boys, the wind is fair and free The steamer's course is north, my boys, and the Palmer we will see The Palmer we will see, my boys, and Cooktown's muddy shore Where I've been told there's lots of gold, I'll stay down south no more Chorus So, blow ye winds, heigho A-digging I will go I'll stay no more down south, my boys So let the music play In spite of what I'm told I'm off in search of gold I'll make a push for that new rush A thousand miles away They say the blacks are troublesom and spear both horse and man The rivers are all wide and deep, no bridges them do span No bridges them do span, my boys, and so you'll have to swim But never fear the yarns you hear, and gold you're sure to win So let us make a move, my boys, for that new promised land And do the best we can, my boys, to lend a helping hand To lend a helping hand, my boys, where the soil is rich and new In spite of the blacks and unknown tracks, we'll show what we can do The song may be found at the 28 minute mark of the video of the Rafferty Band album. It's great to hear the voice of the late Chris Buch leading the song. The Palmer is about 160 km from Cooktown in north Queensland. Youtube --Stewie. |
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18 Oct 20 - 05:39 AM (#4075823) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST OLD PALMER SONG (Traditional) Above/below. From Wikipedia; Ten Thousand Miles Away is a sea shanty whose writing and composition are attributed to Joseph B. Geoghegan. In his Shanties from the Seven Seas Hugill says that this was originally a shore ballad sung by street singers in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. Later it became a popular music hall number. The Scottish Student's Song Book gives the author as "J. B. Geoghegan". This is Joseph Bryan Geoghegan (c. 1816 – 1889) who was manager of the Star and Museum Music Hall in Bolton, Lancashire. The song is numbered 1778 in the Roud Folk Song Index and it has been passed from singer to singer as a traditional shanty. The figure of "ten thousand miles" could well refer to the distance between England and Australia, and the separation of the lovers arises because the singer's lover has been transported. So blow the winds, Heigh-ho; A roving I will go, I'll stay no more on England's shore, So let the music play! I'll start by the morning train, To cross the raging main, For I'm on the move to my own true love, Ten thousand miles away. |
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18 Oct 20 - 07:28 PM (#4075893) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie TUAPECKA GOLD (Phil Garland) 'Twas in the year of sixty-two as near as I can guess When I left my dear old hometown in trouble and distress My family didn't want me I was left out in the cold Until I started searching for the Tuapeka gold The day I left Dunedin I could not help but cry For not one single person came to bid myself goodbye So I set off on my journey and soon I did behold The hills that were covered with the Tuapeka gold When some six months later I came back to my home town Carrying the fortune that I'd taken from the ground Strange to say my old friends turned out to say hello But I knew all they were after was my Tuapeka gold. The other day while walking I met young Maggie Brown Who once took all my money while I was sleeping sound Says she, 'Come to my bedside, we'll be lovers as of old' But says I, You don't love me but my Tuapeka gold' So come all you bold young fellows and attend to my advice And don't trust man nor woman 'til you've looked them over twice I've travelled for experience and many a time been sold Ah-ha, but this time they won't get me nor my Tuapeka gold See also 'Bright Fine Gold' posted above on 30 September. Gabriel Read discovered a large deposit of alluvial gold along the Tuapecka River in Otago in May 1861. Within a week of his reporting the find to authorities in Dunedin, a city of tents appeared along the banks of the Tuapecka. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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18 Oct 20 - 08:17 PM (#4075896) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE MURRUMBIDGEE SHEARER Come all you jolly natives and I'll relate to you Some of my observations adventures too a few I've travelled about the country for miles full many a score And oft-times would have hungered but for the cheek I bore I've coasted on the Barwon low down the Darling too I've been on the Murrumbidgee and out on the Paroo I've been on all the diggings boys from famous Ballarat I've loafed upon the Lachlan and fossicked Lambing Flat I went up to a squatter and asked him for a feed But the knowledge of my hunger was swallowed by his greed He said I was a loafer and for work had no desire And so to do him justice I set his shed on fire Oh yes I've touched the shepherd's hut of sugar, tea, and flour And a tender bit of mutton I always could devour I went up to a station and there I got a job Plunged in the store and hooked it with a very tidy lob Oh, yes my jolly dandies I've done it on the cross Although I carry bluey now I've sweated many a horse I've helped to ease the escort of many's the ounce of gold The traps have often chased me more times than can be told Oh yes the traps have chased me and been frightened of their stripes They never could have caught me they feared my cure for gripes And well they knew I carried it which they had often seen A-glistening in my flipper chaps a patent pill machine I've been hunted like a panther into my mountain lair Anxiety and misery my grim companions there I've planted in the scrub my boys and fed on kangaroo And wound up my avocations by ten years on Cockatoo So you can understand my boys just from this little rhyme I'm a Murrumbidgee shearer and one of the good old time From Paterson's 'Old Bush Songs'. This video supposedly has the singing of Gary Shearston, but actually it is Bert Lloyd: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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18 Oct 20 - 08:43 PM (#4075897) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE MARYBOROUGH MINER Come all you sons of liberty and listen to my song I'll tell you my observations and it won't take very long I've fossicked around this continent, five hundred miles or more And many's the time I might have starved but for the cheek I bore I've been on all the diggings, boys, from famous Ballarat I've long-tommed on the Lachlan, and I've fossicked Lambing Flat So you can understand, my boys, just from my little rhyme I'm a Maryborough miner and I'm one of the good old time I came to the Fitzroy River, all with my Bendigo rig I had a shovel, a pick and a pan, and for a licence I begged But the assay man called me a loafer, said for work I'd no desire And so to do him justice, boys, I set his office on fire Oh yes, my jolly jokers, I've done it on the cross Although I carry my bluey now, I've sweated many a horse I've helped to rob the escort of many an ounce of gold And the traps have trailed upon my tail more times than I've ever told Oh yes, the traps have trailed me and been frightened out of their stripes They never could have caught me for, they feared my cure for gripes And well they knew I carried it, for they had often seen it Glistening in my flipper, chaps, my patent pill machine I'm one of the men who cradled on the reef at Tarrangower Anxiety and misery my grim companions there I puddled the clay at Bendigo and I chanced my arm at Kew And I wound up my avocation with ten years on Cockatoo. A.L. Lloyd collected this mining version of 'The Murrumbidgee Shearer' from Bob Bell in Condobolin in 1934. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Oct 20 - 02:39 AM (#4075919) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Stew, I have to disagree with the label of A.L.Lloyd singing "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" that you linked to - it is definitely Gary Shearston in his folk-sheep-shearing-Lloyd style of singing, as on that whole LP of "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing"!! I still have my LP and absolutely loved it years ago :) Cheers, R-J |
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19 Oct 20 - 07:43 PM (#4076066) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie R-J, thanks for the correction. I don't have the album. I would have sworn it was Lloyd singing. It must be deliberate on Shearston's part. --Stewie. |
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19 Oct 20 - 08:20 PM (#4076074) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another fine Kiwi singer/songwriter with a song about an incident on Norfolk Island in the 1840s. EMILY BAY (Andrew London) Johnny was a wild one, got sent down Seven years hard in Sydney Town Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ayElizabeth cried on the dock, says he, ‘You’re a good girl, Lizzie, don’t you wait for me’ Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay Johnny was a thief, he was quicker than some Got caught with a bottle of the captain’s rum And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay Judge said, ‘I can turn a hard man around You can do your time out in Kingston Town’ Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay Johnny said, ‘ Well you can cut a chain for me But I’ll curse your eyes till the day that I’m free Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay Johnny took a hundred till the blood ran black And the chaplain said, ‘That’s a dead man’s back’ And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay Jackie said, ‘Now brother come along with me Gonna kill me a copper been a-worryin’ me’ Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay Johnny said, ‘Well Jack I been a thinkin’ just the same’ And they got three more before the soldiers came Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay The commandant said, ‘You’re gonna hang this morn And England’s sorry that you ever been born And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay Johnny was a wild one, got sent down He never did a year in Kingston Town Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay Elizabeth cried on the day she read He was thrown in a hole, not a prayer was said Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay And on the Murderers’ Mound, you can hear his plea: ‘You’re a good girl, Lizzie, don’t you wait for me’ And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay Youtube clip Bob McNeill does a lovely cover of the song with Gillian Boucher on fiddle: Click --Stewie. |
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19 Oct 20 - 09:18 PM (#4076078) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I OWE YOU (Paul Metsers) Have you still got those pages? From friends of days gone by Their words, in paper cages ?Came winging through the sky? Or did you make some bargain? That one day you would rue ?Like the hasty note the gambler wrote The loser’s I.O.U. It seems the days are speeding The time it strips the bone? The snow it falls beside the wall And follows winter’s moan And through the crystal window The ever-changing hue? The years decline, the debt is mine How will I pay my due I.O.U. for mystery ?I.O.U. for colour ?I.O.U. for children? Born in love and labour And I.O.U. for letting go When parting needs must sever And I.O.U. for holding on I.O.U. forever They say no one’s an island That each on some depends But lonely hearts and silence Make such bitter friends For to have your own true lover Is to live in fortune’s glow But try as you may, you’ll never pay Your lover what you owe I.O.U. for mystery ?I.O.U. for colour? I.O.U. for children ?Born in love and labour And I.O.U. for letting go When parting needs must sever And I.O.U. for holding on I.O.U. forever Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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19 Oct 20 - 09:37 PM (#4076080) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I don't know where those ?s came from. Anyhow, the lyrics are there. A song about the possible inspiration for Miss Havisham: THE BALLAD OF ELIZA EMILY DONNITHORNE (J.Armstrong) She stands at the window watching the carriages Approaching the house in the spring of the year She smiles at the people hurrying everywhere Lovely Eliza’s wedding draws near In the fine mansion in King St in Newtown Beautiful ladies, some haughty, some gay With horses and carriages, the cream of old Sydney Town Lovely Eliza gets married today Over the fireplace, a portrait in oils Old Judge Donnithorne looks kindly down Sees his young daughter, the flower of Sydney Town Looking lovelier than ever in her wedding gown But something is wrong - the smiles are fading The hours are passing, the people must go Eliza still stands and she looks from her window Waiting in tears for the man she loves so The table is set still, the places are counted But gone are the people so laughing and gay The gifts are unopened and tired of waiting The beautiful wedding cake crumbles away The old house is closed now, the windows are shuttered Nobody leaves and nobody comes near Eliza grows old now but still in her wedding dress She faithfully waits for her love to appear Thirty years pass now - the waiting is over Six fine black horses await at the door The beautiful carriage is decked in black ribbons Lovely Eliza will wait here no more She’s seeking a new world to search for her lover If she will find him nobody can tell She’s a young girl again, happy and carefree Eliza Emily Donnithorne farewell Youtube clip Eliza Emily Donnithorne --Stewie. |
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20 Oct 20 - 10:30 PM (#4076233) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Seems like I'm on my Pat. Never mind - onwards. Another cracker from the wonderful Kath Tait. POOR DIM SALLY (Kath Tait) Poor dim Sally from old Vim valley She was taken in by the Moonies Her friends said they would rather be dead Than sucked in by a bunch of loonies Her mother cried and her father nearly died To see their Sally being hypnotised And listening to strange philosophical lies And giving all her money to the guru While dancing to the tune of the Reverend Moon Sally was benevolent and breezy But it made her sad to see her mum and her dad Being hypnotised by the TV And giving all their money to the politicians Who wasted it all on their greedy ambitions And Sally was obsessed by her dubious position Enlisting more disciples for the guru Poor dim Sally from old Vim valley She went knocking on doors Explaining her views and proclaiming the news And naming the Moonies' laws When she came upon a mysterious charmer Who appeared at the door in his pink pajama And talked her into following the Dalai Lama And that's how she was rescued from the Moonies Sally took a ferry to a monastery Where upon she shaved her head. Her mother cried and her father said , 'Why Is our Sally so easily led?' The deprogrammers came to unravel her brain But their threats and bribes were all in vain, And her poor mother she did proclaim Why can't we all just be nice Presbyterians Now poor dim Sally from old Vim valley Was told to spend eleven days fasting But her need for food was so basic and crude And she really wasn't very good at lasting When they found her hiding behind a tree With a marmite sandwich and a cup of tea She said,’I wouldn't be a failure spiritually If I was the leader of my very own religion’ So she became the guru of her own fringe sect She got all of the money and all of the respect And she made her disciples swear an oath To eat their way to spiritual growth Have another sausage roll, have another cream bun She said sitting there on her big fat bum They said, ‘We’ll all be saved from being eternally glum In Sally's own original religion’ Kath’s note: Having been involved in a disreputable fringe sect when I was much younger, I decided to read a few sociological studies on the phenomenon. I discovered that they are all much the same, they all involve some sort of guru/con-artist and they all end up committing some kind of abuse involving sex or money. I have learnt the hard way that you have to be your own guru. Vim is a bathroom cleaning powder. The phrase Vim valley is a common New Zealand term describing a squeaky clean suburb where people behave a bit like they do in household appliance advertisements. Mike Harding covered the song. I always fondly remember Mike's visit to Darwin on his Australian tour back in the day. At his gun turret concert, he said that visiting Darwin was like living in someone's sweaty sock. A fair comment - the humidity here at the moment is horrendous. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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20 Oct 20 - 10:40 PM (#4076234) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST My apologies, the video linked in my previous post is not the Mike Harding to whom I was referring. I was referring to the pommy Mike Harding. I'm losing it. I think I'll go downstairs into the air-conditioning with my dog and watch a pommy police drama dvd. --Stewie. |
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20 Oct 20 - 11:25 PM (#4076238) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy I can recommend, Stewie, a good Pommy show I just watched last night on YT (don't recall it being on Oz TV), based on a 1920s true story, called "Dandelion Dead" in 2 Eps over less than 4 hours, but starring the always EXcellent Michael Kitchen & Sarah Miles!!! People are still, to this day, debating whether the main man was guilty or not ...... I will return to song posts on this thread, but I seem to have found a few more urgent things to do! But I wonder whether Joe could be persuaded to amend the thread title to include reference to New Zealand??? And if the excellent Sandra in Sydney could be persuaded to update the Song Listing??!! Cheers, R-J |
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21 Oct 20 - 04:41 AM (#4076250) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Poor Dim Sally is no. 342, & I'll send you the list. Australia's greatest song AS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED in The Bacchus Marsh Express Sat 15th December, 1891 - note the last line was bowdlerised, so please sing the proper word in the famous version!! THE BARE BELLED EWE by C.C. of Eynesbury, Nov. 20, (tune - Ring the bell, Watchman) Oh, down at the catching pen an old shearer stands, Grasping his shears in his long bony hands ; Fixed is his gaze on a bare belled ewe, Saying " If I can only get her, won't I make the ringer go." Click goes his shears; click, click, click. Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick, The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow, And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe. At the end of the board, in a cane bottomed chair, The boss remains seated with his eyes everywhere ; He marks well each fleece as it comes to the screen, And he watches where it comes from if not taken off clean. The "colonial experience" is there of course. With his silver buckled leggings, he's just off his horse ; With the air of a connoiseur he walks up the floor ; And he whistles that sweet melody, "I am a perfect cure." "So master new chum, you may now begin, Muster number seven paddock, bring the sheep all in ; Leave none behind you, whatever you do, And then we'll say you'r fit to be a Jackeroo." The tar boy is there, awaiting all demands, With his black tarry stick, in his black tarry hands. He sees an old ewe, with a cut upon the back, He hears what he supposes is--" Tar here, Jack." "Tar on the back, Jack; Tar, boy, tar." Tar from the middle to both ends of the board. Jack jumps around, for he has no time to sleep, And tars the shearer's backs as well as the sheep. So now the shearing's over, each man has got his cheque, The hut is as dull as the dullest old wreck ; Where was many a noise and bustle only a few hours before, Now you can hear it plainly if a pin fall on the floor. The shearers now are scattered many miles and far ; Some in other sheds perhaps, singing out for "tar." Down at the bar, there the old shearer stands, Grasping his glass in his long bony hands. Saying "Come on, landlord, come on, come ! I'm shouting for all hands, what's yours--mine's a rum ;" He chucks down his cheque, which is collared in a crack, And the landlord with a pen writes no mercy on the back ! His eyes they were fixed on a green painted keg, Saying " I will lower your contents, before I move a peg." His eyes are on the keg, and are now lowering fast ; He works hard, he dies hard, and goes to heaven at last. C. C. Eynesbury, Nov. 20, 1891. As performed on ABC Landline by Jason & Chloe Roweth in 2014 after Mark Gregory discovered the original on TROVE. Jason reported that after the filming the shearers suggested Mr Folksinger join them shearing, thinking he was just a city folksinger, but he has worked in a shearing shed & done a little (tiny) bit of shearing. |
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21 Oct 20 - 04:50 AM (#4076252) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney SECOND CLASS WAIT HERE by Henry Lawson, 1899 (tune Tony Miles, 1981 as sung by Margaret Walters on "For the Future and the Past") On suburban railway stations - you may see them as you pass There are signboards on the platforms saying, 'Wait here second class'; And to me the whirr and thunder and the cluck of running gear Seem to be for ever saying, saying 'Second class wait here' Chorus - Wait here second class, second class wait here Seem to be for ever saying, saying 'Second class wait here And the second class were waiting in the days of serf and prince, And the second class are waiting - they've been waiting ever since. There are gardens in the background, and the line is bare and drear, Yet they wait beneath a signboard, sneering 'Second class wait here' I have waited oft in winter, in the mornings dark and damp, When the asphalt platform glistened underneath the lonely lamp. Ghastly on the brick-faced cutting 'Sellum's Soap' and 'Blower's Beer; Ghastly on enamelled signboards with their 'Second class wait here' And the others seemed like burglars, slouched and muffled to the throats, Standing round apart and silent in their shoddy overcoats, And the wind among the wires, and the poplars bleak and bare, Seemed to be for ever snarling, snarling 'Second class wait there' Out beyond the further suburb, 'neath a chimney stack alone, Lay the works of Grinder Brothers, with a platform of their own; And I waited there and suffered, waited there for many a year, Slaved beneath a phantom signboard, telling our class to wait here. Ah! a man must feel revengeful for a boyhood such as mine. God! I hate the very houses near the workshop by the line; And the smell of railway stations, and the roar of running gear, And the scornful-seeming signboards, saying 'Second class wait here' There's a train with Death for driver, which is ever going past, And there are no class compartments, and we all must go at last To the long white jasper platform with an Eden in the rear; And there won't be any signboards, saying 'Second class wait here' |
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21 Oct 20 - 05:09 AM (#4076253) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Henry Lawson - On The Night Train Have you seen the bush by moonlight, from the train, go running by? Blackened log and stump and sapling, ghostly trees all dead and dry; Here a patch of glassy water; there a glimpse of mystic sky? Have you heard the still voice calling — yet so warm, and yet so cold: “I’m the Mother-Bush that bore you! Come to me when you are old” Did you see the Bush below you sweeping darkly to the Range, All unchanged and all unchanging, yet so very old and strange! While you thought in softened anger of the things that did estrange? Did you hear the Bush a-calling, when your heart was young and bold: “I’m the Mother-Bush that nursed you; come to me when you are old" In the cutting or the tunnel, out of sight of stock or shed, Did you hear the grey Bush calling from the pine-ridge overhead: “You have seen the seas and cities — all is cold to you, or dead — All seems done and all seems told, but the grey-light turns to gold! I’m the Mother-Bush that loves you — come to me now you are old” Henry's last poem my favourite version On the night train, download here from Chloe & Jason's website support live music! Slim Dusty's version on youtube |
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21 Oct 20 - 05:22 AM (#4076255) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Bluey Brink from Mark Gregory's Australian Folk Songs There once was a shearer by name Bluey Brink A devil for work and a terror for drink He could shear a full hundred each day without fear And drink without winking four gallons of beer Now Jimmy the barman who served out the drink He hated the sight of this here Bluey Brink Who stayed much too late and who came much too soon At morning, at evening, at night and at noon One day as Jimmy was cleaning the bar With sulphuric acid he kept in a jar Along comes this shearer a bawling with thirst Saying whatever you've got Jim just give me the first Now it aint in the history, you wont find it in print But that shearer drunk acid with never a wink Saying that's the stuff Jimmy why strike me stone dead This'll make me the ringer of Stephenson's shed All through that long day as he served up the beer Poor Jimmy was sick with his trouble and fear Too anxious to argue too worried to fight He saw that poor shearer a corpse in his fright But early next morning when he opened the door Well there was that shearer a yelling for more With his eyebrows all singed and his whiskers deranged And holes in hide hide like a dog with the mange. Says Jimmy and how did you find the new stuff? Says Bluey it's fine but I've not had enough It gives me great courage to shear and to fight But why does that stuff set me whiskers alight? I thought I knew grog, but I must have been wrong The stuff that you gave me was proper and strong It set me to coughing and you know I'm no liar But every damn cough set me whiskers on fire video by 4 Bush Music Club members led by Doug (who was born in America in case you noticed his accent!) |
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21 Oct 20 - 08:19 PM (#4076375) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Sandra, R-J sent me a copy of your list. Many thanks. Here is a link to Schumann's rendition of 'Second class wait here'. John Schumann & Vagabonds --Stewie. |
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21 Oct 20 - 08:44 PM (#4076378) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie A PROUDER MAN THAN YOU (Henry Lawson) If you fancy that your people came of better stock than mine If you hint of higher breeding by a word or by a sign If you're proud because of fortune or the clever things you do Then I'll play no second fiddle: I'm a prouder man than you If you think that your profession has the more gentility And that you are condescending to be seen along with me If you notice that I'm shabby while your clothes are spruce and new You have only got to hint it: I'm a prouder man than you If you have a swell companion when you see me on the street And you think that I'm too common for your toney friend to meet So that I, in passing closely, fail to come within your view Then be blind to me for ever: I'm a prouder man than you If your character be blameless, if your outward past be clean While 'tis known my antecedents are not what they should have been Do not risk contamination, save your name whatever you do `Birds o' feather fly together': I'm a prouder bird than you Keep your patronage for others, gold and station cannot hide Friendship that can laugh at fortune, friendship that can conquer pride Offer this as to an equal -- let me see that you are true And my wall of pride is shattered: I am not so proud as you Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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21 Oct 20 - 09:48 PM (#4076382) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST CLAIR (W.Evans/Trad) The diggings are silent, the miners have gone Far away, far away, far away, who knows where But I cling to the silence where once the sun shone On my dear love, my true love, my own love, my Clair It’s wicked for women whose menfolk seek gold Far away, far away, far away in the wild In the scorch of the summer and winter’s sharp cold With my family, my dear wife, and my only child Our shanty was sacking on a mulga wood frame Far away, far away, far away city lights But my Clair made it homely and she never complained Of the hardships, discomfort and darkness and frights My little one faded, my Clair also died Far away, far away, far away without aid For my gold fever killed them, I sat and I cried For their pardon, with sorrow, for long I have paid Now the diggings are silent, I stay here alone Far away, far away, far away with my Clair And the gold that I glean gilds the roughly hewn stone For my whole life, my Clair, and my dear child lie there Recitation of poem by Wendy Evans with instrumental backing: Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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21 Oct 20 - 11:24 PM (#4076392) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Bugger, I did it again today and yesterday - I cleared web data after banking and forgot to log in again. Most of the 'Guest' posts to this thread are from yours truly. I will attempt to do better. Another fine song from Bob McNeill with Kenny Rich, a Scot from Orkney who also made NZ home. The duo performed and recorded as Ben the Hoose. Their focus was mainly on Scottish traditional dance music. A note on the sleeve of their album 'a little cascade': The people here are Scots. They stopped here on their way to heaven, thinking they had arrived.Mark Twain in NZ 1895. NORWAY YAWL (Bob McNeill) There were men that my father knew Worked oars as well as a plough Strong men who came home like the waves on the shore But these old men are all gone now The Norway yawls lie tattered and broken On the earth where these old men now lie They have earned their sleep but I would keep hold Of the life that with them has died Chorus: And there are no men left in Derry None in Donegal There are no men left on Islay Build me a Norway yawl They fished the grounds off Ardara Took the herring from off Tory Isle But the old men have all gone now And we can't believe our time Chorus We have not the life of the fisherman And our hardships are nothing besides Our hands are not battered and frozen Upon oars opposing the tide Chorus Ran the yawls from St John's to Port Ellen Rathlin, Port Stewart and Glengad Tory and Derry and Moville between The lines that are part of our past Chorus Youtube clip Note by Ben the Hoose: The Norway yawls were open fishing boats built on the north coast of Ireland and inshore Scottish islands. The boats vanished from the water in the 1950s but are often seen on the coast, used as sheep shelters and the like. Donal MacPolin described the men who crewed them as 'the last waves on the seashore'. Additional info: In the case of the Norway yawl, these boats were entirely open and double-ended, that is sharp at both stem and stern. Dimensions for this type varied slightly, but they usually had a keel length of 18-20 feet with a beam of 5.5-6 feet. (McCaughan, 1982, 178) The yawls were primarily used for line fishing and rowed with four oars but often set a lug or sprit sail. (Joe McClean, oral evidence) Norway yawls were regarded as safe, service-able boats and could be easily hauled out of the water by two men. (Malcolm Collins, oral evidence) As the name suggests these boats were imported direct from Norway but were modified in Ireland by the addition of one or two 'strakes'. (McCaughan, 1982, 176) Commentators have suggested that by the 1840's these boats were in some areas coming to the end of their working lives. The explanation was believed to lie in the decline of the timber trade with Norway brought on by raising duties on Baltic timber. (Davis, 1979, 46) This effected the shipment of Norway yawls as they were brought in with the timber cargoes. From here --Stewie. |
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22 Oct 20 - 12:33 AM (#4076401) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney WILLIAM CONQUEST TURLAND another excellent song from John Warner (1995) William Turland was a magnificent character who made his place in the history of Lambing Flat by pick and shovel: the first to pave the streets in front of his business, to plant shade-trees on the street, a baker, blacksmith, farrier, horsecoper and hotel owner, with a subtle touch at the sly grog still. The impression we gained of Hannah was of an equal and powerful influence. This story, from early in their lives, was told to John by Pat Emmett who was particularly moved by it. The town of Lambing Flat is now known as Young. The tune is a version of the Scarborough Settler's Laments. I'm William Conquest Turland, and when I was young and bold, I left old Market Harborough to mine Australian gold. I saw the rebel banner hoist, the fight at Ballarat, And I loved and married Hannah in the town of Lambing Flat. I forged the picks, I shoed the hacks, I laboured in the heat, My Hannah bore two children, we thought our joy complete, Then gold was found at Grenfell, the Lachlan side nor'west, And so, like fools drawn to a snare, we followed with the rest. But fever took the children, their skins were clammy wet. It turned like iron in the heart to hear them moan and fret. We washed them, cooled them, prayed for them, and ached to hear their cries; At length a sullen silence fell and the bitter drone of flies. I dug two graves beside the creek where old Dick's bridge now stands, And I can still feel Hannah's grasp a-trembling in my hands, The road ahead holds children, home and labour, land and friend, But I held Hannah, sobbing hard, where one road found its end. So let the Lachlan keep its gold or others make their pile. We'll go no further down this track, but tend their graves the while, For earth can yield no fairer prize, however rich the lode Than the wealth we gave back to the soil along the Grenfell road. mudcatter Daniel Kelly singing William Conquest Turland |
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22 Oct 20 - 12:38 AM (#4076402) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney DRUNKS' EXPRESS © John Warner 6/04/93 I'll tell you all of the roaring day, In Korumburra town on a Friday. From Jeetho out to Jumbunna way Folks came in for to spend their pay In Korumburra town on a Friday. The lads knocked off at the mining site, To shop and gossip, drink and fight From four o'clock till around midnight, In Korumburra town on a Friday. And it's 'Oh my darlin' Clementine', As the Drunks' Express lurches up the line, Taking the lads back to Outtrim Mine From Korumburra town on a Friday. Now you could see it from the train ... The miner's friend, the council's bane, The sly grog shanty run by Kane ... Now Old Kane was a cunning coot, His whiskey source still in dispute, And girls were there of strange repute ... At one of the pubs where the miners meet ... Comes the sound of voices raised in heat, And a body hurled out onto the street ... The body lies there, out for ten, It looks like young Joe Kane again, You shouldn't argue with mining men ... Eleven o'clock and they close the bars ... The drunks are singing to the moon and stars As they pack them into the railway cars ... Tomorrow they'll wake up sore and sick, To work off with the shovel and pick, The aches they've earned and the wounds they lick ... The case is heard at ten o'clock ... Now hear the courtroom gavel knock, For young Joe Kane standing in the dock ... Says Judge, 'A ten bob fine I think, Or thirty days in the local clink, For the things you did when worse for drink ... |
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22 Oct 20 - 12:44 AM (#4076403) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney MINER'S WASHIN' © John Warner 10/08/92 I came from Durham in '99, Married a laddie from the Coal Creek mine, The finest lad that a girl could ever know, Till he brought me his washin' from the pit below. Scrubbing the miner's clothes, Scrubbing the miner's clothes, All piled up in a ghastly stack, Heavy as lead, and smelly and black, And oh the pain in my aching back, Scrubbing the miner's clothes. Now your Korumburra miner is a grimy sort of bloke, So I drop in his duds for an all night soak. I'll take me a soap and I'll grate it like a cheese, And chuck it in a bucket with his grubby dungarees. I get me up before the peep o' light My copper for to fill and my fire for to light, I'll serve Tom his crib while the copper's on the boil, Then gird up my muscles for a day's hard toil. It's drag 'em from the copper to the rinsing tub, Pound 'em with the dolly and scrub, scrub, scrub, Pour away the mucky water, do it all again, Heave 'em through the wringer and pray it doesn't rain. Beyond Kardella, the sky's looking fine, Basket up the washing to the old clothes line, I'll bet when it's hung out and I've heaved up the prop, The rain'll come a pourin' and the wind will drop. Now all you maidens who to marriage do incline, Never wed a laddie from the Coal Creek mine, A squatter might be surly, a merchant might be mean, A banker might be boring, but they're easier to clean. |
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22 Oct 20 - 06:05 PM (#4076483) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST Sandra, you have doubled up on 'Miner's washing'. R-J posted it in September - No 110 on your list. --Stewie. |
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22 Oct 20 - 06:59 PM (#4076490) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie STRINGYBARK CREEK (Anon) A sergeant and three constables set out from Mansfield town Near the end of last October for to hunt the Kellys down They started for the Wombat Hills and thought it quite a lark When they camped upon the borders of a creek called Stringybark They had grub and ammunition there to last them many a week, And next morning two of them rode out, all to explore the creek, Leaving Mclntyre behind them at the camp to cook the grub And Lonergan to sweep the floor and boss the washing-tub. It was shortly after breakfast Mac thought he heard a noise So gun in hand he sallied out to try and find the cause, But he never saw the Kellys planted safe behind a log So he sauntered back to smoke and yarn and wire into the prog. But Ned Kelly and his comrades thought they'd like a nearer look, For being short of grub they wished to interview the cook; And of firearms and cartridges they found they had too few, So they longed to grab the pistols and ammunition too. Both the troopers at a stump alone they were well pleased to see Watching as the billies boiled to make their pints of tea; There they joked and chatted gaily never thinking of alarms Till they Heard the fearful cry behind, "Bail up, throw up your arms!" The traps they started wildly and Mac then firmly stood While Lonergan made tracks to try and gain the wood, Reaching round for his revolver, but before he touched the stock Ned Kelly pulled the trigger, fired, and dropped him like a rock. Then after searching McIntyre all through the camp they went- And cleared the guns and cartridges and pistols from the tent, But brave Kelly muttered sadly as he loaded up his gun, "Oh, what a ... pity that the ... tried to run." 'Twas later in the afternoon the sergeant and his mate Came riding blithely through the bush to meet a cruel fate. "The Kellys have the drop on you!" cried McIntyre aloud, But the troopers took it as a joke and sat their horses proud. Then trooper Scanlan made a move his rifle to unsling, But to his heart a bullet sped and death was in the sting; Then Kennedy leapt from his mount and ran for cover near, And fought, a game man to the last, for all that life held dear. The sergeant's horse raced from the camp alike from friend and foe, And McIntyre, his life at stake, sprang to the saddle-bow And galloped far into the night, a haunted, harassed soul, Then like a hunted bandicoot hid in a wombat hole. At dawn of day he hastened forth and made for Mansfield town To break the news that made men vow to shoot the bandits down, So from that hour the Kelly gang was hunted far and wide, Like outlawed dingoes of the wild until the day they died. Above is the full ballad as printed at pp41-42 of Times House edition of Stewart & Keesing's 'Australian Bush Ballads'. Most renditions are shortened and amended. Here is one by Gary Shearston: Youtube clip Another song about Stringybark Creek from John Munro's 'The Kelly Collection': Click --Stewie. |
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22 Oct 20 - 07:31 PM (#4076491) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie POOR NED Chorus: Poor Ned, you're better off dead At least you'll get some peace of mind You're out on the track They're right on your back Boy, they're 'gonna hang you high Eighteen hundred and seventy eight Was the year I remember so well They put my father in an early grave Slung my mother in gaol Now I don't know what's right or wrong But they hung Christ on nails Six kids at home and two still on the breast They wouldn't even give her bail Chorua You know I wrote a letter 'Bout Stringybark Creek So they would understand That I might be a bushranger But I'm not a murdering man I didn't want to shoot Kennedy Or that copper Lonnigan He alone could have saved his life By throwing down his gun Chorus You know they took Ned Kelly And they hung him in the Melbourne gaol He fought so very bravely Dressed in iron mail And no man single-handed Can hope to break the bars It's a thousand like Ned Kelly Who'll hoist the flag of stars Chorus Those are the lyrics for Redgum's version which is probably the best-known one in Oz. Redgum For a full discussion of the provenance of this song check out this Mudcat thread, particularly the contributions by Bob Bolton: Click The Lucas/Fotheringay rendition: Fotheringay --Stewie. |
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22 Oct 20 - 07:53 PM (#4076493) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie LONG RUN (John Schumann) You look out your window at the cold grey dawn It's seven o'clock on a Monday morning Pour a cup of coffee, better make it a strong one Weather man on the radio says It's going to rain and it's going to blow But i'll be all right, it'll be all right, it'll be all right in the long run Australia marched out of Vietnam Out on the streets against Uncle Sam, We won the fight, it was a long one Uranium demo the other day One of my mates got dragged away As they slammed the door I heard her say It'll be all right in the long run Italian bloke who works with me We swap laughs and company And he slapped me on the back Said, ’You're wrong, son This isn't the land I was told it would be It's not so equal and not so free But i'll be all right, it'll be all right, it'll be all right in the long run’ From the shadow of history a convict screams The shearers curse, the people dream We've taken some right turns They've been the wrong ones Troop ships leave and the headlines blaze Australia remembers happier days And the faith lives on within the haze It'll be all right in the long run So you sit in your camp and you stare at the fire The doubts drop away as the hopes get higher And you sing to yourself It'll be all right, it'll be all right in the long run And the sun gives ground to a long cold night You screw your courage for another fight But you know in your heart That it’ll be all right, it'll be all right, it'll be all right in the long run And the sun streams in with power and might And you look at your kids in a different light And you know in your heart as you kiss them goodnight It'll be all right in the long run Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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22 Oct 20 - 10:20 PM (#4076503) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BLACK SHEEP (W.Ogilvie/G.Jenkin) They shepherd the black sheep down to the ships Society's banned and cursed And the boys look back as the old land dips Some with a reckless laugh on their lips And some with a prayer reversed Chorus: And it's goodbye England, farewell love Maybe it's just as well When a man falls short of his heaven above That he drops to the uttermost hell Now the anchor lifts and the sails are set Now God to your help, black sheep For the gay world laughs, 'They will soon forget' But fired with the embers of old regret The brand of the world bites deep Chorus They turn the black sheep over the side To land on a stranger's shore To drift with the cities' human tide Or wander away where the rovers ride And the flagless legions war Chorus They bury the black sheep out in the bush And they bury them none too deep By the cattle camp or the last gold rush And the grass grows over them deep and lush And the bush winds sing them to sleep Final chorus: And it's goodbye sorrow, farewell strife Maybe it's just as well When a man goes down in the battle of life Then he shortens his road to hell Graham Jenkin put a tune to this Ogilvie poem - pp56-57 'Great Australian Balladists'. Note by Jenkin: Black sheep were young Britons who had disgraced themselves in one way or another, and who were sent as far away as possible in order that they may not bring further disgrace on the family. Australia, being at the opposite end of the world to Britain, was an ideal dumping ground, just as it had been for convicts before them. The black sheep, unlike most of the convicts, came from the wealthy classes and were referred to as 'remittance men' because many of them received a regular remittance from their families as payment for staying here. Although Ogilvie was a migrant, he was not a black sheep. Harry Morant was, and so was Adam Lindsay Gordon. --Stewie. |
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23 Oct 20 - 02:22 AM (#4076507) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney oops, Stewie, I searched my list, but didn't screenshot the search (blush) Stringybakr Creek is now no.351 & Poor Ned is now followed by the attribution (Manifold, Redgum, Lucas ??????) speaking of John manifold, a recent article from the BMC blog From the Archives - Correspondence between West Sydney Singers & John Manifold |
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23 Oct 20 - 09:04 PM (#4076605) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Thanks for the Manifold link. Together with a few other Darwin folkies, I spent a wonderful afternoon in a pub with the great man back when the world was young. Graham Jenkin also put a tune to this beaut ballad: THE WAYS ARE WIDE (E.J.Brady/G.Jenkin) Two women watched on a windy pier (Three turns and a line to pass) And one was the drunken skipper’s dear And one was a sailor’s lass The full o’ flood and the fall o’ tide There’s little to guide between But ways are wide where the seas divide Wi’ places to bide between Chorus: The sun rose red, but the night fell grey ?Cheer’ly men, her load-line’s low? Who drinks tomorrow may thirst today ? Cheer’ly men, still cheerily ho They trailed her out from the rowdy pier They turned her nose to the sea They lent their lungs to a burly cheer And speeded her merrily Her skipper rolled to his bunk dead-tight Her mate in the scuppers lay With a starboard red and a green port light To gladden them on their way Chorus They lit their lamps on the lonely pier As the twilight brought the rain And the skipper’s dear laughed long and clear But the other laughed in pain For woman is woman and man is man And the flesh it pricketh sore He carries his burden as best he can She carries her load and more Chorus Two women turned from the windy pier One hurried her home to weep But the skipper’s dear she was married next year To a bank account — and sheep The ship that sailed as the ship went down (Three turns and a rope to pass) Is posted ‘Lost’ and the grass goes brown On the grave o’ the sailor’s lass Final chorus: The dank ooze silts where the deep hulks lie ? Cheer’ly men, her load-line’s low ?For men may drown and women will die ?Cheer’ly men, still cheerily ho Tune: pp87-90 'The Great Australian Balladists'. Edwin James Brady --Stewie. |
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23 Oct 20 - 10:11 PM (#4076607) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE COACHMAN'S YARN (E.J.Brady/G.Jenkin) This is a tale that the coachman told. As he flicked the flies from Marigold And flattered and fondled Pharaoh. The sun swung low in the western skies: Out on a plain, just over a rise, Stood Nimitybell, on Monaro; Cold as charity, cold as hell. Bleak, bare, barren Nimmitybell - Nimitybell on Monaro. "Now this 'ere 'appended in' eighty-three, The coldest winter ever we see; Strewth, it was cold, as cold as could be, Out 'ere on Monaro; It froze the blankets, it froze the fleas, It froze the sap in the blinkin' trees, It made a grindstone out of cheese, Right 'ere in Monaro "Freezin' an' snowin'- ask the old hands; They seen, they knows, an' they understands, The ploughs was froze and the cattle brands, Down 'ere in Monaro. It froze our fingers and froze our toes I seen a passenger's breath so froze Icicles 'ung from 'is bloomin' nose Long as the tail on Pharaoh! I ketched a curlew down by the creek; His feet was froze to his blessed beak 'E stayed like that for over a week - That's cold on Monaro. Why, even the air got froze that tight You'd 'ear the awfullest sounds at night, When things was put to a fire or light, Out 'ere on Monaro. "For the sounds was froze. At Haydon's Bog A cove 'e cross-cut a big back-log, An' carted 'er 'ome ('e wants a jog - Stiddy, go stiddy there, Pharaoh!) As soon as his log begins to thaw They 'ears the sound of the cross-cut saw A-thawin'out. Yes, his name was Law. Old hands, them Laws, on Monaro. "The second week of this'ere cold snap I'm drivin' the coach. A Sydney chap, 'E strikes this part o' the bloomin' map, A new hand 'ere on Monaro. 'Is name or game I never heard tell, But' e gets off at Nimmitybell Blowin' like Bluey, freezin' like 'ell At Nimitybell on Monaro. "The drinks was froze, o' course, in the bar; They breaks a bottle of old Three Star, An' the barman sez, 'Now, there y'are, You can't beat that for Monaro!' The stranger bloke, 'e was tall an' thin, Sez,'strike me blue, but I think you win; We'll 'ave another an' I'll turn in - It's blitherin' cold on Monaro. 'E borrowed a book an' went to bed To read awhile, so the missus said, By the candle-light. 'E must ha' read (These nights is long on Monaro) Past closin' time, Then 'e starts an' blows The candle out but the wick 'ad froze! Leastways, thats what folks round 'ere suppose, Old hands as lived on Monaro. "So bein' tired, an' a stranger, new To these mountain ways. they think he threw 'Is coat on the wick, an' maybe too, Any old clothes 'e'd to spare. Oh, This ain't no fairy, an' don't you fret! Next day came warmer an' set in wet There's some out 'ere as can mind it yet, The real old 'ands on Monaro. "The wick must ha' thawed. The fire began At breakfast time. The neighbours all ran To save the pub ... an' forgot the man (Stiddy, go stiddy there, mare-oh). The pub was burned to the blanky ground-, 'Is buttons was all they ever found. The blinkin' cow 'e owed me a pound - From Cooma his blinkin' fare, oh! "That ain't no fairy, not what I've told; I'm gettin' shaky an' growin' old, An' I hope I never again see cold, Like that down 'ere on Monaro! " … He drives his horses, he drives them well, And this is the tale he loves to tell Nearing the town of Nimitybell, Nimitybell on Monaro. Above is the full text of this classic example of the 'tall tale' as printed in Stewart & Keesing 'Australian Bush Ballads' pp301-303. It was first published in 'The Bulletin' in April 1922. Jenkin's tune may be found at pp85-86 of 'Great Australian Balladists'. Jenkin shortens the ballad by omitting stanzas 3, 4 and 5. Nimmitybell is one of the ways the name of the town of Nimmitabel has been spelt. Nimmitabel NSW --Stewie. |
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23 Oct 20 - 10:56 PM (#4076614) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: GUEST THE SONG OF AUTUMN (A.L.Gordon/E.Elgar) Where shall we go for our garlands glad At the falling of the year When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad When the boughs are yellow and sere? Where are the old ones that once we had And where are the new ones near? What shall we do for our garlands glad At the falling of the year? Child! can I tell where the garlands go? Can I say where the lost leaves veer On the brown-burnt banks, when the wild winds blow When they drift through the dead-wood drear? Girl! When the garlands of next year glow You may gather again, my dear— But I go where the last year’s lost leaves go At the falling of the year Elgar put music to this lovely poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon. The poem reminds me of one of my favourite poems by G.M Hopkins - 'Spring and Fall' to which Natalie Merchant has put a tune. Youtube clip Adam Lindsay Gordon --Stewie. |
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24 Oct 20 - 09:28 PM (#4076719) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie RACE FOR THE SUN (Bob McNeill) The western bays are all silent now The beaches we found Deserted now, the flowing tide Is the only sound Still I linger here and listen while These strange birds sing of oceans The nights are warm and the winters mild Not like on the island But I left my heart At a bend in the river Cold harbour behind us We took what we owned With the smell of the bark The spirit that lingers With what we could could carry In a race for the sun Sail on? You'll be safe now? Nothing lasts forever? Won't be the first time we've tried Between the heads we wrestle her In a mercy tide The run between the Cabot shores Was ever as wide But these island boys are all strangers here With their dreams of ocean The sea that pounds the eastern shore Not like on the island But I left my heart At a bend in the river We cut down the sumacs Turned them into boats With the smell of the bark On our clothes as we boarded Is all I remember Of our race for the sun Sail on? You'll be safe now? Nothing lasts forever? Won't be the first time we've tried Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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24 Oct 20 - 09:45 PM (#4076721) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE BUSHRANGERS (Edward Harrington) Four horseman rode out from the heart of the range Four horseman with aspects forbidding and strange They were booted and spurred, they were armed to the teeth And they frowned as they looked at the valley beneath As forward they rode through the rocks and the fern Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne. Ned Kelly drew rein and he shaded his eyes 'The town's at our mercy! See yonder it lies! To hell with the troopers!' - he shook his clenched fist 'We will shoot them like dogs if they dare to resist!' And all of them nodded, grim-visaged and stern Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne Through the gullies and creeks they rode silently down They stuck-up the station and raided the town They opened the safe and they looted the bank They laughed and were merry, they ate and they drank Then off to the ranges they went with their gold Oh! never were bandits more reckless and bold But time brings its punishment, time travels fast And the outlaws were trapped in Glenrowan at last Where three of them died in the smoke and the flame And Ned Kelly came back - to the last he was game But the Law shot him down (he was fated to hang) And that was the end of the bushranging gang Whatever their faults and whatever their crimes Their deeds lend romance to those faraway times They have gone from the gullies they haunted of old And nobody knows where they buried their gold To the ranges they loved they will never return Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne But at times when I pass through that sleepy old town Where the far-distant peaks of Strathbogie look down I think of the days when those grim ranges rang To the galloping hooves of the bushranging gang. Though the years bring oblivion, time brings a change The ghosts of the Kellys still ride from the range Youtube clip Edward Harrington --Stewie. |
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24 Oct 20 - 10:00 PM (#4076723) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE FLASH STOCKMAN (Anon) I'm a stockman to me trade and they call me Ugly Dave I'm old and grey and only got one eye In the yard I'm good, of course, but just put me on a horse I'll go where lots of young 'uns daren't try I've led 'em through the gidgee over country rough and ridgy I'll loose them in the very worst of scrub I can ride both rough and easy, with a brumby I'm a daisy And a rightdown bobby-dazzler in a pub Just watch me use the whip, I can give the dawdlers gyp I can make the flamin' echoes roar and ring With a branding-iron, well, I'm a perfect flamin' swell In fact I'm duke of every blasted thing To watch me skin a sheep, it's so perfect you could weep I can act the silvertail as if my blood was blue You could strike me pink or dead, if I stood upon me head I'd be just as good as any other two I've a notion in me pate that it's luck, it isn't fate That I'm so far above the common run So, in everything I do, you could cut me square in two For I'm much two flamin' good to be in one Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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24 Oct 20 - 10:49 PM (#4076726) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE ROAD TO NULLAGINE (Grieg/Abbott) I am with a survey party in the place that God forgot And for White Australia it's the daddy of the lot There ain't a drop of water anywhere along the line There ain't no shady places on the road to Nullagine Chorus: I've tasted life in No Man's Land, I've fed the flies outback I've tramped with empty tucker bags on Lawson's lonely track I've toiled in northern Queensland where I thought the sun could shine But no mistake, this takes the cake, the road to Nullagine With a jigger on my shoulder and a waterbag in hand I'm tramping' through the spinifex and ploughing up the sand I'm sopping wet with honest sweat and salty as the brine I'm boiled and baked and roasted on the road to Nullagine When I wake up in the mornings, a swarm of hungry flies Are trying to bore out holes in the corners of my eyes I'm prickly heat from head to foot, this old frame of mine Has had the dengue fever on the road to Nullagine It's headaches, toothaches, bung eyes in a sling Barcoo rot and God knows what - I can't eat anything I'm all wrapped up in bandages, tied up with bits of twine I'm like a walking leper on the road to Nullagine One day I drank some water, 'twas from a scalding well And very shortly after I felt inclined to yell A burning hot sensation ran up and down my spine I thought I was a gonner on the road to Nullagine It's hermit crab and cock-eyed bobs, tinned dog and kangaroo A change of diet once a month, boiled mutton or a stew If we crave for pig or poultry when we're sitting down to dine We thank the Lord for all we've got on the road to Nullagine One night I went to Marble Bar, 'twas shortly after dark And all the mongs for miles around came at me with a bark I had a drop of amber, a shilling every time There ain't no pots for sixpence on the road to Nullagine It's public bars and fat cigars and let your sugar scoot And decorate your wardrobe with a white pearl-button shirt If you wear the good old dungarees and hobnails number nine They class you as a nigger on the road to Nullagine I've seen some queerish places I thought God had forgot Out in the never-never where we used to call it hot But this little bit o' country when old sol comes out to shine Is the nearest place to hell on earth, this road to Nullagine Another cracker from Roger Montgomery's 'Pilbara Connection'. The tune is given at pp140-141 of that collection. It was composed by Ted Grieg of Nullagine who could neither read nor write. He died about 1948. It was supplied to Montgomery by Tony Moriaty of Port Hedland. Evidently, it has also been published in Bill Scott's 'Penguin Book of Australian Humorous Verse'. --Stewie. |
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25 Oct 20 - 08:08 PM (#4076846) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE GOOD OLD CONCERTINA (H.Lawson/M.Wyndham-Read) 'Twas merry when the hut was full Of jolly girls and fellows We danced and sang until we burst The concertina's bellows From distant Darling to the sea From the Downs to Riverina Has e'er a gum in all the west Not heard the concertina 'Twas peaceful round the campfire blaze The long white branches o'er us We'd play the tunes of bygone days To some good old bush chorus Old Erin's harp may sweeter be The Scottish pipes blow keener But sing an old bush song for me To the good old concertina 'Twas cosy by the hut-fire bright When the pint pot passed between us We drowned the voice of the stormy night With the good old concertina Though trouble drifts along the years, And the pangs of care grow keener My heart is gladdened when it hears That good old concertina Youtube clip The tune following the poem in the YT clip is ‘Echuca Waltz’ from the playing of Harry Schaefer of Forbes collected by Rob Willis. --Stewie. |
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25 Oct 20 - 08:31 PM (#4076848) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie ONE LITTLE STAR (Eric Bogle) When I need to feel you near me I stand in this quiet place Where the silver light of countless stars Falling on my face Though they all shine so brightly Somehow it comforts me to know That some that burn the brightest Died an eternity ago But your light still shines It's one small star to guide me And it helps me to hold back the dark Your light's still shining in my heart I'm learning how to live without you And I never thought I could And even how to smile again I never thought I would And I cherish your heart's memories Cause they bring you back to life Some caress me gently And some cut me like a knife But your light still shines It's one small star to guide me And it helps me to hold back the dark Your light's still shining in my heart Can your soul be out there somewhere Beyond the infinity of time I guess you've found some answers now I'll have to wait for mine When my light joins with yours one day We'll shine through time and space And one day fall in a distant age Upon some stranger's face But your light still shines It's one small star to guide me And it helps me to hold back the dark Your light's still shining in my heart Your light's still shining in my heart Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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25 Oct 20 - 09:16 PM (#4076851) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE OLD BULLOCK DRAY (Traditional) Oh! the shearing is all over and the wool is coming down And I mean to get a wife, boys, when I go up to town Everything that has two legs represents itself to view From the little paddy-melon to the bucking kangaroo Chorus: So, it's roll up your blankets and let's make a push I'll take you up the country and I'll show you the bush I'll be bound you won't get such a chance another day So come on and take possession of my old bullock dray I've saved up a good cheque I mean to buy a team And when I get a missus, boys, I will be all serene For, in calling at the depot they say there's no delay To get an off-sider for the old bullock dray Oh, we'll live like fighting cocks, for good living I'm your man We'll have leather-jacks, johnny cakes and fritters in the pan And if you'd like some fish, I'll catch you some soon, For we'll bob for barramundies round the banks of a lagoon. Oh, yes, of beef and damper I'll take care we'll have enough, We'll boil in the bucket such a whopper of a duff And our friends will dance, in the honour of the day To the music of the bells of the old bullock dray Oh, we'll have plenty girls, yes, you must mind that There'll be flash little Maggie, and Buck-jumping Pat There'll be Stringy-Bark Joe, and Greenhide Mike Yes, my colonials, just as many as you like Now we'll stop all immigration, we won't need it any more We'll be having young colonials, twins by the score And I wonder what the devil Jack Robertson would say If he saw us promenading round the old bullock dray There are numerous versions of this song. This one was collected from Stan Wakefield and posted to Mudcat back in the day by Bob Bolton. Ron Edwards published a 10-stanza version in his massive tome. Edwards noted that the tune is basically ’Turkey in the straw’. I like this leisurely rendition by Mucky Duck albeit it omits the last 2 stanzas of the above version. It could well have accommodated an extra verse instead of the la-la-la stuff. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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25 Oct 20 - 11:38 PM (#4076859) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney surely you must be coming to the end of yous songbook, Stewie, it must be bigger than an old fashioned Sydney Telephone book - inches thick! or is it all in a little phone or iPad? now we are 363! |
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25 Oct 20 - 11:52 PM (#4076860) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie That's a goodly number, Sandra. I don't have anything on phones or iPads. I have LPs, CDs and books. I must admit that my Oz and NZ collection is much smaller than my old-timey, blues, American folk, Americana etc collection but it's okay. --Stewie. |
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26 Oct 20 - 08:03 PM (#4076961) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE SANDY MARANOA (A.W.Davis/Trad) The night is dark and stormy and the sky is clouded o'er Our horses we will mount and ride away To watch the squatters' cattle through the darkness of the night And we'll keep them on the camp till break of day Chorus For we're going going going to Gunnedah so far And we'll soon be into sunny New South Wales We shall bid farewell to Queensland with its swampy coolibah Happy drovers from the sandy Maranoa When the fires are burning bright through the darkness of the night And the cattle camping quiet well I'm sure That I wish for two o'clock when I call the other watch This is droving from the sandy Maranoa Our beds made on the ground, we are sleeping all so sound When we're wakened by the distant thunder's roar And the lightning's vivid flash followed by an awful crash It's rough on drovers from the sandy Maranoa We are up at break of day and we're all soon on the way For we always have to go ten miles or more It don't do to loaf about or the squatter will come out He's strict on drovers from the sandy Maranoa We shall soon be on the Moonie and we'll cross the Barwon too Then we'll be out upon the rolling plains once more We'll shout hurrah for old Queensland with its swampy coolibah And the cattle that come off the Maranoa From p130 ‘Old Bush Songs’. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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26 Oct 20 - 08:49 PM (#4076967) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie REMEMBER PORT MELBOURNE (Rob Fairbairn) Remember Port Melbourne on Saturday night At the pub that they call Molly Bloom's Remember the sailors, the drunks and the fights And the band at the end of the room And do you remember the first time we met You soon had me under your spell It was one of those moments I'll never forget Oh yes, I remember it well Chorus: They sang 'Waltzing Matilda', they played 'The Wild Rover' Pat Reilly and Molly Malone they were there The band kept singing it over and over Oh don't you remember, my dear Old Gentleman Jim had his place by the bar A silver-topped cane in his hand Big Eddie he borrowed the singer's guitar And he strummed out 'The Black Velvet Band' We were lost in the music, swept up by the sound We knew all the words to the songs When the man on the banjo sang 'Rain Tumbles Down' The whole of the bar sang along I met you at Molly's on Saturday night I was nervous and shy, you were young So I went to the bar and I bought us a pint And the alcohol loosened our tongues We spoke of the present, we honoured the past The words began flowing like wine We savoured each moment like it was the last While the band played along all the time Last Chorus: The sang 'Waltzing Matilda', the played 'The Wild Rover' Ned Kelly and Henry and Banjo were there The band kept on singing it over and over Oh don't you remember, my dear From Loaded Dog 'A Coastline Facing West'. I just found a web page where Loaded Dog songs can be heard. Listen here: Remember Port Melbourne --Stewie. |
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26 Oct 20 - 09:26 PM (#4076968) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE TEAMS (H.Lawson/C.O’Sullivan) A cloud of dust on the long white road And the teams go creeping on Inch by inch with the weary load And by the power of the green-hide goad The distant goal is won With eyes half-shut to the blinding dust And necks to the yoke bent low The beasts are pulling as bullocks must And the shining tyres might almost rust While the spokes are turning slow With face half-hid 'neath a broad-brimmed hat That shades from the heat's white waves And shouldered whip with its green-hide plait The driver plods with a gait like that Of his weary, patient slaves He wipes his brow, for the day is hot And spits to the left with spite He shouts at Bally and flicks at Scot And raises dust from the back of Spot And spits to the dusty right He'll sometimes pause as a thing of form In front of a settler's door And ask for a drink, and remark `It's warm’ Or say `There's signs of a thunderstorm' But he seldom utters more For rains are heavy on roads like these And fronting his lonely home For days together the settler sees The wagon bogged down to the axle trees Or ploughing the sodden loam And then when the roads are at their worst The bushman's children hear The cruel blows of the whips reversed While bullocks pull as their hearts would burst And bellow with pain and fear And thus with glimpses of home and rest Are the long, long journeys done And thus -- 'tis a thankless task at best — Is distance fought in the mighty west And the lonely battles won Cathie O'Sullivan put a tune to this Lawson poem. Youtube clip Loaded Dog also recorded it on 'Hair of the Dog': Listen --Stewie. |
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26 Oct 20 - 10:13 PM (#4076972) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE MINER (Anon) The miner he goes and changes his clothes And then makes his way to the shaft For each man well knows he's going below To put in his eight hours of graft Chorus With his calico cap and his old flannel shirt His pants with the strap 'round the knee His boots watertight and his candle alight His crib and his billy of tea The platman to the driver will knock four and one The ropes to the windlass will strain As one shift comes up, another goes down And mining commences again He works hard for his pay at six bob a day He toils for his missus and kids He gets what's left over and thinks he's in clover To cut off his 'baccy from quids And thus he goes on, week in and week out To toil for his life's daily bread He's off to the mine, hail, rain or shine That his dear ones at home may be fed Digging holes in the ground where there's gold to be found But most times where gold it is not A man's like a rabbit with this digging habit And, like one, he ought to be shot Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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26 Oct 20 - 11:26 PM (#4076976) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I've just come across Ron Fairburn & am looking for the appropriate mondegreen thread to publish research by one of my friends. found it! & posted the story His lockdown projects include sorting thru 60+ years of songs, tunes, tapes, other media, & other stuff & he noted something odd in the lyrics of one of Slim Dusty's greatest hits, a song that EVERYONE says was written by Slim. Well, it was written by Ron Fairburn & the original words make sense. There are lots of lyric sites crediting Slim, probably more than those crediting Ron! |
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27 Oct 20 - 08:49 PM (#4077047) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THERE IS ANGUISH IN KNOWING (D.Hewett/C.O’Sullivan) There is anguish in knowing that I cannot reach you This kiss can break no barrier of bone I know no ease of language that might teach you In that last place where we stand alone Only in bitter struggle do we grow wise Knowing no quarter, and no compromise There is anguish in knowing that I cannot break you Beyond this wall of flesh you stand intact Ah! with what fingernails of hate I’ll rake you Till love has ground its teeth on sour fact Eyes, mouth and hands made blind, compassionate Beyond the sting of love, the burr of hate There is anguish in knowing we can never meet In this small room where we are most alone And yet the grass against the root grows sweet And yet the flesh tastes sweeter at the bone Four walls of love and sunlight on the floor And the Judas kiss that closes the last door Cathie O'Sullivan put a tune to this dark little poem by Dorothy Hewett. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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27 Oct 20 - 09:10 PM (#4077048) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: JennieG A thought has popped into my mind, as they do from time to time. Henry Kendall's poem "Bell-birds" has been sung - I think by Kate Delaney? - to the tune of 'The spinning wheel' ("Mary, the moonlight to shine is beginning....." That would make a nice addition to the list. Hands up if you remember having "Bell-birds" in your poetry list at school. |
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27 Oct 20 - 10:26 PM (#4077055) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BLOOD RED ROSES (Anon) Come all you sealers and listen to me A lovely song I'll sing to thee It was in eighteen hundred and three Come down you blood red roses, come down That we set sail for the southern sea Oh you pinks and posies Come down you blood red roses, come down Our captain has set us down And he has sailed for Sydney town And he has left us with some grub Come down you blood red roses, come down Just one split pea in a ten pound tub Oh you pinks and posies Come down you blood red roses, come down A bull seal he is bigger than a mouse But a sealer's lot is lower than a louse And now we're all covered over with fur Come down you blood red roses, come down We've grown us tails like Lucifer Oh you pinks and posies Come down you blood red roses, come down An when our captain he returns to hell Come down you blood red roses, come down Why we will treat him here for a spell Come down you blood red roses, come down 'Blood Red Roses' is a work song, a halyard chanty. When we string the different chanty-man cries together, they tell a story - a woeful one, but hardly exaggerated, for most sealing gangs that worked the southern bays and islands suffered from lack of food, exposure to wind and cold or to being completely forgotten. In 1813, one boat took five men off the Solanders. Two of them had been there since 1808. They had made their own clothing and shelters of sealskin and had eaten nothing but seal meat. The yankee whale ship, 'Enterprise', rescued three men from the Snares in 1817. These men had been set down in 1810 with but one quart of rice, a half-bushel of potatoes and an iron pot. 'Song of a Young Country' p12. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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27 Oct 20 - 11:15 PM (#4077058) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie KEEPING SO THIN (J.S.Neilson/C.O'Sullivan & C.Pearce) The red cow will come, it is even With frost in the air The white blood she gives for the little one Keeping so fair The father will say at the sundown How white is her skin He looks for the smile of the little one Keeping so thin The red cow is out on the rushes The old swans near by They see all the turns in the weather The scowl in the sky The land is all buckshot and sorrow It cries like a prayer. The rubble it writes in the cutting grass Famine is there. The young lad has toppled the sheoak The red cow comes in She eats of the leaves for the little one Keeping so thin The lean year it is for the honey When half the trees fail But the red cow is good to the little one Keeping so pale The father has fears at the sundown What grave night can bear To the little one having no mother And seeming so fair The young girl who watches at nightfall Old dreams will obey Of dim time – the fairies – the moonlight The lifting away Another lovely Neilson poem to which Cathie O'Sullivan and Cleis Pearce put a tune. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Oct 20 - 02:55 AM (#4077068) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney no, Jennie I don't remember learning Bell-birds at school, but as I know the words (some of the words) I must have "learnt"/"studied" it there! My GreatAunt & Grandmother lived at West Gosford, close to Henry Kendall Cottage & we used to hear bellbirds in the area! sandra |
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28 Oct 20 - 08:12 PM (#4077169) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE BROKEN THINGS (Shane Nicholson) Just like that old toy train No longer bright shining red Just like that rusted chain Sitting on a tyre by the shed All these things can make me smile So I'd like to keep you around for a while 'Cos babe I love all the broken things And you're a broken thing Just like that busted chair That no one ever tried to mend Just like that creaking stair Wants to let you know it's hurting again Everything that falls apart Will find a home in my heart 'Cos babe I love all the broken things And you're a broken thing Just like that old toy train Just like that creaking stair Just like that rusted chain Just like that lonely busted chair All these things can make me smile So I'd like to keep you around for a while 'Cos babe I love all the broken things Everything that falls apart Will find a home in my heart 'Cos babe I love all the broken things And you're a broken thing Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Oct 20 - 08:44 PM (#4077174) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie RATTLIN' BONES (K.Chambers/S.Nicholson) Smoke don't rise, fuel don't burn Sun don't shine no more Late one night, sorrow come round Scratching at my door But I cut my hands and break my back Dragging this bag of stones Till they bury me down beneath the ground With the dust and rattlin' bones Left my home and left my love Caught on a rusty nail Devil rose up heavy with gold My soul's not for sale Then a holy man in a house of God He offered me a book of prayer But when I left my home and I left my love Left my faith back there Smoke don't rise, fuel don't burn Sun don't shine no more Late one night, sorrow come round Scratching at my door But I cut my hands and break my back Dragging this bag of stones Till they bury me down beneath the ground With the dust and rattlin' bones Shut my eyes and hang my head Darkness makes no sound Climb it up, bottom there Earth's on the way back down When a sadness falls on the morning bird Wonder what the day will bring But I shut my eyes and hang my head At least that bird can sing Smoke don't rise, fuel don't burn Sun don't shine no more Late one night, sorrow come round Scratching at my door But I cut my hands and break my back Dragging this bag of stones Till they bury me down beneath the ground With the dust and rattlin' bones Till they bury me down beneath the ground With the dust and rattlin' bones The title track of their delightful and best album. Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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28 Oct 20 - 09:20 PM (#4077179) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy The Armistice was signed at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, to end The Great War, 1914-18 (ostensibly, "the war to end all wars"). Despite this agreement, shelling continued from both sides until nightfall. In Australia, this commemorative day is now more commonly known as Remembrance Day : remembering all the fallen in all the conflicts in which Australia has taken part, and red poppies are worn by many as a personal symbol. Noel dedicates this song to an injured ex-soldier friend, from Australia's more recent conflicts, who was treated shabbily by the 'Powers that Be'. Armistice Day by Noel Gardner, 2006 Silence tolls an hour ‘fore midday on the second last month of the year Images flash on the eleventh day, as memories disappear Now medals hang proudly and tributes flow as politicians push their line Another year, less truth said, another war to justify. Defend your country the posters read, in the name of national pride But they don’t defend our soldiers of war, as disease eats them inside Lying on his back in his hospital bed, he recalls in tales of pain Denials, whitewash, cover-ups, protect the government’s shame. Ch. May we remember, lest we forget? But the killings go on in the name of religion In the hills and the deserts yet, May we remember, lest we forget? But the killings go on in the name of religion In the hills and the deserts yet. High in the sky, a target is selected from dots on the face of a screen But the pilot never sees or hears from his cockpit the blood soaked tears and screams Out in the field an innocent child, falls prey to clusters of time Inhumanity, ideology, combines with greed and science. Hide the coffins, distort statistics, don’t let anyone see Rape for profit, kill for oil, in the name of liberty Hollow words laced with fear fuel the government ‘guise And in the in the name of deceit, spin and business, another soldier dies. Ch. But the killings go on in the name of religion In the hills and the deserts yet. Silence tolls an hour ‘fore midday on the second last month of the year…… Here is a clip of Noel Gardner & Alex Bridge singing "Armistice Day" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpvMc5PPw3c R-J |
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28 Oct 20 - 09:59 PM (#4077185) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie OUT BACK (H.Lawson/P.Roeterdink) The old year went, and the new returned, in the withering weeks of drought The cheque was spent that the shearer earned, and the sheds were all cut out The publican's words were short and few, and the publican's looks were black And the time had come, as the shearer knew, to carry his swag out back. For time means tucker, and tramp you must where the scrubs and plains are wide With seldom a track that a man can trust, or a mountain peak to guide All day long in the dust and heat when summer is on the track With stinted stomachs and blistered feet, they carry their swags out back He tramped away from the shanty there when the days were long and hot With never a soul to know or care if he died on the track or not The poor of the city have friends in woe, no matter how much they lack But only God and the swagmen know how a poor man fares out back He begged his way on the parched Paroo and the Warrego tracks once more And lived like a dog, as the swagmen do, till the western stations shore But men were many, and sheds were full, for work in the town was slack The traveller never got hands in wool, though he tramped for a year out back. In stifling noons when his back was wrung by its load, and the air seemed dead And the water warmed in the bag that hung to his aching arm like lead Or in times of flood, when plains were seas, and the scrubs were cold and black He ploughed in mud to his trembling knees, and paid for his sins out back He blamed himself in the year ‘Too Late' -- in the heaviest hours of life -- 'Twas little he dreamed that a shearing mate had care of his home and wife There are times when wrongs from your kindred come and treacherous tongues attack When a man is better away from home, and dead to the world out back And dirty and careless and old he wore, as his lamp of hope grew dim He tramped for years till the swag he bore seemed part of himself to him As a bullock drags in the sandy ruts, he followed the dreary track With never a thought but to reach the huts when the sun went down out back It chanced one day, when the north wind blew in his face like a furnace breath He left the track for a tank he knew -- 'twas a shortcut to his death For the bed of the tank was hard and dry, and crossed with many a crack And, oh, it's a terrible thing to die of thirst in the scrub out back A drover came, but the fringe of law was eastward many a mile He never reported the thing he saw, for it was not worth his while The tanks are full and the grass is high in the mulga off the track Where the bleaching bones of a white man lie by his mouldering swag out back For time means tucker, and tramp they must where the plains and scrubs are wide With seldom a track that a man can trust, or a mountain peak to guide All day long in the flies and heat the men of the outside track With stinted stomachs and blistered feet must carry their swags out back Phil Roeterdink of Loaded Dog put a tune to this Lawson poem. Above is the complete poem. The Dog used the second stanza as a chorus and omitted several stanzas. Listen on this page: Click --Stewie. |
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29 Oct 20 - 08:29 PM (#4077367) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie SONG OF THE INLAND RAIN (J.Sorensen/R.Montgomery) There's a rain that falls when the sheep are dead Away on the wide nor’-western plains When storm clouds gather overhead, And the west is red e'er the daylight wanes Rain on the inland ranges Rain on the parching plains All day long the grey rain falls On a land where it seldom rains Over the wilting wilderness Where drought's grim curse has lain Long overdue, God's blessing falls In the swirl of the inland rain When the hills rise blue in the haze of noon And the heat waves dance o'er the stony plain When red at night hangs the nor'-west moon When men despair, comes inland rain Rain on the ironstone ridges Cool life-giving rain Day and night it patters down Till the rivers run again Sweet is the drowsy cadence To those whose hopes seemed vain That steady drone on the station roof The song of the inland rain Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Oct 20 - 09:03 PM (#4077368) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie This song by Slim Dusty (David Kirkpatrick) would have to be considered folk in Australia's north, particularly the Northern Territory where it was hammered on every juke box. Back in the day, Slim was king of the outback. Despite its condescending tone and the horrendous line 'His skin was black but his heart was white and that's what mattered most', the Aborigines loved 'Trumby'. I recall a concert at a Gold Rush Folk festival in Tennant Creek. It was held in the CWA hall which had windows opening on to the main street. Aborigines passing by were yelling into the windows, 'Sing Trumby!' TRUMBY (D.Kirkpatrick/J.Daly) Trumby was a ringer A good one too at that He could rake and ride a twister Throw a rope and fancy plait He could count a line of saddle Track a man lost in the night Trumby was a good boy but he couldn't read or write Trumby was dependable He never took to beer The boss admired him so much One day made him overseer It never went to Trumby's head He didn't boast or skite Trumby was a good boy but he couldn't read or write. The drought was on the country The grass in short supply The tanks were getting lower and the water holes near dry Cattle started dying And relief was not in sight To estimate the losses Trumby couldn't read or write. He rode around the station pulling cattle from the bogs To save them being torn apart by eagles,crows and dogs He saw a notice on a tree It wasn't there last night Trumby tried to understand but he couldn't read or write. On bended knee down in the mud Trumby had a drink Swung the reins and to his horse said, ‘We go home I think Tell 'im boss about the sign, 'im read 'im good alright One day boss's missus teach 'im Trumby read and write’ Well concern was felt for Trumby He hadn't used his bed Next day beside that muddy hole, they found the ringer dead And a piece of tin tied to a tree then caught the boss's eye He read the words of 'Poison Here' And signed by Dogger Fry Now the stock had never used that hole along that stony creek And Trumby's bag was empty It had frayed and sprung a leak The dogs were there in hundreds And the dogger in his plight Told the boss he never knew poor Trumby couldn't read or write Now Trumby was a ringer As solid as a post His skin was black but his heart was white and that's what mattered most Sometimes I think how sad it is in this world with all its might That a man like Trumby met his death because he couldn't read or write. Couldn't read or write Couldn't read or write Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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29 Oct 20 - 09:16 PM (#4077369) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy This poem was a huge favourite in class of my Grade 6 – 7 in the early 60s. We wept buckets internally, whilst a few tears were allowed escape to run down sweaty cheeks (well, dry summer temps of 100* were not unusual in Perth in those days). A setting by renowned folkie, Martyn Wyndham-Read : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DA1ysiidUk A setting by country legend, Slim Dusty : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTFMynKlhH4 But, I’m afraid I find neither of those chunes very satisfying!! Does anyone know of alternatives?? The Ballad of the Drover Across the stoney ridges, Across the lonely plain, Young Harry Dale, the drover, Comes riding home again. And well his stock horse bears him; And light of heart is he ; And stoutly his old pack horse Is trotting by his knee. Up Queensland way with cattle He travell'd regions vast ; And many months have vanish'd Since home has known him. last. He hums a.song of some one He hopes to marry soon ; And hobble-chains and campware Keep jingling to the tune. Beyond the sunny dado Against the lower skies, And yon blue line of ranges The distant station lies. And thitherward the drover Jogs through the hazy noon, With hobble-chains and campware All jingling to a tune. An hour has fill'd the heavens With clouds all inky black ; At times the lightning trickles Around the drover's track ; But Harry pushes onward ; His horses' strength he tries, In hopes to reach the river Before the flood shall rise. The thunder from the heavens Goes rolling o'er the plains ; And down on thirsty pastures In torrents dash the rains. And ev'ry gorge and gully Sends forth its little flood; Till the river runs a "banker," All stain'd with yellow mud. Now Harry.speaks to "Rover," Who hardship little recks, And to his sturdy horses, And strokes their shaggy necks; "We've conquer'd greater rivers When floods were at their height ; Nor will this gutter stop us From reaching home to-night !" The thunder growls a warning ; The ghastly lightnings gleam; As the drover turns his horses, To swim the fatal stream. But, oh! the flood runs stronger Than e'er it ran before ; The saddle horse is failing, And only half-way o'er ! When flashes next the lightning, The flood's gray breast is blank ; And a cattle dog and pack horse Are struggling up the bank. But on the bank to northward, Or on the southern shore, The stock horse with his rider Will struggle out no more. The faithful dog a moment Sits panting on the bank, And then swims through the current To where his master sank. And round and round in circle, He fights with failing strength, Till borne down by the waters, The old dog sinks at length. Across the flooded lowlands And slopes of sodden loam The pack horse struggles onward, To take dumb tidings home. And mudstain'd, wet, and weary, Thro' ranges dark goes he, With hobble-chains and tinware, All sounding eerily. * * * * * * The floods are in the ocean ; The stream is clear again ; And now a verdant carpet Is etretch'd across the plain. But some one's eyes are sadden' d ; And some one's heart still bleeds In sorrow for the drover Who sleeps among the reeds. Henry Lawson. Sydney; 1889. Published Mon 7th Oct, 1889 in Sydney’s “The Evening News”: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/117027640 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmj9IHeVZ68&list=PLkynhFef6n07fEkek82LCbR4Epsyn7NJW&index=10&t=0s a narration (by person unknown), of Lawson’s “The Union Buries Its Dead” of the burial of an unknown drover who was drowned, but described elsewhere as evidence of Lawson’s Nihlism. Whatever. Just hope that the memory of young ‘Harry Dale, the Drover’ (and his faithful dog, Rover), received better treatment in his home district!! (that last verse rarely gets recited/sung). Another slight thread post creep, but Paul Hemphill’s “The Drover’s Dog and other stories” can be found here : https://howlinginfinite.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/3-the-drovers-dog.pdf ENJOY (but shed a tear or two!) R-J |
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29 Oct 20 - 11:32 PM (#4077374) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Now, I know this might not be quite “PC” these days, but as a good Aussie babyboomer sheila, I’ve always had a sneaky fondness for this song (reckon it having a good chune to sing and harmonise with, helps heaps!!) Written by Cairns cane farmer and local troubadour (and pig hunter), Jack Crossland, c.1953? and set to the US trad tune of “On Top of Old Smokey” (which song I have always hated – go figure ……) THE PIG-CATCHER’S LOVE SONG (aka CAIRNS BITTER BEER) Oh marry me, darling, I love you sincere, I love you the way I love Cairns Bitter Beer. Chorus: Oh Cairns Bitter Beer, love. Oh Cairns Bitter Beer, I love you the way I love Cairns Bitter Beer. I have an old humpy, a camp oven or two, A rifle and pig-dogs; now I only want you. You’ll never go hungry as long as you live, With sweet-bucks and mangoes and slabs of wild pig. I’ll always be faithful, and reasonably true, I may love other women but I’ll mostly love you. I’ll often get drunken, and sometimes tell lies, But I often will tell you how blue are your eyes. Oh, marry me, darling, I never will fail, There are worse blokes than me, love, but they’re mostly in gaol. I recall my late Beloved going pig hunting with a local catcher and his 2 big dogs in the littoral rainforest next to our home in Darwin. Unlike my bloke, the hunter and his dogs were barefoot, but they soon left him behind! So much for Paul’s regular training runs with the Hash House Harriers (or perhaps the ever-flowing after-run beer must share the blame?? :) Here is a clip of Jason & Chloe Roweth live at Humph Hall in Sydney : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nP_nL-PBuw R-J |
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30 Oct 20 - 02:51 AM (#4077381) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Beneath the Southern Cross BUSHWACKERS from 30th Anniversary recording (c.2004) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB9gX309YPw Lyrics are here : https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/The-Bushwackers/Beneath-the-Southern-Cross When I was searching for a non-Bushwackers version to listen to, of the Louis McManus song “Beneath the Southern Cross” (anyone?), YT threw up this interesting Kiwi number of the same title. It incorporates Maori singing and bagpipes with contemporary Presbyterian songwriting and singing by Malcolm Gordon!! So in case you t’other siders think Down Under is populated completely by heathens and unbelievers, this is for you!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2A8MzzT8Qc Intrigued by his voice, I then found some other songs by Malcolm (who is based in Dunedin, Sth Island, NZ) : “Hey Stranger” spotlighting the scourge of Family Violence (“Hey Stranger, Hey Neighbour, you don’t need wings to be my angel”) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJjOjsiuY5U And the celtic sounds of “St Magnus, Earl of Orkney Isles” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Acp2KYDTPj4&list=PLsF6D_aH3P9nBPYfRRO-mKODtNVDi1tG5&index=16 More here : https://malcolmgordon.bandcamp.com/album/the-cobblers-grandson Okay, that’s enuff of that for today! R-J |
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30 Oct 20 - 03:09 AM (#4077382) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy BANKS OF THE CONDAMINE trad Hark, hark, the dogs are barking, I can no longer stay The boys have all gone shearing , I heard the publican say And I must be off in the morning love before the sun do shine To meet the Roma shearers on the banks of the Condamine. Oh Willie dearest Willie don't leave me here to mourn Dont make me curse and rue the day that ever I was born For parting with you Willie is like parting with my life So stay and be a selector love and I will be your wife. Oh Nancy dearest Nancy you know that I must go The squatters are expecting me their shearing for to do And when I'm on the board my love I'll think of you with pride And my shears they will go freely when I'm on the whipping side. Oh I'll cut off my yellow hair and go along with you I'll dress myself in men's attire and be a shearer too I'll cook and count your tally love whilst ringer-o you shine And I'll wash your greasy moleskins on the banks of the Condamine. Oh Nancy dearest Nancy you know you cannot go The boss has given his orders no woman may do so And your delicate constitution isn't equal unto mine To eat the ramstag mutton on the banks of the Condamine. But when the shearing's over I'll make of you my wife I'll get a boundary riding job and settle down for life And when the days' work's done my love and the evening it is fine I'll tell of them sandy cobblers on the banks of the Condamine. Lyric set taken from Mark Gregory’s EXcellent website : http://folkstream.com/005.html He notes : “First published as 'The Banks of the Riverine' in the Queenslander in 1894 This version from the singing of A.L.Lloyd. Folklorist Dr Edgar Waters writes (Australian Tradition Oct 1966) : "The Banks of the Condamine seems to have been one of the most widely distributed bush songs. In recent years it has been reported from singers in northern Victoria and the Northern Territory, and a number of different versions have been recorded in New South Wales and in Queensland. Sometimes the man is going off to a horse-breaking camp rather than a shearing shed. In Victoria, and at least in southern New South Wales, it seems to have been known as 'The Banks of the Riverine', and perhaps this was the original form. The words of 'The Banks of the Condamine' were made over from 'The Banks of the Nile', a British Ballad of the beginning of the nineteenth century." The version by early Oz folkie, Lionel Long, was a great favourite on Perth’s ABC radio in the 60s, but here are two others : James Fagan & Nancy Kerr : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-_BrMmGIgM Rendition by the group, Southern Cross, about which I know nothing (anyone??): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29flhN1MUfI&t=75s Cheers, R-J |
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30 Oct 20 - 03:31 AM (#4077386) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney speaking of Joe Daly as we were - he was an early contributor to the Bush Music Club's Singabout. His first appearance was in 1961, by which time he had written 40 songs. Singabout 4(3), Sept 1961 - page 6 Singabout 4(3), Sept 1961 - page 7 obit 2005 He met Slim Dusty in 1965 RareCollections: NAIDOC 2012 Another instalment of RareCollections, the podcast in which Jordie and David Kilby take a look at rare, collectible and unusual Australian music. This episode features the following tracks and the voices of Slim Dusty, Joe Daly, Ted Egan and Rim D.Paul. Slim Dusty - Trumby - Columbia - 1966 Trumby was not an actual person but rather a composite character. Joe Daly spent his life working outback. He was also a talented songwriter who penned more than 50 songs for Slim Dusty alone. The first one he passed on to Slim was this comment on literacy among the indigenous stockmen he knew and worked alongside. Joe Daly on discogs Joe Daly interviewed by Rob Willis |
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30 Oct 20 - 04:22 AM (#4077394) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy WHEN THE RAIN TUMBLES DOWN IN JULY Slim Dusty (David Kirkpatrick) Let me wander north to the homestead, Way out further on there to roam, By a gully in flood, let me linger, When the summery sunshine has flown. Where the logs tangle up on the creek beds, And clouds fill the old northern sky, And the cattle move back from the lowlands, When the rain tumbles down in July. The settlers with sad hearts are watching, The rise of the stream from the dawn, Their best crops are always in flood reach, If it rises much more they'll be gone. The cattle string out along the fences, The wind from the south races by, And the limbs from the old gums are fallen, When the rain tumbles down in July. The sleeping gums on the hillside, Awaken to herds strayin' by, Here on the flats where the fences have vanished, As the storm clouds gather on high. The wheels of the wagons stop turning, The stock horse is turned out to stray, The old station dogs are a-dozin', On the husks in the barn through the day. The drover draws rein by the river, And it's years since he's seen it so high, Yes and that's just a story of homeward, When the rain tumbles down in July. Here is a clip of Slim’s daughter, Anne Kirkpatrick, singing his song at her father's Tribute Concert : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EICe11W5tos OK, Country AND Christian music posted all in one day!! Back to Folk :) R-J |
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30 Oct 20 - 05:04 AM (#4077397) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Garwan Dala (Words By Eve Fesl, Music By Tommy Leonard - July 2006) Garwan Dala, garwan Goong Garwan Dala, garwan Goong Garwan Dala, garwan Goong Ngam gardi Dala, ngam gardi Goong, Ngam gardi Dala, ngam gardi Goong, Garwan Dala, garwan Goong. Mama Bala, Dala, Goong, Mama Bala, Dala, Goong, Garwan Dala, garwan Goong. Garwan Dala, garwan Goong Ngam gardi Dala, ngam gardi Goong, Mama Bala, Dala, Goong, Garwan Dala, garwan Goong Garwan Dala, garwan Goong Garwan Dala, garwan Goong "Garwan Dala" means Respect for the lungfish, in Gubbi Gubbi language. "Garwan Goong" means Respect for fresh water. "Ngam gardi Dala" means Always been here, lungfish "Ngam gardi Goong" means Always been here, fresh water "Mama Bala" is the name of the Mary River. It means "Twice as Big", which is what happens to the river at flood time. This song can be heard here : https://www.tommyleonard.com/htmfiles/lyrics/dala.htm Tommy Leonard is a long-time local of Maleny, Qld (ex Liverpool, UK) and a well-known singer-songwriter and troubador. Eve Fesl is an indigenous woman who now lives in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. R-J |
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30 Oct 20 - 05:27 AM (#4077399) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney I've been worried that we don't have any of Martin Pearson's excellent songs! So I went looking & found one, posted by our very own Gerry Date: 06 May 18 - 06:09 AM OK, I've transcribed Martin Pearson's song. There are a few places where he breaks the song to make jokes, I haven't transcribed those bits. No guarantees that I got everything right. The Pope Song by Martin Pearson (tune - I Will Survive) Once I was the Pope I was sanctified Kept thinking I could never live without God by my side But I spent oh so many nights just thinking how I'd get along And I grew strong, and I knew Nietzsche had been wrong So now He's back. God is not dead I just woke up to find this big old Jewish voice inside my head I said why had you forsaken us? Was it some kind of test? He said today's the eighth day and I've had a lovely rest So join my church, do as I say With the Catholics you can break a dozen sins in half a day There's masturbation, contraception, which will help the Church with breeding Sloth and lust and greed and anger and of course the big one, speeding Once the Church was strong categorically We made our home in Rome when no one bothered Italy Now I spend my precious time making laws for you to keep Don't forget I'm the shepherd, you're supposed to be the sheep And now you're back, just when you please It's such a casual communion you think wafers grow on trees I should have made you take a vow, I should have made you sign a form With my laws on contraception it was me who got you born So now just go, get off my faith Just turn around now, you're not welcome any place I tried to teach you God's new laws, tried to teach you them with zeal It might have been much quicker to train the Papal seal And now I'm back from being shot I look as lively as I've ever done which doesn't say a lot But I showed those doubting Thomases who thought I could be hurt I'm the world's best male role model in a full-length satin skirt But I'm still back to steal the show I'm not the pooped out little Pontiff that your granny used to know I can kiss the dirt all over 'cause my touring roster's full I can make a saint a fortnight, I can talk the Papal Bull I am a rock, I will survive As long as I can hum a hymn I know I'm still alive I may not be the best Pope but at least I'm not the worst And I know that in comparison to Pope John Paul the First I will survive. Martin Pearson & John Thompson sing The Pope Song |
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30 Oct 20 - 05:37 AM (#4077402) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Stewie previously posted a Dave Oakes song : “Beneath Uluru” : Dave writes Good Stuff! Lawler’s Balcony was on a self-built Troppo*** home in Darwin’s “Coconut Grove” and this balcony saw much merriment and music-making in the ‘80s :) LIVERPOOL ECHO (aka Lawler’s Balcony) Dave Oakes I was sitting on Lawler’s balcony, I looked at him and he looked at me He said “It’s been a long time since I watched that River Mersey flow” Yeah, we were just a couple of kids when the Beatles had all those hits And Liverpool echoed to the sound of brand new Rock and Roll. Ch. And Lawler laughs – oh, you know how Lawler laughs It’s infectious – makes you wanna laugh along And Lawler cries, tears well up in his eyes Worrying about the world that’s Lawler’s job. Sitting on Lawler’s balcony, as the sun sets over the Timor Sea He said “I’m glad I came here, this Australia’s so very much alive” Yeah, it beats walkin’ in the rain - we’ll never be the same again Missing the last bus and having to walk all the way along Queens Drive. Lawler laughs – oh, you know how Lawler laughs It’s infectious – makes you wanna laugh along Lawler cries, tears well up in his eyes Worrying about the world that’s Lawler’s job. Chilly winds and icy seas spray the Wallasey Ferry The tractor tyres on the landing stage bounce and bounce and sway The rain, in grey and scattered sheets, illuminates the street lamps And it all seems so romantic when it’s oh, so far away. Sitting on Lawler’s balcony, in the early morning - ‘bout half past three Drinking home brew, reminiscing all our yesterdays. “Why should I worry?” Lawler sighs - and looks up at those Southern skies “This is Darwin – Paradise! – I got Frangipanni breeze!” (Ahhhhh…) Lawler laughs – oh, you know how Lawler laughs It’s infectious – you just have to laugh along Lawler cries, tears well up in his eyes Worrying about the world that’s Lawler’s job. Here is a clip of Dave Oakes' (of Alice Springs but ex Liverpool, UK) heart-felt observations, sung by local Maleny (and ex-Liverpool) troubadour, Tommy Leonard : https://www.tommyleonard.com/lawlersbalcony.mp3 I feel it is a most beautiful song ..... (but then I would :) ***Here is a link to views of the Top End Troppo house that Paul (ex Liverpool, UK) built in the 1980s, with views over the mangroves to the sea : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bueF-1abr_s&t=2s Vale, Lawls (1946-2014) Cheers, R-J |
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30 Oct 20 - 05:52 AM (#4077406) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney If no-one has Martin's (S)crap Book or Bucket of Air, I might have to locate my copies in the BMC library. sandra |
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30 Oct 20 - 09:36 PM (#4077533) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie BAYLEY STREET (J.Sorensen/R.Montgomery) Oh men have come and men have gone ?Since Bayley's star gleamed bright ?And new lights shine where old lights shone ?In Bayley street tonight And did you see those grand old men ?Bright-eyed, though bowed and grey? Returning to the fields again? Like ghosts of yesterday The human tide swept swiftly west? Then slowly ebbed again? And some fulfilled their golden quest? While some found loss and pain And some returned to whence they came ? With wealth and tales to tell? And some found graves that bear no name? And some still with us dwell My father often told a tale ?While young eyes glistened bright ?Of golden days at Bonnie Vale? And Bayley street by night For he was of the eastern side ?He felt the urge to roam? Long wait ‘They’ by the Lachlan side ?He made the west his home Now forty years have passed away (Twelve thousand suns have set) And from that roaring yesterday The echoes linger yet Yes, men have come and men have gone Since Bayley's star gleamed bright And new lights shine where old lamps shone In Bayley street tonight Another Sorensen poem set to music by Roger Montgomery. It relates to Bayley Street in Coolgardie and the gold rush. Recorded on Dingo's Breakfast 'Jack Sorensen: Weaver of Dreams'. Strangely, Dingo's Breakfast CD has it titled 'The ghosts of Bayley Street' which is another Sorensen poem. Read it here: Ghosts of Bayley Street Arthur Wellesley Bayley discovered the gold field around which Coolgardie grew. Bayley --Stewie. |
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30 Oct 20 - 09:43 PM (#4077535) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Piper on the Hilltop - John Warner 1989 Lyrics from "Who was There" John was moved by the unexpected sound of bagpipes being played near the Spence shops in Belconnen near Canberra. The moment was climaxed by a dramatic summer thunderstorm rising over the Brindabella Range, an outcrop of the Snowy Mountains. A 'pibroch' is a traditional bagpipe air serving as a call to battle or a lament . It's a hot December evening And there's herald of a change In the mighty clouds that roll across The Brindabella Range. There's a piper on the hilltop By the supermarket square, And his pibroch falls like sunset clouds Above the city air. The chattering of kids at play, The sullen roar of cars The thunder of a jet plane's flight Above the rising stars. I sit beside my window And I listen to the town And an aching air, an old lament, Like mist comes drifting down. Then Spence gives way to Glencoe, Bonny Charlie's at Dunbar, And the 'Flowers of the Forest,' They all are gone awa' A breeze disturbs the silent leaves, Rolling thunder brings the change With the pibroch for Belconnen Town By the Brindabella Range |
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30 Oct 20 - 10:51 PM (#4077539) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I reckon this one deserves a place in any Oz songbook. Here in the Top End, it has been trotted out in many a boozy folkie session - just shows our advanced years! ROCK AND ROLL (I GAVE YOU ALL THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE) (Kevin Johnson) I can still remember when I bought my first guitar Remember just how good the feeling was, put it proudly in my car And my family listened fifty times to my two-song repertoire And I told my mum her only son was gonna be a star Bought all the Beatles records, sounded just like Paul Bought all the old Chuck Berrys, 78s and all And I sat by my record player, playin’ every note they played And I watched them all on TV, makin' every move they made Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moonlit summer nights I was so busy in the back room writin’ love songs to you While you were changin’ your direction and you never even knew That I was always just one step behind you '66 seemed like the year I was really goin’ somewhere We were living in San Francisco, with flowers in our hair Singing songs of kindness so the world would understand That the guys and me were something more than just another band And then ’69 in LA, came around so soon We were really making headway and writing lots of tunes And we must have played the wildest stuff we had ever played The way the crowds cried out for us, we thought we had it made Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life All the crazy lazy young days, all the magic moonlit nights I was so busy on the road singin’ love songs to you While you were changin’ your direction, and you never even knew That I was always, just one step behind you ’71 in Soho, when I saw Suzanne I was trying to go it solo, with someone else’s band And she came up to me later and I took her by the hand And I told her all my troubles and she seemed to understand And she followed me through London, through a hundred hotel rooms Through a hundred record companies who didn’t like my tunes And she followed me when, finally, I sold my old guitar And she tried to help me understand, I’d never be a star Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moonlit summer nights And though I never knew the magic of makin’ it with you I thank the Lord for giving me the little bit I knew And I will always be one step behind you Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life Singing out my love songs in the brightly flashing lights And though I never knew the magic of makin’ it with you I thank the Lord for giving me the little bit I knew Youtube clip It was a quick song for me because I've spent months on one line. It just came to me one day as I was driving home, feeling all this frustration of two years without making a record. So I decided to write a song not about giving someone the best years of my life, but to write about the pursuit of success, which I thought related to a lot of people around the world, not just in music but anything. Kevin Johnson March 2002. --Stewie. |
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30 Oct 20 - 11:07 PM (#4077541) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Can someone explain why unwanted question marks appear when posting some lyrics. It happened again with 'Bayley Street' lyrics above. Annoying! --Stewie. |
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31 Oct 20 - 06:21 AM (#4077565) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Apologies Stew, you had posted CONDAMINE on the 15th and I repeated it 15 days later!! R-J :(( Good on yer for the Kevin Johnson classic - I had been wondering about it!! As I had also been wondering about Doug Ashdown's "Winter in America" (co-written with Jimmy Stewart)??? That duo were also responsible for "Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show", so beautifully done by the late Marian Henderson. Doug was an Adelaide boy, I believe ..... R-J |
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31 Oct 20 - 06:40 AM (#4077569) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney no worries - I forgot to put it on the list (oops!) I was busy posting info about Joe Daly, so we still (only) have 383 songs sandra (wondering if she has missed any other songs) |
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31 Oct 20 - 07:59 AM (#4077583) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Funny you should wonder that, Sandra! I have been going through from the start to see songs that may be missing a recording clip (and yes, there are some!) and then researching them - but what a long job that is promising to be!!! :(( 14-15 Sept a reference to Graham Seal's audio/lyrics website 24-25 Sept a reference to Daniel Kelly's audio/lyrics website 28 Sept links to heaps of WA songs, but esp "The Georgette" but mostly 04 Oct Dance Up the Sun (John Thompson) is missing 04 Oct Down in the Goldmine (anon) is missing + only about 12-13 songs since Old No. 377 and up to today = 31 Oct So, not much! (you're doing a splendid job, Sandra!) Cheers, R-J |
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31 Oct 20 - 09:52 PM (#4077682) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Here's another good'un from Kevin Johnson - a song for his youngest son. SCOTTY (Kevin Johnson) With wide eyes you wonder why you understand some And you don't understand all the rest Well, little boy, your daddy's been living a while And I really don't know much myself I'll teach you the whys and the wherefores And the ways of this world I have known But life is a journey of different directions And sometimes we travel alone And Scotty Life can be rough Life can be tough Life can be kind Scotty, life can be fun Life can be one wonderful time So live with the good times And learn from the bad And laugh at the fun times you've had Look for the reasons to carry you through And Scotty That's all you can do And you wonder why some days are fun days and Sundays And some days may not be the same Well blue skies are many and grey skies are few So we do what we can in the rain The whys and the wherefores are there for a reason And sometimes we don't understand But life is a journey that's leading us somewhere And we get there the best way we can And Scotty life can be rough Life can be tough Life can go wrong Scotty, life can be fun Life can just come rolling along So live with the good times And learn from the bad And laugh at the fun times you've had Look for the reasons to carry you through And Scotty That's all you can do Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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31 Oct 20 - 10:10 PM (#4077683) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie I DON'T WANT TO BE A KIWI (Peter Cape) I don't really want to be a Kiwi I'd much, much rather be a Pom So you sheilas and you jokers and you drovers and you soakers Can go back to the bush where you belong No, I don't really want to be a Kiwi And I think great-grandmama went quite astray When she took a southern trip on the Wakefield's sailing ship And got married to a miner on the Grey It's nasty, coarse and rough to be a Kiwi And I cannot stand the language that they speak And to hear that voice declaiming all those 'tarts' and 'bints' and 'flamings' Almost puts me off my - er - tucker for a week No, I won't, won't, will not be a Kiwi (Who really wants to be a flightless bird?) The lion, and unicorn too, were symbols I was born to But this flightless avian is quite absurd No, I may not, cannot, must not be a Kiwi But I know my sense of loneliness is keen When I see a map and say, there, twelve thousand miles away Is the Home to which I've never, ever, been Tune: 'I don't want to join the army' --Stewie |
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31 Oct 20 - 10:39 PM (#4077684) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie Another whimsical offering from Peter Cape. The Monde Marie was a folksinging coffee bar in Wellington run by Mary Seddon who died in July 2000. MONDE MARIE (Peter Cape) The gramophone's playing lieder The radio's blaring jazz There's a brass band outside with its valves open wide In a hell of a razzamatazz In the flat below there's a cello Above there's a whole symphony So I'm off for the night Of the music I like Down at the Monde Marie You can blow 'til there's cracks in your cornet You can boomph your bassoon 'til it bursts You can saw your Strad 'til the catgut goes bad And your manuscript moulders to dust But don't think I'm a sucker for silence There's no scrap of the Trappist in me Far better than quiet for me is a diet Of song a la Monde Marie So keep your violas di Gamba Your clavichords, rebecks and lutes Likewise your saxophones, bongos and slide-trombones Flageolets, fipples and flutes What I want is the sound of Segovia An Ives or a Clauson-to-be And to hear them my choice is the guitars and voices I find at the Monde Marie Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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01 Nov 20 - 03:49 AM (#4077695) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy VAN DIEMEN’S LAND Stan Hugill's (one of many variants) Ye rambling boys of Liverpool, I'll have ye to beware, 'Tis when ye go a-hunting wid yer dog, yer gun, yer snare, Watch out for the game-keepers, keep your dog at your command Just think on all them hardships, goin' to Van Diemen's Land. We had two Irish lads on board, Mickey Murphy an' Paddy Malone, And they were both the stoutest friends that ever a man could own. But the gamekeeper he'd caught them, and from ol' England's strand They were seven years transported for to plough Van Diemen's Land. We had on board a lady fair, Bridget Reilly wuz her name, An' she wuz sent from Liverpool for a-playin' of the game. Our captain fell in love wid her and he married her out of hand, And she gave us all good usage, boys, goin' to Van Diemen's Land. The moment that we landed there, upon that fatal shore, The planters they inspected us, some fifty score or more, Then they marched us off like hosses, an' they sold us out of hand, They yoked us to the plough, me boys, for to plough Van Diemen's Land. As I lay in me bunk one night, a dreamin' all alone, I dreamt I wuz in Liverpool, 'way back in Marybone, Wid me own true love beside me, an' a jug o' ale in me hand Then awoke so broken-hearted, lyin' on Van Diemen's Land. Lyrics taken from the Mainly Norfolk site. This Antipodean penal colony, just one of many overseas dumping grounds for the British Govt, was renamed from Abel Tasman’s “Van Diemen’s Land” to Tasmania in 1856, along with gaining “responsible self govt” and eventually became Australia’s island state at Federation, in 1901. Transportation was abolished in 1852, but Port Arthur was open until 1877. Sung here by the late Marian Henderson : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EDwD_kGrYw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfHU_Nbe1rQ Here’s one by Alex Hood (includes old pics) This one’s a Scouse recitation, with rather disturbing visuals!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTLcJdSQzZw Van Diemen’s Land has become a popular songwriting and film-making subject and other songs of this title were found by Australia’s Russell Morris, U2’s The Edge, and Aussie blues guitar legend Jeff Lang. I’m sure there’s more. Cheers, R-J I think that's it from me for a few days; Werk is shrieking!! |
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01 Nov 20 - 06:40 PM (#4077796) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie WHILE THE BILLY BOILS (D.M.Wright/P.Garland The speargrass crackles under the billy and overhead is the winter sun There’s snow on the hills, there’s frost in the gully, that reminds me of things that I’ve seen and done Of blokes that I knew, and mates that I’ve worked with, and the sprees that we had in the days gone by And a mist comes up from my heart to my eyelids, I feel fair sick and I wonder why There is coves and coves! Some I liked partic’lar, and some I would sooner I never knowed But a bloke can’t choose the chaps that he’s thrown with in the harvest paddock or here in the road There was chaps from the other side that I shore with that I’d like to have taken along for mates But we said, ‘So long!’ and we laughed and parted for good and all at the station gates I mind the time when the snow was drifting and Billy and me was out for the night We lay in the lee of a rock, and waited, hungry and cold, for the morning light Then he went one way and I the other – we’d been like brothers for half a year He said: ‘I’ll see you again in town, mate, and we’ll blow the froth off a pint of beer’ He went to a job on the plain he knowed of and I went poisoning out at the back And I missed him somehow – for all my looking I never could knock across his track The same with Harry, the bloke I worked with, the time I was over upon the coast He went for a fly-round over to Sydney, to stay for a fortnight – a month at most He never came back, and he never wrote me – I wonder how blokes like him forget We had been where no one had been before us, we had starved for days in the cold and wet We had sunk a hundred holes that was duffers, till at last we came on a fairish patch An’ we worked in rags in the dead of winter while the ice-bars hung from the frozen thatch Yes, them was two, and I can’t help mind them – good mates as ever a joker had But there’s plenty more as I’d like to be with, for half of the blokes on the road is bad It sets me a-thinking, the world seems wider, for all we fancy it’s middling small When a chap like me makes friends in plenty and they slip away and he loses them all The speargrass crackles under the billy and overhead is the winter sun There’s snow on the hills, there’s frost in the gully and, oh, the things that I’ve seen and done The blokes that I’ve knowed and the mates that I’ve worked with, and the sprees that we had in the days gone by But I somehow fancy we’ll all be pen-mates on the day when they call the roll of the sky Another poem by NZ's 'outback laureate', David McKee Wright. Above is the complete poem. In this YT clip, Phil Garland amends and shortens the poem: Youtube clip Wright moved to Australia in 1910 and wrote for 'The Bulletin' and other publications. David McKee Wright --Stewie. |
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01 Nov 20 - 07:37 PM (#4077799) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie THE BOTTLE RUN (Barry Skipsey) Sweating on the bloody board waiting for the bell And the cocky's bending down, giving me hell The wheels are spinning down the line Seems everyone's the gun And this we call the bottle run Chorus: The bottle run, well I smell it through the bottle This shearer is waiting for his beer Hang up your dungarees and drag that stubby clear We'll wash the pain away with a quiet beer Wethers in the first run, finally cut them out Breaking combs and cutters, I made them pay Kick that bastard down the chute, he's not worth the time He's not worth the sixty cents I earn Chorus Roustie fetch the lambing boards and change the locks and pieces Cheeky lad, you'll get my boot I hear you drop that broom once more, you'll have the team upon you And with black balls you won't look so cute Chorus I've smoked my share of rollies, I've cursed and sweated all day I swear I'll give this bloody game away But until I win the lottery or make it with the nags You'll find me hear on board amongst the dags Chorus I travelled up from Melbourne town looking for a pen I'm working Queensland sheds once again Yes, I'm working for the Grazcos man until the setting sun And waiting for that bottle run Chorus Another little bottler from Barry Skipsey of Alice Springs. This was first recorded for his 'NT Road' LP. Barry noted: I was once told by a shearer that he considered the last two hours of his day to be called the bottle run. Why? Because he reckoned he could smell the beer through the bottle. Youtube clip Wongawilli did a fine cover: Wongwilli Grazcos --Stewie. |
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01 Nov 20 - 08:38 PM (#4077806) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie NULLABOR SONG (Kasey Chambers) When the fire burns out here It's brighter than the city lights Warmer than a heart of gold And dingoes howl just to break the silence The sun comes up just to break the cold Last night I woke With the stars looking back at me Swallowing the sky I felt no anger, I felt no shame I felt no reason to cry If I'm not here in the morning I'll cry a river of tears And I'll learn to live in a new town But my heart is staying here When it's quiet out here A hundred miles away You can hear the train on the line The whistle blows just to break the silence I wave just to break the time I close my eyes I think of runnin' water I think of runnin' away But the fire's burnt to ashes And it's darker than before But I can see as clear as day If I'm not here in the morning I'll cry a river of tears And t I'll learn to live in a new town But my heart is staying here Yes, I'll learn to live in a new town But my heart is staying here Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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02 Nov 20 - 03:34 AM (#4077839) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy Yay! So good to hear Skippy again and "The Bottle Run"!! Sadly, I don't think I've got his "NT Road" LP anymore :( and now for something completely different : THE PLAINS OF EMU (John McGarvie, 1829 - aka The Exile of Erin) I. O ! farewell my country--my kindred--my lover ; Each morning and evening is sacred to you, While I toil the long day without shelter or cover, And fell the tall gums the black-butted and blue. Full often I think of and talk of thee, Erin-- Thy eath-covered mountains are fresh in my view, Thy glens, lakes and rivers, Loch-Con and Kilkerran, While chained to the soil on the Plains of Emu. II. The iron-bark, wattle and gum-trees extending Their shades under which rests the shy kangaroo, May be felled by the bless'd who have hope o'er them bending, To cheer their rude toil tho' far exiled from you. But, alas! without hope, peace, or honour to grace me, Each feeling was crushed in the bud as it grew, Whilst "never" is stamped on the chains that embrace me, And endless my thrall on the Plains of Emu. III. Hard hard was my fate far from thee to be driven, Unstained, unconvicted, as sure was my due; I loved to dispense of the freedom of Heaven, But force gained the day and I suffer for you. For this hand never broke what by promise was plighted, Deep treason this tongue to my country ne'er knew, No base-earned coin in my coffer e'er lighted, Yet enchained I remain on the Plains of Emu. IV. Dear mother thy love from my bosom shall never, Depart, but shall flourish untainted and true ; Nor grieve that the base in their malice should ever Upbraid thee, and none to give malice her due. Spare, spare her the tear and no charge lay upon her, And weep not my Norah her griefs to renew, But cherish her age till night closes on her, And think of the swain who still thinks but of you. V. But your names shall still live though like writing in water ; When confined to the notes of the tame cockatoo, Each wattle scrub echo repeats to the other Your names and each breeze hears me sighing anew. For dumb be my tongue, may my heart cease her motion, If the Isle I forget where my first breath I drew ! Each affection is warmed with sincerest devotion, For the tie is unbroken on the Plains of Emu. Anambaba, May, 1829. Lyrics taken from Mark Gregory’s excellent “Folkstream” site : http://folkstream.com/071.html Raymond Crooke writes on his YT channel : “Though it's often thought of as a traditional Australian convict ballad, this song, also known as "The Plains of Emu", was written by John McGarvie, who wrote under the nom de plume "M." It was first published in "The Sydney Gazette", 26th May, 1829. The tune is traditional and is generally known as "Savourneen Deelish." Emu Plains was a prison farm 35 miles from Sydney for convicts transported to Australia, established with the purpose of growing food to feed the increasing population of Sydney I first heard this sung by English-Australian folksinger, Brian Mooney, on the classic album "Moreton Bay and Other Songs, Mainly of Convict Origin" (1963), which he made with Martyn Wyndham-Read and David Lumsden…..” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6cIy4LKWaE I was only familiar with ALEX HOOD’s rendition, but this is an interesting version by Sydney’s renowned all-rounder JEANNIE LEWIS. more about her here : https://peoplepill.com/people/jeannie-lewis/ OK, back to werk now! Cheers, R-J |
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02 Nov 20 - 06:57 AM (#4077858) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy A SONG FOR GRACE by Ted Egan I was a girl of thirteen when my 3 brothers went to the war Martin and Robert and Jack, and as I wave from the door I thought who in the world could have brothers as handsome as they Three Australian Light Horsemen : I see their proud figures today, Our parents were Irish with no love for England at all But their sons were Australians and each bravely answered the call In their turned-up slouch hats, and their feathers and leggings and spurs The Empire, as much as my mother, knew these sons were hers, And at the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them, Lest we forget. The mailman brought cards from Colombo and then from Port Said Here's a photo of Jack in Egypt, his first camel ride And look at young Bobby, in London, here crossing The Strand And Martin writes 'mum and dad, life in the army is grand', The same mailman brought us the news about our darling Jack Regret to inform you your son John will never come back He died of his wounds at Gallipoli, so brave was he He’s awarded the Military Medal, posthumously, And at the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them, Lest we forget. The telegram came, my mother collapsed, and I had The terrible task of breaking the news to my dad With our old draught horse, Punch, my father was ploughing the land I ran to the paddock, the telegram clutched in my hand, The Irishman read it, said thank you, now leave me alone Go on back to the house, help your mother, she's there on her own He called, 'Stand up Punch, we have to get on with this job' But I saw his slumped shoulders, and I heard his heart rending sob, And at the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them, Lest we forget. Well Robert was gassed and he always had pains in his head And Martin was shell-shocked and he’d’ve been better off dead And I, I’m just an old lady who watched them all go But I am the one you should ask about war, for I know, That all of these years have gone by and I know that we’ve met Yes, I will remember them : I can’t forget, And at the going down of the sun and in the morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ycH8wwFJs Ted Egan wrote this song for his mother, Grace; sung here by his wife, Nerys Evans. No further comment is necessary. R-J |
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02 Nov 20 - 08:10 AM (#4077869) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy THE THINGS WE DARE NOT TELL Henry Lawson (1901) The fields are fair in autumn yet, and the sun's still shining there, But we bow our heads and we brood and fret, because of the masks we wear; Or we nod and smile the social while, and we say we're doing well, But we break our hearts, oh, we break our hearts! for the things we must not tell. There's the old love wronged ere the new was won, there's the light of long ago; There's the cruel lie that we suffer for, and the public must not know. So we go through life with a ghastly mask, and we're doing fairly well, While they break our hearts, oh, they kill our hearts! do the things we must not tell. We see but pride in a selfish breast, while a heart is breaking there; Oh, the world would be such a kindly world if all men's hearts lay bare! We live and share the living lie, we are doing very well, While they eat our hearts as the years go by, do the things we dare not tell. We bow us down to a dusty shrine, or a temple in the East, Or we stand and drink to the world-old creed, with the coffins at the feast; We fight it down, and we live it down, or we bear it bravely well, But the best men die of a broken heart for the things they cannot tell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAfqf8pysg A setting by the late Noel Watson, sung by Blue Mountains musician, Christine Wheeler and friends, from her 2013 CD of Lawson songs “Rain in the Mountains”, A very different and topical interpretation by musician, Katherine Buckell, residing in NY, but born in Victoria : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUbYjXuAgD4 R-J |
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02 Nov 20 - 07:20 PM (#4077946) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie CULLER'S LAMENT (Black Matai) (P.Cape/D.Toms) What are you singing, black matai, black matai There's snow on the tops and the fire's burning down What are you singing, east wind in the matai Your love's left the station, she's gone to the town What are you chattering, tall mountain birches The wind's in the west and the rain's pelting down The flash floods are coming, I've got to keep moving Your love's left the station, she's gone to the town What are you whispering, wind in the snowgrass Combing the tussocks and smoothing them down My love's hair was golden, like snowgrass in summer Your love's left the station, she's gone to the town Winds in the open tops what are you calling There's deer in the valley, a thousand feet down You cry on the cols and you shout on the ridges My love's left the station, she's gone to the town The stink of the deerskins, the screech of the keas The eighty pound pack that keeps dragging me down I'll get out of the mountains and back to the sheep yards But my love's left the station, she's gone to the town Youtube clip Note: Deer cullers hunt deer in the bush and mountains to reduce their numbers and thereby the damage they do to the environment. Nowadays, hunting is often done by helicopter, but cullers used to live lonely lives - in the wilderness for weeks at a time, getting supplies through high country stations and returning to town only after months of drying and packing skins. Deer were introduced for sport, but in the 1930s high country farmers and forest workers realised that the deer were a threat to farming and the land itself. They competed with sheep for grazing and destroyed bush and high country cover, leading to soil erosion. The deer culler was a 'good keen man', the phrase coming from a newspaper advertisement for cullers. They came from all backgrounds and were renowned for their humour and independence. From 'An Ordinary Joker:The life and songs of Peter Cape' p106. Matai - (black pine) a major forest tree reaching 30m with a tall straight trunk. Kea - native parrot, the world's only alpine parrot. 'the weight of the rifle' is often sung in place of 'the screech of the keas' Col - a mountain pass or saddle 80 pound pack - the approx 40kg pack that carried essentials for the culler: food, clothes, ammunition, billy and plate. Snowgrass - hardy alpine grass which grows in tussocks or clumps. --Stewie. |
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02 Nov 20 - 07:38 PM (#4077947) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie EULOGY (FOR A BLACK PERSON) (Kev Carmody) Lay me down in the sacred ground Keep me from the cold Keep me in the deep warm earth Where the stars can see my soul Take me where them trees stand tall By the waters in the river bend Let me face the rising sun Commend my spirit to the wind Make no monuments or mortal crowns Or speak my name again when you lay me down Lay me where the forest blooms In the land that’s seen no plough Where the fragrance on the western wind Is carried from every springtime flower Give me peace and give me rest Lay me down on the mountain crest Bury me softly without a sound Let the scrub grow back across that mound Make no monuments or mortal crowns Or speak my name again when you lay me down Bury me quick and bury me deep Without no coffin or shrouded sheet Wrap me in the Mother Earth So I can nurture the land’s rebirth Give me joy and give me song Carry the struggle wide and long Do not grieve and do not weep Mortal memories are all we keep make no monuments or mortal crowns Or speak my name again when you lay me down Let the winter dew fall on that grave Let me see the night sky blaze See the moon in the winter’s wane Knifing through that cosmic maze Give me water, give me fire Don’t give me monuments of stone Give me rainbows in the sky Give me back my land in which to lie Make no monuments or mortal crowns Or speak my name again when you lay me down Youtube clip --Stewie. |
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02 Nov 20 - 08:42 PM (#4077959) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy EUABALONG BALL Oh, who hasn't heard of Euabalong Ball Where the lads of the Lachlan, the great and the small Come bent on diversion from far and from near To cast off their troubles for just once a year Like stringy old wethers, the shearers in force All rushed to the bar as a matter of course While waltzing his cliner, the manager cursed 'Cause someone had caught him a jab with his spurs There were sheilas in plenty, some two or three score Some two-tooths, some weaners, some maybe some more With their fleeces all dipped and so fluffy and clean The finest young shearlings that ever was seen The boundary-riders was friskin' about But the well-sinkers seemed to be feelin' the drought If the water was scarce, well, the whisky was there And what they couldn't drink, boys, they rubbed in their hair There was music and dancin' and goin' the pace Some went at a canter, some went at a race There was buckin' and glidin' and rootin' and slidin' And to vary the gait, some couples collidin' Oh, Euabalong Ball was a wonderful sight Rams among the two-tooths the whole flamin' night And many young girls will regret to recall The polkas they danced at Euabalong Ball. "Euabalong is on the Lachlan River some forty miles west of Condobolin, and the song was still around in those parts when I worked there in the early 1930s. A more genteel version than ours, called The Wooyeo Ball, was printed in Rob Webster’s The First Fifty Years of Temora (Temora, NSW, 1950), but the song belongs to the West, not the South. Webster puts the date of his version as 1888. In the course of more than thirty years singing the song, I’m sure I’ve tinkered around a lot with the tune. - A. L. Lloyd" I was after the version by Australia’s “The Wild Colonials” bushband (which originated with Declan Affley c.1969), with Jacko Kevins singing lead, but I have lamented their YT dirth before in this thread. [So far I have only come across one offering : “Canine Catastrophe” (aka The Dog’s Festival) : maybe that one should be posted???] BtW, I note that I incorrectly referred to them in my September 12th post as “The Wild Colonial Boys” but that is the Canadian band. The Aussie ones were “The Wild Colonials”. Anyhoo, despite the lyrics and notes above being taken from A.L.Lloyd’s recording on “The Great Aust’n Legend” LP, here is a version by The Cobbers : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeFihol-TbE R-J |
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02 Nov 20 - 08:45 PM (#4077960) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Stewie More than 20 years ago, Bob Bolton posted this sentimental poem set to music by John Lahey. HERBERT HOOVER'S LOVE SONG (H.Hoover/J.Lahey) Do you ever dream, my sweetheart, of a twilight long ago Of a park in old Kalgoorlie, where the bougainvilleas grow Where the moonbeams on the pathways trace a shimmering brocade And the overhanging peppers form a lovers'promenade? Where in soft cascades of cadence from a garden close at hand Came the murmurous, mellow music of a sweet, orchestral band Years have flown since then, my sweetheart, fleet as orchard blooms in May But the hour that fills my dreaming, was it only yesterday? Stood we two a space in silence, while the summer sun slipped down And the grey dove dusk, with drooping pinions, wrapt the mining town Then you raised your tender glances darkly, dreamily to mine And my pulses clashed like symbols in a rhapsody divine And the pent-up fires of longing loosed their prison's weak control And in wild, hot words came rushing from my burning soul Wild hot words that spoke of passion, hitherto but half expressed And I clasped you close, my sweetheart, kissed you, strained you to my breast While the starlight-spangled heavens rolled around us where we stood And a tide of bliss kept surging through the current of our blood And I spent my soul in kisses, crushed upon your scarlet mouth Oh! My red-lipped, sunbrowned sweetheart, dark-eyed daughter of the south It was well that fate should part us, it was well my path should lead Back to slopes of high endeavour, aye, and was it well, indeed You have wed some southern squatter, learned long since his every whim Soothed his sorrows, borne his troubles, sung your sweetest songs for him I have fought my fight and triumphed, on the map I've writ my name But I prize one hour of loving, more than fifty years of fame It was but a summer madness that possessed us, men will hold And the yellow moon bewitched me with its wizardry of gold Let them say it, dear, but oft-times in the dusk I close my eyes And in dreams drift back to where the stars rain splendour from the skies To a park in far Kalgoorlie, where the golden wattles grow Where you kissed me in the twilight of a summer long ago And I clasp you close, my sweetheart, while each throbbing pulse is thrilled By a low and mournful music that shall never more be stilled Note from p10 'Great Australian Folk Songs, John Lahey, Hill of Content Publishing Co, Melbourne, 1965. These remarkable verses are attributed to the late Herbert Hoover, President of the United States between 1929 and 1932. Hoover first came to the West Australian goldfields as a 23-year-old mining engineer in 1897, and he lived in Australia off and on for the next ten years. The goldfields historian, the late Arthur Reid, who knew Hoover, preserved the verses in his book 'Those Were the Days'. He said Hoover wrote them to a Kalgoorlie barmaid, years after he returned to the United States. Several West Australians sing different tunes, but their words are substantially the same. The tune here is my own adaptation. Youtube clip The American election looms. As a Republican, I wonder what Hoover would have thought of Trump. --Stewie. |
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02 Nov 20 - 10:27 PM (#4077971) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: rich-joy GREEN BAN FUSILIERS by Denis Kevans ©1972 tune: McAlpine's Fusiliers Chorus Up Broadway to the MBA come the Green Ban Fusiliers. They stole the street with their marching feet, placards high above their ears. In Sydney town they would not lie down, they gave Martin's scabs some cheer, And it's up Broadway to the MBA come the Green Ban Fusiliers. Half-smart thieves with their Gucci sleeves and car parks on the brain Told the usual lie: 'The trees've got to die' - the fig trees in Sydney's domain, And some said, 'Joe, we orta let 'em go. It's only bloody timber to be cleared, Ah, but listen to the trees as they whisper to the breeze and the Green Ban Fusiliers. Bulldozer blades made a lightning raid, coming in with a great big rush, Moving in for the kill up at Hunter's hill, at beautiful Kelly's Bush, But the local women lay down in the bulldozer's way, to the bucking and the shuddering of the gears, When their hands were raised the ones they praised were the Green Ban Fusiliers. They made a stand for our sunny land at the Rocks and Woolloomooloo. On the chimney tops they waltzed with the cops to save a bit of Sydney for you, And the finance fleas who made refugees of families who had been pioneers Finished on their arse, and they did their brass with the Green Ban Fusiliers. Through the years and through my tears I can see 'em marching again, From the dizzy heights and the concrete sites in sunshine and in rain, That patch of green's gettin' a lovely old sheen, no matter how many flow the years, And it's up Broadway to the MBA come the Green Ban Fusiliers. Lyrics and notes from Mark Gregory’s EXcellent website : http://unionsong.com/u041.html "Many thanks to Denis Kevans for permission to publish this song. Denis, known as Australia's Poet Lorrikeet, worked in Sydney as a labourer and member of the NSW BLF when he wrote this song. In the 1970's the NSW Builders Labourers Federation joined with residents' action groups and took on major corporations to save heritage buildings, bushland, and low-rent inner-city housing from developers' bulldozers. The MBA in the song is the Master Builders Association." Obit for the late Jack Mundey in the online ARCHITECTUREAU ezine : https://architectureau.com/articles/green-bans-hero-jack-mundey-dies/ IMHO, if only we’d had more men of his strength of character and ethics (and Joe Owens and Bob Pringle too), in every city in Oz, there’d be more ‘history’, trees, public open space, beautiful old buildings, and social responsibility, still extant (yes, I’m looking at you, Perth) ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-sj50MyQOA Chloe & Jason Roweth sing this important tale. Back to Werk for me, R-J |
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03 Nov 20 - 02:03 AM (#4077978) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney wot not songs from Geoff & Peter?? All For Me Job © Geoff Francis and Peter Hicks 2006 Our union's story is there to be seen, We've won many victories and we've suffered defeats, But as I turn through the pages and look back through time, There's one single question stands out in my mind - Today we may prosper, today we live free, But if it weren't for the union, where would we be? Chorus: It's our union, our union that defends our rights, But our union's as strong as our will is to fight, For the union is you and the union is me, So stand up and stand by our union. From it's humble beginnings our union has grown, So no working person need struggle alone. But no gain that's been made has been made without cost, And together we'll see that no gain's ever lost; Take a look at those countries where workers aren't free - If it weren't for the union, where would we be? It's our union, our union ... Would you choose to go back, working twelve hours a day, Would you choose to toil more and a pittance be paid? Will you stand in the union against the new right, Or do you think on your own you can withstand their might? The answer is written in our history, If it weren't for the union, where would we be? It's our union, our union ... They say we've got problems, and the unions they blame, Well, Franco and Pinochet they said the same. If our union they weaken, if our union they break, Then where's our defence from becoming enslaved? So would you choose bondage above liberty? And if it weren't for the union, where would we be? It's our union, our union ... It's our union, our union ... sound |
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03 Nov 20 - 02:16 AM (#4077979) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney The Basic Wage Dream © Don Henderson 1963 Sung by Bill Berry I dreamed a doctor told a judge from the Arbitration Court That he would only live to preside on one more case being fought. The judge whose conscience was ill at ease thought if this case will be my last, To hand down a fair decision might make up for his unjust past. The next case that was to come before this very worried sage, Was a request to raise by fifty-two bob the weekly basic wage. The old chap granted the raise in full and to assure his place in heaven, Made the payments retrospective to nineteen hundred and seven. On the first pay day after the trial I couldn't believe my luck, The paymaster brought my wages out on a fork lift truck, I dreamed we got paid on a Friday and on that lovely night, Mayne Nickless sent an armoured car to get me home all right. On the way we stopped at the R.S.L. and as I walked inside, A poker machine took a look at my pay and committed suicide. I turned around when I heard a man behind me softly speak, It was Dr. Coombs trying to borrow a quid to see him through the week. The alarm went off and I recalled as I was waking up, How people dream they saw the horse that won the Melbourne Cup, But they can't remember what number it was, well my dream was just the same For I can't for the very life of me think of that judge's name. |
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03 Nov 20 - 03:31 AM (#4077983) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney Bump me into Parliament Come listen all kind friends of mine I want to move a motion To make an Eldorado here I've got a bonza notion Chorus Bump me into parliament Bounce me any way at all Bang me into parliament On next election day Some very wealthy friends I know Declare I am most clever While some can talk for an hour or so Why I can talk for ever I know the Arbitration Act As a sailor knows his riggins So if you want a small advance I'll talk to Justice Higgins I've read my bible ten times through And Jesus justifies me The man who does not vote for me By Christ he crucifies me Oh yes I am a Labor man And believe in revolution The quickest way to bring it on Is talking constitution I think the worker and the boss Should keep their present stations So I will surely pass a bill 'Industrial Relations' So bump them into parliament Bounce them any way at all Bung them into parliament Don't let the Court decay Written by Bill Casey an Australian member of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) who later became secretary of the Queensland Branch of the Seamens Union of Australia. The IWW or Wobblies played an important part in the development of trade unions in USA. The most famous Wobbly was organiser/songwriter Joe Hill who was framed on a murder charge and executed in Salt Lake City. His ashes were scattered in many cities throughout the world, including Sydney. Tune 'Yankee Doodle' |
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03 Nov 20 - 03:41 AM (#4077984) Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia From: Sandra in Sydney how topical! Clive Palmer song Tune: Old Palmer Song Clive Palmer he says loudly 'ideas never die'. But I will show that statement is a mighty lie, For I can name a few ideas that now are lacking lives, And one of those I'm glad to say was the 'right to beating wives'. It blows the mind heigh-ho Clive Palmer's joined the show, And he has formed a voting band, so let the music play, And if he makes the Lodge,he will be hard to dodge, He's plain to see, even when he's a thousand miles away People once believed that this old world was flat But Aristotle came along and he put paid to that, Yes he put paid to that and Galileo came to show, That the earth went round the sun and his telescope proved so. Another dead idea was that those who had black skin, Were not as good as those who had a lack of mel-an-in. Mr N. Mandela he fought and won that fight. We know now that Ap-ar-thied, simply was not right. Ideas they will grow and they will fall and die, When all the people learn to think and don't believe a lie, Let no-one preach a lie for just like you and me, Ideas can languish and expire like leaves fall from a tree. Extra Expandable Verses So build your ship Titanic Clive although that has been done, And your Tyranosaurus Rex will not scare anyone, Why don't you use your money, it's something you don't lack, Build swimming pools for |