Sorry it's taken so long to get the full lyrics but it's taken me all this time to track down my mate Syd who sings the song.

I'll get onto him again and try to get the chords.

COCKY 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.

CHORUS: 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!


Cheers


Bugsy