The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4551   Message #24812
Posted By: Alan of Australia
28-Mar-98 - 08:20 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Irish folk songs
Subject: Lyr Add: THE PUB WITH NO BEER^^^
G'day,
A couple of those songs are Aussie:

"NOW I'M EASY" was written by Eric Bogle (formerly Scottish but now officially Australian). You can find it in the database if you click here.
Here is the gist of my reply in another thread months ago to someome who mistook it for an Irish song:-

Eric Bogle's "Now I'm Easy" is actually full of Aussie references:-

cocky - Aussie slang for farmer

droughts & fires & floods - could be anywhere maybe, but applies particularly to Oz, the driest continent on earth.

Flying Doctor - Royal Flying Doctor Service which brings medical help to people in outlying areas covering 2 million square miles and has been operating since 1927. Started by Rev. John Flynn (Flynn of the Inland) and Alfred Traeger who invented the pedal wireless which was used for many years by remote farmers etc.

gentle old black gin - gin is an aboriginal word for woman.

"Pub With No Beer" is also Aussie. It's in the DT but here it is the way most Aussies would remember it:-

PUB WITH NO BEER

It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night where the wild dingoes call
But there's nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer.

Now the publican's anxious for the quota to come
And there's a faraway look on the face of the bum
The maid's gone all cranky and the cook's acting queer
Oh what a terrible place is a pub with no beer.

Then the stockman rides up with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar and pulls a wad from his coat
But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer
As the barman says sadly "The pub's got no beer."

Then the swaggy comes in smothered in dust and flies
He throws down his roll and rubs the sweat from his eyes
But when he is told he says "What's this I hear?
I've trudged fifty flamin' miles to a pub with no beer".

There's a dog on the verandah for his master he waits
But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
He hurries for cover and he cringes in fear
It's no place for a dog round a pub with no beer.

Old Billy the blacksmith the first time in his life
Has gone home cold sober to his darling wife
He walks in the kitchen she says "You're early my dear"
But then he breaks down and he tells her "The pub's got no beer".

It's lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night where the wild dingoes call
But there's nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer.

References to dingoes, stockman and swaggies clealy prove this is an Australian song quite apart from its very Aussie flavour.

Cheers,
Alan