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.