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Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: GUEST,John Ross Date: 02 Oct 19 - 11:00 AM Chord suggestions will only really make sense if you copy and paste and format with a fixed-pitch font. Unfortunately, the Mudcat editor is fixed pitch, but when the post is made, it goes into Times. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: GUEST,John Ross Date: 02 Oct 19 - 10:52 AM As Michael sang Poison Train, the rhyme was implied, not stated, in the rather different last verse. A bit more genius: I vi "Well, it never lasted long IV Half the town was packed and gone II And everybody was afraid V To be left there alone All the people stayed away IV There was no celebration vi And nobody made a speech the day that IV I They closed down the railway" V There's a light... etc... |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: Andrez Date: 28 Aug 19 - 06:29 AM Michael was an important part of the Melbourne folk scene in the day. He had a wicked sense of humour and was one of the 'lads' around the traps, folk clubs, pubs and festivals. If anyone would like to hear some of his work it is accessible through the National Library of Australia at this link: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=author:%22O%27Rourke%2C%20Michael%22&iknowwhatimean=1 I last saw him in Brisbane not long before he passed from us. I feel privileged to be able to have called him a friend. RIP Michael. Cheers, Andrez |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: GUEST,John Ross Date: 28 Aug 19 - 04:04 AM I also played in 'Flying Pieman' with Michael. It is often said amongst friends, that though he is now dead, he will not lie down. Some of his finest lines are these, from 'No Man is a Stranger', also known as 'Sing Us a Song Boys': "I am the gun beaten out of the shovel, I am the riders out in the night, I am the dingo you'll hear in the bush And I never let go when I bite." He turned up to a practice one time with a rewritten version with a whole lot of cliches, because he got it in his head that the original was a bit edgy. "Where is the flag of the diggers' brigade; Where are the riders, out in the night?" I credit myself with talking him out of it! 'No Man is a Stranger' was a song he wrote as part of a musical he was working on, never completed, which involved a couple of latter-day bushrangers who terrorised the bush, Bonnie-and-Clyde style, in an old Holden. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 21 Apr 18 - 11:07 AM phew! I hadn't realised Michael O'Rourke also wrote No Man's A Stranger & T.I. Woman |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: Jack Campin Date: 21 Apr 18 - 05:33 AM Meanwhile in Alabama... NYC sewage train stuck for two months |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: GUEST Date: 21 Apr 18 - 05:08 AM Michael played in the band 'Flying Pieman' - we played several of his songs - Poison Train, No Man's a Stranger, Sweet Necessity & T.I.Woman. He was a quirky man - funny but quiet. A recent recording by Ken McMaster includes at least one of his songs - the wonderful 'Good time coming' |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: GUEST,SqueezeMe Date: 26 May 13 - 12:02 PM "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" Just love those particular lines; so beautifully descriptive. Henry would have been proud.... |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 26 May 13 - 06:53 AM Poison Train is a very popular song in Sydney singing sessions & further afield Jason & Chloe Roweth singing 'Poison Train' sandra |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison Train (Michael O'Rourke) From: GUEST,Anne Date: 26 May 13 - 03:35 AM I knew Michael O'Rourke personally way back when. Pleased to see his songs living on even though Michael has long since passed away. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Chris/Darwin Date: 05 Mar 00 - 08:51 AM Heard the Fagans sing this at Woodford 99, with Nancy Kerr playing fantastic fiddle. Hope they record it again with Nancy.
Regards |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Callie Date: 05 Mar 00 - 08:02 AM There's an excellent version of the song by The Fagans on "Kitchen Dance" --Callie |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Stewie Date: 05 Mar 00 - 05:13 AM Bob, thanks for that. --Stewie. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Bob Bolton Date: 05 Mar 00 - 04:22 AM G'day Stewie and Rick,
The Poison Train is in Songs of Australian Working Life, Thérèse Radic, Greenhouse Publications, 1989. She says of Mike O'Rourke: "... an important singer and songwriter of the Australian Folk Revival. O'Rourke was brought up on the Atherton Tableland, which seems to have provided the central image of this song. The train he refers to is the defoliant special used in tropis northern Queensland to keep the tracks free of weeds. O'Rourke equates it with the ruthlessness of economic forces against which the rural community feels powerless." Regards, Bob Bolton |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Stewie Date: 05 Mar 00 - 01:15 AM Hi Rick, I don't know much about him. I got a tape of a few good songs from Tony. Send a personal message to 'Tony in Darwin' and I'm sure he will be able to help you out with information etc. O'Rourke is a personal friend of his. I'd have to say that Davecoje is different, to say the least. --Stewie.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Rick Fielding Date: 05 Mar 00 - 12:56 AM Hi Stewie. Good song. Do you have any information on Mike O'Rourke? His name has come up (here in Toronto) a couple of times, and I'd like to check out his other stuff. Hope you're enjoying the refreshing warmth and wit of newcomer Davecoje as much as I am!! Rick |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Stewie Date: 05 Mar 00 - 12:33 AM Davecoje What the hell are you on about - or on? --Stewie. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Poison train From: Oversoul Date: 04 Mar 00 - 09:22 PM Thanks for the up-beat ditty! I feel like jumping in a boiling pit of sewage. Better yet, you and the bloke who wrote that hold hands and make a flying leap, thanks for the lovely images! |
Subject: ADD: The poison train ^^ From: Stewie Date: 04 Mar 00 - 08:52 PM THE POISON TRAIN (Michael O'Rourke)
This old town has had its day
Chorus:
When the railway opened here Chorus
Well, they built the street so wide Chorus
I still hear the tall man say Chorus
You feel sorry for the grass Chorus
Well, it never lasted long 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.
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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