Lyr Add: Dogs' Meeting: great Australian folk song

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 08:33 PM

Patterson's Billygoat Overland is proving a difficult piece of work to find on Mudcat.

Any clues?

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Cobble
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 08:13 PM

Good on yer cobber.

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: paddymac
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 07:52 PM

This is a fun song (any version of it) for late in the night, or any other time you've got a reasonably well lubricated audience. I have never heard the Aussie version with the "boom, boom, boom", but that strikes me as a great device for audience participation.

Subject: The Bush Controversy
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 07:39 PM

Hi All,

I just discovered this thread and am out searching for the Lincolnshire Poacher and the thing.

I have a few questions with regard to works from Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson. I am interested in the "Bush Controversy" that was played out in the Sydney papers (at the turn of the century I think).

I am keen to find verse/tunes which have links like "The Dogs meeting" and "Billygoat Overland" (to the tune of "The Lincolnshire Poacher") which by coincidence or by plan, have brought Lawson's and Patterson's works together.

Has the Bush Controversy been covered before in Mudcat?

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 06 Jul 99 - 02:57 AM

G'day all,

John in Brisbane: Billygoat Overland is a beaut song - a 'Banjo' Paterson poem set to the same Lincolnshire Poacher tune. It is in the (~1965) Penguin Book of Australian Songs (book 1) and well worth a look.

WW: The collecting notes show that Fred Sloane (locally known in Lithgow, NSW, as "the man of 1000 songs") knew The Dog's Meeting as a recitation and had never heard it sung. I guess that someone who heard "The Thing" - the Phil Harris 40s number - decided that the poem fitted it well enough and enjoyed singing it and using the (boom, boom, boom) device, which may have already been part of the poem ... after all, this sort of evasion device did not start with the commercial song.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Winters Wages
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 09:21 PM

Is this similar to the one done by Phil Harris in the 40's?? 'Get out of here with that Boom Boom Boom, before I call a cop."...worth a ponder WW

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 07:51 PM

Another dry Australian song to the same tune is 'Billygoat Overland' penned by Banjo Patterson as I recall. I don't believe that it's in the DT. I had a quick look for the lyrics last night without success.

Regards
John

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DOGS' MEETING
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 07:25 PM

G'day again,

I scanned in the full reference and words (but not the music, which is simply The Lincolnshire Poacher with the Boom, bomm, booms ofThe Thing.

Folk Songs of Australia and the men and women who sang them, John Meredith and Hugh Anderson, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1967, pp160-161.

Several elderly people have told John Meredith that Henry Lawson wrote 'The Dogs' Meeting' as well as the well-known 'Shearer's Lament'. When John was taking part in a concert at Mudgee, some time ago, an old man told him that he was with Lawson when he wrote it. They were sitting, the old chap said, on a seat outside one of the local pubs watching the dogs do what dogs do when they meet, and afterwards, in the bar, Henry wrote out the ballad and read it aloud. There are certainly a lot of dogs about Mudgee streets even today and Lawson certainly knew his dogs (see, for example, 'The Shearing of the Cook's Dog', 'That There Dog of Mine', 'The Loaded Dog', or 'Two Dogs and a Fence'), but whether he actually wrote these verses has been doubted by several reputable authorities.

When Bill Boundy sang 'The Dogs' Meeting' he thumped on a table with a boom, boom-boom rhythm in place of some words. A popular song of a few years ago, sung to the same tune, used the same method of replacing words with a thump, thump-thump.

'The Dogs' Meeting' was recorded at Fred Sloane's house in Lithgow. When Boundy had completed his song, Fred remarked that he had never heard it sung before, only as a recitation, so Meredith recorded him as well.

'The Dogs' Meeting'

Oh, the dogs once held a concert,
They came from near and far,
Oh, some they came by aeroplane,
And some by motor car.
Before into the concert hall
They were allowed to look,
Each dog had to take his (boom, boom-boom)
And hang it on a hook.
Oh, each dog had to take his (boom, boom-boom)
And hang it on a hook.

Oh, hardly were they seated there,
Each mother, son and sire,
When a dirty little yeller dog
Began to holler 'Fire!'
Out they rushed in panic-
They didn't stop to look-
Each dog he grabbed a (boom, boom-boom)
From off the nearest hook.

And that's the reason why you see,
On walking down the street,
Each dog will stop and swap a smell
With every dog he meets.
And that's the reason why a dog
Will leave a good fat bone
To go and smell a (boom, boom-boom)
In hope to find his own.
To go and smell a (boom, boom-boom)
In hope to find his own.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 02:59 AM

G'day Murray,

I don't know what other sources there are for this little ditty, but John Meredith collected it in the Mudgee/Gulgong area (definitely Henry Lawson territory)in the early 1950s from a local who claimed Henry had penned it in the local pub after some discussion about the personal habits of dogs.

The song is in Folksongs of Australia and the men and women who sang them, vol. 1, John Meredith and Hugh Anderson, ~1968, Ure Smith. I will check the exact details and also see if there are any other references. It is wryly amusing that this turns up under this heading at the same time as 'Gil' flames us all in his "Aussies ban American Bands" serve.

Anyway, this song can cause problems across cultural barriers. I remember Norm and Pam Merrigan (even if I can't remember what there 1970s band was called!) saying that, while Norm served in Malaya with the RAAF, they did a 'Bush Band' job for some cultural mission in Indonesia.

They reviewed their song line-up and deleted a song they thought a bit too sexy to sing to the Indonesians and replaced it with "The Dog's Festival". It turns out that this proved highly offensive - to sing about unclean things like dogs (not the boom, boom, booms!) - whilst songs about reasonably non-explicit dalliance were perfectly acceptable.

Oh well, you can't win them all.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From:
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 01:59 AM

Yeah Alan. I don't even know John Lawson--I blame my flu.

Joe, I'll blame my flu for not checking too; however, it does seem to be a more "original" version. I was just glumly looking through the book when the song showed up and made my day. I thought I had to tell somebody! Anyway I looked at the notes and the tune is the same as "The Thing" just as Alison and Alan say.

Murray

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From:
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 09:35 PM

so I See

don

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 08:24 PM

Bryan Bowes didnt write it, he only adapted it from some other source

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 01:47 AM

G'day,
This is supposed to have been written by HENRY Lawson who wrote much of our best known poetry. It doesn't appear in any of his collected works not surprisingly. The tune is "The Lincolnshire Poacher" as Alison suggested. The same tune was used for "The Thing" mentioned by Murray.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DOGS' PARTY
From: DonMeixner
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 12:25 AM

THE DOGS' PARTY

The dogs they gave a party. They came from near and far.
Some came in by taxi while still others they came by car.
They came into the meeting house and signed the register book,
And each one hung his asshole upon a different hook.

One dog was not invited, which filled his heart with ire.
He leaned into the meeting house and boldly shouted "Fire!"
The dogs they got excited and did not stop to look,
But each one grabbed an asshole from off the nearest hook.

That's the end of the story, and you know it's very sore
To wear another's asshole you've never worn before.
That's why whenever dogs meet, on air or land or foam,
They sniff each other's asshole in hopes to find their own.

I had heard this song ages ago and was told it was written by Bryan Bowers.

Don

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: alison
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 10:37 PM

No that's "Onward Christian soldiers"

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 10:34 PM

Let's see, "The Church's One Foundation"--isn't that sung to the tune of "Lloyd George Knew My Father"? --seed

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: alison
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 10:00 PM

Hi,

I've heard it done to "THE LINCOLNSHIRE POACHER" (or "Oh I'm a Golden wonder crisp" for those who remember the ad)

then the boom, boom, boom, bit fits in.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 01:25 PM

Oh.
Well, I can put the blame on Murray. He shoulda checked, and I trusted him to do that. Still, if he hadn't posted it, I wouldn't have found it.
Thanks, Murray, even though I can never, ever trust you again...
-Joe Offer-
(I think I'll sing Murray's version of the song. The other might besmirch my reputation....)

Subject: RE: Great Australian Folk Song
From: Barbara
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 12:53 PM

Joe, you should know better. Click here and repent! I've heard this sung to "the Churches One Foundation", but didn't play the tune in DT yet to see if that's the same. I've heard this attributed to one of those English collectors, Tawny? Sharp?
Murray's song is different with the "boom boom boom", and makes me wonder, what's a three syllable synonym for 'asshole'?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: The Dogs' Meeting
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 12:30 PM

Hope you can get the tune out soon, Murray. This one sounds like a keeper. I'd like to try it out on a group, if the mood is right.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DOGS' MEETING
From:
Date: 03 Jul 99 - 09:01 AM

I have been indoors with the 'flu for the last few days and I finally got a chance to look through a book of Australian folk songs that I picked up at a library sale a while ago. It is a variant of "The Thing".

Some say John Lawson wrote it. Anyway, it seems to come from the Sydney Blue Mountains area.

The notation "(boom, boom, boom)" means knock on a table or something instead of singing words,

THE DOGS' MEETING

Oh, the dogs once held a concert. They came from near and far.
Oh, some they came by aeroplane, and some by motor car.
Before into the concert hall they were allowed to look,
Each dog had to take his (boom, boom, boom) and hang it on a hook.

Oh, hardly were they seated there, each mother, son and sire,
When a dirty little yeller dog began to holler 'fire'.
Oh, they rushed in panic. They didn't stop to look.
Each dog he grabbed a (boom, boom, boom) from off the nearest hook.

And that's the reason why you see, on walking down the street,
Each dog will stop and swap a smell with every dog he meets.
And that's the reason why a dog will leave a good fat bone
To go and smell a (boom, boom, boom) in hope to find his own.

(Repeat last line)

When I am less bleary-eyed, I will work out the tune; but it looks like the same tune as "The Thing".

Murray
^^