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Lyr Add: Clancy of The Overflow (Banjo Paterson) Related threads: Lyr Add: The Geebung Polo Club (5) Lyr Req: The Travelling Postoffice (1) Happy! – Feb 17 (A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson) (6) Unidentified Australian song-Mustering Song (13) Lyr Req: Four Little Johnny Cakes (Banjo Paterson) (11) Lyr Add: How Gilbert Died (Banjo Paterson) (37) Lyr Req: Colonial Experience (Banjo Paterson) (6) Folklore: Banjo Paterson in the NG (2) Lyr Req: The Billygoat Overland (Banjo Paterson) (6) Lyr Add: Shearing at Castlereagh (Banjo Paterson) (6) Lyr/Chords Req: Billygoat Overland (Banjo Paterson (7) |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Clancy of The Overflow From: Monologue John Date: 17 Oct 22 - 03:29 PM Clancy of the Overflow by Banjo Patterson I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago, He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him, Just 'on spec', addressed as follows, 'Clancy, of The Overflow'. And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected, (And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar) 'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it: 'Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.' In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy Gone a-droving 'down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go; As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing, For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know. And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars, And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars. I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall, And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle Of the tramways and the 'buses making hurry down the street, And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting, Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet. And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste, With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy, For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste. And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy, Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go, While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of 'The Overflow'. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clancy of The Overflow (Banjo Paterson) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 17 Oct 22 - 04:41 PM thanks for posting the lyrics, I've had a lovely time going down this rabbit hole sung by Wallis & Matilda Wikipedia - Wallis & Matilda Wikipedia - Clancy of the Overflow ... The poem is written from the point of view of a city-dweller who once met the title character, a shearer and drover, and now envies the imagined pleasures of Clancy's lifestyle ... In 1897, Thomas Gerald Clancy wrote a poem in reply to "Clancy of the Overflow", entitled "Clancy's Reply", which paints a far less romantic picture of the life of a drover.[1][5] There had also been a parody in 1892, "The Overflow of Clancy". Wikipedia - The Overflow of Clancy |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Overflow of Clancy, parody 1892 From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 17 Oct 22 - 04:50 PM The Overflow of Clancy - full text Appeared in 20 August 1892 edition of "The Bulletin", part of the Australian Bush satires (On reading the Banjo's "Clancy of the Overflow") I've read "The Banjo's" letter, and I'm glad he's found a better Billet than he had upon the station where I met him years ago; He was "slushy" then for Scotty, but the "bushland" sent him "dotty," So he "rose up, William Riley," and departed down below. He "rolled up" very gladly, for he had bush-fever badly When he left "the smoke" to wander "where the wattle-blossoms wave," But a course of "stag and brownie" seems to make the bush-struck towny Kinder weaken on the wattle and the bushman's lonely grave. Safe in town, he spins romances of the bush until one fancies That it's all top-boots and chorus, kegs of rum and "whips" of grass, And the sheep off camp go stringing when the "boss-in-charge" is singing, Whilst we "blow the cool tobacco-smoke and watch the white wreaths pass." Yet, I guess "The B." feels fitter in a b'iled shirt and "hard-hitter" Than he would "way down the Cooper" in a flannel smock and "moles," For the city cove has leisure to indulge in stocks of pleasure, But the drover's only pastime's cooking "What's this! on the coals." And the pub. hath friends to meet him, and between the acts they treat him While he's swapping "fairy twisters" with the "girls behind their bars," And he sees a vista splendid when the ballet is extended, And at night he's in his glory with the comic-op'ra stars. I am sitting, very weary, on a log before a dreary Little fire that's feebly hissing 'neath a heavy fall of rain, And the wind is cold and nipping, and I curse the ceaseless dripping As I slosh around for wood to start the embers up again. And, in place of beauty's greeting, I can hear the dismal bleating Of a ewe that's sneaking out among the marshes for her lamb; And for all the poet's skitin' that a new-chum takes delight in, The drover's share of pleasure isn't worth a tinker's d--n. Does he sneer at bricks and mortar when he's squatting in the water After riding fourteen hours beneath a sullen, weeping sky? Does he look aloft and thank it, as he spreads his sodden blanket? For the drover has no time to spare, he has no time to dry. If "The Banjo's" game to fill it, he is welcome to my billet; He can "take a turn at droving" -- wages three-and-six a-day -- And his throat'll get more gritty than mine will in the city Where with Mister Lawson's squashes I can wash the dust away. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clancy's Reply From: cnd Date: 18 Oct 22 - 07:56 AM Interesting. I always find these back-and-forth songs phenomenally petty but interesting. Here's Clancy's Reply CLANCY'S REPLY ’Neath the star-spangled dome Of my Austral home, When watching by the camp fire’s ruddy glow, Oft in the flickering blaze Is presented to my gaze The sun-drenched kindly faces Of the men of Overflow. Now, though years have passed forever Since I used, with best endeavour Clip the fleeces of the jumbucks Down the Lachlan years ago, Still in memory linger traces Of many cheerful faces, And the well-remembered visage Of the Bulletin’s “Banjo”. Tired of life upon the stations, With their wretched, scanty rations, I took a sudden notion That a droving I would go; Then a roving fancy took me, Which has never since forsook me, And decided me to travel, And leave the Overflow. So with maiden ewes from Tubbo, I passed en route to Dubbo, And across the Lig’num country where the Barwon waters flow; Thence onward o’er the Narran, By scrubby belts of Yarran, To where the landscape changes And the cotton bushes grow. And my path I’ve often wended Over drought-scourged plains extended, where phantom lakes and forests Forever come and go; And the stock in hundreds dying, Along the road are lying, To count among the “pleasures” That townsfolk never know. Over arid plains extended My route has often tended, Droving cattle to the Darling, Or along the Warrego; Oft with nightly rest impeded, When the cattle had stampeded, Save I sworn that droving pleasures For the future I’d forego. So of drinking liquid mire I eventually did tire, And gave droving up forever As a life that was too slow. Now, gold digging, in a measure, Affords much greater pleasure To your obedient servant, “Clancy of the Overflow.” (via https://www.australianculture.org/clancys-reply-1897/) |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clancy of The Overflow (Banjo Paterson) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 18 Oct 22 - 08:32 AM thanks for completing the sequence |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clancy of The Overflow (Banjo Paterson) From: GerryM Date: 18 Oct 22 - 04:59 PM Surely the time has come for our man to visit Bondi and be celebrated as Clancy of the Undertow? |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Clancy of The Overflow (Banjo Paterson) From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 18 Oct 22 - 05:28 PM get writing, Gerry! |
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