Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga

Subject: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Kathryn
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 06:17 AM

The previous track on this never yielded the lyrics. Trying for myself. I have some of the words:

I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
In Yarrawonga I'll linger longer
I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
Where the skies are always blue
And when I'm back again in Yarrawonga

I'll soon be stronger, ?????????????? (need help here)
You can have all your city ways and fancy wines
I'm going to get some loving from this gal of mine
I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
To the land of the kangaroo.

Are there any other verses??

Appreciate your help

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 08:30 AM

Hi Kathryn, are you in a capital city in Australia, or elsewhere? I don't think I have the lyrics to hand but I've seen them in a number of Australian collections. If you have no luck in a few days send me a personal message. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Kathryn
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 12:10 PM

Thanks John I am from Springfield, IL And how do I send a personal message??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 11:25 PM

It's on the album, "The Very Best of Slim Dusty" (Click here for a description.) and on the following Slim Dusty albums:
"Live into the 90's", "Aussie Sing Song", "Australia Is His Name", and "The Man Who Is Australia". (Click here for a description of those.)

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M GOING BACK AGAIN TO YARRAWONGA
From: Hrothgar
Date: 10 Sep 02 - 06:49 AM

The chorus is what you give as verses, Kathryn, but the second half is:
I'll soon be stronger than old Mahonga,
You can have all your Tennessee and Caroline,
France and Belgium thrown in, take the lot for mine,
I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
And the land of the kangaroo.

---

Now Digger was a soldier, and he sailed across the sea
With the first Anzac brigade,
And Digger was a soldier as brave as one could be,
And a grand old name he's made.
From the landing at Gallipoli till the war clouds left the skies
He wandered round the Continent, a tourist in disguise,
Then after years of battling, when three parts full of lead,
The M.O. said "We'll send you home" 'twas then old Digger said:

I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
In Yarrawonga I'll linger longer
I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
Where the skies are always blue
And when I'm back again in Yarrawonga
I'll soon be stronger than old Mahonga,
You can have all your Tennessee and Caroline,
France and Belgium thrown in, take the lot for mine,
I'm going back again to Yarrawonga
And the land of the kangaroo.

Now Digger was a soldier, so he went back home again
In the good ship Marjarine,
And Digger was a soldier, he couldn't settle down,
For a dinkum Anzac he'd been.
He daily read the papers of doings at the front,
Of all the latest victories and every blooming stunt,
One day he re-enlisted, he did without a doubt,
And out in France when peace had come again they heard him shout,


Words and music by Neil McBeath and Claude McGlynn.
(c) 1919 Francis, Day and Hunter Ltd
For Australia and New Zealand, J. Albert & Son Pty Ltd

This version from "A Treasury of Favourite Australian Songs" Compiled by Therese Radic; Currey O'Neil Ross Pty Ltd, South Yarra, Victoria 1983. ISBN 0 85902 026 6

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Kathryn
Date: 04 Oct 02 - 03:00 PM

Thank you so much for your help!!! I am excited now, I have the words!!!

klr

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 03:14 PM

Anybody have the tune/melody/air? If you can send it to me, I'll post it.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Hrothgar
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 05:11 PM

I dunno about this sophisticated technical computer stuff. PM an address, and I'll post (as in snail mail) a photocopy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Nov 03 - 05:25 PM

Hi, Hrothgar - I should have looked a little harder. I found sheet music and a recording here (click) at Music Australia, so I'll work up a MIDI from that. Thanks for the offer.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 05:03 AM

Joe, as I recall the verse has a different tune to the chorus. If your source doesn't have both tunes please let me know - most people only know the chorus.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Nov 03 - 02:49 PM

Thanks, John. I have the complete 1919 sheet music. I had the MIDI all typed up yesterday, and then I made a mess of it. I never did find my error, and what I did to it make it a bigger mess each time I tried to fix it. I'll get it up later today.
-Joe Offer, moderately frustrated-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: GUEST,MT
Date: 06 Mar 05 - 04:39 PM

This may help

Here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: GUEST,sarah101
Date: 20 Sep 06 - 06:32 AM

the line that you need help with is
"Ill soon be stronger then all my hunger"
Just thought id help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 04:59 AM

Errr ... G'day sarah101,

Well no! Hrothgar's posting, 7 postings up, is the correct published text:
Words and music by Neil McBeath and Claude McGlynn.
© 1919 Francis, Day and Hunter Ltd
...
And when I'm back again in Yarrawonga
I'll soon be stronger than old Mahonga,
...
Of course, we don't know who the heck "Old Mahonga" was - and I can't really ask Neil McBeath or Claude McGlynn … however, it is the name of a hill and a stream in (modern) Zimbabwe - and appears as a (usually African) surname. There are also several examples of Mahonga Streets in Australian towns, such as:
Jerilderie, Victoria,
Condobolin, New South Wales
Rowville, Melbourne, Victoria, and
Tahmoor, NSW.

I guess appearance as a street name in Australia suggests that there is a chance that someone of the name Mahonga was famous at the time - perhaps a boxer or weightlifter - or else in some military context … but, if that were so, they are too early - or insufficiently famous - to show up in the usual searches.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 10:13 PM

Greetings Bob,
I never thought I'd ever be in a position to correct a posting of yours but, the last time I drove through it, Jerilderie was still on the Newell Highway well north of the Murray. So I think it's still in NSW, unless you (like many in rural New South Wales) subscribe to the notion that NSW really stands for "Newcastle, Sydney & Wollongong", ie that part of New South Wales east of 'the sandstone curtain'. And I'm sure you don't.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 10:42 PM

G'day Rowan,

Oops ... I did a web search in occurrences of "Mahonga" ... and uncritically copied the line listing a Mahonga Street in Jerilderie NSW - and missed the southward drift of Jerilderie. (Plus I tend to think of great-great uncle Ned as mostly staying on his side of the border!)

BTW: The area contained by Newcatle, Bathurst & Wollongong is a separate linguistic entity ... with more individual slang / common usage terms in common ... but not found in the rest of Austraia. (And you've heard the term: Sydney or the bush?)

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 10:56 PM

Just to let the rest of the mudcatters into what Bob&I are discussing here, Sydney is "a global city" according to all the pollie speak. Many in NSW regard Macquarie St (code for the "movers & shakers" in Sydney, as that's where Parliament House is located) as believing that "the west" of the state begins at Parramatta (about 40km west of the Opera House) and "the far west" as starting at Katoomba (at the top of the Blue Mountains) east of Bathurst.

Americans would understand the same "insiders vs outsiders" notion by referring to the Loop around the inner part of Washington DC. I'm not sure of the Poms' equivalent; they invented "provincial" as a pejorative but ...

Anyway, Bob's right about the linguistics; to Sydneysiders I'm really a mexican (ie I'm really a Victorian) and Sydneysiders don't really understand the linguistics south of the border.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 07:22 PM

G'day LynThe words are, I'll soon be stronger, then over hunger.

James

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 11:44 PM

G'day GUEST, James (de Mondegreen),

As I said in my reply directly to sarah101 - about 6 months ago - the words quoted by Hrothgar are the correct, published, words.

Whatever sarah... or you ... hear isn't what the author wrote - although it might well be what the last person you heard sing the song sang! I suspect that "Mahonga" was sufficiently recognisable... back in 1919... to cause no problems, but we've forgotten over the next 88 years.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 11:55 PM

G'day again<

G'day All:

Mahonga Mystery Solved!

One of the "Mahonga" references I gave above was in Mahonga, Melbourne, Victoria. Rowville was named for its early settler Edward Row ... and he owned a famed horse named... Mahonga.

Edward Row's most famous horse was Mahonga whose name is recalled in Mahonga Drive that runs off Lakeview Avenue. He won many jumping prizes at shows including a fifty pound first prize at the Royal Melbourne Show.

(From this site:Rowville, Victoria, Australia, History )

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 12:07 AM

Oops!

The first full sentence should have read:

One of the "Mahonga" references I gave above was Mahonga Drive, Rowville, Melbourne, Victoria. Rowville was named for its early settler Edward Row ... and he owned a famed horse named... Mahonga.

(Less attention to the coffee ... more to the fickle flying fingers of faulty fact!)

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Joybell
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 05:01 PM

If you're bored with the original it's very easy to lapse into
"Are You From Dixie" after the first 4 lines of the chorus.
So:
"Where the skies are always blue -- Are you from Alabama, Tennessee or Caroline......"
then you can take you pick where you end. Either song works.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Joybell
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 07:57 PM

For what it's worth "Are You From Dixie?" was written by Milton Agar and George Cobb between 1913 and 1917.
Also the above comment should refer to the bit after the first 6 lines of the chorus -- or with the lines 5 and 6 left out.

I'm sure there's less to this than meets the ear.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M GOING BACK AGAIN TO WANGANUI
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 12:19 AM

G'day Joybel (et al),

I see from the sheet music on the Australian National Library's web site that there were alternative words for our eastern cousins of the ANZAC Brigade (Australia (New (Zealand (Army Corps), printed under the words that Hrothgar posted back in 2002. Only the chorus was changed ... although the eighth line looks like it would be well at home in your "Are You From Dixie" version:

I'M GOING BACK AGAIN TO WANGANUI

Now Digger was a soldier, and he sailed across the sea
With the first Anzac brigade,
And Digger was a soldier as brave as one could be,
And a grand old name he's made.
From the landing at Gallipoli till the war clouds left the skies,
He wandered round the Continent, a tourist in disguise,
Then after years of battling, when three parts full of lead,
The M.O. said "We'll send you home" 'twas then old Digger said:
          I'm going back again to Wanganui,
          I'll hump my bluey to Wanganui,
          I'm going back again to Wanganui,
          With its river banks so grand,
          And when I'm back again in Wanganui,
          You'll hear me cooee, thro' Wanganui,
          You can have all your Tennessee and Caroline,
          I want a bit of loving from that Mammy o' mine —
          I'm going back again to Wanganui,
          To the heart of old Maoriland.

Now Digger was a soldier, so he went back home again
In the good ship Marjarine,
And Digger was a soldier, he couldn't settle down,
For a dinkum Anzac he'd been.
He daily read the papers of doings at the front,
Of all the latest victories and every blooming stunt,
One day he re-enlisted, he did without a doubt,
And out in France when peace had come again they heard him shout:
          I'm going back again to Wanganui...


Words and music by Neil McBeath and Claude McGlynn.
© 1919 Francis, Day and Hunter Ltd
For Australia and New Zealand, J. Albert & Son Pty Ltd


BTW: The original sheet music had - at the bottom of the text: Note. Mahonga. Famous Australian horse ... so, even in 1919, Cpl McBeath thought it necessary to remind the Aussies of the famed horse he was singing about.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'm Going Back Again to Yarrawonga
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 07:21 PM

Here's a link to the sheet music to I'M GOING BACK AGAIN TO YARRAWONGA and I'M GOING BACK AGAIN TO WANGANUI at The National Library of Australia.