Lyr Req: Once When I Was Mustering (Slim Dusty)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once When I Was Mustering (Slim Dusty)
From: Amos
Date: 26 May 13 - 02:49 PM

Youtube of "Saddle Boy".

Subject: Lyr Add: SADDLE BOY (from Reg Poole)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 May 13 - 02:35 PM

Here, I think, is the other song that was mentioned in this thread. I couldn't find a recording by Slim Dusty to listen to, but I suppose this is close:


SADDLE BOY
As sung by Reg Poole on "The Cream of Australian Country Music"

Through the grey frosty dawn
Ev'ry cold winter's morn
Rode this lad full of life and joy.
Ev'ry day just the same,
Down the roadway he came.
He was known as their own saddle boy.

In his youth free from strife,
He was called from this life,
From the sorrows of life's highway.
He was needed above
At the homestead of love
For the last final roundup someday.

Now the sad willows wave
On a cold silent grave
Where the tall grasses bend and bow,
And the jackass's laugh
Is the only epitaph
O'er the grave of this brave saddle boy.

At the schoolhouse on the rise,
Teacher always watched the skies
For the storm clouds that rose like foam.
"You've a long way," she said,
"So you'd better go ahead.
Saddle up, saddle boy; ride for home."

He had ten miles to ride
Through the dark countryside
While the storm all around raged on.
Just one creek left to cross,
Struck by driftwood, boy and horse,
Swept away by the mad raging foam.

And the lightning overhead
Showed the last sandy bed
Where the boy and the pony lay,
And old boundary-rider Troy
Was the one who found the boy
And he took the saddening message home next day.

Now the old people say
On the long nights in May
When the wind through the valley roam,
Pounding hoofbeats resound
Through the tall timberland.
It's their own saddle boy riding home.


[Very similar lyrics are sung by Bob Easter on "By Request."]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once When I Was Mustering (Slim Dusty)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 04:54 AM

thanks for the info, Merve

sandra

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once When I Was Mustering (Slim Dusty)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 09:34 PM

Wave Jackson got the idea for the song after Mustering on Darkwater west of Injubne and at a 21st birthday party for Ted Farndon.

    The Farndon's were contract musterers and were good horsemen and scrubber runners and were often hired to remove wild cattle from properties and paid so much a head for their work. During the party Wave recalled how Ted described one episode of the muster as he swung his arms about.
"We bulged them through the timber and swept them down the plain" and that triggered in my mind some lyrics for a song. It wasn't till much later though that I finally wrote "Once When I Was Mustering" and it was recorded by Slim Dusty in 1959.


Merv Webster

Subject: Lyr Add: ONCE WHEN I WAS MUSTERING (Slim Dusty)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Apr 10 - 06:52 PM

Here's my transcription from a recording at YouTube.

[I am unfamiliar with Australian cowboy jargon, so there could be errors (although Slim's enunciation is quite good).]


ONCE WHEN I WAS MUSTERING
Slim Dusty

[YODEL]

1. Once when I was musterin', out Carnarvon way,
I had a mob of musterers a-workin' night an' day.
Well, when the mobs were restin', you wouldn't hear a sound,
But when they started movin' you could hear all around:

CHORUS: Hey, sketch 'em out, fetch 'em back, turn the leaders round,
Then come behind, come behind, come behind, you hound.

2. Oh, we were under contract to run the scrubbers there
In amongst the gorges, the caves an' prickly-pear.
We'd bulge 'em through the timber to sweeten down the plain,
And if we saw a Mickey break, we'd yell this old refrain: CHORUS AND YODEL.

3. I had a dog called Bluey, a terrier called Dot,
An' if I ever wanted them, well, they were on the spot.
They'd trot along beside me, as quiet as fallin' snow,
An' you could see them strainin' when I'd give the word to go. CHORUS.

4. We'd box 'em in the big yard an' draft 'em through the pound.
We'd hit 'em with the red-hot brand an' leave 'em safe an' sound.
We didn't mind the sweatin' or workin' rather hard,
But, boys, you'd hear a swearin' when they broke out of the yard. CHORUS AND YODEL.

5. Our beards were gettin' curly before we left that run,
But the boys they liked it tough, an' sure had lots o' fun.
Now, if you were to ask me what stood out on my mind,
Well, if you'd like to wait a tick, I will soon unwind. CHORUS.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Peace
Date: 01 Apr 06 - 05:06 PM

Also, if one were seeking the words to the song it might be worth an e-mail to Merv Webster at

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Peace
Date: 01 Apr 06 - 05:00 PM

"Once When I Was Mustering" is attributed to Wave Jackson (as the writer).

users.tpg.com.au/thegrey/Jackson.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 06 - 04:55 PM

According to this Slim Dusty discography, which covers only currently available albums, ONCE WHEN I WAS MUSTERING and SADDLE BOY are both on the album "Songs of the Saddle" (first released July 1963)– which makes it very unlikely that they are the same song.

Lyrics to SADDLE BOY are available at several places on the Internet. In the usual sloppy way of most lyrics web sites, they attribute SADDLE BOY to Kasey Chambers, who recorded it, but didn't write it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 01:57 AM

"We didn't mind the shouting or working rather hard, but you should have heard the swearing when thry broke out of the yard" that Compton remembers was the second half of the third verse

nick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Flash Company
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 05:59 AM

can't remember it all, but something like this....

Once when I was mustering, out Carnarvon way,
I had a mob of musterers a-working night and day,
Now when the mob was resting, you wouldn't hear a sound
But when we started moving you could hear all around

CH
Hey bring 'em up, fetch 'em back,
Turn the blighters round'
Then come behind, come behind, come behind you hound.

I had a dog called Bluey, a terrier called Dot,
And if I ever wanted them, well, they were on the spot,
They trod along behind me, as quiet as falling snow,
But you could see 'em straining 'til I'd give the word to go,

CH

I think there was a third verse, that it has vanished into the black hole that passes for my memory.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Bert
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 01:40 AM

Scatch 'em up fetch 'em back
and turn the leaders 'round
and come behind, come behind, come behind, ya hound.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: cobber
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 08:10 PM

I've got the old 78 of Pub With No Beer. Funnily enough I've just been talking about that on the site for Beautiful Dreamer which was the tune Gordon Parsons used, even if he didn't realise it at the time. My collection is locked away at the moment so I can't play the record but I do know that the song was called Saddle Boy. You might find the words if you look for that. Guess it does help to be a 50 something year old Australian
Cheers
John Armstrong

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Compton
Date: 25 Jan 03 - 07:57 PM

Maybe there's a whiff of dead horse about this thread. Did I go on a bad time of the day...or I have found an old song that no-one else knows!...Or are there any 50 something year old Australians out there that the name / song may jog a memory!. It was genuinely a beut little ditty!

Subject: Lyr Req: Once when I was musterin'
From: Compton
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 08:54 AM

Here we go again...Who will rise to this challenge?.Incredibly, the "B" side of the old song, "A Pub with no beer" by Slim Dusty (Remember Him ??) was a Yodelling song called "Once when I was musterin' "(Mustrin'}when went after this fashion..."Once when I was Mustrin, out Caernarvon way,We had a lot of Musterers, working night and day, We didn't mind the shouting or working rather hard, but you should have heard the swearing when thry broke out of the yard"..etc,
Anyone got as long a memory as I have ?