Lyr Add: RedBack On the Toilet Seat

Subject: Lyr Add: Redback On the Toilet Seat
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 03 - 01:42 PM

Redback On The Toilet Seat
Ralph Ernest 'Slim' Newton

There was a redback on the toilet seat, when I was there last night
I didn't see him in the dark, but boy I felt his bite.
I jumped high up into the air and when I hit the ground
That crafty redback spider, wasn't nowhere to be found.

I rushed into the missus, told her just where I'd been bit
She grabbed the cut-throat razor blade, and I nearly took a fit.
I said, "Just forget what's on your mind and call the doctor, please,
'Cause I've got a feeling that your cure is worse than the disease."

Chorus: There was a redback on the toilet seat, when I was there last night
I didn't see him in the dark, but boy I felt his bite.
And now I'm here in hospital, a sad and sorry site
And I curse the redback spider, on the toilet seat last night.

I can't lie down, I can't sit up and I don't know what to do
And all the nurses think it's funny, but that's not my point of view.
I tell you it's embarrassing and that to say the least
That I'm too sick to eat a bit, while that spider had a feast.

And when I get back home again, I'll tell you what I'll do
I'll make that redback suffer, for the pain I'm going through.
I've had so many needles, that I'm looking like a sieve
And I promise you that spider, hasn't very long to live.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: RedBack On the Toilet Seat
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 May 03 - 07:10 PM

Geez, what ever happened to the concept of "live and let live." God created the redback and that spider probably has its very special function in the universe, such as bitting rednecks!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: RedBack On the Toilet Seat
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 May 03 - 10:35 PM

G'day Charley,

I'm afraid we Australians aren't terribly kind to ferals ... imported pests (other than us ... or all those European feral stock we brought)! Redbacked Spiders are a relatively late import - they probably arrived, snuggled down in a load of South American timber, in the mid 1860s ... they are latrodectus hasselti ... a first cousin to the north American 'Black Widow' latrodectus mactans.

There is a great old traditional poem / song about the same bitey beasty called The Spider from the Gwydir, that I posted two years and one week ago for bbc ... not yet in the DT, I'm afraid, but it's at:
Gwydir Spider .

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: RedBack On the Toilet Seat
From: JennyO
Date: 20 May 03 - 12:43 AM

G'day Bob.

I've NEVER heard Spider from the Gwydir sung. As Bob has said on another thread, it really needs to be recited.

The first time I ever heard it was at Jamberoo Folk Festival, being performed by Campbell the Swaggie in 1994. He puts his whole body into the act when he performs, running, falling, waving his arms about - very dramatic. You couldn't do that while singing!

Jenny

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: RedBack On the Toilet Seat
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 20 May 03 - 02:32 AM

G'day JennyO,

Well, interestingly, I first heard it a song ... around 1963 - sung by Leonard Teale when he ran PACT Folk, in their old premises in the Corn Exchange Building, Sussex Street. By preference, I have always recited it - but it has a firm existence as a song (including field-collected versions, found by Ron Edwards and others).

The words Leonard sang were those collected in an old notebook of poems, found in Lithgow by folklorist John Meredith in the '50s - and I now tend to recite a composite version of this and another version, The Moree Spider, found by Meredith on a cassette tape that veteran reciter Ernie Sibley made for his family, before his death in (~) the late '70s. Ernie's version has some telling details about Moree and the Gwydir more accurately depicted - and I believe his version is closer to the original ... and a lot more robust!

However, the posting I 'blickied', back in May 2001, was for the benefit of bbc, who had requested songs about Australian animals, so I posted both versions of the poem as words along with the version of the tune that I sing. You should always perform anything the way that delivers the greatest integrity - and from your personal convictions, not a copy of anyone else.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: RedBack On the Toilet Seat
From: Micca
Date: 20 May 03 - 05:45 AM

One is reminded that
" all things dull and Ugly
all creatures short and squat
all things rude and Nasty
the Lord God made the lot

Each nasty little Hornet
each little wasp that stings
he made their brutish venom
he gave the bastards wings"