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Subject: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: alison Date: 23 Sep 04 - 09:51 PM anyone got the lyrics? It's rolling around in my brain in snippets and driving me mad..... wonderful song by John Dengate. thanks slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Charley Noble Date: 23 Sep 04 - 09:57 PM Alison- I do have John's new CD's via Sandra and that's one of the songs on them. But I bet someone else posts the lyrics before I can get back to Maine from Baltimore to do it. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Deckman Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:17 PM "Bare legged Kate with her" .... That's it. My memory's gone ... forever. But, I do remember that it is a GRAND song. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Fishpicker Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:44 PM Here is the way I remember it. Bare legged Kate with your natural grace and your big sad eyes in your Irish face poor bush girl when the summer is high in the bitter hills of Gundagi Bare legged Kate why do you run, down to the creek in the setting sun? Away where the eyes of the world can't see, but you cant run away from your poverty Bare legged Kate why do you weep when the men go by with their travelling feet? Does the sight of a drover make you sad when you think of the father you never had? Its well do you know theres gold in the hills, but you know that the cyanide process kills; strangles the miners and cuts them down in their mean little homes in timber town. And its well that you know, when the floods come down, its the poor by the river are the first to drown When the wild Murrimbidgee goes roaring buy through the haunted hills of Gundagi repeat chorus I had to dig for that one =8^) Enjoy! Gregor |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Fishpicker Date: 23 Sep 04 - 10:58 PM It also comes back to my mind that the last chorus should be poor bush girl when the *winter* is nigh, in the barren hills of Gundagai. Its a wonderful song, thanks for jogging my memory Gregor |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: DonMeixner Date: 23 Sep 04 - 11:31 PM Gordon Bok has recorded this tune. Don |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: GUEST,alison Date: 24 Sep 04 - 01:31 AM thanks fishpicker (& everyone else) slainte alison |
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Subject: Lyr Add: BARE LEGGED KATE (John Dengate) From: Bob Bolton Date: 24 Sep 04 - 03:27 AM G'day Alison, Here's the actual words ... as I first published tham for John in his book My Shout!, Bush Music Club, Sydney, Easter 1982: BARE LEGGED KATE Words: John Dengate: "Written for my mother, Born Kathleen Mary Kelly, Gundagai, NSW, 1914." Tune: Bare legged Joe First Verse and Chorus: Bare legged Kate with your natural grace, The big big sad eyes in the Irish face. A poor bush girl when the summer is high In the stony hills of Gundagai. Bare legged Kate why do you weep When the men ride by with the travelling sheep? Does the sight of the drover make you sad? Do you think of the father you never had? CHORUS: Bare legged Kate why do you run, Down to the creek in the setting sun? Down where the eyes of the world cannot see - Run Kate, run, from poverty. CHORUS: Bare legged Kate, there is gold in the hills But you know that the cyanide process kills. Poisons the miners and cuts them down In the mean little homes below the town. Bare legged Kate, when the floods come down, It's the poor on the creeks are the ones who drown: When the great Murrumbidgee is thundering by Through the haunted hills of Gundagai. CHORUS: It's a great song (always arises, unbidden, as I drive down into Gundagai!) and it's worth getting John's words right. Regards, Bob Bolton |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: freda underhill Date: 24 Sep 04 - 03:39 AM thanks Bob - as well, do you have a link to info about John's CD by any chance? I havent been able to find it. hopefully fredalina |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Bob Bolton Date: 24 Sep 04 - 06:34 AM G'day freda, I can't see any web site for Fanged Wombat ... but these are contact details in public record (off a folklore society site you would pick up with a Google search on "fanged wombat") - so I don't worry about giving them publicly: McKenry, Keith, Fanged Wombat Productions 5 Bonney St Ainslie ACT 2602 AUSTRALIA, FangedWombat@bigpond.com Keith produced the CDs and has been the main force in selling them. Contact him - and I'm sure he can point you to the best way to buy them. Regards, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Bob Bolton Date: 24 Sep 04 - 06:41 AM G'day again: Fishpicker, Out of an interest in the global manifestation of good songs ... in this connected age: whereabouts are you, Gregor? I can see that John's words have travelled far ... and been worn down in spots. I'm interested to know where and when you heard them ... and if the song has been something you could perform in a different (not Australian) context. Regards, Bob Bolton |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: freda underhill Date: 24 Sep 04 - 06:59 AM thanks again for your help Bob! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:43 AM John is also selling copies of his (double) CD - that's how I got the set I sent to Charley - and he even delivered it to my office!! If anyone overseas wants a copy 'Trad & Now' also sell it (along with 240 other CDs by Oz artists) - www.tradandnow.com 'Trad & Now' the Australia-wide music magazine celebrating culture, community & creativity. sandra |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Fishpicker Date: 24 Sep 04 - 11:24 AM "Out of an interest in the global manifestation of good songs ... in this connected age: whereabouts are you, Gregor?" Hi Bob, I live in Alaska for the last 30 years at any rate. I heard this version the first time done by Gordon Bok and copied the words down of a Bok tape. I think that this theme would fit in quite well here in Alaska with all the gold mining that goes on and maybe thats why I liked it so well. The folk process is inevitable and even though I think it is important to be true to the original authors words, the evolution of songs like this is interesting. Thanks for supplying the proper lyrics, I will add it to my collection. All the best, Gregor |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: GUEST,David Date: 24 Sep 04 - 01:52 PM I don't anything about this but I do have the answer to the octopus and flagellation query that you made in 1997. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Fishpicker Date: 24 Sep 04 - 02:21 PM Are you sure that wasn't octopus flatulation query? On the other hand when one seeks atonement for sins, real or imagined, an Octopus would make an excellent flail. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: kendall Date: 24 Sep 04 - 07:49 PM When I was Captain of the Explorer I had a supervisor who sang one line of a song that drove me nuts. He didn't know all of it, and all I got was.."we stopped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai" Oh, and something about the dog that shat in the tucker box. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: freda underhill Date: 24 Sep 04 - 07:58 PM we stopped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai the road to Gundagai, five miles from Boonabrai... Bob will have the words. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Deckman Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:34 PM Kendall, I think you've got two songs combined in your mind ... happens to me all the time. One is "Nine Miles Fron Gundergi." There's a statue of that dog, that shit in the tuckerbox, close to the town, with the poem on it. CHEERS, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: freda underhill Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:10 PM i know the song, kendall, malcolm menzies sings it here in sydney. ive emailed him asking for the words1 best wishes freda |
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Subject: Tune Add: BARE LEGGED KATE (John Dengate) From: Bob Bolton Date: 25 Sep 04 - 12:48 AM G'day again Alison et al, I suppose I should really have provided the tune of John's great song Bare-Legged Kate. Although John credits Bare Legged Joe as the source tune, my interpretation of his singing (and/or the way I sing the song!) has a few differences from his printed version, so I have based this MIDItext file (for those who still have Alan of Australia's MIDItext program - although no longer supported by Mudcat - so ignore the "download" info if you don't have it!… Anyway, it includes an ABC format component at the end of the MIDItext file) on the tune as I hear it … and suspect the tune in John's book may have been a straight lift of Bare Legged Joe from whatever songbook John consulted. I have combined the beamed quavers ("eighth notes") in the third and eleventh bars to a single crotchet ("quarter note") to suit the phrasing of the song; switched the note values in the sixth bar for the same reason … and shortened all note values in the latter end of the irregular (5-bar) last line to make it a regular 4-bar line - that might be lengthened ad libitum … as and when appropriate. I prefer to give the tune in its basic form - and allow the singer to ornament and interpret as suits.
This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: DonMeixner Date: 25 Sep 04 - 12:52 AM I first heard Nine MIles from Gundagai done by Gordon Bok in Ithaca NY about 30 years ago. The Road to Gundagai closes out an Irish Rovers LP that was sold from there TV show in Canada at about the same time. Don |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: alison Date: 25 Sep 04 - 02:15 AM thanks bob, now David are you going to post them? please...... slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 25 Sep 04 - 10:05 AM ...and Bert A.L. Lloyd did it on his great Riverside LP of bush songs in the 1950s. That is the version I always hear in my head when I read the lyric... Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 25 Sep 04 - 11:43 AM yah to Gordon Bok & A.L. Lloyd & all the others who have spread our songs around the world. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: GUEST Date: 25 Sep 04 - 04:12 PM Great songs, much enjoyed from Gordon Bok (a hero!) and Martyn Wyndham-Read. But I am still waiting to hear about octopus flagellation. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: TERRORIST SONG (John Dengate) From: Helen Date: 25 Sep 04 - 05:19 PM Fishpicker, You said: "It also comes back to my mind that the last chorus should be Poor bush girl when the *winter* is nigh, in the barren hills of Gundagai." Now knowing that you are in Alaska it would make sense to sing it about winter instead of summer, but here in Oz it is summer which can be extreme and winter is a bit of a relief sometimes from the relentless heat and the lack of rain. I have heard this song sung in sessions for a couple of decades and I have had the pleasure of seeing John Dengate perform his songs at Folk Festivals. His other songs are well worth checking out as well. And whenever I am in or am travelling through the places or suburbs named in his songs I am always reminded of them. Oh look, another great John Dengate I just found by Googling: TERRORIST SONG I'll have to put this in the Australian Elections thread as well, because Little Johnny has built 90% of his electioneering platform on terrorism paranoia - that is until he started this spending spree of trying at the last minute to buy our votes by promising to supply better health and education - which he should have been doing all along anyway. - Sorry, thread creep. Copyright 2003 John Dengate Tune: Knickerbocker Line As I was walking down the road, he suddenly appeared: A bloody turbaned Moslem with a big Bin Laden beard; I asked, "Are you a terrorist, is that your bloody lurk?" He said, "No, I'm a carpenter, I'm on my way to work." Chorus I watched him, tracked him, rang up A.S.I.O. I dobbed him into Alan Jones on talk-back radio. I may not be a beauty and I don't have any sense But, by God, I know my duty to the national defence! They're going to bomb the Harbour Bridge then quiet as a mouse, They'll sneak up with explosives and blow up the Opera House. They're going to blow up Murphy's pub. I've heard about the plot? I hope they get the pokies 'cause I'm losing quite a lot. There's terrorism everywhere; it makes a man afraid? I'm buying a machine gun and I'll build a barricade. You'll have to know the password if you come and visit me. Shoot first, ask questions later mate, that's my philosophy. My Aunty May's eccentric; "You're paranoid," she said. She doesn't believe the terrorists are underneath the bed. She reckons it's "hysteria"? I don't know what she meant? She said she's far more frightened of the Federal Government. John Howard will protect us; he is very strong and brave; He's passing legislation that will make you all behave! You won't be facing Mecca on that silly bloody mat You'll all be Church of England, Abdul, cogitate on that! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Hrothgar Date: 26 Sep 04 - 06:51 AM kendall, "Lazy Harry's" is in the Digitrad as "The Road to Gundagai." http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6904 |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Bob Bolton Date: 26 Sep 04 - 08:29 AM G'day Kendall, And Nine Miles From Gundagai is at: Nine Miles to Gundagai [Errr... How come "Make a link ("blue clicky") leaves me stranded, so I have to reconnect to Mudcat ... and retype my posting ... again?!?] Regard(les)s, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 26 Sep 04 - 08:48 AM lots more of John's songs here - there are 74 references to him on Mark Gregory's Unionsongs site http://unionsong.com/muse/unionsong/ sandra |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: JennyO Date: 26 Sep 04 - 08:48 AM By the way, my memory of John's singing of "Bare Legged Kate" is that when he sings the chorus for the last time, he sings In the haunted hills of Gundagai. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Willie-O Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:55 AM Ah, revelation at last. In my Canadian-centric way, I always thought (from hearing the Bok recording) that "Murrumbidgee" was "Miramichi", the famous salmon river in eastern New Brunswick--and a region with a history of prevalent poverty. Bok has recorded other songs set in New Brunswick, like "Song of the Wheelhouse Door" which is on the same recording (Return To The Land). The "Gundagai" always puzzled me cause I've never heard of such a place there, but I figured that it might be some deserted hamlet with an incongruous place name--after all, within twenty miles of here (rural eastern Ontario) you can find Seoul, Zealand and Poland. Thanks for the info. W-O |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Bob Bolton Date: 26 Sep 04 - 11:53 PM G'day JennyO, As said in my post, those were the words as I published them in 1982. (I didn't do the layout for the My Shout! book - although I supplied many of the photographs, so I was just referring back to my proof copy.) However, it did occur to me - after posting - that I also tend to repeat "haunted" into the final chorus ... and I probably got that from John's own singing. One of my reasons for posting John's words is that he is a very careful poet ... and he weighs up every word - particularly in these songs from his family experience. It is fascinating to see the sea-changes in such a song - but I'm always going to stay very close to what John wrote and sings. Rergards, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: JennyO Date: 27 Sep 04 - 04:42 AM Hi Bob. I checked John's CD and he does sing "haunted" in the last chorus on the CD, same as when he performs it. It makes more sense to me that way, anyway - adds the appropriate atmosphere to the end of the song. We were singing along with it not much more than a week ago at Jamberoo. He has been singing it this way for as long as I have been listening to him (about 10 years) although I notice that it is not that way in my book "My Shout Again", which was published in 1989. It looks like somewhere in those intervening years, he has changed it slightly, and for the better IMO. Jenny |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: allanwill Date: 27 Sep 04 - 05:02 AM Just for the record, the song was also published in "The Song Goes On", edited by Lynne Tracey in 1986. A note to the song, attributed to John Dengate, reads: "Kate is my mother, born Kathleen Mary Kelly, in Gundagai, NSW in 1914. Life was bitterly hard for poor, rural Irish-Australians. The song is a tribute to Kate's dignity and courage in the face of heartbreak and poverty. Cyanide was used in the extraction process on the Gundagai goldfield and many miners were poisoned. The tune is based on the Irish, Bare-Legged Joe". - and the last line of the last verse is "Through the haunted hills of Gundagai". Allan |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: allanwill Date: 27 Sep 04 - 05:05 AM Bob It just occurs to me - maybe you're related to John Dengate, given your history of being related to the Kellys'. Allan |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: JennyO Date: 27 Sep 04 - 05:33 AM Now that's an interesting idea! I like what John always says about his mother when introducing this song - he describes her as "the terror of the nursing home". |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Bob Bolton Date: 27 Sep 04 - 09:08 AM G'day alinact, 1/ The last verse ends "Through the haunted hills of Gundagai." in the original, 1982, book ... but there is no indication that the chorus changes. However, that is the way John now sings it ... and how I sing it ... and it makes for a nice 'finality' in the song. 2/ John often refers to the fact that his mother's maiden name was Kathleen Mary Kelly .. although he doesn't make any specific link to John (Red) Kelly or Ned, Dan, Kate &c. My link is only on the 'distaff' side - my great-grandmother Jane-Ann Quinn appearing in Australia the same year as Ellen Quinn, Ned's mother ... and there are family stories in the Van Kampens (her married name) that seem to tie in well ... but many of the old records were burned around 1881, when the Garden Palace, being used as a temporary depository for state records 'myteriously' burned down ... and we have no definite documentation. Regards, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: GUEST,David Date: 27 Sep 04 - 12:39 PM For Alison The Octopus song is called (as your friend almost remembered correctly) "The Barking Creek Bellringer's Daughter." Its about the eponymous bell ringers daughter who sells live Octopi for a living in East London and her grisly fate at the hands of Algernon Snout "an unemployed Billingsgate porter". According to the song she was a young lady of considerable charms "she so lovely so fair and so squat, conductors fell out of their buses.." Whilst out making her living she is spotted by Algernon Snout, "a villain what wallowed in crime," as the latter basks in the sun on the mud outside the sewage works. Snout wastes no words trying to woo the bell ringers daughter, he leaps on her and tries to force his unwanted attentions upon her. There is an epic struggle on the banks of Barking Creek between ravisher, ravishee and a bathtub of live Octopi. "Snout never knew the danger to which his was liable til a tentacle, slimy, did stealthily glue its sucker upon his left eyeball." Algernon leaves off his struggles with the bell ringers daughter to concentrate his efforts on the octopus and ".....attempted the monster to throttle, when his eye came away with a pop and a rip and a sound like a cork from a bottle. When Algernon spied he was only one eyed he was filled with distraught irritation and he grabbed that old octopus by his insides as a weapon of flagellation." I will draw a discreet veil over what happens next, suffice to say that it is the only recorded instance of homicide committed with a live cephalopod. I'm not going to post the whole thing because its very long and because you can buy a CD called "Deep Water Blue" by John Lewis of Brisbane (I think) which has it in its entirety, well recited in an authentic south london accent (which is close enough to Barking to pass muster). John may be willing to give you the words himself. Contact him on aussiefolk@optusnet.com.au. Leave a message on your original octopus and flagellation thread if you want more information. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bare legged Kate - John Dengate From: Helen Date: 27 Sep 04 - 01:00 PM Search for octopus and flagellation song |
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Subject: Lyr Add: I CAN'T ABIDE (John Dengate) From: freda underhill Date: 27 Sep 04 - 11:25 PM Here it is: I CAN'T ABIDE (Tune: Abide with me) By John Dengate I can't abide the government's front bench. Send them away to the Germans or the French. I can't abide Costello's shallow sneer. Won't someone make the bastard disappear? I can't abide that bloody awful Kemp. Bring back the gallows, the hangman and the hemp. Take Peter Reith and dump him in the tide. Him I particularly can't abide. Poor little John deserves our sympathy, Born 'neath the burden of mediocrity. Pat his wee head and send him off to bed, Then hide the key lest he abide with me. I can't abide the government's ministry. Senator Vanstone's worse than dysent'ry. Send her away without the least delay. Don't pour the tea lest she abide with me Sink them, the swine! An iceberg would be fine, Far, far away in distant Hudson Bay. As they go down, they'll warble while they drown. Flat and off-key, they'll be despised by me. I can't abide the government's front bench. Send them away to the Germans or the French. Take Peter Reith and dump him in the tide. Him I particularly can't abide. |
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