Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair

Subject: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: GUEST,LuckyShot
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 10:43 AM

Does anyone know the lyrics to Wallamaloo Liar? My Favorite Uncle SureShot from the Mason-Dixon Border Morris used to know some west coast or Aussy morris man who sings it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 11:35 AM

Nothing at all found. Any more info?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 05:09 PM

It's a Sydney song called "The Woollamaloo Lair" (a "lair" being a larrican. ) It starts: Twas a cold and frosty morn....
Probably in the DT. Hang on I'll take a look. If it's not I'll post it. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Nov 05 - 05:15 PM

Yes It's here alright. I Never could get the spelling right myself. Sorry. The title is:
THE WOOLLOOMOOLOO LAIR
It's in the DT. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: aussiebloke
Date: 06 Nov 05 - 08:11 AM

A rollocking good song, one of the few in the Aussie trad that features city life rather than country life.

Here's a blicky to the full lyrics and midi files.

Here's a blicky to the dots.

Comments on the song here.

"It's a great song to sing and it has a marvellous chorus with phrases you can really get your beard around such as "And I tag along in the boozin' throng, the push from Wooloomooloo".

If you need a translation for any of the Aussie slanguage - just ask...

Cheers all

Aussiebloke

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Nov 05 - 11:05 PM

Thanks, Joy...I suspected it was Woola....but still didn't get it right.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Nov 05 - 12:43 AM

G'day LuckyShot / Joybell / &c,

Just a passing reference ... the song has an interesting name spelling:

" ... my name it is McCarty & I'm a rorty party ..."

and a lot of singers seem to want to "standardise" that to McCarthy - even though it rhymes with 'party' (or, in the more authentic, older version: " ... my father drives a carty ...").

In fact it is correct as spelled ... and I can remember (about 30= years back) still being able to read an old painted sign on the side of a building (more in Paddington than nearby Woolloomooloo) for "McCarty's Transport" ... who, indeed, ran carts about the inner suburbs in the 19th century. Sadly, the building that had the sign has been demolished and replaced by some tasteless late 20th century business premise!

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Nov 05 - 06:34 AM

Bob - where's the building?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Joybell
Date: 07 Nov 05 - 05:42 PM

I've always liked this song too. It's a great hit with Hildebrand's friends in America. aussiebloke has a good point about the old slang words in it. They do need explaining now.
The word "Push" for gang comes up in another urban Aussie song from Melbourne - "Push on the Corner". "Wait 'till the push on the corner refuses to drink a long beer..." This one just might be based on an earlier American song.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar
From: Helen
Date: 08 Nov 05 - 03:14 PM

I wonder if a Joe-Clone could correct the spelling of the thread title, please?? I'll PM someone.. Joe I suppose.

Years (and yonks) ago while studying Aussie literature I was recommended a not-well-known book called Jonah, by Louis Stone.

Project Gutenberg of Australia has the full text of the novel available for download, and has this to say about it:

"Jonah" is a novel set in Sydney in the early 1900s. Many of the places described--Chinatown and Paddy's markets, Botany Road, Sydney Harbour and its foreshores--are icons of Sydney. The characters--members of the 'Push', rags-to-riches businessmen like Jonah and battlers like Chook and Pinky--are just as recognisable today.

"This novel has been described as the first great novel about Sydney. It has been the subject of a television series and has been adapted for the stage."


It's not the "greatest piece of literature" I've ever read, but it was a good read. I enjoyed it as much for the historical value as for the story and characters.

I don't know what the tv series was called, and don't remember ever seeing it. No, wait. I do remember. It was on tv not long after I read the book. Very well done, as I recall. The sets & costumes were very true to life, drab, not overly romanticised. Typical ABC-TV production, i.e. high quality.

I guess that C.J. Dennis counts as another Oz writer who wrote about city life for the working class.

Helen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 08 Nov 05 - 11:20 PM

G'day Sandra,

I really need to dig out a preserved Sydney Street Directory from before the reconstruction of roads to accommadate the Sydney Harbour Tunnel traffic ... but I think I can roughly work out the area from my current map:

First of all, my guess on the actual inner-Sydney suburb was wrong.Tracing out the old exit from the Harbour Bridge crossing, I suspect I used to come up Crown St from the Bridge's "Eastern Suburbs" outflow, turn left into Campbell St and then right into Bourke St ... and that would be Surry Hills! I only noticed the old sign if I was stopped at the Bourke St lights - as I was turning right, but the sign was on my left ... on the south side of a building on the western side of Bourke St, just south of Oxford St.

I was usually heading out to photograph some damage /emergency / accident / fatality within the Sydney Electricity system at the time ... and I never stopped to grab a photograph of the sign. I haven't driven through that particular route for decades - but I have been through the area on other paths, but never spotted the sign in recent decades ... It may be that the building is still there, but the sign has been painted over.

Joybell: The term "Push" ([~]German = putsch) was quite commonly used for the inner-city gangs of both Melbourne and Sydney ... and was just one of the 'German' words in their slang. Remember that Australia received hordes of (roughly) "Germanic" refugees from religious, economic and military persecution in what became Bismarck's "United Germany". The Push member's girlfriend was his "cliner" (German = kleiner) ... and as far back as the Gold Rushes of the 1850s/'60s, a mine that produced no gold was commonly called a "shicer" (German = scheiser)!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: Joybell
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 01:13 AM

Yes thanks, Bob. The German influence in Australia is not often noted.
There's another wonderful book about early life in Sydney. Written by Convict James Tucker. It's "Ralph Rashleigh". There's a bit about the early convict theaters. Amazing. An interesting book for performers. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Nov 05 - 07:45 AM

This song has been recorded in UK by Flowers & Frolics on 'Reformed Characters' (about half-way through track 2).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 05:18 PM

needs some cleanup

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 09:36 PM

Woolloomooloo entry in The Dictionary of Sydney

as for spelling, it just needs cutting down into real words -
WOOL LOO MOO LOO

sandra (who lives on the escarpment)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: Helen
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 10:41 PM

The spelling of Woolloomooloo always gets me. Who decided to put two ll's in the first syllable and one l in the last? I wanna know!! :-)

But Sandra, you may have given me the clue. I'll just think sheep-toilet-cow-toilet the next time I'm trying to remember the spelling.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: JennieG
Date: 26 Jul 20 - 11:29 PM

"Lairy" is a word commonly in use among those of my generation - indeed, I still use it; it means flash, over the top. A young bloke who is flashily dressed for a big night out could be described as being "lairy".

"Mug lair" is a related expression. Our flashily dressed young bloke cruising along in his rumbling hotted-up vehicle, with both bloke and vehicle decked out to the nines, could be said to be a "mug lair" or "a bit of a lair".

"Lairy" was first observed in print in 1906. The word apparently used to be "leery", but gradually transmogrified into "lairy". Before 1906 - ah, that we don't know because it wasn't used in a printed sentence that can be definitely dated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 04:38 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 04:39 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 27 Jul 20 - 04:40 AM

Sorry, please delete.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wallamaloo liar / woolloomoolloo lair
From: GUEST,pat glenn, Texas
Date: 28 Jul 20 - 11:28 AM

I have the words to the song but the book is at my home. Send me your e mail address and i will get the words the next time I am at my home. My e mail address is "[e-mail]"