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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
John Lyr Add: Back-Yard Abortion Waltz (Robyn Archer) (6) Lyr Add: BACK-YARD ABORTION WALTZ (Robyn Archer) 15 Oct 97


Had trouble responding to earlier thread on abortion songs. Here is a powerful example written by Robyn Archer. I have done this from memory - so hope that it's true enough to the original, which came from a stage show she wrote and performed in UK and Australia.

BACK-YARD ABORTION WALTZ

Do you remember the Forties,
When our war-time naughties,
With the soldiers on leave and their leave pay to spend,
How a cove and his girlie
Could dance till the early dawn light came
But still their fun wasn't at end

There was always a shack,
With a room out the back,
Where a desperate young couple their passions could vent
Oh you'd grunt and you'd puff,
But if you got up the duff,
Who'd pay for the fix-up when the Leave Pay was spent?

CHORUS

Let's hark back to the War years I wouldn't speak false,
Come and join me in the back-yard abortion waltz.

Do you remember the Yankees,
We wept in our hankies,
When the gobs (?) and Marines had to go back to port,
And fighting them off in the parks and the gardens,
Was the hardest fight that our sheilas fought.

And you wept a lot more
When a voice from the door,
Of a doctor's room said "My dear you've got clap."
And your tears turned to flood,
When he told you your blood,
Was now bearing the child of an American chap.

CHORUS

Let's hark back to the War years I wouldn't speak false,
Come and join me in the back-yard abortion waltz.

Do you recall Betty, when she joined she was a pretty,
Little freckle-faced kid of fourteen on the run,
She'd belly dance all day on the boards on display,
And she thought sideshow alley was whole lots of fun,

Joined the WAAF when the war came,
Lied about her age and her name,
And she always had soldier boys with her on leave,
But her third back-yard job, cost a measly two-bob,
Left her dead in the gutter it was hard to believe.

CHORUS

Let's hark back to the War years I wouldn't speak false,
Come and join me in the back-yard abortion waltz.

REPEAT CHORUS

Regards
John

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 30-May-02.


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