EUREKA LEAD

Kenneth Cook   (tune is “The Parting Glass”)

To make my fortune finding gold
I left my love behind in tears
I said that I would come home soon
But I've been gone for all these years

I have a pick I have a pan
I wander here in the dusty heat
With a memory of a lovely lass
Whose hands were soft and whose kiss was sweet

There is no gold like the gold of her hair
No jewel as fair as I left behind
To wander this weary land alone
Seeking gold of a duller kind

And so on down the lonely days
I fear I'll keep a-wandering
So very far from the lass I love
And still the years are squandering


Mudcat Guest, Michael Thompson, who provided these lyrics in Sept 2010 in a now newly-revived thread, thought there was another verse. (my Patricia Cook L.P. has long since “gone to God”!)


“ EUREKA LEAD (The tune is The Parting Glass; see elsewhere on this list) By Kenneth Cook, ca 1960    The song (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemoDoPDWyM) is an early work by novelist-songwriter Kenneth Cook. He doubtless wrote the words, and his wife, Patricia Cook probably set it to the Irish tune. It appears in Cook’s play ‘Stockade’, which had its first production in 1971. The words and music appear in the book of the play, published by Penguin Books in 1975.

The song was included on William Clauson’s second LP of Australian folk songs, c.1962. which was titled ‘All Among the Wool, Boys’; see http://www.williamclauson.com/albums/. On the record the song is given the attribution ‘Trad. Arr. Cook-Clauson’, but the ‘trad’ part would apply only to the tune.

Cook was in the habit of not claiming authorship of his lyrics, a practice which has resulted in a number of his songs – such as the well-known ‘Cross of the South’ –erroneously being recorded by other artists as ‘traditional’.- Keith McKenry “

http://www.vfmc.org.au/FiresideFiddlers/EurekaLead.pdf


Here is William Clauson’s recording of the song (early 60s?) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemoDoPDWyM


R-J