G'day Ezio and all,

I don't know how many Kiwi (New Zealand) mudcatters we have, but they might just see this thread and lay a prior claim to wee Eric's song. Back in the late 1950s there was a spell of popularity in Australian Folk circles of songs by an Enzedder; Peter Cape.

His most popular was his song "She'll be Right", which set up various humorous disasters and ended with a phlegmatic chorus saying that "she'll be right" if ... and some unlikely solution. The song had endless extra verses written by NZ and Aussie singers and was 'ripped off' over the next decade or two by several singers who 'wrote' their own versions, removed various degrees from the original and its offspring.

I hope that Eric would regard his song as a folk processing of existing material into a genuine statement on a new aspect of his adopted culture. For those interested in origins, I will post a selection of verses and a MIDI / ABC of the tune (now my home computer has finally re-surfaced after the upgrade from hell).

As a teaser (or this all I remember of the top of my head) the original verse (set in a rural NZ pig hunt) ran:

Well you're hunting in the mountains and your dog sets up a chase
And this porker running at you ... and he doesn't like your face
So you're running - and he's running - and he's crowding on the pace
But - don't worry mate, she'll be right!

She'll be right mate, she'll be right
Don't worry mate, she'll be right
When he slows down to a walk - you can get your feed of pork
So don't worry mate, she'll be right.

There are more rural verses from Peter Cape (who, last I heard of him, had become an Anglican (~Episcopalian) minister. Added verses cover almost all areas of human endeavour and relations. I even wrote one for our Bush Music Club concert Party, back when we socially 'busked' in Sydney - more to let people know what we were doing than make money (we would get enough for a coffe all round!).

Well, you're buskin' in the City - and the crowds are gatherin' round
Throwing money in the hat, and lovin' every sound
When the Hari Krishnas open up ... and you're completely drowned
But - don't worry mate, she'll be right!

She'll be right mate, she'll be right
Don't worry mate, she'll be right
Fling that lagerphone about - Aussie music with a clout
And don't worry mate, she'll be right.But - don't worry mate, she'll be right!

(The lagerphone was a popular improvised instrument in the early folk revival here - a broomstick (and crosspiece) with a few hundred loosey nailed beer bottle tops ... a rubber crutch tip to bounce it and a notched 'rattle stick' to beat it. A fierce instrument to hear and a threatening weapon!)

I'll be back with the rest - sometime - don't worry, she'll be right!

Regards,

Bob Bolton