One Of The Has Beens by Don Henderson

I'm one of the has-beens
A folksong I mean.
In oral tradition
I once was serene.
Illiterate agrarians my worth would avow,
but you may not believe me
'cause they don't do it now.

Chorus
I'm as awkward as a new one,
much more cap and gown
than a blithe air of arcadia;
I've been written down

Eluding the Banjo,
Vance Palmer, Bert Lloyd,
Jones, Durst and O'Connor
I did likewise avoid.
Manifold, Mredith, Tate, de Hugard,
both Scotts, all found
finding me was too hard.

chorus

One day while engrossed
in making a whip,
my current custodian
let his version slip.
Ron Edwards was on hand
and wrote down all that,
while feigning description
of the sixteen strand plait.

chorus

Oh, it's no use complaining,
I'll never say die,
though the variant days
for me have gone by.
Now captured in MS,
stave and magazine,
I merely have told you
just what I have been

chorus.

Don Henderson (Australian Dictionary of Biography) folk-singer, composer, poet, and musical-instrument maker & a lot more

All the names are of collectors - poet Banjo Paterson put out the first collection of Australian songs in 1905.

Bert Lloyd was collecting in the 20s, and most of the others started collecting in the 50s, with John Meredith getting 2 Orders of Australia for his collecting, publishing & disseminating.

Percy Jones collected songs in the 1940s.

Widespread collecting started in the 50s. Norm O'Connor & Joy Durst collected in Victoria, John Manifold & Bill Scott in Queensland, John Meredith, Alan Scott, & Brad Tate (60s onward) & Dave de Hugard (60s onward) in New South Wales.

Ron Edwards was a collector and publisher of folk songs, yarns and bushcraft. One of his many books was on leather!

Brad Tate & Dave de Hugard are still performing.