Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Rowan
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 11:54 PM

Welcome aboard the good ship Mudcat, Bodgie.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Kathryn
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 11:07 PM

WOW!! Thanks so much for all your help!!
Thanks,Q, for your quick response. Was that a record?
Bob, It's good to be back in contact--great hearing from you.
And special thanks to the singer himself!! I certainly didn't expect Warren Fahey to answer my questions.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 10:04 PM

G'day Kathryn & Q,

Sorry ... I haven't yet been able to take up a tightening hitch in Telstra's slack "string & jam tin" service to my home connection!

The sources cited by Q are both good primary sources for the main versions of this song. Warren's details would be correct - including the variant name for the version used on his record and web site. I don't think any of us believe in "...the one, true, version..." ... but I'll see how the Jones and the Meredith version compare ... maybe tonight after a Committee meeting ...

There isn't much one can do to check back to the Dr. Percy Jones collection source material ... it was all lost in the 1983 bushfires, after he had ceased to work on the material - because it didn't produce 'pretty' folk song versions for the Catholic Girls School Choir that he directed!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 09:40 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index has a brief entry under "Old Man Kangaroo."

Search box
(Enter name of song in quotes in Search box).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 09:30 PM

"Tailing a kangaroo," as sung by Warren Fahey, is found on his website. Good to have him posting here at mudcat.
Tailing

Go to Fahey's Master Song Index" for a good cross-section of Australian songs:
Master Song Index

There are minor differences in text, and Bill Swiggen is involved rather than Bill Chippen.

Bob Bolton may be able to direct us to the one, true, version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: bodgie
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 07:42 PM

Oh the words to the version I sang are on my site but with the correct title (or at least the song I sang)...... 'Tailing A Kangaroo'

http://www.warrenfahey.com/bush-station.htm

My version appears to be the earliest printed version.

enjoy.

warren fahey

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 06:32 PM

The book title is "Old Bush Songs and Rhymes of Colonial Times."

Subject: Lyr. Add: The Old-Man Kangaroo
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 06:28 PM

THE OLD-MAN KANGAROO
Anon.

1
Bill Chippin and myself one time
Got bushed in the Mallee scrub.
For two long days and two long nights
We hadn't tasted grub.
But on the third my blessed word,
My word, I tell you true,
Bill espied with joyful pride
an old-man kangaroo.
2
That kangaroo he sighted up
And sat upon his tail;
He looked at us contemptuously
Without a shake or quail,
As much as to say, "To come this way
What business friends have you?
By cripes, says Bill, I'd like to kill
That old-man kangaroo.
3
So, without another word he rushed
With waddy in his hand
To quell that big bold kangaroo
That undauntedly did stand.
He made a blow, his hairy foe
Upon poor William flew;
As sure as fate he grabbed my mate,
That old-man kangaroo.
4
He grabbed him tightly around the waist
And Bill began to roar
And such an awful struggle, boys,
I never saw before.
Old Bill he cries, "Now blow my eyes,
He'll break my back in two!
Oh Mick be quick and fetch a stick
And kill this kangaroo."
5
A lucky thought came in my head
To set poor William free;
The bump of ingenuity
Is very big with me;
So from my swag, my tucker bag
(Provisionless) I drew-
I ran to where Bill in despair
Tugged with the kangaroo.
6
So sneaking up behind the brute
My bag I opened wide,
I drew it right dowm on his head
And then the string I tied
Around his neck which seemed to check
His progress; then I drew
My dover out, and with a shout
I tailed that kangaroo.
7
Now a kangaroo without a tail
Can't run and that you know,
So finding his dependent gone
He let poor William go.
He gave a wail, for the hairy tail,
The tale I tell you true;
He gave a jump but sank a lump,
A lifeless kangaroo.
8
My mate was not muck knocked about
For scarcely was he freed
When turning round to me he said
"Now Mick we'll have a feed!"
So Bill he got the billy-pot
And made some splendid stew-
The sweetest meat I ever eat
Was the tail of that kangaroo.

pp. 182-183. Douglas Stewart and Nancy Keesing, 1957, Angus and Robertson, Sydney.
Dr Percy Jones Collection, "....from an old bushman up in the Goulburn Valley some sixty years ago...A. Stevens. The song is slightly emended here from another version collected by John Meridith from "Hoopiron" Jack Lee, of Auburn, NSW."

Subject: Lyr Req: Old Man Kangaroo
From: Kathryn
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 05:46 PM

Hi, friends,
I heard this song on Warren Fahey's "A Panorama of Bush Songs" and I can't find the words anywhere (even on his site...) Anyone have them?