Lyr/Tune Add: Friendly Road (trad. New Zealand)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Add: Friendly Road (trad. New Zealand)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 01:36 PM

Bright Fine Gold is based on a children's poem which was in turn based on Hot Cross Buns. I believe it was published in a school journal about 80 or 90 years ago.

Bright fine gold,
Bright fine gold,
One a pecker, two a pecker,
Bright fine gold.

Ruth Park (no relation) used it in her novel One a-pecker Two a-pecker and expanded the words.
I think every budding singer of folk songs in the 60s sang Bright Fine Gold - it's a good song and one of the few that might be considered NZ Trad.
John Archer has a comprehensive history of this song in his NZ Folk site.
Bright Fine Gold

Robyn Park

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Add: Friendly Road (trad. New Zealand)
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 10 Dec 09 - 10:57 AM

I sing Bright Fine Gold.
Poem attributed to a lady
Tune Neil Culquhoun
As per the book I read in Wellington FC library c 1987.

Certainly he appears credited with some copyright

But ut however you cut it - it is very much in the tradition. Good enough for me.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Add: Friendly Road (trad. New Zealand)
From: Little Robyn
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 02:22 PM

Regarding the title of this thread, this may be a NZ song but no way is it trad!
It may have been a depression era poem and often these were printed in newspapers at the time, but I don't believe it was widely known anywhere in this country until 'New Zealand Folksongs - Songs of a Young Country' came out. This included songs or tunes that had been written by Neil Colquhoun, who then attributed them to Anon.
Neil was a school teacher who became a music specialist for the Wellington Education Board.
He was also an early singer of folk songs (late 50s, early 60s) and yes, he did a lot of valuable work bringing unknown songs to our attention but the problem was, he would write his own tune to poems and then present them as trad.
Dylan would pinch tunes and say he'd written them, Neil would write tunes and say I found it!
When we tried to trace the provenance of the songs, the trail usually led back to one person.
Please don't think that this is a real NZ folk song - I don't think there are very many people who know it or sing it - I've never heard it sung in folk clubs over the 40+ years I have been going.
Robyn

Subject: Lyr Add: FRIENDLY ROAD (trad. New Zealand)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 07:00 AM

I'm concerned about those hyphenated words. They make the lyrics hard (or impossible) to find with a search engine. Here are the first lyrics without the hyphenation (and with a few typos corrected):

FRIENDLY ROAD

1. He wasn't very clever and he wasn't very good,
And extremely old and seedy were the clothes in which he stood.
I thought he smelt of liquor when he shook me by the hand,
But I hailed him as brother, one of that special band.

CHORUS: For we are brothers of the road. We've had troubles in our life.
We got sold out for the mortgage. We couldn't keep a wife.
So we were footloose and were moving when the first old rooster crowed.
We were up and packed and moving down that long and friendly road.

2. I was a trifle thankful when he said that he must go.
He wasn't an acquaintance most folks would like to know.
He was chummy with the drifters at the comer of the Grand,
When we were in Dunedin and of that special band.

3. I stand and watch the ferry as she moves out from the wharf.
I feel a kind of choking in the region of my scarf.
I think of summers vanished when a hard-up merry band.
We wander just as brothers through the length of Maori land.

4. And I wandered slowly homeward. I cannot go to bed,
But sit dreaming by the firelight and smoke a pipe instead.
I drink his health in water. There's nothing else at hand,
For the sake of fern and tussock and the roaming years we've had.

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: FRIENDLY ROAD (trad. New Zealand)
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 29 Oct 99 - 01:00 AM

This is a Depression-era song from New Zealand. My source was New Zealand Folksongs: Songs of a Young Country which attributes tune and lyrics to Anon.

Regards, John

FRIENDLY ROAD

He wasn't very clever and he wasn't very good,
And extremely old and seedy were the clothes in which he stood.
I thought he smelt of liquor when he shook me by the hand,
But I hailed him as a brother, One of that special band.

CHORUS
For we were brothers of the road, We've had troubles in our life,
We got sold out for the mortgage. We couldn't keep a wife.
So we were footloose and were moving when the first old rooster crowed.
We were up and packed and moving down that long and friendly road.

I was a trifle thankful when he said that he must go,
He wasn't an acquaintance most folks would like to know.
He was chummy with the drifters at the comer of the Grand,
When we were in Dunedin and of that special band.

I stand and watch the ferry as she moves out from the wharf,
I feel a kind of choking in the region of my scarf.
I think of summers vanished when a hard-up merry band
We wander just as brothers through the length of Maori land.

And I wandered slowly homeward. I cannot go to bed,
But sit dreaming by the firelight and smoke a pipe instead.
I drink his health in water- there's nothing else at hand,
For the sake of fern and tussock and the roaming years we've had.

MIDI file: friendly.mid

Timebase: 96

Text: Produced using SharpEye (Unregistered)
Key: G
Tempo: 240 (250000 microsec/crotchet)
TimeSig: 2/2 48 8
Key: G
Key: G
Key: G
Key: G
Key: G
Key: G
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End

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