Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw

Subject: Lyr Add: ME AND SHERYL McGRAW
From: GUEST,Wellsy
Date: 26 Dec 19 - 09:55 PM

Here, at last, decades after its composition, the Australian answer to the Kris Kristofferson classic. Yes, it's a corny travesty, just what you want in a parody. The author, as hearsay has it, was one Lee Williams ( whoever he or she was). It emerged in the 70s. Everybody's recollection of it is vague. There are several variations, but this, as best I can gather, was close to the original:

ME AND CHERYL McGRAW
1. Busted flat in Woollongong, waiting for a bus
Feeling just as daggy as me jeans
Sheryl thumbed a Holden down, riddled full of rust
Took us all the way to Narrabeen.
I took my digeridoo out of my Penrith Panthers T-shirt
And was blowing hard while Sheryl combed her hair,
With the windscreen wipers flapping time,
I got stuck on the 14th line
Of the nineteenth verse of Advance Australia Fair

Chorus:
Freedom’s just another word for bein’ unemployed
A dollar’s not worth nothin any more
Feelin good was easy, mate, with a stubby in yer hand
Feelin good was good enough for sure
As long as I was feelin’ Sheryl McGraw

2.From the coalmines of Port Kembla to the sunny Bondi shores
Sheryl shared me Chiko rolls and prawns.
Standing right beside me lord, sometimes on me foot
Playing merry havoc with me corns.
But somewhere near Maroubra lord, I let her slip away,
With a long-haired commie poofter from Balmain.
I'd trade all my tomorrows and my Shane Gould autograph
For another night with Sheryl’s sister Jane.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: ME AND CHERYL McGRAW
From: GUEST,Wellsy
Date: 26 Dec 19 - 10:03 PM

Below is an apocryphal 3rd verse. It bears no relation to the original 'Bobby McGee', but a bit of fun. In other variants, the narrative travels not to Sydney, but to Queensland. Or the Rugby league T-shirt is Eastern Suburbs, not Penrith. And the treasured autograph is from another 1970s Aussie sporting hero, cricketer Dennis Lillee. The folk process at work.

Lastly, my apologies to anyone offended by that fateful last line of the chorus. Like a lot of folk songs, best seen as a creature of its time.

A 3RD VERSE

So Cheryl and her commie mate got married in North Sydney
He’s a bank clerk, she’s a bank clerk too
He plays the pokies at the RSL, she watches Country Practice
Cos in Pennant Hills there’s bugger-all to do
And I wonder if she thinks of me, as she
Microwaves her hubby’s tea, and the
Youngest kid has filled its pants again
As she downs another Valium
If she wonders what’s become of me
She’ll have to go and ask her sister Jane

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 28 Dec 19 - 03:36 PM

I thought from the title that the song would be a Bobby McGee parody. Thanks for posting it. Comedy doesn't always translate well, and I think many of the lines in this song will appeal more to the people who are familiar with the Australian reference.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 09:09 AM

Generally, the chorus line 3 I've heard: "Feelin' good was easy, mate, with a stubby in yer paw" Rhymes a bit better than hand....

And "merry havoc" in v2 sounds a bit incongruous; "Holy Jeezus" I think is the original, though I can understand why that might be found objectionable in some quarters.

Nice third verse attempt, Simon. HNY

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: GUEST,Deb Green
Date: 25 Apr 20 - 10:23 PM

There was a Melbourne version, Me and Billy McGraw, they busted flat in Geelong and went to Werribee, he brushed his hair, wish I could remember it all, bloody hilarious, we used to sing it at our catholic girls school in about 1974. Oh and she took the didgeridoo out of her dirty “Alvin” tee shirt lolz.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 12:50 AM

a few translations

Woollongong - regional area & city south of Sydney
daggy - unfashionable, but comfortable
Holden - car made in Australia by General Motors Holden
Narrabeen - beachside suburb on Sydney's north shore, not world famous
Penrith Panthers - football club
didgeridoo - iconic indigenous Australian instrument
stubby - can of beer
Port Kembla - mining town in Woollongong area
Advance Australia Fair - our not very popular national anthem, written in 1878 with 4 verses, 2 verses were adopted as our national anthem in 1984 & NOBODY ever remember the 2nd verse!
Bondi - world famous beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs
chicko roll - a snack or maybe even a meal - veggies & meat in a thick pastry cover & deep fried
prawns - shrimp
Maroubra - another eastern suburbs beachside suburb, not world famous
long-haired commie poofter - a generic insult, 3-insults-in-one (doesn't have a proper haircut, so must be a communist & a homosexual)
Balmain is an inner city suburb of Sydney, where trendies live - it's another insult
Shane Gould - famous swimmer

extra verse -
North Sydney - as it's names says, suburb to the north across the Harbour Bridge from Sydney CBD
pokies - poker machines/slot machines
RSL - Returned Soldiers Club, like any other big club (eg football clubs), always full of poker machines & people trying to win money
Country Practice - famous soap opera
Pennant Hills - suburbia!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: GUEST,Terry
Date: 17 Jul 20 - 11:49 PM

I've been doing this song since the mid-70s and can tell you the back story. Lee Williams was a pommie who worked the Sydney clubs billing himself as the Cockney Cowboy doing countyish songs interspersed with stand-up. His persona was a kind of whingeing Pom always putting Oz down and comparing it unfavourably to Old Blighty but he got away with it as he wasn't mean spirited and could be very perceptive.
Anyway Gough presented him with an opportunity with the National Anthem Competition and Lee entered this parody of Me & Bobby McGee into the competition. He would present it during has act with patter that ran along the lines "A national anthem had to be about everything that's good about a country so in the case of Australia it better be short and everybody should know the tune so it better be an American song because that will be all people know here". It was always well received and I get requests for it all the time.
The third verse is a bit clunky and I never bothered with it as less can be bloody well more. I have some different words most of which are immaterial but I do like to use
"Standing right beside me Lord,
Sweating like Phar Lap
Thank God for Aerogard to keep away the flies".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: GUEST,duTch
Date: 13 Jan 24 - 07:06 PM

My shonky local independent community radio station played this song a few times and it (first two lines anyway) remained stuck in my head but have only now managed to do a search on it, probably good timing as few results.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Me and Cheryl McGraw
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 24 - 07:32 PM

*^^ That was in the '70's or early '80's ^^