Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 06:01 PM

My apologies for doubling up. I posted 'Race for the sun' in October. I should have checked. But, as Art Thieme was fond of saying, 'when your memory goes, forget it'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 05:48 PM

Scots emigrants to NZ:

RACE FOR THE SUN
(Bob McNeill)

The western bays are all silent now
The beaches we found
Deserted now, the flowing tide
Is the only sound

Still I linger here and listen while
These strange birds sing of oceans
The nights are warm and the winters mild
Not like on the island

But I left my heart
At a bend in the river
Cold harbour behind us
We took what we owned
With the smell of the bark
The spirit that lingers
With what we could could carry
In a race for the sun

Sail on?
You'll be safe now
?Nothing lasts forever?
Won't be the first time we've tried

Between the heads we wrestle her
In a mercy tide
The run between the Cabot shores
Was ever as wide

But these island boys are all strangers here 
With their dreams of ocean
The sea that pounds the eastern shore
Not like on the island

But I left my heart
At a bend in the river
We cut down the sumacs
Turned them into boats
With the smell of the bark
On our clothes as we boarded
Is all I remember
Of our race for the sun

Sail on ...

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 02:48 AM

Bernard's very old website & there are only 10 songs & Bernard is long retired.

but his songs live on!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 02:35 AM

apart from that?

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 02:00 AM

um ... maybe more Bernard Bolan and Tony Miles and Eric Bogle???

R-J :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 01:58 AM

I'm listening to Graham seal's Barbed wire ballads,

Lament of the Eureka Women by Graham Seal

W & m copyright Graham Seal 2008

The storming of the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat in 1854 was a bloodbath.


They came like death at dawn;
Bearing muskets through the fields.
The soldiers came with eyes of flame,
They killed with hearts of steel.

They beat the bitter drum.
Their swords and bayonets flashed.
They tore our flag like a beggar's rag,
Burned our dreams to ash.

They fired our hearths and homes;
Left them open to the skies.
With hands of blood they took our loves:
They would not meet our eyes.

No, they could not bear our eyes.

audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 01:47 AM

any other suggestions?

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 09:49 PM

Thanks, Sandra!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 08:45 PM

Australian Through and Through, rritten by the Brisbane folkie and songwriter Tony Miles.


Now I've never been a shearer, never seen a shearing shed
And I don't suppose I'd recognise a sheep
I've never been a drover bringing dusty cattle over
or died of thirst beside a dried up creek
I've never been a digger on a worked out worthless claim
A rowdy rouse about or jackaroo
Never cut a field of cane, never drove a bullock train
But I'm bloody well Australian through and through,
my oath I am! I'm bloody well Australian through and through

I've never boiled me billy by a bloody billabbong
There's better ways than that your days to spend
No one humps their swags no more, what a flamin' bloody bore!
When you can duck off in the Kingswood each weekend
Now there's a mighty waggon! It's a ripper of a car
Designed for our conditions, though it's true
It's made by General Motors, but you'd hardly even notice
'Cause it's bloody well Australian through and through
My oath it is! Yes it's bloody well Australian through and through

I've never crossed the nullabor or trekked the Birdsville Track
I can't tell a wallaby from kangaroo
I know the Kookaburra 'cause its laugh is like no other
But I've only seen Koalas in a zoo!
'Cause I've been o.s. you know (that's short for overseas!)
And I've taught these poms and wogs a thing or two
And it made me feel damn proud to stand out in the crowd
Being bloody well Australian through and through
My oath I did! Being bloody well Australian through and through

'Cause there's nothing overseas that we haven't got at home
We're as cosmi - bloody - politan as them!
With "Dallas" on T.V., the best of BBC
And good old Reg Grundy on Channel Ten!
We've go disco - bloody - fever from Toorak to Tennant Creek
The Bee Gees and Olivia Newton too!
Our stars we have our share of them, and although they sound American
They're bloody well Australian through and through
My oath they are! They're bloody well Australian through and through

So let's sing no more of swaggies or Ned Kelly and his gang
Let's sing a more sophisticated theme
No longer are we hicks from the international sticks
We're jet - setters on the inter - global scene
So let us hold our heads up 'cause we've bloody well arrived
And sing no more of tied - down kangaroos - sport!
At last we've come of age, it's the universal rage
Being bloody well Australian through and through
My oath it is! Being bloody well Australian through and through.

as sung by John Thompson (but that's not him in the pic!)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 08:23 PM

'I'm bloody well Australia through and through - my oath I am!' is another good one.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 07:57 PM

too bloody right!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 07:33 PM

COUNTRY'S BUGGERED
(Andrew London)

Bloody hippies, bloody Greens
Bloody tofu, bloody beans
bloody dreadlocks, bloody beards
bloody cyclists, bloody weird
back in my day, folks had more sense
country’s buggered – no offence

bloody Greenpeace saving snails
or bloody useless fat lazy whales
bloody yoghurt , non-bloody fat
bloody couscous, what the bloody hell is that?
back in my day, folks had more sense
country’s buggered – no offence

bloody townies, bloody queers
bloody poncy bloody boutique beers
bloody pubs banning bloody smokes
bloody blokes allowed to go marrying bloody blokes

bloody leftie, carry-on
bloody whingeing bloody poms
bloody Banksie’s, bloody gone
bloody Kim dot bloody Com
back in my day, folks had more sense
country’s buggered – no offence

Bloody twerking, bloody rap
bloody backward baseball cap
bloody youth, out there tagging walls
bloody anti bloody smacking bloody laws
back in my day, folks had more sense
country’s buggered – no offence

Bloody foreigners, bloody terrorists
bloody slimy televangelists
bloody chardonnay socialists
bloody hairy, bloody goddamn feminists
back in my day, folks had more sense
country’s buggered – no offence

Note with 2015 recording: 'A satirical look at enduring attitudes towards gays, immigrants, liberals, feminists and environmentalists still found in rural Aotearoa'.

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Nov 20 - 09:09 PM

BANKS OF THE WAIKATO
(Phil Garland)

Hark the dogs are barking
My love, I must away
The men they are all waiting
No longer can I stay
For I am bound for camp, my love
'Tis many a mile to go
To meet my fellow bushmen
On the banks of the Waikato

Sally, darling Sally, with me you cannot go
You know the men have told us
This always must be so
Your waist is far too slender
And your feet are far too small
For you to walk the distance
To the waterfall

While I'm away and working
I'll think of you with pride
I'll dream of us together
Lying side by side
Your love will warm my heart, my dear
Throughout the bitter cold
That lingers in the winter
On the banks of the Waikato

And when the work is over
To our homes we will return
We'll kiss our wives and sweethearts
We left behind to mourn
I'll hold you in my arms again
'Til next I have to go
And meet my fellow bushmen
On the banks of the Waikato

Phil Garland's rewrite of 'Banks of the Condamine' (posted above on 15 Oct).

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Nov 20 - 08:50 PM

FAREWELL TO THE GOLD
(P.Metsers/R.Emery)

Pilbara desert, your gold it is waning
It's weeks since the colour I've seen
But it's no use complaining or lady luck blaming
I'll pack up and make the break clean

Chorus
Farewell to the gold that never was found
Farewell to the nuggets that somewhere abound
For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
Down in the dark deep underground

It's nearly two years since I left me old mother
For riches and gold by the pound
But Jimmy the prospector he was another
For the plains around Roebourne was bound

We searched at Mt Welcome to the north and the south
Dry blowing with no water around
But in the furnace-like heat we knew we were beat
Not an ounce in six months had we found

From Swan River to Cossack we sailed away
We were five boring weeks on that boat
We'd sold our belongings our fares for to pay
There was gold in our sights and our hopes

Well it's years now since Jimmy and I were out digging
Roebourne gold dried up like the rest
The hardship, the dying, those memories are gone
I remember those years as the best

Bob Emery's rewrite of Paul Metsers' 'Farewell to the Gold' for a WA context.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Nov 20 - 09:57 PM

SHEARING AT CASTLEREAGH
(Banjo Paterson)

The bell is set a ringing and the engine gives a toot
There's five and thirty shearers here are shearing for the loot
So stir yourself, you penners up, and shove the sheep along
The musterers are fetching them a hundred thousand strong

And make your collie dog speak up - what would the buyers say
In London if the wool was late this year at Castlereagh
The man that rung the Tubbo shed is not the ringer here
The stripling from the Cooma side can teach him how to shear.

They trim away the ragged locks, and rip the cutter goes.
And leaves a track of snowy fleece from brisket to the nose
It's lovely how they peel it off with never stop nor stay
They're racing for the ringers' place this year at Castlereagh

The man that keeps the cutter sharp is growling in his cage
He's always in a hurry, and he's always in a rage
'You clumsy-fisted mutton-heads, you'd make a fellow sick
You pass yourself as shearers, you were born to swing a pick

Another broken cutter here, that's two you've broke today
It's awful how such crawlers come to shear at Castlereagh'
The youngsters picking up the fleece enjoy the merry din
They throw the classer up the fleece, he throws it to the bin

The pressers standing by the rack are waiting for the wool.
There's room just for a couple more, the press is nearly full
Now jump upon the lever, lads, and heave and heave away
Another bale of golden fleece is branded Castlereagh

Another one from Paterson. I prefer the tune put to it by Gerry Hallom on his 'Travelling down the Castlereagh' album, but it is not available on the Net. Chloe and Jason use a faster traditional tune. Check it out at about the 16 min mark of this clip:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Nov 20 - 12:35 AM

Merv Lilley was an early BMC member, as was Bill Berry. And Joe Flood, of course is Dorothy Hewett's son, & Merv's stepson.

Bill Berry & other early BMC members Early Members Reunion 1986, Bill Scott, Frank Maher, Jack Wright, Jamie Carlin, Janet Wakefield, Alex Bowker, Rex Whalan, Barbara Gibbons, Alan Scott, Bill Berry. Barbara's son married Bill's daughter

When I finish listening to Australian Folk festival Brisbane 1964 (Duke is singing Shearing in a Bar!) I'll put on with these arms = Songs & poems of the MUA, 2003, & listen to Bill Berry singing Birchgrove.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Nov 20 - 12:25 AM

For the folks who want more of the Aussie Warhorses, here’s a little diversion :

THE SHEARER’S DREAM

attrib. Lawson

I dreamed I shore in a shearing shed and it was a dream of joy
For every one of them rouseabouts was a girl dressed up as a boy
Dressed up like a page in a pantomime, and the prettiest ever I seen
They had flaxen hair, they had coal black hair, and every shade between,
There was short plump girls, there was tall slim girls, the prettiest ever I seen
They was four foot five, they was six feet high, and every shape between.

The shed was cooled by electric fans that were over every shute
The pens were of polished mahogany and everything else to suit
The huts had springs to the mattresses and the tucker was simply grand
And every night by the billabong we danced to a German band.

Our pay was the wool on the jumbuck's back, and we shore ‘til they was blue
The sheep were washed before they were shorn and the rams was perfumed too
And we all of us wept when the shed cut out, in spite of the long hot days
For every hour them girls waltzed in with whisky and beer on trays.

There was three of them girls to every chap and as jealous as could be
There was three of them girls to every chap and six of ‘em picked on me
We was draughting them for the homeward track and shearing them off like steam
When I woke with me head in the blazing sun - to find it a shearer's dream.

This song was first published in Children of the Bush in 1902. It is usually attributed to Henry Lawson and appears in most collections of the poet, however when John Meredith collected a version from Charles Ayger in 1957, he claimed to have heard it at school when Lawson would have been about nineteen. The tune is from A.L. Lloyd, who based it on “The Girl I Left Behind.” from A.L.Loyd’s recording sleeve notes in 1960.

Here is a variant by Gary Shearston from his 1965 recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V35GxUFAYAc


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Nov 20 - 06:13 PM

Well said, R-J. I agree completely with both your opinion posts above.

THE BIRCHGROVE
(M.Lilley/B.Berry)

The night fell dark on the quiet sea
The Birchgrove Park rode restlessly
A collier on the short run down
Of nineteen men there were eight men who drowned

A sudden lurch as she slid below
The way that all the colliers go
If home bound men had battened down
There’d be eight good men who would not have drowned

Oh Sydney waters are green and cold
Take life from men with a freezing hold
They say that men on the colliers drown
When the cargo rolls – not battened down

Oh beckoning lights of Sydney Town
Still beckoning men as the ship goes down
It is for the love of your winking lights
That colliers drown on lonely nights

Youtube clip

The Fagans did a fine recording of this on their 'Turning Fine' album. They had this note:

Eight seamen lost their lives when a collier called The Birchgrove sank off Sydney Heads in 1956. Merv Lilley's haunting poem was published in the anthology 'What About the People' and again in John Lahey's 'Great Australian Folk Songs' in 1965 with another of Bill Berry's wonderful
settings. We learned it from Joe and Adele flood.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 11:25 PM

CONDAMINE BELLS

    Jack Sorensen   

    first published Sydney Bulletin November 1939


    By a forge near a hut on the Condamine River,
    A blacksmith laboured at his ancient trade;
    With his hammer swinging and his anvil ringing
    He fashioned bells from a crosscut blade.


    And while he toiled by the Condamine River
    He sang a song for a job well done,
    And the song and the clamour of his busy hammer
    Merged and mingled in a tempered tone.


    And his bells rang clear from the Condamine River
    To the Gulf, to the Leeuwin, over soil and sand;
    Desert eagles winging heard his stock bells ringing
    As a first voice singing in a songless land.


    The smith is lost to the Condamine River,
    Gone is the humpy where he used to dwell,
    But the song and the clamour of his busy hammer
    Ring on through the land in the Condamine bell.

   

Love This!! A beautiful setting of Jack's poem by Chloe & Jason Roweth :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3L2ldYYeCQ


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 10:22 PM

Thanks Sandra - yes, I do correspond on occasion with Paul the Stockman!
But of course, from the PoV of this Mudcat thread, if there is a song one wants to hear and it's only on this web-blog, you do need to download a whole LP to hear it. But I for one am very grateful that Paul's Blog exists, as there is much info and many recordings that he has INDEED rescued. But I can see I'm gonna have to search my vinyl collection and do some posting to him, eh!   :)

Also, I do understand that in some cases, it concerns a folk performer's livelihood. If one can still generate sales from one's Back Catalogue - well and good - and the very best of luck to you!

But many items are no longer available for sale and it's all too hard or not worth their time, for a Performer (or an ex-Performer), to try and reproduce old material. However, diehard Folkies can still be interested, or would be IF they knew about it.

For many years, I was one of those diehards who, if they loved an Artist (or Author!), they then tried to buy every damned recording (or book) they'd ever done. I know Stewie too, has had a similar penchant at times in his past, LoL!!

S'pose that at my stage of Life now, I'm moving more into that "Letting Go of Stuff" phase. i.e. share with the Younger Gens who still have the energy to do something with it - and to be honest, often with greater musical skill :)
Ten to One that the Great Nephew Twice Removed who ends up with your Estate will chuck most of it to the nearest Op-Shop/ThriftShop anyway!!!!

Of course, Music Business Corporations would never be convinced about this way of thinking, no matter if they never ever make another red cent from "their property" ...... coz "IT'S ALL MINE!!!"

..... Madness .....



Just my 2cents worth.
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 08:16 PM

Australian Folk Music and Australian Folk Singers and Musicians - Paul the Stockman, Focusing on Australian folk music, Australian bush ballads and/or Australian folk musicians

The focus of my blog is on Australian folk music and folk musicians to preserve such music in the public arena before it becomes lost. Much of the music I supply was ripped from LP and edited by me. I am happy to do the same for anyone holding such music. Please email me if you wish to contribute. I was born and raised in Queensland mainly on sheep and cattle stations but migrated to the cities as an adult. Everyone reckoned that I would make a good stockman when I grew up hence the nickname. When I was young my main music influences were the old time hillbillies, Tex Morton, Slim Dusty, Buddy Williams, the McKean Sisters etc mixed with the 1950s hit parade songs. I loved Presley, Everley Bros, Cliff Richards, etc. There's is still a lot I like about much of the music since then but my enduring passion since about 1960 has been folk music especially traditional folk songs fom anywhere. Those old songs have been tenderly crafted over decades and sometimes centuries and they usually have such a polished beauty if sung with any real understanding.

... As to the infrequency of postings, this is mostly caused by a scarcity of suitable material of sufficient quality. Good clean or cleanable material is very hard to come by nowadays. We have had some excellent contributors over the years for which I and presumably most of you are very thankful.

Perhaps some of you are still holding onto gems that I could put up on the blog. HINT HINT.

I do have a couple of other posts outstanding at the moment and I will have them up very soon.

I am getting seriously old now and do have one serious health issue. No rush at the moment but is there anyone interested in looking after the blog, in a maintenance sense, somewhere along the line?

Anyway, continue to enjoy the music.

Regards to all

Paul

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 06:01 PM

A PLEA

(an opinion piece!)

There are many other excellent Australian (and EnZed) songs I have, but it's getting harder to find an on-line recording of them (or especially (IMHO) a 'good' rendition!)

As I have lamented before, there are SO MANY vinyl/cassette tape/CD recordings in the Folk-and-related genres, from the 1970s-1990s, that haven't been digitised and uploaded to the internet (and not only from Down Under!)

There are a few worthy souls who do the hard yards of restoring old recordings and make them available for download, but so often, a removal order is slapped on them by copyright-owning corporations or performers,
when realistically, this outlet would be the only chance of anyone ever hearing these songs again.

Why be a Scrooge about your music if there's little chance for a new recording that (only possibly) would translate to sales??!!

We are in danger of losing so much good stuff, once my (over 60) generation which still has a foot in that fertile folk past, has gone.

Please reconsider this tightly-held "ownership" Thing; FOLK was always about Community and SHARING the Music with each other (which begets more music!)..........


Rich-Joy :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 05:17 PM

Stewie posted Archie Roach’s “Took the Children Away” on October 14th.
Another Anthem is an autobiographical song from his wife, the late – and also much-loved – Ruby Hunter. This is “Down City Streets” which Archie recorded on his debut “Charcoal Lane” CD in 1990.


DOWN CITY STREETS

Ruby Hunter

Down city streets I would roam, I had no bed, I had no home

Crawled out of bushes early morn, Used newspapers to keep me warm
Then I'd have to score a drink, Start me out, help me to think.

Down city streets I would roam, used my fingers as a comb

In those days when I was young, drinking and fighting was no fun
It was daily living for me, I had no choice, It was meant to be.

Down city streets I would roam, I had no bed I had no home
And there was nothing that I owned, used my fingers as a comb

Now I'm a man, I'm not alone, I am married, I have children of my own
Now I have something I call my own, These are my children, and this is my home.

- I look around and understand, how street kids feel when they're put down –

Down city streets I would roam, I had no bed I had no home
And there was nothing that I owned, used my fingers as a comb
Down city streets I would roam, I had no bed I had no home
And there was nothing that I owned, used my fingers as a comb
Down city streets. Down city streets. Down city streets…..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RCcs6AOdT0


R-J
[ My late Mum who died in 2014 at age 90, adored Archie & Ruby (along with Wurumpi’s charismatic George Rrurrambu!) ]

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 07:50 AM

Oh well, one more!! (might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, eh)


BLACK MAN’S RIGHTS

No Fixed Address
                
I am a Black, Black Man and I need to be recognised in this wretched world
for we are getting brainwashed and the people forgetting about our rights
so all you Black People you got to fight for your rights
You got to - fight for your rights

There’s a lot of things that are trying to stop you,
and this is racism, and the cops, and the Government which is buggered
but we have learnt within our soul, within our soul,
and that is the land controls you - you don’t control it
you don’t control it
Fight for your rights
Fight for your rights

I am, a Black, Black Man and I need to be recognised in this wretched world
for we are getting brainwashed and the people forgetting about our rights
so, all you Black People, You got to fight for your rights
You got to fight for your rights
You got to fight for your rights
You got to fight for your rights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRFh8G_zLtU

Clip from: the classic Aboriginal ‘road movie’ “Wrong Side of the Road (1981) see above posts for more background info.


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 07:36 AM

continued :


GENOCIDE

1981, performed by US MOB
Lyrics and music by Peter Butler and Wally McArther

They promised us this, and they promised us that
But all we ever get, is to stab you in the back.
They tell us what to do, and they push us around
And then they have the gall, to go and rip up the ground.

When are they gonna learn, when will they stop?
When are they gonna learn to stop this genocide?

Like the children that are dyin. The white man just ain’t tryin
He’s cheatin and he’s lyin, all the time.
They don’t wanna understand, that they killed us for our land
Just for the earth and sand, to put money in their greedy hands.

When are they gonna learn, when will they stop?
When are they gonna learn to stop this genocide?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsraq76Y8dE


Us Mob “were an early Aboriginal reggae rock band from South Australia. The band was formed with the help of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music [CASM] in Adelaide.

Us Mob appeared in the film “Wrong Side of the Road” with fellow CASM band, No Fixed Address.*** The recording of the soundtrack made the two bands the first contemporary aboriginal bands to be recorded. Along with No Fixed Address they were nominated for the 1981 AFI Award for Best Original Music for the music from the film. They relocated to Sydney and broke up after their equipment was destroyed by a fire. The band were the subject of an ABC Message Stick documentary in February 2000.    Members : Ronnie Ansell – Bass / Pedro Butler - Guitar/vocals / Carroll Karpany – Guitar / Wally McArther – Drums”    WIKIPEDIA ENTRY

***the classic 1981 Aboriginal ‘road movie’


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Nov 20 - 07:28 AM

more Indigenous music from Oz :

We Have Survived

Written by Bart Willoughby (at age 18); performed by No Fixed Address

WIKI : "We Have Survived" is considered to be an Aboriginal anthem and an "anthem of cultural persistence"


You can't change the river of my soul
Whoa-oh-oh
You can't tell me too, what to do
You can't break my bone by putting me down
Whoa-oh-oh
Or by taking the things that belong to me
'Cause,

We have survived, the white man's world
And the horror and the torment of it all
We have survived, the white man's world
And you know
You can't change that.

All the years has just past me by
Whoa-oh-oh
I've been hassled by the cops nearly all my life
People try to keep me so blind
Whoa-oh-oh
But I can see what's going on, in my mind
'Cause,

We have survived, the white man's world
And the horror and the torment of it all
We have survived, the white man's world
And you know
You can't change that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVI2CxvqtII   (band clip from 1981 film “Wrong Side of the Road” – which is a classic - an Aboriginal ‘Road Movie’)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkK_3oGihIQ   (clip is a great solo acoustic version by Bart Willoughby, year?)

1981 film members: Les Graham, lead guitar ; Chris Jones, guitar, vocals ; Veronica Rankine, saxophone, harmony vocals ; John John Miller, bass ; Bart Willoughby, drums, vocals, percussion, didgeridoo.
No Fixed Address were extant 1978-1988. As with Bunna Lawrie’s Coloured Stone (see previous Mudcat posts), members came from the Koonibba Mission, west of Ceduna in SA.

“They formed only four years after the Racial Discrimination Act passed Federal Parliament – making it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their race or descent – and less than two decades since the repeal of the 1911 ‘Aborigines Act‘, which enshrined in law the protection of free movement for Aboriginal Australian residents in South Australia.” https://citymag.indaily.com.au/culture/no-fixed-address-given-permanent-cbd-address/


“ …. while studying music at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in North Adelaide. They were mentored by a white musician, Graeme Isaac who encouraged them to move beyond country music, a popular genre of music adopted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to explore rock and reggae. In a sense, the boys created a whole new music genre, ‘Australian reggae’ by using traditional reggae sounds fused with the Indigenous storytelling and punk, anarchist lyrics. They were the first Aboriginal band to receive mainstream exposure, [previously] there were no Aboriginal bands in the national music charts, on commercial radio or on national television.

No Fixed Address paved the way for the iconic Aboriginal rock which began to emerge in the 1980s, including Yothu Yindi and the Warumpi Band….. They were the first Aboriginal band to tour internationally.
Their music was a source of advocacy and activism … not just talented musicians with a cool sound. Their lyrics dramatically changed the Australian music landscape, where strong songs about human rights, Indigenous welfare, racism, oppression and Australia’s shameful history were broadcast on mainstream channels. This was just shy of a time when non-Indigenous Australians were unaware of the Stolen Generations or forced labor of Aboriginal children, and public schools were teaching students that Indigenous Australians will soon become extinct.

NFA lyrics … opened conversations in the wider community about the struggles of Indigenous peoples and country-wide resistance.

The 1981 film “Wrong Side of the Road” was also a creative response to the band being denied a major recording contract on account of them being ‘too radical’. This, along with consistent police interference at their music gigs and being denied hotel accommodation while on tour, showed the public how difficult it is for Aboriginal Australians to excel in mainstream creative industries and the ways that their opportunities have been limited. Making their Halls of Fame induction [in 2011 and 2016], an even more significant win for Aboriginal music, and Indigenous excellence. They truly have survived.

https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/06/08/no-fixed-address-pioneers-aboriginal-music-inducted-sa-hall-fame


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Nov 20 - 09:22 PM

Here is another song that I first heard on Ian White's 'Songs from a Busker's Bag'. He noted that he got it 'from Joy Durst in the days of the Victorian Bush Music Club'. It is an Australian version of a song that was first published in 'Plantation Melodies' in 1847. The song was part of the American blackface minstrel tradition. The book noted: 'Words by S.S. Steele, Esq. as sung by A.F. Winnemore and his band of Virginia Serenaders; Arranged for the Piano Forte by A. F. Winnemore'.


GUM TREE CANOE

I’ll sing you a ditty, a sweet little song
It will just take a moment, it won’t keep you long
I’ll sing of the days when our love was so new
And we sailed down the Murray River, boys, in a gum tree canoe

Chorus;
We rowed o’er the waters so blue
Like a feather we would float along
In our gum tree canoe

My hand on my banjo, my toe in my oar
I work all the day and I sing as I go
And at night time I turn to my Julia so true
And we sail down the Murry River, boys, in a gum tree canoe

I once left the river and went on the land
To set myself up as a cocky so grand
But the life didn’t suit me, it made my heart sore
I went back to the Murray River, boys, and my Julia once more

Ian's rendition was a beaut duet with Cathie O'Sullivan, but that is not available on the Net. However, you can hear it from Chloe and Jason Roweth here - it starts around 2 min mark.

Youtube clip

Original lyrics and a recording here:

Click

The singer who is best associated with the song these days:

John Hartford

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 09:46 PM

ACROSS THE LINE
(Anon)

I’ve traded with the Maoris
Brazilians and Chinese
I’ve courted half-caste beauties
Beneath the kauri trees
I’ve travelled along with a laugh and a song
In the land where they call you mate
Around the Horn and back again
For that is the sailor’s fate

Chorus:
Across the line, the Gulf stream
I’ve been in Table Bay
Around the Horn and home again
For that is the sailor’s way

I’ve run aground in many a sound
Without a pilot aboard
Longboat lowered by lantern light
Pushed off and gently oared
Row-lock creaking, a thumping swell
And a wind that would make you ache
Who would sail the seven seas
And share a sailor’s fate

We’ve sailed to northward
We’ve sailed away to east
We’ve skinned our sail in the teeth of a gale
And stood in the calmest seas
Eastward 'round by Dusky Sound
And Pegasus though the Strait
Port Cooper, Ocean, Tom Kain’s Bay
For that is a sailor’s fate

Youtube clip

Garland’s version, particularly in the second half of the third stanza, differs from the above which was first published in the ‘Canterbury Times’ in 1913.

In the north, the Bay of Islands became busier and busier. Kororareka grew as the world’s southernmost port with whitewashed houses lining the shore. However, in the south, the sealing industry was dying, for the massive slaughter of seals as they came ashore to calve led to their rapid decrease in numbers. Sailors, moreover, were far less willing to seal. Tales of gangs left to die on the southernmost storm-swept islands spread rapidly. The seamen on the coastal trading vessels carried these stories with them as they sailed ‘eastward 'round by Dusky Sound and Pegasus through the Strait. Note in ‘Song of a Young Country’ p11.

--Stewie.

Subject: ADD: OLD SYDNEY TOWN (Phyl Lobl)
From: rich-joy
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 02:45 AM

OLD SYDNEY TOWN
(Phyl Lobl)

The tank steam* ran silent through shaded green banks,
When first I saw Sydney I offered no thanks.
And the pleasant bush scenery gave me no cheer,
For the eyes of a convict are blinded by fear.

   Oh Old Sydney Town I once was a rover,
   But now I can see that you've fair won me over.
   From the Hero of Waterloo* up at the rocks,
   To Blackwattle Bay with its dirty old docks.
   I'll sing of your pleasures that satisfy me,
   Of your harbour, your pubs and your Circular Quay*.

The stone and the sweat that they used for the Quay,
Was culled from the earth and poor bastards like me.
How I hated that stone from the Argyle Cut,
And I wished it were my bones they'd hung at Pinchgut.

They gave me a pardon and set me quite free,
But the white cliffs of Dover no more will see me,
For I'm working a ferry run, I'm doing fine,
From Blues Point to Dawes Point* I'm straight down the line.

Now Phillip he formed you for he chose the place,
Macquarie came after and quite changed your face.
But for prisoners of Old Mother England who slaved,
To build up your city, no names are engraved*.


* References
The 'Tank Stream' was Sydney's earliest water supply.
Hero Of Waterloo is a pub in the Rocks area of Sydney, the early area of settlement.
Circular Quay was once called semi-circular Quay because it was semi-circular. I used to sing semi instead of your but abandoned the practice.
Before there was a bridge there was a ferry.
Phillip and Macquarie early Governors.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJBirEyXLYs Sung by Qld’s long-time folk duo, Penny Davies & Roger Ilott.

This is Phyl’s version : https://phyllobl.net/songs/broadmeadow-thistle-album/old-sydney-town/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 02:00 AM

ASIO by John Dengate (words from My Shout, 1982)


ASIO! where we photograph and file ‘em!
ASIO! for political asylum ...

I’m very seldom feted, I’m poorly educated
I feel I’m underrated by the crown
But I can tell subversion from sexual perversion,
When I’m on excursion round your town.

ALTERNATE CHORUS
ASIO! where we photograph and file ‘em,
ASIO! the political asylum.

ASIO! from the arctic to the jungle
ASIO! we invariably bungle.

From Caringbah to Cairo, I’m ready with my biro,
I fire like a pyromaniac
I can tell by intuition, if you’re guilty of sedition,
But I’m hampered in my mission by the brains I lack.

ASIO! etc.

You’re a radical rebelling! What’s your name and place of dwelling?
(Could you help me with the spelling, I’m a wee bit pissed)
I must be very canny, look in every nook and cranny,
Why I’ve even got my granny on the suspect list.

ASIO! etc.

If you keep participating, in the nasty demonstrating,
Or I catch you masturbating, you’ll be on my files.
Yes! security is vital and to ascertain it’s tight I’ll
Sit here prying day and night until I get the piles.

ASIO! etc

Away we go! (Never mind the trauma)
It pays, you know, I'm an ASIO informer.


Jane Scott singing ASIO & Dale talking about her & John's ASIO files!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 01:35 AM

BLACK BOY

Bunna Lawrie, 1984

A shy black boy, you came to the city
To learn about life and how his people - (are / are living / lost their lives / lost heart / are st..... / ?***)
He's very stubborn, he was just a child
And now his life is mystified.

Black boy, black boy
Black boy, black boy
The color of your skin is your pride & joy
Black boy, black boy
Black boy, black boy
Your life is not destroyed.

He didn't go to school coz they called him ‘Black Boy’
He hardly talked to the girls and boys
Don't be a fool, just obey the rules
Cause you'll just learn the truth.

And one day you'll grow up to be a man
To learn and live and understand
Sticks and stones may break your bones
But names will never hurt you.

You'll be the one who's having fun
So you just keep on learning on.

Black boy, black boy
Black boy, black boy
The color of your skin is your pride & joy
Black boy, black boy
Black boy, black boy
Your life is not destroyed.


Bunna Lawrie’s group Coloured Stone – came from out of Koonibba Mission, west of Ceduna in SA. Bunna says this song is semi autobiographical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v47WOQaZsI&t=45s

*** Many before me have tried to decipher these words and there are many variations on the Net – and even on different versions sung by Bunna!!


BtW, if you’re interested in music from Indigenous Australians, read this article from 2012 by iconic Australian singer-songwriter, Paul Kelly. The song/performer selection is not finite, of course, but it’s a great start :
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/october/1360803357/paul-kelly/desert-songs#mtr


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 01:24 AM

Song of Childhood by John Dengate (original tune)

Where have the days of my childhood gone -
Time had plundered the years.
Stolen my gift of golden days;
Left me with ashes and tears.
Over the paddocks I've run ...
Drugged with the summer cicadas' song;
Drunk with freedom and sun.

Take me back to a fibro house
In a suburb carved from the bush.
Give me an acre of grass to cut
And a rusty mower to push.
Give me a summery Saturday
Just after the war was won,
With Dad and my uncles drinking beer,
Sprawled on the grass in the sun.

They spoke with a curious proud elan;
Their laughter was careless and free.
Fresh from the battles against Japan
They seemed immortal to me.
But how can an innocent boy discern
What's fallible, false or true?
Their mortal steps are faltering now
And mine are faltering too.

Bring out the bat and the worn cork ball
And we'll bowl at an old wooden case.
She'll jump and turn on the asphalt road ...
She'll come at a lively pace!
But barefoot, careless, and undismayed
We'll drive and hammer and glance ...
Now the ball is lost in the tangled years -
My hands couldn't hold the chance.

Jason & Chloe Roweth video

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 12:48 AM

Terrorist Song by John Dengate ©John Dengate 2003 Tune: Knickerbocker Line

    As I was walking down the road, he suddenly appeared:
    A bloody turbaned Moslem with a big Bin Laden beard;
    I asked, "Are you a terrorist, is that your bloody lurk?"
    He said, "No, I'm a carpenter, I'm on my way to work."

    Chorus
    I watched him, tracked him, rang up A.S.I.O.
    I dobbed him into Alan Jones on talk-back radio.
    I may not be a beauty and I don't have any sense
    But, by God, I know my duty to the national defence!

    They're going to bomb the Harbour Bridge then quiet as a mouse,
    They'll sneak up with explosives and blow up the Opera House.
    They're going to blow up Murphy's pub. I've heard about the plot …
    I hope they get the pokies 'cause I'm losing quite a lot.

    There's terrorism everywhere; it makes a man afraid…
    I’m buying a machine gun and I'll build a barricade.
    You'll have to know the password if you come and visit me.
    Shoot first, ask questions later mate, that's my philosophy.

    My Aunty May's eccentric; "You’re paranoid," she said.
    She doesn't believe the terrorists are underneath the bed.
    She reckons it's "hysteria"… I don’t know what she meant …
    She said she’s far more frightened of the Federal Government.

    John Howard will protect us, he is very strong and brave;
    He's passing legislation that will make you all behave!
    You won't be facing Mecca on that silly bloody mat
    You'll all be Church of England, Abdul, cogitate on that!

    Final Chorus
    Watch them, track them…

    Notes

    Many tanks to John Dengate for permission to include this song in the Union Songs collection.

    Alan Jones is a "Shock Jock" on commercial radio and long time supporter of the Howard government. A.S.I.O is the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation about whom there are quite a number of songs

Terrorist song by Chris Maltby @ BMC's Dengate memorial 2013

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 12:20 AM

after the recent Qld election, where Clive Palmer sent many millions against the labour govt & ran many candidates, but received very few votes, IKEA put an ad on their roof saying Geez, Clive ... $60 million & not a single seat. Should have come to IKEA - & advertising one of their chairs, for $27.99

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Nov 20 - 11:52 PM

And another from the 10th Man album, 1813 Miscarriage of Justice. (with a nod to "The Lights of Cobb & Co" by the sound of it) :

BtW, this is how they describe their music on their website :
"it's hard to ?c?ategorise?? - Let's call it protest punk or hard rock indie music for lack of a definition. With quieter lyrical interludes. Sometimes a touch of reggae or the blues, or a rolling shanty.   It's all original and made in Bathurst.

There are some things we feel strongly about: social injustice, especially for the original Australians and for our newest arrivals seeking our protection; the bulldozing of forests and shooting of wildlife; mining and climate change; political opportunism and the spun line; and shonky environmental consultants. Sometimes it just has to be put in a song of sorts, powered with high energy fury - or laid back irony and fun. Our music is strongly informed and influenced by politics, environment and social issues, history and colonisation - and is highly collaborative.

10th Man has been jamming in the dungeon every week for years now, where anyone is welcome to bring their instrument, a riff or a rhythm, and away we go."


GALILEE

Well the land-grab started here for them so many years ago
When Mitchell opened up the plains they called it Jericho
Now farms are not enough to spin the dollars for the kings
So they’re going to dig for coal in Galilee

Galilee Galilee
Valley of great riches, come on and gather coal
Galilee Galilee
Saddle-up your horses, we’re going for the gold

Well you’re going to need a railway from here to Abbott Point
Don’t worry about the EIS, we’ll doctor a report
Just point your hands in front of you directly to the sea
And you’ll haul your stinking coal from Galilee

Galilee Galilee
Valley of great riches, come on and gather coal
Galilee Galilee
Saddle-up your horses, we’re going for black gold

So saddle up the government, we’ll take them for a ride
The Chinese and the Indians are waiting for their prize
Now the Brigalow and Bimblebox will fade from memory
As you haul your stinking coal from Galilee

Galilee Galilee
Valley of great riches, come on and gather coal
Galilee Galilee
Saddle-up your horses, we’re going for black gold

We’ll dump the sludge into the reef, the fish’ll be just fine
Its only sediment my friend, from Bowen bloody mines
The climate it’ll be alright you wait and frickin’ see
As we dig our fuckin’ holes in Galilee

Galilee Galilee
Valley of great riches, come on and gather coal
Galilee Galilee
Saddle-up your horses, we’re going for black gold

Galilee Galilee
Valley of great riches, come on and gather coal
Galilee Galilee
Saddle-up your horses, we’re going for black gold
Hey!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOlrhZrEu2M


"the galilee basin
In 2013 the Queensland and Australian federal governments approved Waratah Coal’s massive coal mine and development, owned by billionaire and now-federal Member of Parliament, Clive Palmer. Some 40 mega-tonnes of coal pa bound for China will be transported on a yet-to-be-built 468km rail line up to Abbot Point, a development that will dredge and dump in the Great Barrier Reef.

In the Galilee Basin, at least half of the 8,000 hectare remnant Bimblebox Nature Reserve will be destroyed for Palmer’s ‘China First’ mine – renamed the ‘Galilee Coal Project’. The Bimblebox is home to innumerable wildlife and plant species. The photos in the clip below are a selection of some of the birds and animals found in the Bimblebox woodland."

Be sure to watch the clip re this, on their webpage.

Meanwhile, the Court battles drag on and Australia loses more species and habitats daily and yet somehow, this particular creature survives everything and shores up his fortunes. Here is a recent profile :
https://mine.nridigital.com/mine_australia_nov20/clive_palmer_profile



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Nov 20 - 11:14 PM

I've just come across this rather interesting 2014 album entitled "Miscarriage of Justice" from a group of 6 x Bathurst, NSW musicians called "10th Man" (website here : http://www.10thman.com.au ). I'll post a couple of tracks.


SYDNEY TOWN

I am the modern warrior, I fight the urban sprawl
I am the lonely beggar sitting in the Pitt Street mall
I am the western suburbs, jammed up with the bogan homes
I am the hungry monster, built upon greed and sandstone

And when the sun goes down, you’ll see the dark side of this town
You’ll go down down down down
Down down to Sydney town
Down, to Sydney town.

Rape and pillage, it’ll take your soul
It’ll steal your innocence
It will take it all, it’ll take it all (x2)
It’ll take it all

I am the Hawkesbury River, the ghosts at Callan Park
A tattooed arm at Coogee spewed up from a tiger shark
I am James Hardie Fibro, dioxins in the bay
Shootin’ up at Cabramatta, having coffee in a [Bronte] Beach café

And when the sun goes down, you’ll see the dark side of this town
You’ll go down down down down
Down down to Sydney town
Down, to Sydney town

Rape and pillage, it’ll take your soul
It’ll steal your innocence
It will take it all, it will take it all (x2)
It will take it all

I am the deals and handshakes, going down in Macquarie Street
An outrage at Mount Rennie (or Mount Penny)
I’m standing at the wharf, I’m on the beat
I am your local Westfield, an old and groaning wharf
Listen to the ghosts of the colony
Listen to us, hear us talk

And when the sun goes down, you’ll see the dark side of this town
You’ll go down down down down
Down down to Sydney town
Down down down down
Down, down to Sydney town

Rape and pillage, it’ll take your soul
It’ll steal your innocence
It will take it all, it’ll take it all (x2)
It will take it all

Yeah it’ll take it all, and leave you with nothing


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XTOCCIACE


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Nov 20 - 10:14 PM

Another one for young Les. A pox on their king and empire! This is more or less what the Bushwackers recorded. I don't know who wrote it - possibly Dobe Newton.

LES DARCY

Roll up ! roll up and see the show, you local blokes let's see you go
A quid for a goer, two bob for a dud, it's a princely pay for sweat and blood

Young Les was keen to have a go, 'now watch him Les - he'll hit you low'
The tent-show boy never saw it coming, Maitland's pride was off and running

Running down to Sydney town, running down to try
Running down to make his name and listen to them cry

Chorus
All I can wish for tonight is to see Les Darcy fight.
How they cheered him, they clapped him and they cheered him
Every Saturday night

So he hung around the stadium door, they let him in to sweep the floor
He saw them spar, the best they'd got, he knew that he could beat the lot
Three rounds to start and then a main, he never swept that floor again
For he beat them all inside the bell, soon he heard the people yell

Chorus

They rolled up in regiments for every fight, they made Les Darcy king for a night
But then he refused to kill in our name, the press they called him a national shame.
He stowed away for the land of the free, he died alone across the sea
In a flag-draped coffin they sent him home, he sat on our guilt like a champion's throne

He was going down to Tennessee, he was going down to die,
If we'd known that we would break your heart, you would have heard Australia cry

Youtube clip

The Australian Folk Songs site has an example of the attacks on Darcy printed in the 'Adelaide Mail' in 1917:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Nov 20 - 04:40 AM

Gulgong Song, words John Dengate, tune trad used for Catalpa, Rosin the bow,

written in the late 60s when the Bush Music Club visited Gulgong for the Gold Dust Festivals/Carnivals

Sofala, Hill End and Tuena, their stories will always be told
And none can deny Araluen her place in the story of gold …
   But written in nuggets at Pipe Clay, Home Rule and Canadian Lead,
   The glittering history of Gulgong is there for Australia to read.

Loud were the shouts and the laughter when diggers with joy unrestrained
Went paddling round in the gutters, picking up gold when it rained …
   And written in nuggets at Pipe Clay, Home Rule and Canadian Lead,
   The glittering history of Gulgong is there for Australia to read.

Glinting in clay and in gravel, gleaming in quartz and in lode;
Gold was the pillar of Gulgong – and Gardiner was king of the road …
   And written in nuggets at Pipe Clay, Home Rule and Canadian Lead,
   The glittering history of Gulgong is there for Australia to read.

We’ll drink to the days of the diggings and then when our memories grow dim,
We’ll take down the volumes of Lawson and share the last bottle with him …
   And written in nuggets at Pipe Clay, Home Rule and Canadian Lead,
   The glittering history of Gulgong is there for Australia to read.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Nov 20 - 02:44 AM

Ballad of Les Darcy by John Dengate (tune - The Boys of Wexford)

In Maitland Town, long years ago, and so begins my song,
There toiled in a blacksmith's forge a sportsman young and strong;
He'd hands and arms like tempered steel; Les Darcy was his name.
He made the iron anvil peal and punched his way to fame.


High-ranking Yankee middleweights with reputations tall
Were fighting in Australian rings, defeating one ans all;
But when they met the Maitland boy, with heads and hearts full sore,
Much sadder and wiser men, they left Australia's shores.

"Now Darcy you must go to war1" the militarists rages
But Darcy's mother would not sign and he was underaged.
So midst a storm of foul abuse, Les Darcy sailed away
To earn his living with his fists in distant U.S.A

But death awaited Darcy in th land beyond the sea.
Of poison adn a broken heart he dies in Tennessee;
He's buried now near Maitland in the land where he was born,
And those who smeared Les DArcy's name; I sing their names to scorn.

He'd hands and arms like tempered steel; Les Darcy was his name.
He made the iron anvil peal and punched his way to fame.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Nov 20 - 08:41 PM

Thanks, Sandra.

THE BALLAD OF LES DARCY
(Clem Parkinson)

In the early 1900s in Maitland New South Wales
The legend of Les Darcy first began
While working as a blacksmith he became as tough as nails
At sixteen worked as hard as any man

His folks were mighty poor and they struggled to exist
Young Darcy was the family’s sole support
In time the prize ring beckoned to that young man’s mighty fist
People came from miles when Darcy fought

The magic of his gloves set the boxing world ablaze
The crowd went wild with every victory
But he didn’t fight for glory and he didn’t fight for fame
But to keep his family free from poverty

Europe plays with war and by nineteen seventeen
Countless lives had perished in the mud
There had to be more fodder for the hungry war machine
Youth must be prepared to shed its blood

But Darcy slipped away in defiance of the law
To seek the title in the USA
He rejected king and empire, he loved his family more
But he little knew the price he’d have to pay

Bewildered and alone in a strange and foreign land
Hounded by a vicious press campaign
He was branded as a slacker, from the prize ring he was banned
And his health became affected by the strain

In Memphis Tennessee at the age of twenty one
Rejected and alone he passed away
Now the people mourn the passing of this fine Australian son
And we think of him with reverence today

Another fine song that I first heard on Ian White's 'Songs From a Busker's Bag'. Wongawilli have recorded an excellent rendition:

Youtube clip

The Maitland Wonder

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Nov 20 - 03:02 AM

1964 Review of LAND WHERE THE CROW FLIES BACKWARDS

From the Archives - Aboriginal songs in Singabout Journal of Australian Folk Song, 1956-1967

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Nov 20 - 09:23 PM

THE LAND WHERE THE CROW FLIES BACKWARDS
(Dougie Young)

I was born in the scrub in a mia-mia
On the river they call the Barcoo
My parents left me when I was quite young
To paddle my own canoe
They took me ‘long to Yundama station
With a stock whip they tanned my hide
Threw me in the saddle of a bucking horse
That’s how I learned to ride

Chorus
Yes, I’m tall, dark and lean, every place I’ve been
The white man calls me Jack
It’s not a crime, I’m not ashamed
I was born with my skin so black
When it comes to riding rough horses
Or working cattle, I’ve mixed with the best
In the land where the crow flies backwards
And the pelican builds his nest

I’ve knocked about a lot of places
In this land called the great outback
Many times I’ve drove a herd of cattle
Along the Birdsville Track
With the mosquitoes and flies comin’ at you
And the sun beatin’ down so hot
You might think it’s a hell of a place
But to me it means a lot

Chorus

They laugh in my face, they say I’m a disgrace
They say I’ve got no sense
The white man took this country from me
He’s been fightin’ for it ever since
These governments and presidents they’re arguin’
Every day they’re tryin’ to start a brawl
If they are going to start a nuclear war
What’s gonna happen to us all
So I’ll just linger on, when from this world I’m gone
This will be my last request
Bury me where the crow flies backwards
And the pelican build his nest

Chorus

Above is my transcription from an EP that Dougie Young recorded in 1964. Young was the first indigenous Australian to record his own compositions. I first heard it on a LP by my friend, Ian White - 'Songs from a Busker's Bag'. Young reached a wider audience when this song was recorded by Gary Shearston.

You tube clip

Gary Shearston cover

Dougie Young bio

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 16 Nov 20 - 09:39 PM

BLACK VELVET BAND
(Anon)

It was the time for leaving
An emigrant I was bound
To say farewell to my true love
And dear old London town

Chorus:
Her eyes they shine like diamonds
I took hold of her hand
Her hair hung down her shoulder
Tied up with a black velvet band

I knew not when I’d see her
When I bade her adieu
For I was bound for New Zealand
To see my contract through

I’m saving every penny
And silver to be found
I’ll latch on to every sovereign
That reaches Auckland town

And when I’m rich and proper
And own a store in town
I’ll send back home for my true love
And then I’ll settle down

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 16 Nov 20 - 09:22 PM

A short and sweet one from the Kiwi songbook:

LITTLE TOMMY PINKERTON
(Anon)

Little Tommy Pinkerton the fat boy
Went to see his uncle Brown
And when he was leaving his uncle gave him
A brand new half-a-crown
Tommy felt very thirsty
He went to the very first shop
Had six lemonade and a dozen ginger beer
Then there came a great big pop
More work for the undertaker
Another little job for the tombstone maker
At the local cemetery they were very very busy
With a brand new grave for Tommy's fragments

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Nov 20 - 09:54 PM

THE GLASS ON THE BAR
(Henry Lawson)

Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn
And one of them called for the drinks with a grin
They'd only returned from a trip to the north
And, eager to greet them, the landlord came forth
He absently poured out a glass of Three Star,
And set down that drink with the rest on the bar

"There, that is for Harry," he said, "and it's queer
'Tis the very same glass that he drank from last year
His name's on the glass, you can read it like print
He scratched it himself with an old bit of flint
I remember his drink - it was always Three Star"
And the landlord looked out through the door of the bar

He looked at the horses, and counted but three
"You were always together - where's Harry?" cried he
Oh, sadly they looked at the glass as they said,
"You may put it away, for our old mate is dead"
But one, gazing out o'er the ridges afar, said
"We owe him a shout - leave the glass on the bar"

They thought of the faraway grave on the plain
They thought of the comrade who came not again
They lifted their glasses, and sadly they said:
"We drink to the name of our mate who is dead"
And the sunlight streamed in and a light like a star
Seemed to glow in the depth of the glass on the bar

And still in that shanty a tumbler is seen
It stands by the clock, always polished and clean
And often the strangers will read as they pass
The name of a bushman engraved on the glass;
And though on the shelf but a dozen there are
That glass never stands with the rest on the bar

I don't know the provenance of the tune. Recordings range from Tex Morton to Peter Bellamy.

Youtube clip

--Stewie

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Nov 20 - 09:02 PM

This one was a great favourite here in Darwin performed by Tony Suttor and Peter Bate.

MOSS VALE TRAIN
(A.Scott/T.Morton)

Well, I'm standing on Campbelltown station
Waitin' for the Moss Vale train
When a bloke comes out with a microphone
To say it's been cancelled again
Well, he says it's not his problem
That we can’t get our ride
The train pulled in to Minto
And committed suicide

Well, he says he's ordered buses
To take us on our way
And he thinks we should be grateful
That's what I heard him say.
So we're lurching down the freeway
Watching videos
I hope we get to Moss Vale
Before the shops all close

There's a bloke on the seat here beside me
He’s going for a job interview
By the time we get to Picton
His chances of employment are through
And my wife waits for me in Bowral
She'll be going off her brain
Staring down the railway track
And there won’t be any train

So if you're standing on Campbelltown station
Waiting for the Two-Thirty-One,
And a clown comes out with a microphone
To tell you the train won't run

Spoken:
You tell him it is HIS problem
It's a problem for ALL of us,
Tell him you want the train back
You don't want his stupid bus

Or you'll be lurching down the freeway
Hoping to get there soon
The money they spent on the freeway
Would build a railway to the moon

Alan Scott used Tex Morton's tune for 'Freight Train Yodel'.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Nov 20 - 08:37 PM

With a nod to 'Jock Stewart', a belter from the author of 'Poison Train'.

SING US A SONG BOYS
(Mike O’Rourke)

Well come all decent people who suffer no shame
You can let the blame lie where it will
They have taken all from me except for my name
And they’ve turned that from good into ill

Chorus
So sing us a song boys and we’ll be away
It’s a long dry road we’re travelling today
Let the bottle go round, take it easy and free
No man is a stranger when he’s drinkin’ with me

Now if you ask where I’m goin’, me errand’s me own
It’s for me to say where to and when
And drinkin’ might stop me from thinkin’ too long
Where I live through my memories again

Chorus

And God knows what kind of a country we’ve made
There were men raised it up on their backs
And those fellows who handle the shears and the spade
Are still out on the wallaby track

Chorus

And where is the flag of the diggers brigade
Where are the riders out in the night
And where is the wild dog who’s never afraid
And who’ll never let go when he bites

Chorus

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Nov 20 - 08:24 PM

I was trying to remember the title of this poignant song to post on Remembrance Day. I finally tracked it down - better late than never. Like many, I can't stand Ian McNamara as a radio presenter, but he is often given some beaut songs to air.

LAST MAN FROM DUNOLLY
(Mike Whittle)

I’m the last man from Dunolly
of our battalion at Fromelles
General Haking gave the orders,
And the troops were shot to hell
All the mates that I signed up with
I was with them as they fell
My fifty ninth was cut to pieces
And the sixtieth as well
Well, the doc says I’ll recover
While the nurse looks set to cry
But I’m left wondering why of all us mates
I’m the one who did not die

Now I’ve just been told they’ll ship me home
But the thing to understand
Is that every mate that I grew up with
Is lying dead in no-man’s-land
So I’m writing you this letter
And you’ll get it with the mail
For I’ll be homeward bound you see
When the Warilda next sets sail

I’ll be home and I guess that
I’ll be drinking on my own
There were Douglas, Pat and Roger
We’d find shortcuts through the scrub
When we had a thirst worth quenching
At the old Dunolly pub
So, I’ll be home, and I’ll raise a glass
To all these friends I’ve known

Oh, I’m the last man from Dunolly
Of us volunteers who went to war
From the sports ground
Where we all signed up,
It seemed a cause worth fighting for

And I’m the last man from Dunolly
From the fifteenth brigade there at Fromelles
That evening when the orders came
So many diggers fell
I was right by James Barnfather
When he copped one in the chest
Of my mates from ‘round Dunolly
He may just have been the best
I knelt down there beside him
I spoke with him as he died
Fifteenth brigade could not advance
No matter what was tried
So in retreat, back to our lines
We trod through guts and blood
From our mates and other diggers
Blown to pieces in the mud.

But I’ll be home, I’ll be home
But I guess I'll be drinking on my own

So I’m the last man from Dunolly
Of our newly-formed brigade.
There were no gains made at Fromelles
Despite the price we paid
Us diggers, we had just arrived
In fact we’d barely got our kit
When we were slaughtered our thousands
Sent out to do our bit
I’m the last man from Dunolly,
Who saw Pompey Elliott’s tears
Greet the remnant of his brigade
When Command ignored his fears
You know the wounded here
They are strange to me
I scarce know four or five
Of my fifty ninth battalion
Perhaps a hundred may survive

But I’ll be home. I’ll be home
I will raise a toast to all these mates I’ve known

See I’m the last man from Dunolly
Who saw action in Fromelles
And lost all his mates on the battlefield
But was with them when they fell

Youtube clip

Mike Whittle's note on the song:

The last man from Dunolly: Dunolly is a typical Australian small town in the North West wheat growing region of Victoria. Early in World War I it was common practice to send the recruits from a single town or local region to a single platoon, and in a rural town there’s a limit to the number of men of service age. Monuments erected after the war record losses that were sometimes devastating to the area when a particular company had heavy casualties. 5,533 Australian and 1,547 British soldiers were sacrificed on the 19th and 20th of July 1916 at Fromelles in a pointless assault on a virtually impregnable position. The incompetence of the commanding officer, General Sir Richard Haking, was extreme even by the standards of the day. He had commanded two previous attacks on the same objective in 1915 both of which ended in disastrous failure with great loss of life. He justified his incompetence by remarking that the losses would “toughen up” the troops. His actions became a serious issue for the Australian government.

Pompey Elliott

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 08:29 PM

Another song of the diggers.

THE BLACK SWANS
(Anon/N.Colquhoun)

The restless shadows by me flit
And day will soon be o'er
As in the dying light I sit
Outside my whare door
Away across the east I see
The black swans homeward come
Through sunset skies that gleam on me
A digger scraping gum

Mid hills of grey and brown
I live here in the scrub
Full fifty miles from any town
And ten from any pub
Through winter's rain and summer's drought
This life maybe suits some
I grind a scanty living out
Digging and scraping gum

And if you want the way you've gone
Hid from the friends you've lost
As slow the years of life steal on
And turn the hair to frost
Then see across the eastern sky
The black swans homeward come
'Neath sunset skies that gleam on my
Hard scraping of gum

Youtube clip

The end of the earth is not far from here. With the growth of bush, it's getting darker year by year. The gum lumps are finding less - they are smaller and deeper down. It don't look like I'll be seeing a town ... If it were not for stealing shop samples, I would not be here, sitting at the door of a shack with a hole for a lum, scraping a hundred weight of gum up clean. A gum digger's letter about 1910.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 07:58 PM

SONG OF THE DIGGER
(W.Satchell/N.Colquhoun)

Chorus
This is the song of the digger
The song of the seeker of gum
Sung in the kerosene twilight
To the sound of the kerosene drum

The hooking is done in the summer
It's done in the winter as well
The finer the weather the better
For the scrub when it's wet gives you hell

It's hard, bloody hard, is this scraping
Which goes on for most of the night
If you ever sat round just waiting
You'd never get the bloody thing right

O Mary, O Mary, sweet Mary
Tell me how do your pink rosies grow
I remember one morn in the dairy
I beheld your black hair hung low

Father was never a digger
I learned of the trade myself
A bottle is by me to swigger
And the candle is up on the shelf

Above is the full version as printed in 'Song of a Young Country'. The lyrics were attributed to William Satchell and the tune was reconstructed by Neil Colquhoun.

Colquhoun noted that what the digger scraped was miscalled kauri gum for it was not gum but a true resin - a solidified turpentine.

Kauri gum is formed when resin exudes from a crack in the bark of the kauri (Agathis australis) and hardens on exposure to air.

Pieces of various sizes, some weighing a kilogram or more, collect in the axils of the branches and in the debris at the base of the tree. Maori and early Europeans found pieces of gum lying on the ground It was recognised overseas as a suitable resin for manufacture of a slow-drying varnish with a hard finish and in 1853, 829 tons of gum were exported,

When all the kauri gum lying on top of the ground had been collected, Maoris and Europeans began to dig up the big lumps near the surface. Over 4,000 tons, averaging £40 a ton, went overseas in 1870.

Spades were the first implements of the gum-diggers; then the spear and hook were devised. The "gum-spear" was a long steel rod attached to a spade handle and tapering to a sharp point. A pikau, or sack, for carrying gum, completed the "tools of trade" of the early gumdigger.

In 1885 about 2,000 diggers were at work, mainly in areas north of Auckland, although the best gum came from the Coromandel Peninsula. The highest export for any year was reached in 1899, with 11,116 tons.

By 1900, hundreds of "Dalmatians", immigrants from Croatia, were on the gumfields, where they camped together in groups. Joseph Smith and his family dug for gum near Dargaville, "...in a house of nikau palm with doors of sacking, and matresses of bush creeper. We spent the whole day hookin' gum and the evening scrapin' it, and singin'. But our singin' was not as hair-raisin' as that further down the track at the Dallie gumdiggers' camp". From NZ Folk Song site.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.