Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 07:57 AM

Joe is her son & one of her literary executors

from Bush Music Club Blog -
Weevils in the Flour, October 2012. A preliminary history of a song;
the early songwriters - Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) & Merv Lilley (1919-2016)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 10:02 AM

Thanks, Sandra. I'm not on facebook, but I'll watch it on Youtube. Bob is a fine composer and performer and a thoroughly good bloke. He composed a tune after a bbq and music session with Darwin folkies. We would occasionally gather on the cliffs above the Nightcliff foreshore for such sessions. He simply titled it 'Nightcliff' and it is the final track on his solo album 'The Man with the Concertina'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 10:08 AM

I'm not on facebook either, but I do look at a few sites.

I used to have Bob's CD but gave most of my Oz CDS to a radio program that promotes Australian music, otherwise I could listen again.   

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 07:29 PM

Gerry Hallom put a tune to Paterson's 'Song of the wheat'. Once again, he makes omissions and minor changes to the poem. Here is what he sings:

SONG OF THE WHEAT
(Paterson/Hallom)

We have sung the song of the droving days
Of the march of the travelling sheep
How in silent stages and lonely ways
The drovers’ herds did creep
But the man who now by the land would thrive
Must keep to a plough-share beat
And the singer changing his tune may strive
To sing the song of the wheat

Silver gum and box and pine
’Twas axe and fire for all
We scarce could tarry to blaze the line
Or wait for the trees to fall
But the land was cleared both far and wide
As the dust from the horses feet
Rose up like a pillar of smoke to guide
The wonderful march of wheat

Furrow by furrow, and fold by fold
The soil is turned on the plain
It’s better than silver, it’s better than gold
The precious mine of the grain
Better than cattle and better than sheep
In the fight with drought and heat
For a stubborn streak both wide and deep
Lies hid in a grain of wheat

Green and amber and gold it grows
As the sun sinks late in the west
And the breeze sweeps over the rippling rows
Where the quail and the skylark nest
Mountain or river or shining star
There’s never a sight can beat
Away to the skyline stretching far
A sea of the ripening wheat

When the burning harvest sun sinks low
And the shadows stretch on the plain
The roaring harvesters come and go
Like ships on a sea of grain
And the lurching, groaning wagons bear
Their tale of the load complete
Of the world’s great work he has done his share
The man who has gathered wheat

Princes, kings and queens and czars
Travel in royal states
But old King Wheat has a thousand cars
For his trip to the water-gate;
And his thousand steamships breast the tide
And sail through the winds and sleet
To the lands where the teeming millions lie
And say, ‘Thank God for wheat!’

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 07:08 PM

Another themed concert that Phil Beck and I presented was entitled 'A Sense of Place'. It included several songs that may be of interest in this context.

This one, relating to the red centre, is by a Scot.

SINGING LAND
(Dougie Maclean)

Your burning skies are never ending across your red brush plains
Out where the dingo still is king and eternity remains
There between the old and ancient desert oasis bright
Your gentle children who have gone are close to me tonight

Chorus:
In your singing land
In your singing land
Shine on, oh shine on over me

There's a feeling still and eerie, there's a feeling strong
The path humanity has come and the path that he has gone
Me I am, I am just passing, three score years and ten
And I'm just a stranger who may never come this way again

Chorus

Under the spell of caterpillar dreaming a new light shapes its form
Along the river's naked banks which are straining from the storm
On secret rock in thunder ocean the tree of man grows clear
The woodlarks sing, the woodlarks dance and the dawn is slipping near

Chorus

Youtube clip

Phi's intro:

'The Singing Land' is set in the MacDonnell Ranges out of the Alice Springs. The red centre of Australia is a place of quiet almost mystical vastness where, as yet, man has made little impact. It’s magnificent ancient country, a vision splendid in any and every direction. The song captures perfectly the timelessness of this place of Aboriginal dreaming. The three score years and ten conventionally allotted to we mortals is as nothing to the ancient Country that is just there and has been so forever, seeming to mock the utter insignificance of man. The melody too fits perfectly with the tranquillity of the red centre: it’s in sync with the rhythm of the land which is slow, and natural change will take its own good time.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 07:21 PM

My friend, Terry Piper, was at one time a ranger at Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory - he now lives in Cairns. He wrote this song decades ago, but its theme is still very relevant. Just recently, a mining company blew up sacred sites in the Kimberley.

BAW BAW BIG BILL
(Terry Piper)

It’s been ten long years now
Since they first found uranium
Did you know what it meant
Did you see through the lies
When they hounded your people
Did you know it was no good
Did you give up the fighting
Just for some peace and quiet

Chorus:
And it’s baw baw Big Bill
Will the brolgas keep dancing
Will the bones rest safe
In the caves where they lie
Though the people keep coming
And the mines keep on growing
Who’ll look after the land
One day when you die

In come the people
With machines and their buildings
And they take what they want
Do they ever give back
And they stay only long enough
To earn what they can
They just couldn’t give a damn
They’ll never return

Chorus

You’re a rich man now
But will that really save you
Where will you spend it
And what will you buy
And your culture will change
When it’s all you’ve to cling to
And they’ll use all the money
As a cheap alibi

Chorus

You’re watching the old people
The once proud and bold people
They get fewer each day
Its hard to survive
When the drink takes its hold
It soon takes its toll
When there’s so much to run from
Is it easier to hide

Chorus

It’s been ten long years now
Since they first found uranium
And you land has changed more
Than in ten thousand years
And the scars will live on
Once the tears have long gone
Will they poison the world
While your people disappear

Chorus (x2)

My intro:

Big Bill Neidjie was a traditional owner of the northern Kakadu National Park area. Fearing that he might take his language and traditional secrets to the grave, he shared many of his stories with anthropologists despite the taboo against revealing them to the uninitiated.

The English language has a word that closely links human distress to a sense of place. The root meaning of ‘nostalgia’ – nostos, return to home or native land and algia, pain or sickness – was a concept related to a medically diagnosable illness.   It is well-documented that dispossessed indigenous peoples worldwide have been likely to experience such a pathology. They have experienced physical and mental illness at rates far beyond those of other groups. Their social problems – unemployment, alcoholism, substance abuse, disproportionate rates of suicide, incarceration etc – have led to community dysfunction and crisis. Yi-Fu Tuan, the eminent pioneering researcher of sense of place, points out that such serious distress of nostalgia can also be produced by a feeling of changes occurring too rapidly and without one’s control.


--Stewie

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 07:54 PM

This is by a Queensland singer/songwriter:

HANGING ON FOR THE RAIN
(Anne Infante)

Well Christmas is coming across this dry land
I’m hanging on, I’m hanging on
I’ve drawn the line, I’m making a stand
Hanging on for the rain
The shepherds who watched o’er my flocks have all gone
I’m hanging on I’m hanging on
The few sheep I’ve left I can watch on my own
I’m hanging on for the rain

Chorus
I’m hanging, on I’m hanging on, this drought can’t last for ever
And I’m searching the skies blinking sweat from my eyes
While I wait for a break in the weather

The wise men flew in to this land scorched and parched
They said the drought won’t break til maybe next March
Well I’ve sold all the cattle that I can afford
And now I’m hand rearing the best of my herd

And the kids they’re excited that Christmas is near
They’ll think Santa’s a mean old bugger this year
For Jill wants a raggy doll, Jack wants a train
But my Christmas wish is for good summer rain

When they close the long paddock, you know times are hard
There’s no use going droving with no grass to be had
And I’ve thought about walking off hundreds of times
But I’m tied to the land with invisible chains.

This song was recorded by Danny Spooner's for his final album 'Home'. Danny's note:

Australia is a country of extreme weather patterns: flood and fire, wind and drought are part of the rural weather cycle. In Anne Infante's song, we hear a farmer enduring these devastating extremes to restock when conditions improve.

Phil's intro:

This song was written about 10 or 15 years ago and, taking away references to toy trains for example, could easily describe the Australia of the 1800s. The fact that it would have been as relevant then as it is now demonstrates how little has changed in the bush. This ancient land changes slowly.

Anne Infante

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Andrez
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 08:03 PM

Great one Stewie. I'd completeley forgotten about BB big Bill but the tune came right back to me as soon as I read the words. It resonates especially as I spent a long time working in the NT and the Kimberley. One special moment that comes back to me was the time I visited Kalkaringi and took the chance to stand at Wattie Creek and reflect on time past a few years earlier when Gough met Vincent Lingiari.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 08:59 PM

Thanks for your comments, Andrez. You remind me that this one should be posted:

FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW
(Paul Kelly/Kev Carmody)

Gather round people I’ll tell you a story
An eight-year-long story of power and pride
’Bout British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiari
They were opposite men on opposite sides
Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Gurindji were working for nothing but rations
Where once they had gathered the wealth of the land
Daily the oppression got tighter and tighter
Gurindji decided they must make a stand
They picked up their swags and started off walking
At Wattie Creek they sat themselves down
Now it don’t sound like much but it sure got tongues talking
Back at the homestead and then in the town

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Vestey man said, 'I’ll double your wages
Seven quid a week you’ll have in your hand'
Vincent said, 'Uhuh we’re not talking about wages
We’re sitting right here till we get our land'
Vestey man roared and Vestey man thundered
'You don’t stand the chance of a cinder in snow'
Vince said, 'If we fall others are rising'

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Then Vincent Lingiari boarded an aeroplane
Landed in Sydney, big city of lights
And daily he went round softly speaking his story
To all kinds of men from all walks of life
And Vincent sat down with big politicians
This affair they told him it's a matter of state
'Let us sort it out, your people are hungry'
Vincent said, 'No thanks, we know how to wait'

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Then Vincent Lingiari returned in an aeroplane
Back to his country once more to sit down
And he told his people let the stars keep on turning
We have friends in the south, in the cities and towns
Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting
Till one day a tall stranger appeared in the land
And he came with lawyers and he came with great ceremony
And through Vincent’s fingers poured a handful of sand

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

That was the story of Vincent Lingiari
But this is the story of something much more
How power and privilege cannot move a people
Who know where they stand and stand in their law

From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow

Youtube clip

Wave Hill story

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Sep 20 - 09:22 PM

Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a volume of verse.

NO MORE BOOMERANG
(Kath Walker)

No more boomerang, no more spear
Now all civilised, colour bar and beer

No more corroboree, gay dance and din
Now we got movies and pay to go in

No more sharing what the hunter brings
Now we work for money and pay it back for things

Now we track bosses to catch a few bob
Now we go walkabout on bus to the job

One time naked who never knew shame
Now we put clothes on to hide whatsaname

No more gunya, now bungalow
Paid by hire purchase in twenty years or so

Lay down the stone axe, take up the steel,
Work like a nigger for a white man's meal

No more firesticks that made whites scoff
Now all electric and no better off

Bunyip he finish got now instead,
Whitefella bunyip, call him Red

Abstract pictures now, what they comin' at
Cripes, in our caves, we did better than that

Black hunted wallaby, white hunt dollar
Whitefella witchdoctor wear dog collar

No more message lubras and lads
Got television now, mostly ads

Lay down the woomera, lay down the waddy
Now we got atom bomb. End everybody

Gerry Hallom put a tune to the poem and recorded it on his 'Old Australian Ways' album. There are some alterations.

Youtube clip

Oodgeroo Noonuccal

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 10:18 AM

Phyl Lobl's EP Dark-Eyed Daughter. audio of the EP

This EP recording was made in 1968 for the Aboriginal Advancement League of Victoria. All proceeds went to the League. Director Stan Davey and Pastor Doug Nicholls were instrumental in organising the recording with W&G and for the distribution of the disc.

“Dark Eyed Daughter” Lobl nee Vinnicombe
“Whose hand?” Ian Hills/Margaret Kitamura
“No more boomerang” Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker)
Will you fight, will you dare?” Lobl nee Vinnicombe

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 08:25 PM

My apologies, Sandra. I had forgotten that you posted links re 'From little things...' It seems so long ago. Anyhow, the words are now available on this thread.

From Union Songs website:

THIRTY TON LINE
(Don Henderson)

Purpose built tugs that like line boats attended
berthed bulk coal carriers in open sea.
To fulfil that function, the union contended,
required four deckhands. The owners said three.
Three deckhands and motorman just couldn't handle
sixteen inch polyprop, double dead eyes.
When the tow-hook was blacked, the company gambled
on a tension winched, ten inch, calm sea compromise.

Chorus
Broadsound. Belyando. Nebo. Sarina.
The sea snaps your hawsers like thin strands of twine.
Broadsound. Belyando. Nebo. Sarina.
Hundred ton bollard pull thirty ton line.

At two in the morning we made fast the Martha.
By nine the Academy Star had been berthed.
Then all tugs and line boats returned to the harbour.
Their work being finished, the four crews dispersed.
Five the same evening, storm warnings were sounding.
Cyclone approaching, no time for delay.
At their berths the big bulkies were taking a pounding.
Broadsound and Belyando must get them away.

To Hay Point at full speed the two tugs went dashing;
got lines on the Martha at Wharf Number Two.
Though twelve foot green water on our decks was crashing,
the order for maximum tow had come through.
With the whole hull vibrating, the tension winch slipping,
then came the moment that all tugmen dread.
The sudden lurch forward, the broken line whipping.
The thought of old shipmates; the injured, the dead.

The Martha had cleared just as our line had broken.
The Academy Star was at Wharf Number One.
Though the help we could offer might be but a token,
in her plight that help would be better than none.
Time and again, we tried to position,
so the tow might commence with all possible speed.
With a jury-rigged line and in such bad conditions,
three deckhands and motorman could not succeed.

Well, not fully laden and high in the water,
the Academy Star could not be controlled.
With a strong on-shore wind by her bow on the quarter,
she slammed at the pylons till her hull had holed.
And yet the ship owners and those who do their will,
send tugs to sea, light on gear, under-manned.
One million dollars will be the repair bill.
They'd pay that in preference to one more deckhand.

Notes

Don Henderson wrote:

"Arriving in Mackay for me to assess the songwriting situation for "The Flames of Discontent" album created a bit of suspicion among maritime workers.
Willsie had stayed C.P.A. when E.V. Elliott had led the union to the S.P.A. and who was this ageing hippy in Chelsea Flair cowboy boots and a burgundy and gold brocade coat that understood the struggle for tug jobs anyway?
A well known P&D knuckle man was delegated to ask me why I wore a coat like that. I answered that it got me into a better class of fight. He took back the verdict that I was O.K. After a week's work and no song had appeared, this verdict was being questioned. Back in Brisbane going over notes, a bit of paper appeared on which l'd written down the names of the tugs and line boats as they were tied up at the wharf.
Broadsound, Belyando, Nebo, Sarina. Said quickly it seemed to sing. Getting the facts of the night right, I wrote the song and sent a cassette to Mackay.
The original O.K. verdict was confirmed. I might look like an old ponce but the song was the one they wanted."

Don first recorded this song on the 1979 LP "Flames Of Discontent". It is also on the MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms"

The tune can be found here:

Union Songs

Music and chords are on p176 of Don Henderson '100 Songs & Poems: A Quiet Century' Queensland Folk Federation-

Danny Spooner did a fine rendition on his 'Emerging Tradition' CD.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 11:31 PM

I did it again. I must stop clearing my website data each evening. But, as Art Thieme would say, when your memory's shot, forget it.

The tune to this one is on a Mudcat thread, but not the lyrics. It was very popular back in the early days of the revival. I first heard it on a Declan Affley LP.

RAKE AND A RAMBLING MAN
(Don Henderson)

Chorus
I am a rake and a rambling man
Fortune I fall to when I can
Could I be, would I be, other than
A rake and rambling man

I travel far, I travel wide
From where winds spring to where winds blow
And if I walk or if I ride
Won't matter only that I go
Stay with the friends that I have made
I stay with the rich and the poor
No welcome has been overstayed
I never linger too long for
I'm a rake but a rambling man

With the police, I know the score
Seldom we meet, but now and then
I'm called to mind that there are more
Police than ever were rambling men
Once as I got, I quickly returned
I am a man and free
Long nights go by and the lesson learned
That in jail no one can be
A rake or a rambling man

Women know men and that talk of the day
Pries at the secrets silent nights hold
Two thousand miles and ten towns away
Names fade and fall from the story that's told
Walked into wind whips at the foot fall
Night breeze is soft and soon spent
Who can't love one might better love all
What cares the road of the farewell that went
With a rake that's a rambling man

I travel far, I travel wide
From where winds spring to where winds blow
For every hill has an unseen side
Cross roads that quarrel the four ways to go
I'll take by chances with fortune and fame
Heads and tails fall as they will
If some know my song who do not know my name
It will not matter if I am still
A rake and a rambling man

The tune and chords may be found at page 63 of the abovemented Don Henderson songbook.

Henderson noted: 'Declan Affley sang this song beautifully. He gave it a quality that can't be conveyed on this page, one that I am not sure was even there when I wrote it. Some reviewers have said that this song is autobiographical; so is the information on my driver's licence'.

Youtube only gives you a Don Williams song with a similar name.

The Affley recording has been reissued on the double CD 'Songs of Don Henderson' on Shoestring Productions label - well worth purchasing:

CD

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 05:16 AM

it's also on the LP Declan Affley made by Colleen Burke, Mark Gregory & Peter Parkhill in 1987, & I'm lucky enough to have a CD version of it, made by a friend some years back.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 08:44 PM

Sandra, also thanks to a good friend, I'm fortunate enough to have 3 Affley LPs on CD and also the Australian Folk Archive vintage live recordings CD.

Gary Shearston added a tune to Thomas E. Spencer's lovely 'Bonnie Jess'. Spencer is perhaps best remembered for his 'How McDougal topped the score'.

BONNIE JESS
(T.Spencer/G.Shearston)

Now the shearing time is over, Bonnie Jess
And the sheep are in the clover, Bonnie Jess
By the creek the kine are lowing
And the golden crops are growing
While the setting sun is glowing, Bonnie Jess
And a kiss to you he's blowing, Bonnie Jess

To your face the crimson's rushing, Bonnie Jess
Ah! I know why you are blushing, Bonnie Jess
‘Tis the memory appearing
Of the promise in the clearing
When you said twixt hope and fearing, Bonnie Jess
You would wed him after shearing, Bonnie Jess

And now the shearing time is over, Bonnie Jess
And you're looking for your lover, Bonnie Jess
And his horse's hooves are ringing
As along the road he's swinging
And a song for you he's singing, Bonnie Jess
And the wedding ring he's bringing, Bonnie Jess

I first heard it on the Cobbers' beaut LP 'Portaits of Australian Women' which is still available as a digital download via Bandcamp.

Cobbers

Shearston

--Stewie

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 08:59 PM

GIRLS IN OUR TOWN
(Bob Hudson)

Girls in our town, they just haven't a care
You see them on Saturday floating on air
Painting their toenails and washing their hair
Maybe tonight it'll happen

Girls in our town they leave school at fifteen
Work at the counter or behind the machine
And spend all their money on making the scene
They plan on going to England

Girls in our town go to parties in pairs
Sit 'round the barbecue, give themselves airs
Then they go to the bathroom with their girlfriend who cares
Girls in our town are so lonely

Girls in our town are too good for the pill
But if you keep asking they probably will
Sometimes they like you or else for the thrill
And explain it away in the morning

Girls in our town get no help from their men
No one can let them be sixteen again
Things might get better but it's hard to say when
If they only had someone to talk to

Girls in our town can be saucy and bold
At seventeen, no one is better to hold
Then they start havin' kids and they start gettin' old
Girls in our town
Girls in our town

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 09:24 PM

Here is another one that I first heard on the Cobbers 'Portraits ...' LP.

NED KELLY'S FAREWELL TO GRETA
(Traditional)

Farewell to my home in Greta, to my sister Kate farewell.
It grieves my heart to leave you, but here I must not dwell
They placed a price upon my head, my hands are stained with gore
And I must roam the forest wild within the Australian shore

But if they cross my chequered path, by all I hold on earth
I'll give them cause to rue the day their mothers gave them birth
I'll shoot them down like carrion crows that roam our country wide
And leave their bodies bleaching upon some woodland side

Oh, Edward, darling brother, surely you would not go
So rashly to encounter with such a mighty foe
Now don’t you know that Sydney and Melbourne are combined
And for your apprehension, Ned, there are warrants duly signed

To eastward lies great Bogong, towering to the sky
From east to west and then you’ll find that's Gippsland lying by
You know the country well, Ned, go take your comrades there
And profit by your knowledge of the wombat and the bear

And let no childish quarrels cause trouble in the gang
Bear up with one another, Ned, and guard my brother Dan
See, yonder ride four troopers; one kiss before we part
Now haste and join your comrades, Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart

Youtube clip

Cobbers note:

Greta was a town in central Victoria where the Kellys made their home. The song is supposed to be a conversation between Ned Kelly, the famous bushranger, and his sister Kate. It is one of the many songs collected from the 'Kelly Country' around Benella in Victoria and, despite its dubious authenticity, it is a rather lovely song.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 10:39 PM

This jaunty piece of nonsense has long been a favourite of mine.

IRISH GIRLS (WILL STEAL YOUR HEART AWAY)
(Gary Shearston)

From Carlow to Tipperary and martyr Ring of Kerry
Waterford, Roscommon, Dingle Bay
From Sligo to Connemara, Wicklow to Wexford Harbour
Irish girls will steal your heart away

Now one day by Shannon water, I met a Kerry daughter
Riding on a colt of dapple grey
She just said her name was Ethne then rode away and left me
Thinking I’d been dreaming in the day

So I made a quick inquiry up at the local priory
An old monk just winked at me and said
‘Ah, for sure, go down the road there, you’ll find a path that’s quite clear
Leading to her home but not her bed

For her heart is with a stranger whose grave is marked bush ranger
They both used to live ‘round here before
And together they cavorted until he got transported
To Australia from Erin’s shore’

I just figured he was far gone, been on his knees for too long
Heard as much as he could absolve
But his words came back to haunt, to tease, perplex and daunt me
Leaving me a mystery to solve

So next day I went a-courting, sweet apples she was sorting
Smiled at me then quickly looked away
And said of the rose I brought her, ‘I suppose you think that oughta
Make me wanna roll you in the hay’

I just laughed and begged and pleaded, she finally conceded
Horses we might ride a little way
She brought out the dapple grey, called the bay, she said
‘I might just saddle both of them without delay’

Beneath skies of stormy weather, we rode through mountain heather
She said that she did not have long to stay
Later, strolling by the river, I promised I would give her
Anything she wanted not to stray

As her fancy I was seeking, I heard a willow creaking
And turned around in time to see it sway
But, as it began to tumble, it made me trip and stumble
Dragged her to the ground in disarray

There our arms and legs entangled, and for a while we dangled
Then she said goodbye and rode away
And although I tried to follow, up hill, down dale and hollow
I kept getting lost along the way

Then a mist began a-falling, seemed bent upon forestalling
Any hope of sign upon the ground
Next thing I heard a fiddle, snare drum, a paradiddle
I tell you I shivered at the sound

So next day I took the quare path, returned again to her hearth
It was just a pile of ruined stones
Out the back a cross was hedged in, it bore the strangest legend
‘Here lies one of Johnny Doolan’s bones’

From Carlow to Tipperary and martyr Ring of Kerry
Waterford, Roscommon, Dingle Bay
From Sligo to Connemara, Wicklow to Wexford Harbour
Irish girls will steal your heart away
Irish girls will steal your heart away

Maybe someone could check the accuracy of my above transcription.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Sep 20 - 07:50 PM

I posted this fine song decades ago:

THE KELLY'S TURNING
(Larry King)

We're meeting by the riggin'
For the word has passed around
We'll drink our spree on Texas tea
So the drills are goin' down
Men roll in from everywhere
From France and England too
Boomers and boll weevils that make up the drillin' crew

Chorus
The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin'
The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard rock floor
Rough voices grumblin'
The diesel's rumblin'
The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door

There's Hank and Mac and Paddy
From across the sea they've come
With Czechs and Swedes, all kinds o' breeds
They share a common bond
It's music in the air to men
Followin' the call
When high upon the christmas tree
They hear the driller call

Chorusr

Devil's getting' angry
There's a rumblin' in the well
For men are cruel who steal the fuel
That feeds the fires of hell
His heart is big and black as soot
And darker is his soul
And when he cries, he fills the skies
With tears as black as coal

Chorus

Well, now the drillin's ended
So we'll pack our things and go
We've drawn a million barrels
From a thousand feet below
So it's bound for eastern cities
Our hard-earned cheques to spend
On girls and grog and fancy krog
Till the word goes out again

Chorus

We're meeting by the riggin'
For the word has passed around
We'll drink our spree on Texas tea
So the drills are goin' down
Men roll in from everywhere
From France and England too
Boomers and boll weevils that make up the drillin' crew

Chorus

Larry King and Alex Hood wrote 2 songs a night for Bill Peach's 'This Day Tonight' show, one of which was telecast. The pair undertook an Arts Council-sponsored tour of Australia as The Prodigal Sons and wrote many songs together. However, 'The Kelly's Turning' is a Larry King solo effort inspired by time spent with the oil rig workers in Exmouth, Western Australia. It is set to a Dutch traditional tune 'The windmill's turning'.

Scott Balfour of Alice Springs has recorded it on his excellent CD, 'Mother Land'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Sep 20 - 08:29 PM

SONG OF THE SHEETMETAL WORKER
(John Dengate)

Oh when I was a boy in Carlingford
All sixty years ago,
The eucalypts grew straight and tall
And the creeks did sweetly flow
But times were hard when the old man died
And the orchard would not pay
So I left the land for the factory bench
And I'm working there still today.

I've earned my bread in the metal shops
For forty years and more
My hands are hard and acid-scarred
As the boards on the workshop floor.
My soul is sheathed in Kembla steel
And my eyelids have turned to brass
And the orchard's gone, and the apple trees
Where the wind whispered through the grass.

The workbench is my altar
Where I come to take the host.
Copper, brass and fine sheet steel
Father son and holy ghost.
The sacramental wine of work
Grows sour upon my tongue
Oh the fruit was sweet on the apple trees
When my brothers and I were young

Youtube clip

Dengate's tribute to his father. The tune is 'Valley of Knockanure'.

John's recording is on John Dengate 'Australian Son: Vollume I'
Danny Spooner recorded it on his 'Emerging Tradition' CD.
It is also on Declan Affley 'Vintage Recordings' CD

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Sep 20 - 09:12 PM

DIAMENTINA DROVER
(Hugh McDonald)

The faces in the photograph have faded
And I can't believe he looks so much like me
For it's been ten long years today
Since I left for Old Cork Station
Sayin' I won't be back till the drovin's done

Chorus
For the rain never falls on the dusty Diamantina
And a drover finds it hard to change his mind
For the years have surely gone
Like the drays from Old Cork Station
And I won't be back till the drovin's done

It seems like the sun comes up each mornin'
Sets me up and then takes it all away
For the dreaming by the light
Of the campfire at night
Ends with the burning light of day

Chorus

Sometimes I think I'll settle back in Sydney
But it's been so long and it's hard to change your mind
For the cattle trail goes on and on
And the fences roll forever
And I won't be back when the drovin's done

Chorus

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Sep 20 - 09:40 PM

I WAS ONLY NINETEEN (A walk in the light green)
(John Schumann)

Mum and dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunya
It was a long march from cadets
The sixth battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card
We did Canungra, Shoalwater before we left

And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean
And there's me in me slouch hat with me SLR and greens
God help me
I was only nineteen

From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat
I'd been in and out of choppers now for months
And we made our tents a home - V.B. and pinups on the lockers
And an Asian (agent?) orange sunset through the scrub

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
And night-time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16?
And what's this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me
I was only nineteen

A four-week operation, when each step can mean your last one on two legs
It was a war within yourself
But you wouldn't let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off
So you closed your eyes and thought about somethin' else

And then someone yelled out 'Contact!', and the bloke behind me swore
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar
And Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon
God help me
He was goin' home in June

And I can still see Frankie, drinkin' tinnies in the Grand Hotel
On a thirty-six hour rec leave in Vung Tau
And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle
'Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row

And the Anzac legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears
And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel
God help me
I was only nineteen

And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet?
And what's this rash that comes and goes
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me
I was only nineteen

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 12:48 AM

COURTING THE NET
(Bob Wilson)

My love is on the Internet again
He says he'll come to bed soon, but he never tells me when
He's out there surfin' somewhere with imaginary friends
He's a little fish in a big pond, dot com.au at the end

My love is on the Internet again
I fear some horny geek girl is messing with his brain
For the Net's an open sewer, and he's peering down the drain
Printing out the porn page as I sing this sweet refrain

Why won't you come to bed with me
We could yahoo all night long for free
Make a real connection if we try
But every time I hear that modem squeal
Like a lover's cry that's not quite real
I put a bookmark in my paperback, think about the things I lack
And dream about a real time guy

My love is on the Internet again
I wish he'd kept his motorbike, we'd more in common then
But he's moved away from maintenance and he's given up on zen
Now he follows the money markets and the fortunes of the yen

Oh the information highway is an easy road to be on
Kerouac could have travelled it without ever leavin' home
It's like a message in a bottle, swept up on the sand
But there's a million bottles on the beach, each with a unique message of its own

My love is on the Internet again
His cyber-infidelity indelibly ingrained
He left me with the phone bill, I left him standing in the rain
He even took the lap top where I wrote this sweet refrain

Why won't you come to bed with me
We could yahoo all night long for free
Make a real connection if we try
But every time I hear that modem squeal
Like a lover's cry that's not quite real
I put a bookmark in my paperback, think about the things I lack
And dream about a real time guy

Source: transcription from The Goodwills 'Courting the Net'

Bob Wilson is a Kiwi who now lives in Maleny, Queensland.

The Goodwills

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 03:53 AM

I haven't heard that song for years, since they were in Sydney & did a floorspot @ The Dog.

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 09:09 AM

The Goodwills are now based in Warwick, Qld, closer to the border, but are practising Grey Nomads for much of the year!
R-J :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 08:20 PM

Thanks, R-J.

THE MAN WITH THE CONCERTINA
{Stewart/Rummery/Kevans

Once more I'm away on the bridle track and through the mountains steering
With a horse to ride and one to pack, I'm jogging down to shearing
At night I pick the driest camp and build a three-log fire
And when a man is on the tramp what more could he desire

I eat my tucker and drink my tea, perhaps with a piece of damper
Then lie for a while upon my back and watch the possums scamper
I light my pipe and puff a cloud, you'd think it was a steamer
Then 'Finnegan's Wake' I finger out upon the concertina

There's a place I long to be, it's on the old Monaro
For ryebuck sport and company, you'd have no need to care O
For the boys all get together there and we all toss in a deeper
And we'll buy some grog and have some tunes upon the concertina

Now, my boys, my song is done I find my throat wants clearing
I've told you how to have some fun going down the river shearing
You'll hear of me I have no doubt all through the Riverina
You're sure to hear them talk about the man with the concertina

This song is the title track of Bob Rummery's 'The man with the concertina' CD.

Bob noted:

A poem by Robert Stewart who travelled from the Illawarra to the Riverina for the shearing season. The third verse was sung, and written by, the late Jacko Kevans and the late 1960s Canberra band The Monaro Boys. The tune after verse 3 is 'Cosgroves Schttische'.

The Chloe and Jason Roweth tribute to Bob Rummery, mentioned above by Sandra, is now on Youtube - beaut stuff.

Roweths on Rummery

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 09:31 PM

THE GLENBURGH WOOL
(Jack Sorensen)

The ramp outside the woolshed door
Holds yet another load:
So yolk the camel team once more
And take the waggon road.
The shafters prop, the leaders pull
The wheels creak dismally,
And sixty bales of Glenburgh wool
Roll westward to the sea

On down the winding dusty track
From dawn till close of day
The punchers shout, the big whips crack
While straining camels sway
By stony plain, by sandhills brown
By wattles o'er the lea
The hard-won wool goes rolling down
From Glenburgh to the sea

Chorus:
Come spare a thought for lads outback who shear the Glenburgh wool
In summer heat out on the board where the wool fleece bob and pull
Our ringer's Tommy Gibson, he's a gun from northern town
And he shears his tally every day when the Glenburgh wool goes down

A creek to cross, a hill to climb
A stretch of sandy track
They'll haul it through if given time
Though a straw would break each back
So a morning breaks, a bright sun wanes
Till a day, then a week, is gone.
Yet with creaking wheels and clinking chains
The Glenburgh wool rolls on

Chorus

Cool nights of rest while the camels swell
As they munch the mulga near
While the hobble chain, and the doleful bell
Will lull the puncher's ear
Two more long days from Rocky Pool
And then Carnarvon town
So sixty bales of Glenburgh wool
From inland heights go down

Chorus

This song may be found at about 30-min mark of the Roweth concert linked in my previous post.
The poem by Sorensen has been set to music by Roger Montgomery, Alan Ferguson et alia.
A chorus, written by Wendy Evans, has been added to the poem. I'm not sure of the latter part of the second line - 'where the wool fleece ....' A correction is welcomed.

Roger Montgomery's band 'Dingo's Breakfast' issued a CD of Sorensen: 'Jack Sorensen: Weaver of Dreams'. You can listen to it on Spotify.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 11:18 PM

JAIL AWAY FREMANTLE
(W.Evans/A.Ferguson)

Chorus:
Let the rope, soap and calico take me
I’ll grin and I’ll hold me head high
And the devil take he who can make me
Bow low ‘cos I’d far rather die

The landlord that fenced in our farmland
Was a thief and he left us to die
The judge gave 5 years transportation
So I downed him and blackened his eye

On the boat we fared far worse than cattle
I was detailed to clean up the ship
The devil take ye, says I, what a battle
But I laughed when they gave me the whip

Chorus

At Fremantle a rat cell awaited
Some others had died in that place
The guard who released me weeks later
Gave a curse as I spat in his face

I was sentenced to work on the chain gang
Lashed backs as the rocks we did crush
But I struck a great blow at a weak link
And made a quick dash to the bush

Chorus

Near starving I met up with Dugan
And rode with his wild Irish band
And plundered the rich idle squatters
When we levelled our guns and cried stand

We were caught in an ambush near Collie
And most of them died in that fight
I was locked up in jail for a dawn dance
But I broke through the roof in the night

Chorus

I have rode with the rustlers at Moora
And many the cattle I’ve duffed
I’ve ridden the wild trails through the outback
And with me swag many miles I have roughed

With a new name I joined in the gold rush
And was lucky and struck a rich vein
For the landowner’s hirelings claim-jumped me
So I swore that I’d blacken his name

Chorus

Now killing don’t make a man suffer
It’s others that get to despair
But he’s brought his young wife to the diggings
So I gave the old bastard an heir

And he sent out his hirelings to kill me
And I laughed as the bullets did fly
And I’ll laugh when I hang in the morning
‘Cos I don’t give a damn if I die

Chorus

Alan Ferguson put a tune to this ripper Wendy Evans poem. The Settlers, a West Australian band, recorded it on 'Bound for Western Australia' Tempo DBCD 114.

Thanks to Phil Beck for checking my above transcription.

Info on Wendy Evans may be found here:

Wendy Evans

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 11:50 PM

Oh, gee, these are wonderful. Be sure to look at Australian Folk Song a Day from Cloudstreet and John Thompson.
Also "Australian Folk Songs":

http://folk.unionsong.com/songs.html

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Sep 20 - 04:36 AM

Ah, I've always loved that "Let the rope, soap, and calico take me ...." number - Alan and Sean were a great duo, way back when (and as I've said before, when they supported The Dubliners in Perth, The Settlers ran rings around the Dubliners - until the Dubs were shocked into lifting their game, LoL!!)

R-J :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Sep 20 - 10:50 PM

Hi Joe, irrespective of what happens re 'Rise Up Singing', I reckon it's good to have a collection of Australian songs, particularly less-well-known ones, in one place on this site. It's a pity that it is only Sandra and I doing the bulk of the posting.

R-J, Sean's voice was particularly fine on those recordings.

THE TOWN OF KIANDRA (THE WEE ONE)

I am a young man from the town of Kiandra
I married a young woman to comfort my home
She goes out and she leaves me and cruelly deceives me
She leaves me with a baby that's none o' me own

Chorus
Oh dear, I rue the day ever I married
How I wish I was single again
With this weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle
And rocking the baby that's none o' me own

While I'm at work, my wife's on the rantan
On the rantan with some other young man
She goes out and she leaves me and cruelly deceives me
And leaves me with a baby that's none o' me own

Now all you young men with a fancy to marry
Be sure you leave them flash gals alone
Or by the Lord Harry, if one you should marry
They'll leave you with a baby that's none o' your own

This is in the DT under the title 'Rocking the Cradle'. Extensive information on its provenance may be had here:

Mainly Norfolk

Bob Bolton posted this back in the day:

The "Wee One" was collected by John Meredith from the wonderful old Australian singer Sally Sloane, late 1950s or early 1960s. A.L. Lloyd would have seen the words in the photocopies of Meredith, Ward and Stewart & Keesing's collection notes lodged with the EFDSS (by Edgar Walters?) and possibly heard the field tapes.

Lloyd altered the words "I am a young man, cut down in my blossom..." to "I am a young man from the town of Kiandra..." because he had heard of someone from Kiandra to whom such things had happened.

Martyn Wyndham-Read may well have sung the Lloyd version in the 1960s.

The modal tune is Sally's and typical of her Irish heritage. The song words come from a long and forked line of songs/parodies/re-works that go all the way back to "The Christ Child Lullaby", in the Erse and, at least as far forward across America as "Get along Little Dogey".

The details of Meredith collecting this song (and many others, along with a lot of dance tunes) would be in "Folk Songs of Australian and the men and women who sang them", Volume 1, John Meredith & Hugh Anderson, (Ure Smith ~1967 / University of New South Wales Press ~1988).

The song was also published in "Singabout Magazine, the journal of Australian folksong", Vol. 5, No. 2, p5, Bush Music Club, October 1964, and so appears in my anthology "Singabout - Selected Reprints", Bush Music Club, 1985. If you are interested in looking at primary sources, these two publications are still available for the Bush Music Club at $12A and $9A plus $3A post/packaging.

Sally Sloane was a wonderful singer and I am proud to have known her - and had her sing for me in concerts in the 1970s. She contributed more songs and tunes than any other single singer of Australian tradional songs. I like to remember her by her original songs, rather than the changed versions of later singers.

Danny Spooner recorded it under the title 'The wee one' for his last album 'Home'. Wongawilli recorded it under the title 'The Town of Kiandra (The Wee One)'.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Sep 20 - 11:44 PM

HUMPING THE DRUM

I've humped my drum from Kingdom Come
To the back of the Milky WaY
I boiled my quart on the Cape of York
And I starved last Christmas Day

I cast a line on the Condamine
And one on the Nebine Creek
I've driven through bog, so help me bob
Up Mungindi's main street

I crossed the Murray and drank at Cloncurry
Where they charged me a bob a nip.
I worked in the Gulf where the cattle they duff
And the squatters they give 'em tip

I've worked from morn in the fields of long corn
Till the sun was out of sight
I've cause to know the Great Byno
And the Great Australian Bight

I danced with Kit, when the lamps were lit
And Doll when the dance broke up
I flung my hat on the Myall Track
When Bowman won the Cup

I laughed aloud with the merry crowd
In the city of the plains
I sweated too on Omdooroo
While bogged in those big bore-drains

I wheeled me bike from the shearers' strike
Not wanting a funeral shroud
And I made the weights for the Flying Stakes
And I dodged the lynchin' crowd

I've carried a gun through World War One
Then went to the track again
From Omeo to Bendigo
To Bourke and back again

I lost some tears in the hungry years
When jobs were short and few
And I picked up me swag and me old tucker bag
There was nothing else to do

There are various versions of this song, but the above is what Danny Spooner sang on his final album 'Home'.

Danny noted:

I like the way that each verse seems to be sung by another travelling character ... these words were adapted by Graham Seal.

I first heard the song on an old Larrikin LP by a group named 'Steam Shuttle' of which Graham Seal was a member - 'Steam Shuttle Larrikin LRF-018. Unfortunately, I am unable to play it to check the lyrics against Danny's version as my record player is stuffed. However, the note on the LP sleeve reads:

A recitation from Stewart and Keesing's revision of Banjo Pateron's 'Old Bush Songs'. A few verses have been cut out, a couple added and the whole thing set to an Irish tune. As it now stands, the song is essentially a potted history of itinerant labour in Australia up the 1930s. 'Humping the drum' is one of the many terms for carrying a swag.

--Stewie.

Subject: LYR Add - The Country Knows The Rest -Graham Seal
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 03:51 AM

Back of the Milky Way (Humping the Drum) - lyrics & audio Lyrics to Graham's songs, all with audio.

Graham Seal writes good songs (he also writes good books) & was Australia's first (& maybe only) Professor of Folklore. interview with Graham

The Country Knows The Rest by Graham Seal with audio link. Norman Brown was an innocent bystander, he was not one one the strikers. He was JennieG's mother's cousin

    The year was nineteen-twenty-nine, the place was Rothbury town,
    The miners were all locked out and our wage had been knocked down,
    From March until December we lived on bread and dole,
    Until the Rothbury mine re-opened, with scabs to dig the coal -
    And the country knows the rest …

    So the miners’ dole was cut and our strike pay couldn’t last,
    But the men and women of Rothbury determined to stand fast.
    All across the coalfields miners heard the call,
    On a warm night in December they met at Rothbury, one and all -
    And the country knows the rest …

    It was early in the morning upon that fateful day,
    Many hundred miners gathered there to send the scabs away,
    A piper played before us in the breaking blood-red dawn,
    But when we reached the Rothbury mine gates a bloodier day was born -
    And the country knows the rest …

    The police were in the bushes with pistols in their hands,
    There were more of them on horseback to break the miners’ stand,
    Just how it started I swear I'll never know,
    But the guns began firing and the blood began to flow -
    And the country knows the rest …

    When the firing was all over and the police had broken through,
    Many miners badly beaten - bullet-wounded, too,
    Beneath the Rothbury mine gate Norman Brown was lying dead,
    And the lifeblood from his veins stained the coaldust red -
    And the country knows the rest …

    Notes

    Many thanks to Graham Seal for permission to add this song to the Union Songs website.

    Graham writes
    'The Country Knows the Rest was written in the 1970s while I was researching popular protest in Australia. One of the Kelly ballads used the line the country knows the rest and I was also struck by a few phrases from the oral accounts of miners who had been at Rothbury. The music and lyrics came together from these sources.

    I recorded the song on my Barbed Wire Ballads in 2005 and Andy Saunders and Tim Glover recorded it as The Symbolics, back around the late 70s/early 80s.'

    When the depression hit at the end of the 1920s miners everywhere were in trouble. In February 1929 the coalowners of the Hunter Valley NSW demanded a 12.5% wage cut. When the workers refused, the bosses, supported by a conservative State Government, locked them out of the mines for 15 months. Towards the end of 1929 the coalowners tried to open some pits with scab labour. Miners decided to take them on. Around 4000 of them made there way to Rothbury on December 16th and the police opened fire killing the young miner Norman Brown and wounding many others.

    Veteran miner Jim Comerford, now in his nineties, was at Rothbury when he was just 16 years old, he tells his story in his book The Great Lockout

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 12:51 PM

> Lloyd altered the words "I am a young man, cut down in my blossom..." to "I am a young man from the town of Kiandra..."

I had heard or read before now that the "town of Kiandra" words were due to Bert, and I had wondered whether we should encourage singers to revert to the version as collected. However "cut down in my blossom" clearly belongs in a different song, not this one. The man is justifiably lamenting having to rock the baby that is not his, but he is not the Unfortunate Rake who really has been cut down. Not for the only time, I think we have to count Bert's work on this song as an improvement.

On another matter entirely: it has struck me that a lot of the songs being put forward in this thread are of fairly recent origin. Nothing wrong with that in itself but there are lots of older ones that I think are equally deserving.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 08:18 PM

Thank you, Sandra!

On a completely differnt note, I quite like Enda Kenny's Earl Grey Tea song - although I never drink tea, I'm a coffee girl.


EARL GREY

Is it perfume? Is it tea?
Whatever it is, it does nothing for me
Should I drink it? Or dab it on?
Can I swap it for a coffee or has all the water gone.

It is hot, it is wet,
It is eau de toilette
Is it from the House of Lipton or Chanel?
I only want a cup of tea, not this stuff you've given me,
If you think I'm going to drink it go to.....

Help me someone......
Call a doctor or a nurse,
Call an ambulance I'm poisoned,
And I think it's getting worse.
I only wanted a cup of tea
But I fear that my last mouthful will be the death of me

It is hot, it is wet,
It is eau de toilette
To my mind it is more toilette than eau.
If you want to spoil your day
Add the oil of Earl Grey,
I'm reliably informed it's bergamot.

What a mouthful!
Is it perfume? Is it wee?
Whatever it's supposed to be it doesn't taste like tea.
Should I drink it, or dab it on?
Can I swap it for a coffee or has all the water gone.

It is hot, it is wet,
It is eau de toilette
Is it Twinings? is it Tetley? let me see.
Go ahead and make my day
But please don't make me drink Earl Grey.
All I want is a proper cup of tea.

Enda Kenny (1995)
Earl Grey Tea

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 08:46 PM

Richard M, well why don't you 'put forward' a few? My impetus has been to post, mainly but not exclusively, worthy songs that have not been posted or have been buried deep in the forum database - songs that are less well known and not as easily accessed as the warhorses.

Sandra, thanks to the link to Seal's lyrics. Apart from some reordering, Danny's version is much the same. Two stanzas from the Stewart/Keesing printing, as collected by Bill Bowyang, have been dropped:

I courted Flo in Jericho
And Jane at old Blackall
I said farewell to the Sydney belle
At the doors of the Eulo hall

And the final one:

I've seen and heard upon my word
Some strange things on my way
But spare my days, I was knocked sideways
When I landed here today

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 09:28 PM

For those who have not heard Steam Shuttle, there are 2 recordings available on Youtube. The better one imo is their rendition of Duke Tritton's 'Sandy Hollow Line'. They noted that they put it to a traditional tune that Tritton had used for another of his songs, 'The Great Northern Line', 'in preference to the usual dreary melody'. Amen to that!

THE SANDY HOLLOW LINE
(Duke Tritton)

The sun was blazing in the sky and waves of shimmering heat
Glared down on the railway cutting, we were half dead on our feet
And the ganger stood on the bank of the cut and he snarled at the men below
"You'd better keep them shovels full or all you cows 'll go."

"I never saw such a useless mob, you'd make a feller sick
As shovel men you're hopeless, and you're no good with the pick"
There were men in the gang who could belt him with a hand tied at the back
But he had power behind him and we dare not risk the sack.

So we took his insults in silence, for this was the period when
We lived in the great depression and nothing was cheaper than men
And we drove the shovels and swung the picks and cursed the choking dust
We'd wives and hungry kids to feed so toil in the heat we must

And as the sun rose higher and the heat grew more intense
The flies were in their millions, the air was thick and dense
We found it very hard to breathe, our lungs were hot and tight
With the stink of sweating horses and the fumes of gelignite

But still the ganger drove us on, we couldn't take much more
We prayed for the day we'd get the chance to even up the score
A man collapsed in the heat and dust, he was carried away to the side
It didn't seem to matter if the poor chap lived or died

"He's only a loafer," the ganger said. "A lazy, useless cow
I was going to sack him anyway, he's saved me the trouble now"
He had no thoughts of the hungry kids, no thought of a woman's tears,
As she struggled and fought to feed her brood all down the weary years

But one of the government horses fell and died there in the dray
They hitched two horses to him and they dragged the corpse away
The ganger was a worried man and he said with a heavy sigh
"It is a bloody terrible thing to see a good horse die"

"You chaps get back now to your work and don't stand loafing ther
Get in and trim the batter down, I'll get the engineer"
Well the engineer he looked around and he said as he scratched his head
"No horse could work in this dreadful heat or all of them will be dead"

"They're much too valuable to lose, they cost us quite a lot
And I think it is a wicked shame to work them while it's hot
So we will take them to the creek and spell them in the shade
You men must all knock off at once - of course you'll not be paid"

And so we plodded to our camps and it seemed to our weary brains
We were no better than convicts, though we didn't wear the chains
And in those drear depression days, we were unwanted men
But we knew that when a war broke out, we'd all be heroes then

And we'd be handed a rifle and forced to fight for the swine
Who tortured us and starved us, on the Sandy Hollow Line

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 09:49 PM

The other Youtube video of Steam Shuttle is one of those warhorses. They noted that their version was based on one collected by John Meredith from Mrs Ewell late of Bathurst NSW.

THE STREETS OF FORBES (THE DEATH OF BEN HALL)

Come all you Lachlan men and a sorrowful tale I'll tell
Concerning of a hero bold who through misfortune fell
His name it was Ben Hall, a man of good renown
Who was hunted from his station and like a dog shot down

Three years he roamed the roads and he showed the traps some fun
One thousand pounds was on his head, with Gilbert and John Dunn
Ben parted from his comrades, the outlaws did agree
To give away bushranging and cross the briny sea

Ben went to Goobang Creek and that was his downfall
For riddled like a sieve was the valiant Ben Hall
'Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May
When the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep they lay

Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead
The troopers all fired madly and they filled him full of lead
They rolled him in his blanket and strapped him to his prad
And they led him through the streets of Forbes to show the prize they had

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 10:39 PM

Here's a delightful little ditty that has been buried deep in the forum database. It was posted and collected by Joybell, a lady who used to post prolifically to Mudcat. She explained:

I believe it deserves its own thread and a place in the DT. It's a Melbourne song probably from around the early 1900s. I learned it from an elderly man, in about 1984, in a pub in Collingwood, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He called it an old Melbourne song. He used the title "Push on the Corner". A friend, Jack Johnson, recorded an almost identical version from an elderly man in a Melbourne nursing home. My informant told me he wanted me to have the song because I was "a Collingwood Lassie". He added that he meant not of the type described in the song. These two appearances of the song are the only ones I've come across. It sounds like somebody's music-hall turn.

THE PUSH ON THE CORNER

Last night I was driven near crazy
By one I both love and adore
Now she's packed up her boxes and left me
And I ain't gonna see her no more
I've written her hundreds of letters,
To beg her my faults to forget
But now she's found one she loves better
And this is the answer I get

Oh, wait till the push on the corner
Refuses to drink a long beer
Wait till the thieves and pickpockets
From the streets of Fitzroy disappear
When the dear little Collingwood lassies
rom powder and paint they are free
When the Chinese are coppers on Bourke Street
My darling I'll come back to thee

The tune may be found on a beaut CD O'Leary & Hildebrand 'Together Again, Again'

--Stewie

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 11:26 PM

Here's another forgotten gem, also on the Hildebrand and O'Leary CD. It is in the style of CJ Dennis. Below is how Hildebrand sings it. You can find the original and info here:

Info


BOURKE STREET ON SATURDAY NIGHT
(P.C. Cole & Fred Hall)

Them ragtime songs got me fair pippy
All Hawaii or old dixie land
And the same kind of tarts always in ‘em
Starry eye, golden hair, china hands

Now tell me what’s wrong with Australia
And the cliner on which I am shook
I don’t need no cotton fields shady
And I don’t need no soft purlin’ brook

So give me old Melbourne and give me a tart
And then I am simply all right
Can any bloke point to a better old joint
Than Bourke Street on a Saturday night

When me and me Maudie goes out for a stroll
Me cobbers all try to be smart
‘Get out of their way, here comes Billo’, they say
Walkin’ out with his fair dinkum tart

On Princes Bridge once we were standin’
And gazed down at the water below
In the lamplight we feels sentimental
Holdin’ hands, all that rot, don’t you know

Says Maud, ‘Prove you’re fond of me really
So I looked to see no one was near
I gives her a kiss, then she murmurs
’Now you loves me, I know, Billo dear’

Repeat stanzas 2 and 3.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 12:54 AM

Here is another Ogilvie poem to which Gerry Hallom put a tune. As usual, his version has alterations and omissions - good but!

NORTHWARDS TO THE SHEDS
(W.Ogilvie/G.Hallom

There's a whisper from the regions out beyond the Barwon banks
There's a gathering of the legions there's a forming of the ranks
There's a murmur coming nearer with the signs that never fail
And it's time for every shearer to be out upon the trail

(Chorus)
For the Western creeks are calling
And the idle days are done
With the snowy fleeces falling
And the Queensland sheds begun

There is shortening of the bridle, there's a tightening of the girth
There is a grooming of the horse that they love the best on earth
Northward from the Lachlan River and the sun-dried Castlereagh
Outward to the Never-Never ride the shearers on their way

Chorus

They will leave their girls behind them and their empty glasses too
For there's plenty left to mind them when they cross the dry Barcoo
There'll be kissing, there'll be sorrow such as only sweethearts know
But before the noon tomorrow, they'll be singing as they go

Chorus

They will camp below the station, they'll be cutting peg and pole
Raising tents for occupation till the boss he calls the roll
And it's time the colts were driven, it's time to strap the pack
For there's never licence given to the laggards on the track

Chorus

John Thompson has a version on his site that is close to the original poem. His source is the
excellent CD by Alan Musgrave (with Bob McInnes & friends) 'Songs They Used to Sing: A panorama of Australian folksong'..

Hallom

Thompson

I found this on the Net, but I can't verify its authenticity:

As Will wrote in 'My life in the open (Short stories)' (1908):
On a big sheep station everything dates from shearing-time. “It was just before last shearing,” they say, or “I will attend to it after shearing,” or “So-and-so was here two shearings ago.” Through the greater part of the year a large station of 50,000 to 80,000 sheep is worked by a staff of ten to fifteen men; but at shearing-time the shed and surrounding buildings contain from fifty to a hundred men, with here and there a white tent starring the plain, and the stir and hum of the work turn this quiet corner into the semblance of a thriving settlement.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 01:13 AM

Words and music to "Bourke Street on Saturday night" can be found in "A treasury of favourite Australian songs, with complete words and music" compiled by Therese Radic. Published by Currey O'Neil, Melbourne, 1983. Music by Fred Hall, words by P.C. Cole, 1918.

I wonder if this was one of the Cole faimly of "Cole's funny picture books" fame?

Whether it is or isn't, this book is a great addition to my book shelf.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 02:08 AM

Gurindji Blues

Poor bugger me, Gurindji
Me bin sit down this country
Long time before the Lord Vestey
Allabout land belongin' to we
Oh poor bugger me, Gurindji.
Poor bugger blackfeller; Gurindji
Long time work no wages, we,
Work for the good old Lord Vestey
Little bit flour; sugar and tea
For the Gurindji, from Lord Vestey
Oh poor bugger me.

Poor bugger me, Gurindji,
Man called Vincent Lingiari
Talk long allabout Gurindji
'Daguragu place for we,
Home for we, Gurindji:
But poor bugger blackfeller, Gurindji
Government boss him talk long we
'We'll build you house with electricity
But at Wave Hill, for can't you see
Wattie Creek belong to Lord Vestey'
Oh poor bugger me.

Poor bugger me, Gurindji
Up come Mr: Frank Hardy
ABSCHOL too and talk long we
Givit hand long Gurindji
Buildim house and plantim tree
Longa Wattie Creek for Gurindji
But poor bugger blackfeller Gurindji
Government Law him talk long we
'Can't givit land long blackfeller, see
Only spoilim Gurindji'
Oh poor bugger me.

Poor bugger me, Gurindji
Peter Nixon talk long we:
'Buy you own land, Gurindji
Buyim back from the Lord Vestey'
Oh poor bugger me, Gurindji.
Poor bugger blackfeller Gurindji
Suppose we buyim back country
What you reckon proper fee?
Might be flour, sugar and tea
From the Gurindji to Lord Vestey?
Oh poor bugger me.

Oh ngaiyu luyurr ngura-u
Sorry my country, Gurindji.

© Ted Egan      
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8LcF0kwbjE&t=2s

Here is a later version by Galurrwuy Yunupingu with Vincent Lingiari :

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

The importance of Ted's song and this piece of NT history, cannot IMHO, be overestimated. It was also often played on Perth's ABC radio, back in the day. See also the previous post of "From Little Things, Big Things Grow".

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 02:38 AM

the bush girl    (henry lawson)

So you rode from the range where your brothers “select”
Through the ghostly grey bush in the dawn
You rode slowly at first, lest her heart should suspect
That you were [so] glad to be gone.
You had scarcely the courage to glance back at her
By the homestead receding from view
And you breathed with relief as you rounded the spur
For the world was a wide world to you.

    Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain
    Fond heart that is ever more true
    Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain
    She’ll wait by the sliprails for you.


Ah! The world is a new and a wide one to you
But the world to your sweetheart is shut
For a change never comes to the lonely Bush Girl
From the stockyard, the bush, and the hut.
And the only relief from the [its] dullness she feels
Is when ridges grow softened and dim
And away in the dusk to the sliprails she steals
To dream of past meetings [evenings] with him.

    Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain
    Fond heart that is ever more true
    Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain
    She’ll wait by the sliprails for you.

Do you think, where in place of bare fences, dry creeks
Clear streams and green hedges are seen
Where the girls have the lily and rose in their cheeks
And the grass in midsummer is green.
Do you think now and then, now or then, in the whirl
Of the city, while London is new
Of the hut in the bush, and the freckled-faced girl
Who is eating her heart out for you?

   Grey eyes that are sadder than sunset or rain
   Bruised heart that is ever more true
   Fond faith [heart] that is firmer for trusting in vain
   She waits by the sliprails for you.

Sung here by the late Gary Shearston (tune by Con Caston) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ9vgyb2S2Y

Seeing “Bonnie Jess” posted above, reminded me of this one – a very singable favourite in my teenage years and often heard in Perth’s folkclubs of the 60s-70s!

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 03:16 AM

Richard - I've posted a lot of old songs on Bush Music Club blog, but I'd have to type up the words & that is putting me off - unless I post the URLs of the song image.

I've posted 43 articles which include the subject "songs" This article Compilation - Early Song Sheets1950s/60s has links to 14 of them. There are over 600 articles so the blog is heard to search - best way to search is to open a google page & do a site search -(subject) site:blog.bushmusic.org.au & skim down the offerings.

Not every song is traditional - The Bush Music Club was founded in 1954 to collect, publish and popularise Australia's traditional songs, dances, music, yarns, recitations and folklore and to encourage the composition of a new kind of song - one that was traditional in style but contemporary in theme.

Australian Song Index by Hugh Anderson Being a list of 375 Bush Ballads that have been published between the days of transportation & 1956. The Black Bull Chapbooks No.7, 1957.

Here's another good source of early & contemporary Australian songs 2020 Joy Durst Memorial Song Collection download - FREE - Victorian Folk Music Club (est 1959 as Victorian Bush Music Club) 1st ed, 1970, 2nd ed. 1980. It includes audio files

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 03:21 AM

YIL LULL ~ Joe Geia


I sing, for the black, and the people of this Land
I sing, for the red, and the blood that’s been shed
Now I’m singing for the gold, of a new year young and old.

Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay

I sing, unto Him, of the most high
I sing, so much praises, it makes me want to cry
Now I’m singing, just for you, so all can recognise.

Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay

Sing for the black (Singout!)    Sing for the red (Singout!)
Sing for the black (Singout!)    Sing for the red (Singout!)
        
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay

Sing for the black!    Sing for the red!      And the gold!
Stories told, for young and old.

        
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay        
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay        
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay        
Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay, Yil Lull ay.


“Yil Lull means Sing!” in Kuku Yalanji language of FNQ”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9BvEa9xxvQ

The YT clip is from 1988 when Joe first wrote and released the song (now regarded as an anthem!), but he is still going strong and I was lucky to be part of the choir performing with him at Qld's Maleny Festival in 2019!

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 04:19 AM

OK, the subject of this song may not be commonly regarded as Aussie or Kiwi, or even Southern Hemisphere, BUT, I prefer to think that - just like the ubiquitous Chickenman - "He's EVERYWHERE, He's EVERYWHERE"!!
So, this is a session favourite from Qld's CLOUDSTREET.

THE GREEN MAN ~ John Thompson

Ch.        
The Green Man’s a traveller, a reveller, unraveller
Of dreams and of fancies from first to the last
Older than all men, living in all things
Son, father and sage, long live The Green Man.


First light of first morning saw The Green Man there waiting
He saw the creation and joined in the dance
All creatures grew round him
He grew with them singing
The first song of all, sing of The Green Man.

Quietly watching and waiting and learning
The storms are his fury, the lightning his laugh
The first leaf of spring is his beauty and glory
His stillness, his power, in the trees in his path.

There are fewer trees now, but The Man is not sleeping
‘Though our ruin brings sorrow to Time’s oldest heart
In our soul we may find him and remember his wisdom
And rekindle the flames, once again make a start.


There are a couple of Cloudstreet versions on YT - This is from "Swallow the Concertina" in 2000 (and the second is from 2010's "Circus of Desires") :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIRK0uQs760

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS32e1qWhIM


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 05:36 AM

DAVEY LOWSTON

Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal, I did seal
Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal
Though my men and I were lost and our very lives it cost
I did seal, I did seal, I did seal.

We were set down in Open Bay, were set down, were set down
We set down in Open Bay, we set down
We were left, we gallant men, never more to sail again
For to sail, for to sail, for to sail.

Our captain, John Bedar, he set sail, he set sail
Yes, all for Port Jackson, he set sail
“I’ll return men, without fail”, but, he foundered in the gale
And went down, and went down, and went down.

We cured ten thousand skins for the fur, for the fur
We cured ten thousand skins for the fur
Brackish water, putrid seal, we did all of us fall ill
For to die, for to die, for to die.

Come all you lads who sail upon the sea, sail the sea
Come all you jacks who sail upon the sea
Though the schooner “Governor Bligh”, took on some who did not die
Never seal, never seal, never seal.

Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal, I did seal
Oh me name is Davey Lowston, I did seal
Where the icebergs tower high, it’s a pitiful place to die
Never seal, never seal, (never) seal.


Regarded as a traditional New Zealand song, though many scholars believe it originated on the Sydney docks - and it was collected on t’other side of the world. No matter. It’s a goodun!

Here is a version by Qld harmony group “Work in Progress” :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvDn3tQ7cTI

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 06:06 AM

COONAWARRA [HAS] THREE SHADOWS   ~ Judith Crossley

T’was the ninth of October, in Echuca way she lay
A new boat on the river, while the steamers passed away
Laid up, forgotten, rotting, just a few were left to trade
Of those roaring river steamers, that saw the outback made.


Ch.        
Excelsior keep turning
Murrumbidgee, you’ll never die
J L Roberts on the water, see the paddles fly
Shadow ships go softly with her, drift on all her days
Coonawarra, lovely black swan, takes the River Ways.


She was built in 1950, for the Murray tourist trade
Murray Valley Coaches, lost a boat in ’48
Brave old Murrumbidgee burned, that sad heroic day
There was not a soul there perished, but that fine ship passed away.


Last barge to work the Murrumbidgee, J L Roberts stood alone
For sixty years she had ploughed the rivers, her story was well-known
On her hull they have built a lovely boat, to take the ‘Bidgee’s place
And they named her for the black swan, Coonawarra, full of grace.


For ninety years that redgum hull, has left the river sand
For thirty years the Coonawarra, beat across the land
Three ghosts they travel with her, from the elder time
And three shadows has the Coonawarra, they carry on the line.



Lyn and Denis Tracy used to do a really beautiful version of this, but luckily there is a version on YT by Irene Petrie :

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

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 06:32 AM

Davy Lowston is one of my favourite songs, thanks for posting it.