Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 08:30 PM

THE GUNDAROO BULLOCK
(A.B. Paterson/Trad)

Oh, there's some that breeds the Devon that's as solid as a stone
And there's some that breeds the brindle which they call the Goulburn roan
But amongst the breeds of cattle there are very, very few
Like the hairy-whiskered bullock that they breed at Gundaroo

Far away by Grabben Gullen where the Murrumbidgee flows
There's a block of broken countryside where no one ever goes
For the banks have gripped the squatters and the free selectors too
And their stock are always stolen by the men of Gundaroo

There came a low informer to the Grabben Gullen side
And he said to Smith the squatter, ‘You must saddle up and ride
For your bullock's in the harness-cask of Morgan Donahoo
He's the greatest cattle-stealer in the whole of Gundaroo’

‘Oh, ho!’ said Smith, the owner of the Grabben Gullen run
‘I’ll go and get the troopers by the sinking of the sun
And down into his homestead tonight we'll take a ride,
With warrants to identify the carcase and the hide’

That night rode down the troopers, the squatter at their head
They rode into the homestead and pulled Morgan out of bed.
‘Now, show to us the carcase of the bullock that you slew
The hairy-whiskered bullock that you killed in Gundaroo’

They peered into the harness-cask, and found it wasn't full
But down among the brine, they saw some flesh and bits of wool
‘What's this?’, exclaimed the trooper, ‘an infant, I declare’
Said Morgan, ’Tis the carcase of an old man native bear
I heard that ye were coming, so an old man bear I slew,
Just to give you kindly welcome to my home in Gundaroo’

‘The times are something awful, as you can plainly see,
The banks have broke the squatters, and they've broke the likes of me
We can't afford a bullock -- such expense would never do
So an old man bear for breakfast is a treat in Gundaroo’

And along by Grabben Gullen where the rushing river flows,
In the block of broken country where there's no one ever goes,
On the upper Murrumbidgee, they're a hospitable crew
But you mustn't ask for bullock when you go to Gundaroo

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Feb 21 - 07:46 PM

Here's one that references a once notorious landmark in my home town.

FANNIE BAY
(D.Tainsh attrib)

Tell her I'm droving down Camooweal way
Or signed with pearlers for seas far away
You can tell her I've gone, I'll be back some day
Please don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay

You can say I've gone on the old 'River Queen'
It's whistle a-haunting the bullockies' dream,
Down the Murray I've gone, I'll be back some day
Please don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay.

Chorus:
And on Thursday Island the sun warms the air
As the breeze from the sea blows her hair
And she sits by her window and calls me
Yes, she calls me.

You can say the bush has called me away
And I'm riding the fences for ten bob a day,
Yes, I needed a job, I needed the pay
Please don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay

And they came to the door and they dragged me away
From all that I love and I pray
That it won't reach her ear 'cause I love her
And she'd die for sure

Just say the gold has taken me down
To the places where fortunes are easily found
Yes, I've gone but tell her I'll be back some day
Just don't tell her they hanged me in old Fannie Bay

Audio on this page:   Click

Some info on Fannie Bay Gaol: Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Feb 21 - 08:39 PM

My apologies to R-J. She posted 'Fannie Bay' on 9 September last year.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Feb 21 - 09:39 PM

I can't see a link to Fannie Bay on the Bushwackers page you posted, so I might leave it out -

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Feb 21 - 10:02 PM

Hi Sandra,

The audio for 'Fannie Bay' is song 34 on the Bushwackers' page that I posted.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 02:01 AM

well-I-never - no.32 is Past Carin' & I remember seeing that ...

good thing I only put ? next to the entry - now it is no. 2

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 09:38 PM

SPIDER IN THE BATH
(Marcus Turner)

Chorus
Here I am - is anyone about?
I'm down beside the plug-hole and I can't get out, and
I've been here an hour and a half
Can't anybody help a little spider in the bath?

I woke up feeling hungry in the middle of the night
I saw a moth go by and thought ‘there goes a tasty bite’
I chased it up the mirror and along the windowsill
Around behind the toothpaste tube - and then I tripped and fell, and ...

Chorus

The sides are steep and slippery 'cause the bath has just been cleaned
And everything is cold and wet and avocado green.
There's a long lumpy loofah, some pumice in a dish
And all I have to talk to is this purple plastic fish and ...

Chorus

There's no need to be scared, 'cause I won't do you any harm
Just take me to the garden where it's nice and safe and warm
Then put me down real gently and I'll run back home to mother
One leg after the other, after the other, after the other, after the
other...
... after the other, after the other, after the other!! And ...

Chorus

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Feb 21 - 10:00 PM

Colin Dryden's 'Factory Lad' was posted to this thread back in September last year. It was part of what has been referred to as 'The North Country Trilogy'. Although all 3 songs relate to UK, they were sung by Oz folkies, particularly in NSW. Gerry Hallom included all 3 in his compilation of Dryden recordings: Colin Dryden 'The Australian Years - Vol I'. Here are the other 2 songs:

SITHER
(Colin Dryden)

Forty years in the mill,
your day’s near done, but it’s going still.
Time to be thinking o’ makin’ your will,
for you’ve nowhere to go, no intentions.

Weft and weave it was your game,
ten thousand hours upon the frame,
then walking home in the driving rain,
with a brand new watch and a pension.

Time now to bide, to sit and to dream,
on bygone days and the changes you’ve seen,
in coal and in diesel, the power of steam,
black shawls, coal stockings and courting.

Clogs on the frost on a cold winter’s morn,
the smell of the grease and oil on the loom,
and the wife wi’ the kids by the gateway at noon
stand waiting for your wages on Friday.

Six in the morn and it’s time to rise,
sleep on, old man, you’re weary and wise,
to the ways of the mill, aye, and all of the tries
for a part time job in the doffing.

Puffin’ and pantin’ past the mill,
up to the local to get all your fill,
though you’ve only got enough brass for a gill,
there might be a job in the offing.

But the shuttles have flown, it’s time to roam,
back to the armchair and fire at home,
and leave all the mill hands and weavers alone
to their beer and their laughter and joking.

But many’s the time why you’ve stood with the best,
although the looms have near turned you deaf,
they’ve all got a few miles of weaving as yet
before they’ll have bested old Sither.

Youtube clip

PIT BOY
(Colin Dryden)

The times are hard, the days are long
I wish I were a farmer’s son
Out in the green fields all day long
Away from the dark of the day

Chorus
When the sun is sagging in the sky
The days are long, long are the sighs
Down in the darkness where we bide
Passing our lives away

And if I were a robber bold
I’d rob the rich of all their gold
And if I were caught, well I’ve been told
It’s better down Botany Bay

Chorus

And if I were a sailor, I’d sail the main
And rob the ships of France and Spain
Now if we lost, perhaps we’d gain
For the French might raise our pay

Chorus

Like pit ponies down the mine
Going blind without the shine
Though if we do, we’ll never mind
'Cos we’ll never want the sun no more

Chorus

Audio

Cover by Daniel Kelly

For background info on the songs, here is a link (I have posted it elsewhere in this thread) to a beaut essay by the late Dermott Ryder:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 03:46 AM

Here are a few more songs from the late Mark Gillett (see his Mudcat OBIT - well, he passed some 14 years ago now, so when does one stop being "late", I wonder??!!)


GLASS HOUSES

Mark Gillett

Strong and sudden comes the flood
takes the family by surprise
Feel the steel it’s in your blood
test the strength of family ties

Poor ‘Crookneck’, eldest son
Still crippled by this guilt you bear
How could you do that to your Mum
How could you leave her standing there?
To break those bonds is shame
You must admit that things can never be the same

Tibrogargan’s task he knows
To keep the lore from age to age
since you struck that crippling blow
You stand a prisoner of your rage
Don’t turn your face away
Your family’s future could depend on what you say

Do you love the land
You water it with tears
Stand above the land
For a million years

Come brothers sisters, do not
scatter now in fear of scorn
Changes you were witness to
were dreamed before your age was born
We are one family
to be steadfast through disaster is our destiny

You are mother of us all
Dreaming still of life to come
Wait until your children call
Gather us in, every one


Listen here to a short clip of Jenny Fitzgibbon singing the late Mark Gillett’s composition, with Steve Cook on bouzouki, from her CD : https://jennyfitzgibbon.com/2013/07/03/words-of-songs-glass-houses-by-mark-gillett/

The Glasshouse Mountains are not far from me, just “down off the range”! Watch this clip to view each of the ancient mountains and hear the Aboriginal legend of their fractious family :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pnCPG7SeM

Watch this clip to see them closeup and learn why “they are not extinct Volcanoes, but something even more rare” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FDqWmSPFnw


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 03:53 AM

Jenny's singing of this EXcellent song is one of my all-time faves!!


ODE TO SOIL

Paul Spencer

This planet is a rock that boils and churns
Continents float as the liquid turns
Our island bobs like a raft at sea, or loose debris
And somehow life remains.

This island’s made of solid stone
As dry as a crow-pecked bullock bone
But a layer on top like a vellum skin, both soft and thin,
Supports us all alone.

The soil holds on with a mighty grip
To giant roots so the trees won’t slip
It clothes itself in vibrant green, a fragrant screen
Through which the waters drip.

The soil, the earth in slow routine
Gives forth a beauty so serene
A person who such splendour saw, subdued with awe,
Might think some God had been.

But looking close it can be found,
The beauty springs from underground,
A million living creatures dance, in every ounce,
And miracles abound.

These living things are made of soil
The earth in which they live and toil
And there the Earth receives and gives, the planet lives
In fine and fragile soil.


You can hear Paul do this song himself on: http://paul-spencer.net/2012/07/23/ode-to-soil/


And here’s a snippet of Jenny Fitzgibbon with Jeremy Dunlop from her CD “For the Love Of It” (buy it – you’ll not be disappointed!!) :
https://jennyfitzgibbon.com/2013/07/03/words-to-songs-ode-to-soil-by-paul-spencer/



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 04:12 AM

DANCING WITH THE STONES

Mark Gillett

The Sun sets on stone faces, looking out on the sea.
Torches flare in the night air and we start our ceremony.
We're gonna talk soul, pass the bowl and raise the energy.
The Gods will talk and statues walk when we set the magic free

How are you going?
Dancing with the stones.

Stand 'round the sacred ground beneath the midsummer moon.
An old, grand master man throws the forbidden rune.
Lost art, a crystal heart is beating to an ancient tune.
You'd better jive when it comes alive, ain't nobody immune

How are you going?
Dancing with the stones.

The whip lands on the slave bands straining at the yoke.
Stone blocks as big as trucks move with every stroke.
Worker's bones, the grave stones of a culture built on pain.
A cruel land, desert sand, covers fields of grain.

How are you going?
Dancing with the stones.

Thirty years beneath the lash. Raise the granite high.
Come and make a place for us that's fit for us to lie.
Wrapped in clinging linen, dressed in precious oil.
Come and take your just reward for centuries of toil.

How are you going?
Dancing with the stones.

The world turns, people turn and they face a brave new world.
There's a wild unborn child beneath the belly curled.
In her trance, giants dance. They dance the steps of dread.
That's a dance that's gonna grind your bones to make their bread.

How are you going?
Dancing with the stones.
Said you're dancing with the stones.


“First performed by The Hinterland Band on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia. Written by Mark Gillett (now deceased) as a celebration of a modern Australian corroboree.”
Sung here by Brisbane-SunnyCoast band, The Genre Benders (Hugh Brown), c.2004 :

https://www.broadjam.com/songs/thegenrebenders/dancing-with-the-stones   



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 04:25 AM

PLANTING TO REAPING

Jenny Fitzgibbon

Spring turns to Summer the harvest is coming
new moon blooms full through mist and ice chill
the light on the hill tells a fortune of winter
I wait for my lover I wait for him still

Planting to reaping, rhubarb to berries
bare feet and cotton, to thick boots and twill
Laughing to weeping, short hair no longer
I wait for my lover I wait for him still

Seeing turns to liking, liking to meeting
meetings to touch, a blush to a thrill
holding of hands then hearts gently given
I wait for my lover I wait for him still


"Watching the rain run down the window panes on grey day, I thought about an isolated country girl waiting through the seasons for the thrill of being near her sweetheart. Jeremy got right into the feel of it with his accompaniment."

Listen to a short clip of Jenny singing (with Jem Dunlop on guitar), from her CD “For the Love of It” : https://jennyfitzgibbon.com/cd-for-the-love-of-it/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 05:23 AM

YOLGNU WAYS AND YOLGNU LAWS

Jenny Fitzgibbon

“I wrote this in Darwin twenty years ago and recently updated it for a Remembrance event for the Indigenous warriors and their families and tribes who were killed in the wars in this country.   
The event is held in the Maleny RSL each year. January 2019”
(based upon "Irish Ways and Irish Laws" by Moving Hearts)

Since the dawn of time there was
Yolgnu Ways and Yolgnu laws
families of Yolgnu blood
Waking to the morning,
waking to the morning

Then the white man came around
turned them up and turned them down
Telling lies of empty land
While waging wars unending,
brave Warriors defending

In violence the white man came
Genocide in all but name
stole the children from the bush
torn from land and living,
torn from land and living

Across the land invaders came
clearing forest, planting grain
No dreaming place lies undisturbed
Even changed the rivers flowing,
changed the rivers flowing

200 years of stolen land
May the power of the artist’s hand
keep the Yolgnu spirit high
above the pain descending,
above the pain descending.

This dispossession carries on
We ask that it may not be long
Before our constitution’s graced
with the voice of our First Nations,
the voice of our First Nations


Melody : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=havjZ1i0UWw   “Irish Ways and Irish Laws” was written by John Gibbs and sung here by “Moving Hearts”.

“OUR SAY” - This Yolngu doco excerpt has some good advice for us all : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn9ASZrGumE    
“Cut-down of a Channel 7 documentary in which Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land talk about their culture, the history of black and white relations, importance of land and lots more.” Uploaded 2008.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhyBaAjlFKg    "A passion for Yolngu Matha language"



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 06:29 AM

LIES LIKE ‘ILLEGAL’

Jenny Fitzgibbon

“Here’s a new rendition of my song “Lies Like 'Illegal'” with Jeremy Dunlop on guitar. I wrote it out of my desire for more compassion in our treatment of refugees, young and old, and thru my need to take action.” Sept 2015
Adapted from the tune of “When the Boat Comes in”. Trad – Northumberland


Asylum they come seeking, In a boat that’s leaking
Gets the pollies freaking, When the boat comes in
   No peace for Baba, No peace for Maman
   No peace for koodak, surely it’s a sin

Zero information, goes out to the nation
An abomination, When the boat comes in
To ‘secure’ our borders, We give Navy orders
Racists would applaud us, When the boat comes in
   No peace for Baba, No peace for Maman
   No peace for koodak, surely it’s a sin

Why say a prayer, Teach our kids to care
Then refuse to share, When the boat comes in
Private corporations, Profit from our nation’s
Freedom deprivations, When the boat comes in
    No peace for Baba, No peace for Maman
    No peace for koodak, surely it’s a sin

Forked tongues a-lashing, In a right-wing fashion
Why not show compassion, When the boat comes in
Even though there’s no ‘queue’ - take the pain you’ve been thru
To Manus or Nauru, When the boat comes in
   No peace for Baba, No peace for Maman
   No peace for koodak, surely it’s a sin

Children in detention, Human rights suspension
We must pay attention, When the boat comes in
If I’d a son or daughter, fleeing famine or slaughter
I’d cross any water, When the boat comes in
   No peace for Baba, No peace for Maman
   No peace for koodak, surely it’s a sin

A label like “illegals” - Lies like “illegal”
Should be illegal   -   When the boat comes in


[Kids Out - Close Manus and Nauru now]


Audio Link : https://jennyfitzgibbon.com/2015/09/13/lies-like-illegals-close-manus-and-nauru-now/


Robyn Cook hosts "Stories from the Red Couch" and her guest this Ep is Jenny Fitzgibbon : https://www.storiesfromtheredcouch.com.au/episodes-blog/tag/Jenny+fitzgibbon


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 06:57 AM

Re "Lies Like 'Illegal'",
just found Jenny Fitzgibbon singing this Nov2014 YT upload with animation by Maleny artist, Corrie Wright :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gawCW-DFsII


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 04:08 AM

THE TORDONERS

Mark Gillett

Well I come from South Burnett to an old farming family, not many jobs that I can’t turn my hand to
I ploughed the black soil and I’ve mustered rough country, though fat and lean seasons I’ve clung to the land,
I can put down a spear, I can strip down a diesel, I can drop ‘em, tag ‘em, in paddock or pen
But t’was in cattle country to the west of Kilkivan, I found me a job that I won’t do again.

Well the sorghum was sown but the price was uncertain, and the spike for the final demands from the bank
I drove 90 miles to a bush block near Murgon, got me a job with a Tordoning gang.

Chorus :
   A sharp little axe and a bottle of Tordon, goodbye to the ironbark, spotties and greys
   Cut to the sap and then pour in the poison, a worker can clear 20 acres a day.

I got 400 bucks for the week in me hand and by then the first trees were all dropping their leaves
The Tree-Killer’s stink clung to me like a brand and the hills had the look of a creeping disease,
When I drive by today, I try not to remember the bodies of bush creatures dead on the road
Driven to slaughter by fear and by hunger, as the Tordoners poisoned their food and their homes.

   A sharp little axe and a bottle of Tordon, goodbye to the ironbark, spotties and greys
   Cut to the sap and then pour in the poison, a worker can clear 20 acres a day.

Well the suckers came up so we hit ‘em with the Graslan, before the floods came on the very next week
???……….. from the hills to the gullies and killed the Sheoaks along 2 mile of creek,
The company went bust and now Mistflower and Groundsel are covering the skeleton graveyard of trees
The weeds are what’s stopping the rest of the topsoil from washing into somebody’s paddock downstream.
   
   A sharp little axe and a bottle of Tordon, goodbye to the ironbark, spotties and greys
   Cut to the sap and then pour in the poison, a worker can clear 20 acres a day.
   
   Yeah, a sharp little axe and a bottle of Tordon, goodbye to the bellbirds, they’ve all gone away
   Cut to the sap and then pour in the poison, a worker can clear 20 acres a day.



TORDON is a Picloram-containing herbicide manufactured by DOW (AgroSciences). Also used in “Agent White” by the US Military in Vietnam when “Agent Orange” was unavailable.
GRASLAN is another herbicide for regrowth and weeds, also made by DOW.

Kilkivan is a small, historical, inland town, N-W of Gympie, in the Wide Bay-Burnett region of SE Queensland. Murgon is another town in the region.

Ironbark, Spotted Gum, Grey Gum are all varieties of native Eucalypt trees; Sheoaks being native Casuarina trees.   Mistflower and Groundsel are invasive or noxious introduced weeds.

Australia, despite our beautiful and unique environment - and being prone to drought - has permitted the clearing of nearly half our forest cover in the last 200 years.
It’s now a deforestation and land-clearing CRISIS, with with an MCG-sized area of forests and bushlands destroyed every two minutes, while Australia is the worst offending country in the world for mammal extinctions.   
[www.wilderness.org.au] Yep. Sure is “The Lucky Country” …..


Mark sang this accompanied by guitar and played his banjo, but I’ve not yet found it online :(


R-J

Subject: ADD: Murrumbidgee Water (Warner)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 05:15 PM

Gerry Myerson sang this at the singaround.

The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67948   Message #1216948
Posted By: freda underhill
30-Jun-04 - 09:11 AM
Thread Name: BS: In every thread someone has to be last!
Subject: ADD: MURRUMBIDGEE WATER
the murrumbidgee is the river for me. and here are the words to a beautiful song by John Warner about this great Australian river..

MURRUMBIDGEE WATER

Born in the highland snows,
Wild in her youth's descending,
Swiftly she fills and grows
Out on her floodplains, winding and bending,
Feeding the towering gums,
Bush in creek and gully,
Sharing her bounties wide,
Spreading soil in plain and valley.

Murrumbidgee fair, Murrumbidgee fertile,
Nurturing at your breasts we who walk here for a little while.
High on a ridge we stand, gazing in love and awe
Over the lands you made with your gentle hands: how rich the gifts you pour.

Over her years of floods,
Current twisting wild and strong,
Children she made in the land,
Creek and anabranch, pond and billabong.
Bright on the wide floodplain
Glints the rippling water,
Proudly side by side,
Flow the mother and the daughter.

Murrumbidgee fair, Murrumbidgee fertile,
Nurturing at your breasts we who walk here for a little while.
High on a ridge we stand, gazing in love and awe
Over the lands you made with your gentle hands: how rich the gifts you pour.

We have known the drought, we have seen her anger,
Hurling trees in her rage, we've borne thirst and we've borne hunger.
Yet for us who seek, beauty waits in hiding,
In some shaded pools wait the fruits of her providing.

Silver mist like hair,
As the day is dawning,
Marks the river's way
As we hunt on a winter's morning,
Duck and cod from the stream,
Fruit and fungus, plant and seed,
Kangaroo on the plain,
See, she gives us all we need.

Murrumbidgee fair, Murrumbidgee fertile,
Nurturing at your breasts we who walk here for a little while.
High on a ridge we stand, gazing in love and awe
Over the lands you made with your gentle hands: how rich the gifts you pour.

© John Warner 25.05.98

...............................................
Written by John Warner for the song and verse cycle, Yarri of Wiradjuri, which tells of the heroism of Aboriginal Australians in saving the lives of white settlers when the original township of Gundagai was destroyed by flood in 1852. Murrumbidgee Water - the second song in the cycle - celebrates the river and its importance to the indigenous people and establishes the Murrumbidgee River and Morley's Creek as the Mother and the Daughter

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 05:38 PM

& here are Ecopella singing it -
Ecopella is an environmental choir that sings about the beauty of our world and the struggle to protect it from exploitation and destruction. We serve the environment movement by providing activists and audiences with the opportunity of enjoying a high standard of a cappella singing. Our music’s strong environmental message encourages positive change in people’s thinking and offers encouragement to a wide variety of green organisations.

& here is mudcatter Daniel Kelly's version

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 09:26 PM

Really nice to see your Post, Joe!

BtW, the main posters (so far) on this thread, wish to ask if you'd change the name to better reflect the thread's content???

It fairly quickly moved away from being another "Rise Up Singing" booklet and became (we feel), a valuable repository and resource for Australian AND New Zealand songs -
a great many of which are not easily found elsewhere + their audio links and valuable related information.

So would you mind terribly if it was changed (and especially to mention the NZ content)?!

Cheers! R-J
and I'm sure, Stewie and Sandra :)

(How about you, Gerry?!)


P.S.   ANY MORE OZ-KIWI SONG POSTERS HIDING OUT THERE???!!!
Come and Join us!!
(we do have available, alphabetical songlists of those already posted, to assist choice)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 09:35 PM

Perhaps "Mudcat Songbook: Australia and New Zealand" would do it??
R-J

---

Hi, Rich-Joy -
Yes, it's clear this has moved away from the "Rise Up Mudcat" project and taken on a life of its own. And I'm really enjoying it. The final choice of thread title is up to Gerry Myerson, since he's the manager of this thread and I told him he could do whatever he wants with it.
I don't like the idea of using the title "Mudcat Songbook" or anything too closely related to that because that's another longstanding project - a collection of songs written by Mudcatters. "Mudcat Australia Songbook" wouldn't cause a problem, or "Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook."
Other than that, change it however you want, in consultation with Gerry.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Mar 21 - 11:18 PM

Sounds good to me, r-j......I don't post often, but I read each and every update.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 12:56 AM

members can PM me with an email address if they would like a copy of our 2 spreadsheets.

Aug-Dec 2020 (alphabetical by title), Jan - today (by date posted)

Both lists contain -

Date & time posted
Title
Author/composer/tune
NZ?
Posted by
Video or audio available
Lyrics available
Page (very necessary to locate songs as we are up to page 20)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 01:18 AM

It is normal in Australia to start many events (govt or other) with a spoken acknowledgement of Aboriginal ownership of the land. Deb is a Choir Director, singer & songwriter.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Words, music and arrangement: Deb Jones 2015

We acknowledge the traditional owners of this land
The Gadigal and Wangal of the nation of Eora
And other first Australians who’ve made this place their home
And any actions done in our name that had them leave the land that’s in their bones
With things done in our name they left the land that’s in their bones.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land
The ones the country walks in; the holders of the stories
We pay respect to elders past and present, and all indigenous here
We pay our respects
We acknowledge injustices done in our name
We acknowledge
Was, is, always will be
We are more than sorry
We will speak out. We will speak out. We will speak out
We will speak. We will not turn, No!
We acknowledge this land is Aboriginal Land!

NOTE:
The intention is that the words “The Gadigal and Wangal of the nation of Eora” be replaced when necessary with the names of the appropriate groups and countries, according to where the song is to be sung.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The acknowledgement of Aboriginal ownership of the land is set to music as an alternative to a spoken introduction.

Deb’s comments on the song: “Solidarity Choir often find ourselves singing first at gigs, and I like to acknowledge the traditional owners. I’d often off-handedly thought ‘we should be singing this’. We already share one indigenous song about land rights with our audiences. The choir were on the lookout for a song that gave voice to how we as non-indigenous Australians feel about what’s been going on. So I decided it was time I gave the Acknowledgement a shot. It could have become a much longer song with so many issues, but I wanted something we could put upfront every gig. It’s an acknowledgement and a promise, really. We acknowledge that we’re standing on Aboriginal land. We acknowledge injustices done in our name to the Aboriginal people of this country, and we will step up and speak out.”

lyrics & intro from Solidarity Choir website
facebook video - Acknowledgement sung by Ecopella

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 01:31 AM

ASBESTOS by Lyle Sayer, 1984

no audio/video

Lyle Sayer, 1984

Tiny fibres you don't see
Seemed a lot of bull to me
But now the cancer it has grown
And my lungs have turned to stone.

Joined the navy, went to sea.
Seemed that life was good to me.
Insulation 'round the pipes,
Didn't know you'd take my life.

Braked the car, asbestos flew.
Rode a train asbestos blew
Through the cracks in roof and walls
Like the rain it gently falls.

In the town of Wittenoom
By the road wildflowers bloom.
On the ground and in the air
There's asbestos everywhere.

Profits from asbestos mines
Kept Lang Hancock doing fine.
No regrets, no tears apply
To the miners that now die.

Those who knew but did not tell
May the bastards burn in hell!
Don't be anybody's fool:
Safety first, the golden rule.

Tiny fibres you don't see
Seemed a lot of bull to me
But now the cancer it has grown
And my lungs have turned to stone.

lyrics, no audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 01:46 AM

IF I HAD WINGS

Ryk Rostron

On this Queensland whaling boat, we made good time at sea
Hoped to be in Brisbane town before the sun had set on me
We worked with hearts as light as air as we moved towards the coast
And we thought about those waiting there; the ones we loved the most.

Chorus :
And if I had wings, I’d fly away home
If I had wings, I could be there now
Well if I had wings, I’d fly o’er the foam
And I’d leave those cold Southern winds to blow.

Six months at sea seems easy now, as it did the day we sailed
From Brisbane town weighed anchor, we set off with no thought to fail
An old hand now on whaling boats, the seventh time we’ve seen
We sail with Captain Ellwell and that bright ship’s company.

Well to catch the whales we searched the Southern oceans cold
But fortune travelled with us as we quickly filled the hold
Another man was lost this trip as through the ice we roam
When in quick time, the captain cried : “Enough! We turn for home.”

That season was the last for me, I paid my dues and settled down
Though I sometimes think of whaling, the boat’s no longer to be found
The stations are all empty now, no huts with coal or fire
The memories fade, the whales are gone, the singing ocean quiet.


Ryk sang this song with the sadly defunct Brisbane bluegrassy band, PIRATE BRIDES, who were very popular both Live and on CD – there were 3 recordings : Walking the Planxty / Cutlass Wedding / Broken Hearts Ride Free.

Members were RYK ROSTRON (lead vocals/guitar/bazouki/mandolin), the late and much-missed JOHN HOLMBERG aka Sailor John (lead vocals/banjo/mandolin/guitar), ROSE BROE (vocals/accordion/ autoharp/keyboard),
MICHAEL TULLY (vocals/upright bass) and later, MARK KARLSEN (vocals/upright bass).

The song features on their 2005 EP “Cutlass Wedding”.   BtW, the few clips of the PBs on YT that I’ve seen, really do not - IMHO, do justice to their many performances ……
However, the song is found at 23:35 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcviQqURygE


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 02:12 AM

Sandra’s posting above of The Acknowledgement of Country,

reminded me that back in September last year when I posted Joe Geia’s song YIL-LULL, I had meant to post his GURRI NGINDIN NARMI, which is very commonly heard at Qld events and festivals, as the Welcome to Country song.

I don’t seem to have the lyrics, but in both these versions, Joe explains the message :

GURRI NGINDIN NARMI : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idR3vYLotKQ

GARINGINDINARMA : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rqmj0fiufc

https://www.qls.com.au/For_the_profession/First_Nations_People/First_Nations_Protocols




R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 02:28 AM

COME AWAY WITH ME, Tony Eardley, 1999

Audio

Come away with me my loved one
To where cool waters join together
Where tall trees bend and spread their shady leaves
To shield us from the searching sun.

For I know a place where the day is still
A hidden land shaped by the dreamtime
At night the starlights glance off darkened pools
Where thirsty creatures come to drink their fill.

"I'll go with you my friend and dear
To where cool waters join together
For its in the quiet of the forest deep
Your spirit speaks to me most strong and clear."

We rose and went and we journeyed far.
The sun was hot and unforgiving
Through the sprawling city where we love and fight
And scrabble for our daily living.

But when we reached that place our hearts did chill
We found the forest razed and ravaged.
Clear across the valley to the distant ridge
Lay stumps like crosses on some Flanders hill.

My love reached out to comfort me
She saw the tears in my eyes were welling
"Let all your tears flow" she said "my dear.
To wet the roots of anger swelling."

Now all across this tired and dusty land
The hungry chainsaws they are roaring.
The living waters die with poisons choked.
The Earth it crumbles in the greedy hand.

And you talk of work for them that the timber hew,
Those who by felling scratch their living.
Well there'd be honest work for all that need
Were good Earth's wealth not cornered by the few.

So let us go, hand clutching hand
Of lover, daughter, friend and caring stranger.
To keep our faith with those who're yet to come
And stand full firm against this present danger

Tony started to write a love song but somehow it became about his feelings for the environment as well. Ecopella members have been known to weep on stage during this song. lyrics

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 02:32 AM

DENIAL TANGO by Men with Day Jobs: Stafford Sanders, Rod Crundwell and Kim Constable, 2011 Funny, timely satirical song on climate denial - written & performed 2011 by Sydney group Men With Day Jobs: Kim Constable (bass), Rod Crundwell (piano), Stafford Sanders (guitar). Tony Abbott is Australia's denialist Opposition Leader; CSIRO its major science body.

video

You say the planet’s warming, but I’m convinced it’s not.
Last Tuesday it was rather cool, today it’s not so hot.
And if it’s getting hotter, I’m sure it’s not by much.
It’s prob’ly due to sunspots, volcanoes or some such.
Or maybe it’s the Chinese, they make more smoke than us.
I know there’s many more of them, so let them catch the bus.
One thing I am sure of, no need to make a fuss.
Fire up those smoky chimneys and sing:

Denial. I’m in denial.
Don’t talk to me of independent studies or scientific trial.
I’m in denial, deep in denial.
And as the waters rise around me I’ll just hold my breath and say
it isn’t so.

I call myself a skeptic, and I believe it’s so.
I’m skeptical of anything: I just don’t wanna know.
Don’t give me C S I R O or I P C C.
I want some wacky viscount with a classical degree.
He says it’ was much hotter X million years ago.
I know that killed the dinosaurs but they were rather slow.
It’s just a lot of scientists that think they’re in the know.
But I know I know better, let’s sing:

Denial. I’m in denial
When I see those econazis, I raise my arm and shout Sieg Heil!
I’m in denial …

Those fires are not raging. No floods deluge the land.
Those hurricanes and tornadoes are just flashes in the pan.
The animals are doing fine: no species dying out.
And half the bloody planet isn’t choking in drought.
The ice is not receding, from either polar cap.
I’d go with Tony Abbott, It’s just a load of crap.
This round-the-world disaster is an evil greenie trap.
‘Cause everybody knows the world is flat.

Denial …
..As the waters rise around me I’ll just hold my breath and say (glug glug glug)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 02:43 AM

THE SHANNON RISE Phyl Lobl, 1987

River light, moths in flight
Trout rise swiftly to the bite
Sky of drifting diamonds fades away
Stolen by the power- brokers play

And the Shannon Rise will rise no more
A beach lies drowned off Pedder’s shore
The tumbling gorge with its constant roar
Drives a warning sound to the ground

Mountain light, sunshine bright
Curve of sand held in my sight
Blushing pearl now fifty fathoms deep
The favoured jewel we weren’t allowed to keep

Tumbling light, foaming bright
Waterfall of endless flight
Thundering its message loud and long
Wilderness is wonderful, be strong!


In Tasmania Lake Pedder was drowned. The Shannon River was altered which changed the life pattern of a moth that used to breed at a certain time and cause the trout to 'rise'. The Cataract Gorge was at one time also threatened to be made a into power source a Tasmanian woman asked me to write about these three places. The second music file is from the choir 'Ecopella', from their CD 'Songs In the Key of Green', with a beautiful multi-part harmony by Miguel Heatwole, a great contrast to my solo acappella version.

And the version by 'Ecopella', an environmental choir that sings about the beauty of our world and the struggle to protect it from exploitation and destruction. Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 02:50 AM

DRIP DROP by Margaret Bradford, 1998

lyrics

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop
Wasting water's gotta stop
Drop. Drip. Drop. Drip
Turn that tap off quick!

Water's precious can't you see
Its a rare commodity
Creeks and rivers dry up fast
You gotta make that water last and last, and last, and last, and last and last, and last

Drip. Drop...

Mulch that garden, watch it grow
When roots stay damp deep down below
Sun can't dry out soil underneath
You won't have to hose for weeks

Plant those natives watch 'em thrive
In hot dry Aussie they'll survive
Why water lawns to make 'em grow?
Then on the weekend you've gotta mow and mow and mow and mow and mow and mow and mow!

Drip. Drop....

[scat: dribble drop dribble etc.]

Keep that shower short and sweet
Just wet yourself from head to feet
Don't stand under there all day
You might develop scales and swim away

A cup of water's quite enough
To clean your teeth with that the stuff
Don't let that tap run, use a plug
Don't wanna hear that water glug

Drip. Drop....

Flushing loos use too much water
Don't flush it more than you oughta
If it's yellow let it mellow
But if it's brown then flush it down

Drip. Drop....

video

Sydney songwriter Margaret Bradford wraps some very practical advice about household water conservation in a lively and humorous musical package. Miguel's jazzy choral arrangement makes the most of the onomatopoeic possibilities.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 12:41 AM

Thanks Joe - over to you, Gerry!
Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: GerryM
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 03:55 AM

I'm happy to change the name of the thread to "Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook," I just don't know how.... I've changed the Subject on this post, but I don't know what effect that might have on the thread.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 09:00 AM

Joe or other moderators can change titles

sandra

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 05:55 PM

thanks, moderators!

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 06:14 PM

a blast from the past. I was looking thru an email folder of songs friends sent me

A song from the late Ozcatter Rowan 15/4/10.

There you go, Sandra; a companion song to Cathy's "Precious Gift" (aka "The Tony Abbott Song") Precious Gift was posted by me 29 Sep 20 - 11:31 AM on page 7.


TONY ABBOTT IS 'ALL SMUGGLER AND NO BUDGIE'

Tune:         Across the Western Plains I must wander,
               Across the Western Ocean I must wander, and
               All for me grog

Oh my name is Tony Abbott, I was once a randy rabbit
but now I'm Leader of The Opposition
So now I pontificate on every woman's sexual fate
and I'm often asked to make a proposition.

I joined the seminary but obedience was too scary
so I went and joined the local Liberal Party
I became John Howard's man though his policies didn't scan
and I thought myself a right political smarty.

A young bloke that I knew, he was in the media crew
I had thought to be the offspring of a screw, boys
I had had a brief liaison, as a young man with emission
but it turned out other cuckoos were in season.

In an interview one day I gave restraint a little spray
but applied it only to young women
Their virginity's a gift that should not be lightly left'
but young men I never even mentioned.

I'm in a surfing club and I wear their uniform
showing off my pecs and wearing budgie smugglers
I ride my racing bike and do "Iron Mans' if I like
and in politics I'm best of all the jugglers.

But when it comes to "walk the walk" not just talking only talk
the voters are so critical with their judging.
I make statements every day but give policies? "No way!"
"Tony Abbott is 'all smuggler and no budgie!'"

After the Hymn Singing Session at the 2010 National Folk Festival I overheard someone comment about the lack of policy substance in Tony Abbott's then recent statement on Health Policy. The immediate riposte from the other party to the conversation was "Tony Abbott is 'all smuggler and no budgie!'" I thought it too good to let slide unrecorded.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: JennieG
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 08:33 PM

Cheers, Rowan - indeed. A nice bloke much missed.

The song is right too.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 01:15 AM

now for a couple of other finds - never before published so I asked John's permission & he is sending me more!!

JOHN HOWARD'S CHRISTMAS © John Warner, December 2005

no video or audio.

Tune. Good King Wencessessesslauss [I don't know how to stop spelling it.]

Christmas presents filled the mind
Of wee johnny howard.
He would rob the workers blind,
To see the rich empowered.
With his tiny brain in gear,
Plans the lad was making,
Gifts to give his mates this year,
From all others taking.

Workers who don't toe the line,
Let the bosses sack them.
Johnny Howard says it's fine,
They'll have laws to back them.
All unfair dismissal laws,
Tinsel wrapped with holly,
Scrapped in the employers cause,
Won't that gang be jolly.

"Here's your nasal grindstone mate,
Gift wrapped from your master.
Don't complain or curse your fate,
Kindly pedal faster."
Round and round and round she goes,
Wearing faces down sir,
Bloody, red and flat our nose,
Howard's nose is brown, sir.

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine,
Bring a barbecue sir.
Plenty for these mates of mine,
No, there's none for you sir.
Lots of debts and lots of lies,
Financial excision,
If you dare to criticise,
We call that sedition."

Once a year does Christmas come,
A subject for reflection,
Noses flat and spirits numb,
When's the next election?'
One more gift to open folks,
And it’s a back hander,
One of Howard's little jokes,
A national Gerrymander.

Red suit and a fluffy beard,
Don't suit our prime minister.
Howard's puny soul is geared,
To a dress more sinister.
Mask and jemmy, stripey vest,
Pitchfork, horns and tail sir,
But broad arrows would be best,
And ten years in jail sir

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 03:19 AM

find no. 3 -

DENGATE UPSHIFT © John Warner, July 2018 - Tune Spanish Ladies/ Brisbane Ladies/Augathella station

tune

Note - This song is a parody of a parody. The late, great John Dengate wrote a superbly wicked set of words about Joe Bjelke Petersen, once a very corrupt premier of Queensland. The first line is John’s and I have tried to use his style and structure as a memorial of a splendid political satirist.

Farewell and adieu to the premier of Queensland,
Give it up, Anastasia, and get on the bus,
If you’re wining and dining with Carmichael mining,
And selling the farm off you’re no use to us.

CHORUS
We’ve ranted and roared at that greedy Adani
Ranted and roared till we’re blue in the face,
But all you hear, Honey, is the sound of his money,
For an ALP leader you‘re a shame and disgrace

By cute misdirection you won the election,
You said that Carmichael would not go ahead,
Then you were in power just barely an hour,
And promptly inverted the words that you said.
CHORUS - We’ve ranted and roared at that greedy Adani

You Galilee gargoyle, stop financing snake oil,
You Belyando baggage, you Tangorin twit,
Tell that hairy Gujarati you’re leaving his party
You devious, dispicable, coal funding person….
CHORUS - We’ve ranted and roared at that greedy Adani

What? Ten thousand jobs from that vote buying mob?
Adani’s in debt with his back to the wall,
With every new spokesman those jobs are a joke, man,
With Autonomous mining there’s no jobs at all.
CHORUS - We’ve ranted and roared at that greedy Adani

Come next election will you see defection,
From voters who think that Adani’s a rat?
With the choice between you and the Nationals crew,
When you both back Adani, then what choice is that?
CHORUS - We’ve ranted and roared at that greedy Adani

My dear Anastasia, you couldn’t get crazier,
By selling off Queensland to a known corporate thief,
What sort of solution is toxic pollution
To a bleaching and dying Great Barrier Reef?
CHORUS - We’ve ranted and roared at that greedy Adani

~~~~~~~~
email to Dale Dengate, 17 July 2018

G’day Dale,
                   I bashed this one together for the Stop Adani street campaigns. Since I deliberately used John’s original splendid parody as a model, I thought I’d send it to you. Cripes, he was a witty bloke with a word. There was no way to match that “adjective noun”

Good ‘ealth,

John W

Why we will #StopAdani

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 03:40 AM

JOIN YOUR UNION © John Warner 26.11.06, Tune Hymn "Bread of Heaven" - "Guide me oh thou great Jehovah/Redeemer" Welsh tune: Cwm Rhondda. Composed by John Hughes (1873-1932).

Audio

Chorus
Join your union, join your union,
Friends, we need our unions now,
Friends, we need our unions now

Thieves grow rich and liars prosper,
Milking profit's sacred cow.
They make war to make their money,
How we need our unions now.

One man's pay for three men's labour,
Bosses' powers enshrined in law.
When our rights are torn and trampled,
How we need our unions more.

Women's rights and women's wages,
Fiercely fought and barely won,
Children's care and education,
Go where all our hopes have gone.

Shake the souls of union leaders,
Shout the message clear and plain,
Leave the desk, desert the boardroom,
Fight the workers' cause again.

Quiet words did not avail us,
Patience only earned defeat,
Unity's our only answer,
Join your unions on the street.

Stand with us and swell the numbers,
We are the majority.
Sing in chorus, raise the banners,
Union is victory.


John Warner is the author of the song, "Bring Out the Banners"
(http://unionsong.com/u034.html) which has been empowering unionists all
over the world. He dedicates this new one to singer, Danny Spooner, with
thanks "for making songs a weapon of mass reconstruction".
www.folkjohnwarner.com

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 03:52 AM

AUSTRALIA SQUARE - Bernard Bolan

no audio or video, it's on 'The Quirky Works of Bernard Bolan' (2002, Australian Broadcasting Commission) if anyone has it!

Every day I wend my way to the middle of Sydney town
To earn my screw and do my due for a company of renown
I do my chore on the 40th floor of a building round and tall
Up in the sky where the rents are high and we all do sweet damn all

Chorus:  
Flash goes the light and ring goes the bell and up in the air we go
Sailing in The Summit lift to the land of ice and snow
Up past the names that we've never heard of the people we don't know
I earn my bread with Sydney spread 600 feet below

On the ground floor near the big lift door the crowds all huddle round
In our castle in the air there's all creeds there, there's yellow, white and brown
The doors gape wide, we trudge inside and terror fills the air
Three, two, one, all hope is gone, tell mother I still care

Chrysler, Wimpy, Esso and Clyde and Ord BT and Co
The names go past so devilish fast, we must be near the snow
At thirty three, which is Hitachi, seventeen Japanese go
And that silly little bugger from Colonial Sugar is standing on my toe

It's strange the way that every day as we trace our heavenly track
The ones that want to get out first are always at the back
So push the button, mind the door, stiffen up your knee
Sorry miss, I meant to press number forty three

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 04:21 AM

TERRY LAZY, An Animated Vision of a disillusioned Bushwalker
Words: John Turier, Newcastle NSW, 1982 tune McNamara’s Band

G’day me name is Terry Lazy
I sit in a 4 wheel drive
I expose meself to the elements
I can rough it and still survive.
I’m as tough as they come
As I sit on me bum
I’m king of the tracks and trails
Superior by far to all natural things
Especially lizards and snails.

CHORUS
Get out of me way, I’ll run you over
I’m in the bush to prove I’m in the bush.

Any hill or gully or mountain or valley
Where someone else has been
You’ll here the hum of me engine revving
And smell me dieseline.
Any bird or wombat or bunyip or lizard
Who tries to get in me way
I’ll blast him deaf as a post with me truckies horn
And then you’ll hear me say.

CHORUS

When you face the elements like a man
There’s essentials you must provide
That’s why I’ve got 4 dozen KB
In an esky by me side.
Now there’s rocks and boulders and stumps and bumps
and hills as big as walls
I once did meself an injury
When a tinny fell on me balls.

CHORUS (sung high!)

Now the scenery’s boring
‘Cause all there is to see is bloody trees
And all them mangy wildlife things
They’ve all got lice and fleas.
All the ‘roos are good for is Pal petfood
And trees take up the land
So I squash the odd fat wombat
And knock down saplings when I can.

CHORUS
Get out of me way, I’ll run you over
I’m in the bush to kill the bloody bush.

When a convoy leaves at the break of day
To tackle the mountains high
We all blast our horns in unison
And give the CB cry (10-4!)
There’s Toyotas, Range Rovers, Landrovers and trailers
In parties of 4s and 5s.
We all stay in close proximity
Keeping CB talk alive.

CHORUS
Get out of me way, we’ll run you over
We’re in the bush to prove we’re in the bush.
We all want to be just like our heroes
Up the Leyland up the Leyland
Up the Leyland brothers.


INSPIRATION FOR THE SONG
One weekend in 1982 John, his partner Chris, Shayne Kerr and Roz Uren (now Kerr) hiked up to Barrington Tops via The Corker, a very steep 900 metre climb up a 9 km track from Lagoon Pinch to Carey’s Peak. Back then, the track was open to 4WDs. As we tramped up the mountain with backpacks we were passed frequently by large vehicles who forced us to jump out of their way, annoying us profusely.

On returning home, John wrote the song. At the time, Shayne, Roz, John Turier and Sandra Tate played as Bushfire Band, then from 1983 without Sandy as Bantam Bush Band till 1985. John often sang his song at our bush dance engagements in the Hunter Valley.

Fortunately and wisely, NPWS has since closed the popular bushwalking track to vehicles.

The NSW Folk Federation Newsletter number 15 of 1982 published the words of the song.

John Turier has since become a well-known artist and sculptor.

Shayne now sings ‘Terry Lazy’ at appropriate functions.

Notes by Roz Kerr, 2013.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Mar 21 - 07:55 PM

Great to see the name change for the thread.

John Harpley of Wongawilli put a tune to a poem by one of Australia's finest folklorists - John Manifold.

BINDA BALL 1864
(w. John Manifold/m. John Harpley)

Chorus:
There was never a dance like our Boxing Day ball
For we found at the height of the fun
That the Monks girls were dancing with Gilbert and Hall
And Christina Mackinnon with Dunn

The bushrangers’ gold in the candlelight flowed
And we joined in their generous caprice
But storekeeper Morris ran off down the road
To Bathurst to warn the police

‘Bad scran to the blackguard’, cried Margaret Monks
‘There’s time for just one event more
It’s a matter of teaching good manners to skunks
Come on, and we’ll burn down his store’

When the traps and the traitor rode up with the dawn
The store had been burnt to the ground
The dancing was over, the curtains were drawn
And the bushrangers couldn’t be found

They arrested Christina and Ellen and Peg
But we heard the girls pluckily call
‘It was cheap at the price to have shaken a leg
With John Gilbert, Jack Dunn and Ben Hall

Youtube clip

There's a contemporary account of the bushrangers' visit to Binda in a Melbourne newspaper:

Ben Hall and His Gang at Binda

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: rich-joy
Date: 05 Mar 21 - 08:53 PM

ALICE ON THE LINE

Ken Ferguson

Stone and iron, wood and thatch
A stockyard and a cabbage patch
Smiling faces from the dawn of time
So this is our home.

Cool verandah, hitching rail
The Stuart Arms could tell a tale
Willis’s, Raggat’s, a home or two
Six house town.

From The Gap to Middle Park, I would go riding with the moon
The hills and stars would take my breath away
And every night the parlour song, the piano just in tune
We’d sing to bed another golden day.

The black men from the camp are working for us on the line
The women in our house become our friends
But it grieves my heart to see, whatever they’ve done wrong
Them dragged off south, neck-to-neck in chains.

Chorus :
The midday sun has drained the colour from your face
But there are garlands of wild flowers in your hair
Powder up your cheeks with the red, red sands of time
That’s how I remember Alice on the Line.

Hill and gully, rock and sand
Silence shrouds the empty land
Stillness hard to understand
Here comes the rain.

Flooding Todd, frothing brown
Lifeline, blood of Stuart town
Green shoots starting from the ground
Born again.

My mother bore four children here without a doctor’s hand
My father had to wield a surgeon’s lance
My brother Mort, like all of us, cherished by this land
Now lies beneath the battlefields of France.

Chorus
I always will remember, Alice on the Line.


Written in 1987 by KEN FERGUSON (died 2009 – see Mudcat Obit). He was one of the Folk Scene’s “singing geologists”, who came from Inverness in Scotland, but also shared his music in Australia from Tasmania to Perth and Alice Springs to Beyond.
Well-remembered here for his co-writing of “Folk Operas” e.g.
“The Singing Wire” with Alice Springs band Bloodwood, re the construction of the Overland Telegraph – and from which this song comes,
and “Franklin” with Tony Phipps, on the life of the lost Arctic explorer and former Van Dieman’s Land governor, Sir John Franklin,
and “Working Man’s Paradise” also with Tony Phipps, re William Lane and the Australian colony in Paraguay.   
Plus, his presence in bands like Blackthorn, McCool and Facial Expressions.

This song can be heard on Ken’s 1997 CD “Basic Blue” (13 tracks), but sadly, I haven’t found it online yet. :(

The story of the engineering feat that was the 2000 mile (3200kms) North-South Overland Telegraph in Australia is here : https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/overland-telegraph   
Soon after completion in 1872, it was also linked to the newly completed Java-Darwin submarine cable – and the world shrank yet again!!
Some books of interest which detail the story of the region and the Overland Telegraph [OTL] include :
ALICE SPRINGS -From Singing Wire to Iconic Outback Town : Stuart Traynor, 2016 and ALICE ON THE LINE : Doris Blackwell nee Bradshaw with Douglas Lockwood, 1965 (and which inspired this song).

Known as Mparntwe to the indigenous Arrernte people, Alice Springs (called Stuart until 1933), is the town of the Red Centre of Australia, on the banks of the Todd River (which is most often dry!)
and the many regional popular events include The Camel Cup / the Henley-on Todd Regatta / the Finke Desert Race / The Beanie Festival. https://alicespringstelegraphstation.com.au/


R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 12:00 AM

GOODBYE TO THE WATCHMAKER

Paul Lawler

Chorus :
This is goodbye to the Watchmaker, and a trade so fine and rare
To the little old man with the glasses on, who soon will not be here.


Many long years in apprenticeship, on a wage that was soon spent quick
Learning the craft of turning a shaft, five thousandths of one inch thick.


For the first year it’s making the tea, then through the first clocks you wade
Hoping one day to sit at the bench, alongside the men in the trade.


Manuals, autos, days and dates, chronographs and stopwatches timed
And finally then, the big days arrives : your apprenticeship papers are signed.


But things are changing, there’s no time now, to worry about tolerance and torque
A book on electronics is just what you need, to tune up your tuning fork.


Forget the alarm clock’s ring-a-ling, for the trade we must toll the bell
When the ticks and the tocks of mechanical clocks, are replaced by a mercury cell.


The factories dictated the future to us : make them faster, there’ll be more to sell
In stepping up production to stamp out the piece, they’ve stamped out the craftsmen as well.



©   Paul O. Lawler   : who trained as a watchmaker in Melbourne and Sydney.
He worked as a Watch and Clock Maker in Sydney and Darwin, and also Clifden (Galway) .....

: actual date of composition is unknown, but likely sometime in the late 1970s!
: and The Tune ? He did write one, but I’ve not yet come across a recording!

1946-2014 (see Mudcat Obit thread)


R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: raredance
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 01:55 AM

Not sure if this belongs here but didn't know where else to put it.
An index to New Zealand Folksongs.

New Zealand folksongs : song of a young country /
edited by Neil Colquhoun.
Published
Wellington : Reed, 1972.


John Smith A. B.
Davy Lowston
.New Zealand whales
.Come all you tonguers
.Soon may the Wellerman come
.Across the line
.Blood red roses
.Altered days
.I'm a young man
.Little Tommy Pinkerton.
Black velvet band.
Rise out your bed.
Darling Johnny O.
How to dodge the hard times.
Trade of Kauri gum.
The black swans.
Song of the digger.
End of the Earth.
As the black billy boils.
Tuapeka gold.
Bright fine gold.
Packing my things.
Wakamarina.
New chums at the diggings.
The old identity.
Gold's a wonderful thing.
Waitekauri ev'rytime.
Diggers farewell.
Gay deserter.
Te kooti, e ha.
Rerenga's wool.
Murderer's rock.
McKenzie and his dog.
My man's gone.
Drinking rum and raspberry.
Talking swag.Friendly road.
The foggy foggy banks.
Shearing.Dug-out in the true.
Leatherman.
Banks of the Waikato.
The day the pub burned down.
The mill.
Run for your life.
Railway Bill.
Down in the Brunner Mine.
The sweater.
151 days.
Gutboard blues.
Cargo workers.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 02:29 AM

thanks, raredance, skimming thru I can see a few songs we have & many more we can mine!

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 02:44 AM

HARLEY DINOSAUR by John Warner 1991, recorded by Walters & Warner on 'Who Was Here?' 1997

no audio or video

This story is true except that the dinosaur was actually a sheep. Written during John's 'Browns' period at Murrumbateman, NSW. Names have been changed to protect the sheep.

'Twas at the Murrumbateman tip when no one was about,
A giant egg lay in the sun and a dinosaur hatched out.
The only creature round the place, an ancient mother sheep
Adopted him at once instead of the lamb she failed to keep.
She called him Harley Davidson, her baby dinosaur,
From a picture in a magazine she'd seen some days before,
She sang him Sheep May Safely Graze and Baa Baa Black Sheep
Until her young triceratops was safely fast asleep.

And it's oh my! you never saw before
Such a thumping great triceratops like Harley Dinosaur!

Now in the paddock by the tip, young Harley grew and fed
And by three weeks had overtopped his mother by a head.
And soon some forty head of sheep and half a dozen rams
Saw one bright, young triceratops at play among the lambs.
But springtime brings the shearing, the crutching and the like
Of the sorts of things they do to sheep to keep down blowfly strike,
And so one worthy grazier, by name of Thomas Scroggs
Set out upon his motorbike and with him four sheep dogs.

The Honda roared across the land with rattles, thumps and bangs,
When Harley heard the racket, something ancient bared its fangs,
And as the sheep in panic fear all fled in leaps and bounds,
A fully grown triceratops stood up to face the hounds.
Now Blue and Dolly, Bill and Meg were sheepdogs of the best,
Prize winners all though they might be, they'd never faced this test.
'Get in behind!' cried Farmer Scroggs, his face a wrathful frown,
So in behind the log they got and kept their heads well down.

At this the farmer's face went red, he said a nasty word,
And revved his motor-cycle round to catch that fleeing herd.
But Harley charged that mean machine, his great feet squashed it flat,
He chased the farmer up a tree and that, my friends, was that.
And so we leave good Farmer Scroggs his features turning black
His sheep behind their dinosaur can laugh at all attack
I'll leave his dogs behind their log and terminate my rhyme
By saying 'Harley Davidson beats Hondas, every time!'

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: rich-joy
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 03:12 AM

Thanks RareDance,
I'm wondering if it should be posted in one of Joe's Songbook Collection threads?? - like those linked in /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118474&messages=21#4006163

I've not really looked at the list of links to see if there is a thread just for Australian or New Zealand song books ....

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 03:25 AM

TONY THE TURBINE by John Warner, tune Little Polly Perkins

(Good ‘ealth to John Dengate. There’s a new Joe to kick now)

The future’s in renewables, not oil, gas or coal,
So Tony, shut your gob, lad, let the wind turbines roll

Now we all know what Tony Abbot don’t like,
It’s passing wind turbines as he rides on his bike.
Aesthetics are important, I have to agree,
And Tony in his budgie smugglers is offensive to me.

Have you seen Smokey Joe with his toxic cigar,
He can still afford petrol to drive a flash car,
And he says that the windfarms are spoiling the view,
It’s amazing what dollar signs on your eyeballs will do


The future’s in renewables, not oil, gas or coal,
So Tony, shut your gob, lad, let the wind turbines roll


There’s various whingers with beef stock for brains,
Who blame the wind turbines for their aches and pains,
They’ve got self diagnoses from all the worst books,
And they swear that wind energy’s mutating their chooks.

But Tony will protect them with fury and fist,
He’ll create a commissioner that none can resist,
While coal, gas and petrol all roar and pollute,
He’ll turn back wind energy like old King Canute.

The future’s in renewables, not oil, gas or coal,
So Tony, shut your gob, lad, let the wind turbines roll

Hey Tony, come out on a picnic with us,
To see the wind turbines, there’s room on the bus,
We’ve stood underneath them as the great blades spin round,
Heard crows, cockatoos and magpies, but of turbines no sound.

We’ve heard the sheep feeding and the wind in the grass,
Watched horses use the towers for scratching their ears,
As for those mutations folk speak of with dread,
Why all those sheep and cattle have four legs and one head.


The future’s in renewables, not oil, gas or coal,
So Tony, shut your gob, lad, let the wind turbines roll

But Tony, you’re a turbine with your big windmill ears,
And the flatulent drone that you’ve churned out for years,
You spin like that blowfly I morteined last night,
You generate lots of heat, mate, but give us no light.

So Tony take your backers and your good old mate Joe,
Get out there on the hilltops and blow, bullies, blow
You’ll keep the vanes spinning through thin and through thick
You’re far better than a windfarm at making us sick.

The future’s in renewables, not oil, gas or coal,
So Tony, shut your gob, lad, let the wind turbines roll

(repeat chorus ad-nauseum)

John & Jenni were standing under a turbine talking to the farmer when they heard a strange noise - the sound of sheep chomping on grass!

& Joe? - Joe Hockey in case he has faded from current memory!

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 03:43 AM

THE BALLAD OF TONY AND BRONNIE by John Warner, tune Frankie & Johnny

Tony and Bronnie were pollies in for a glittering time,
Tony made Bronnie the speaker of the house she was his partner in crime,
Hear that Tony say,”Bronnie’s done no wrong”.

When Tony made Bronnie the speaker,
Out went impartiality,
’Cause Bronnie left the coalition in their seats
And flang out all the ALP

She weren’t no man
But, hey, she done them wrong!

Now Bronnie, she knew all the rule book,
She knew how to draw and to shoot,
But every time she drew number forty four,
She’d shoot Tony A in the foot,

And Tony says,
“What did I do wrong?”

Bronnie’s front page on the Tele,
That’s quite amazing to see,
’Cause the big front page of the Daily Telegraph
Is reserved for the ALP,

Still that Tony says
“Bronnie’s done no wrong”.

Bronnie spends thousands on travel,
Taxpayers’ loot down the drain,
Nick Xenophon will use his new skateboard,
Malcolm Turnbull will take the train

Still Tony says,
“Bronnie’s done no wrong”.

Bronnie likes lipstick and diamonds,
And costumes in stripes white and black,
But whoever her embalmer was,
She should have given him the sack,

He was just a man
And he done her wrong.

Has Tony been onto the Tele,
Had a word in the editor’s ear?
“Put Bronnie up on your big front page,
So I can make her disappear”.

Still Tony says
“Bronnie’s done no wrong”.

Well, Bronnie resigned like she oughter,
It was high time that she had to go,
Next episode in the Daily Telegraph,
The ballad of Tony and Joe,

Two sleazy men,
Who haven’t done no wrong.

Finale tune – Bonnie & Clyde

Tony and Joe were liberal politicians,
And devious magicians with the people’s money
Wouldn’t it be fun, to blow away their cover
And suddenly discover that they lied ?


Yeah! And John Warner had nuffin’ to do wiv der writin’ of dis, OK?