Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 10:44 PM

I recall singing this number in one annual MayDay Choir in Darwin, early 90s!

SPIRIT OF THE LAND   -    [1st version]

Martin Kellock

When you look around, look at how we're living
And you see the way that we treat those who stand in our way
Always taking more, never ever giving
Don't you feel ashamed, of what we're doing today?

Wish I could repay, all our acts of desecration
European eyes couldn't see beyond their own greed
All the tribal land, all the native population
How long must it go on, how long can they bleed?

Chorus :
Oh I, wish we could remember
Maybe, then we'll understand
They know, where the wealth is hidden
They know, Spirit of the Land.

Spirit of the Laa-and !!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo61FNMTHSY    Spirit of the Land from Ross Hannaford’s Lucky Dog; lead vocal by composer Martin Kellock.

The late, talented and zany, Ross Hannaford, now much missed. His best-known group was probably Daddy Cool but he was also a much sought-after session guitarist : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Hannaford

“….. Ross at his best was a uniquely sublime musician, and the best I ever heard from him was always live. In his last few years he played superb R&R/R&B etc. at the St Andrews Pub with The Useful Members of Society - his solos on Neil Young's On The Beach in particular were as inspired, innovative and expressive as any electric guitar of that kind ever played by anyone ever, anywhere; and with his duos, trios and quartets at the hole in the wall venue of Claypots in Barkly Street St Kilda around the same time, his ineffably ethereal extemporisations on his own original themes were indescribably transporting…. “ Jacob Marley, YouTube channel.


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 06:52 PM

that must have been a looooong time ago ...

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 05:58 PM

Sandra, I have the vinyl from back-in-the-day. But if the Fossickers have something they can put online, that would be excellent.

Marg Walters ran a monthly singaround back then. For a while, the venue was Craig's place. Daisy was a baby then.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 09:01 AM

THE BATAVIA SHANTY

John Warner’s song of the tragic and grisly tale of shipwreck, mutiny and slaughter in Houtman’s Abrolhos, a group of islands off the central coast of Western Australia, in 1629 by renegade sailors of the Dutch East India Company.

Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, tea
Heave and fall on the southern swells
Fill the holds of the VOC
Roll Batavia down

But down in stout Batavia’s hold
There’s a massive weight of jewels and gold
Quarter-million guilders worth, all told
Roll Batavia down.

For months the murderous plot’s been laid
Heave and fall on the southern swells
To slip away from the ships of trade
Roll Batavia down

Make passage south to the unknown land
Turn buccaneer as the skipper has planned
Slaughter all others out of hand
Roll Batavia down.

What’s that gleam on the larboard quarter?
Heave and fall on the southern swells
Moonlight glinting on the water
Roll Batavia down

No moonlight here, but the crashing wave
The lookout cries too late to save
Batavia from her island grave
Roll Batavia down

Now some did drown and some made land
Heave and fall on the southern swells
But few can hide from death’s cold hand
Roll Batavia down

The sword and dagger do their work
Who knows where bloody murderers lurk
To silence traitors with a dirk
Roll Batavia down

The commander’s gone and the captain too,
Heave and fall on the southern swells
Along with the best of the barge’s crew
Roll Batavia down

Protection that they might have made
By this desertion is betrayed
Throats stretched to the slaughterer’s blade
Roll Batavia down

The rescue ship has come too late
Heave and fall on the southern swells
For those who met a bloody fate
Roll Batavia down

The thieves have paid for their plunder dear
Trial and torture, pain and fear
Death for every mutineer
Roll Batavia down

Stark the creaking scaffolds stand
Heave and fall on the southern swells
The dead swing over the blowing sand
Roll Batavia down

They say that dead men tell no tales
Who knows but many a spirit wails
In the cold lament of the southern gales
Roll Batavia down


Batavia : Words and Tune : John Warner
“The Batavia sailed with a convoy to Java on her maiden voyage in 1628, laden with jewels and gold for the Dutch East India Company (the VOC). In a plot by Jeronimus Cornelisz the vessel was parted from the fleet and inadvertently wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off the coast of Western Australia. [While Captain Pelsaert and some crew sailed a longboat to Java to get help,] Over a two-month period Cornelisz and his companions slaughtered 125 of the 200 survivors of the wreck, planning to seize the rescue vessel and turn pirate. They were foiled by a group of loyal soldiers led by Wiebbe Hayes and [when Pelsaert returned,] a dreadful justice was finally meted out to Cornelisz and the other mutineers.”
https://40degrees-south.com/cds/life-of-brine/notes/#2

The WIKI Tale : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batavia_(1628_ship) : of the 332 originally on board, 122 people made it to Java.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3ecidTxr18 –   Daniel Kelly sings JW’s Batavia Shanty


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 05:11 AM

Gerry, The Fossikers sing 'Used to be a River' as Craig's daughter is a member. I can ask them if they have a recording

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 04:21 AM

SALVATION JANE              words and music:  Fay White

(With some changes made by the folk process. It thanks John Warner)
 
In the Flinders Ranges grows a flower glorious to see
Pink and purple, paddocks full, a goldmine for the bee
For its nectar yields a blending honey and its pollen's a link in the chain
Giving food for the hive so the bee-keeper blesses it                            
And calls it Salvation Jane
 
But across the border in New South Wales it's a different kind of scene
For the flower infests the western plain - down to the Riverine
And it gives the cattle a liver disease that affects the grazier's purse
So he sees the weed with a jaded eye
And calls it Paterson's Curse
 
        Salvation Jane, Salvation Jane
        Adverse? Converse?, is it Paterson’s Curse
        Or is it Salvation Jane?
 
Cross the border again to South Australia for the farmer's voice to hear
He says that the weed grows greener longer and later in the year
So it feeds your cattle in droughty weather and fattens them nicely too
It's no great trouble if you manage it well
Just depends on your point of view
 
Well I know some folks whose hearts are like
a paddock ploughed and bare
Fertile ground for growing good grain and reaping a harvest there
But with constant, constant care they’re watering seeds of pain                
And they’re reaping a crop of Paterson's curse        
And not Salvation Jane
 
        Salvation Jane, Salvation Jane,
        For better or worse, turn Paterson's Curse
        Into Salvation Jane.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Fay White writes,

"Salvation Jane/Paterson's Curse is a harmful pasture weed in eastern Australia but it sustains livestock in times of drought.  The ambivalent nature of this biennial plant gives us a quaint metaphor for how we handle our lives - happiness and excess grief aren't dealt out by fate, but are choices we make ourselves."

Recorded by Jill Stevens on the album Desert Rain, Restless RRP016. No recordings available online, so far as I know. My thanks to Margaret Walters for contacting Fay White, and to Fay White for her permission to post these lyrics.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 04:03 AM

The Garden
(Kate Fagan)

I knew a woman who lived alone,
Saving seeds and lifting stones,
Watching leaves and moving(?) bones
Until she built a garden.
A garden for her broken heart ,
A garden like a poet's art,
Lines of flowers to stop and start
The seasons in her garden

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The garden of our future is planted in our names.
Food to feed the many, birds to sing a song.
It's a garden for our children even if we plant alone

I knew a woman who loved to sing,
She had a song for everything.
A song for Winter, a song for Spring,
A song to fill a garden.
Even when the sky was gray
She'd find a verse to greet the day,
A tune to see her on her way,
To carry in her garden

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The songs that we remember, we sing them in our names.
Words to hold the many, music to bring us home,
They're stories for our children even if we sing alone.

I knew a girl who loved to dance,
Held the world in both her hands,
Every flower, every plant
She tended in her garden.
Roses for her mother's heart,
A friesia by the circle path,
Bluebells, daffodils, sweet blue grass,
She planted in her garden

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The garden of their future is planted in our names.
Food to feed the many, birds to sing a song,
It's a garden for our children even if we plant alone

Calling all you women, calling all you men.
The garden of our future is planted in their names.
Food to feed the many, birds to sing a song,
It's a garden for our children that we never plant alone.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recorded by Margaret and Bob Fagan on the 2019 CD, Landmarks on the Journey, FMCD007. Not on the internet, so far as I know.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:55 AM

Shelter
Eric Bogle

I'm drowning in the sunshine as it pours down from the skies
There's something stirring in my heart, bright colours fill my eyes
As from here to the far horizon your beauty does unfold
And oh, you look so lovely, dressed in green and gold

And I can almost touch the ocean, shimmering in the distant haze
As I stand here on this mountain on this loveliest day of days
Round half the world I've drifted, left no wild oats unsown
But now my view has shifted and I think I've just come home

To the homeless and the hungry, may you always open doors
May the restless and the weary find safe harbour on your shores
May you always be our dreamtime place, our spirit's glad release
May you always be our shelter, may we always live in peace

I'm drowning in the sunshine as it pours down from the skies
There's something stirring in my heart, bright colours fill my eyes
As from here to the far horizon your beauty does unfold
And oh, you look so lovely, dressed in green and gold

Here's a recording.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:47 AM

Used to Be a River
Craig Edmondson

1. This used to be a river (used to be a river)
But now it is a sewer (now it is a sewer)
But it used to be a river,
And I wonder where the river got to go.

Chorus:
These changes, I have seen, I have seen
To the people and the places
Dear to me, dear to me.

2. This used to be a mountain (used to be a mountain)
But now it is a golf course (now it is a golf course)
But it used to be a mountain,
And I wonder where the mountain got to go.

Chorus

3. This used to be a forest (used to be a forest)
But now it is a Kmart (now it is a Kmart)
But it used to be a forest,
And I wonder where the forest got to go.

Chorus

4. You used to be my baby (used to be my baby)
But now you are a stranger (now you are a stranger)
But you used to be my baby,
And I wonder where my baby got to go.

Chorus

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recording by Craig Edmondson, from the 1987 vinyl Bondi Road, Restless RRP019.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:41 AM

And the Band Played "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
Tony Miles

When I was a young man and played a guitar
I lived the free life of a rover.
From Brisbane's green river to dusty folk clubs
I waltzed my old Martin all over.
And at each club I played, the people said ‘Son,
We do like your songs’, but when I was done
They'd leap on the stage saying "Now I'll sing one"
And this is the song that they'd sing.

1st Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda',
Then the audience soon forgot me
And amidst all the tears, flag waving and cheers,
I'd slip to the loo for a pee.
   
How well I remembered that terrible day,
How my blood boiled much hotter than water.
For up to that time I'd been well on the way
To winning the publican's daughter.
Johnny Turk, he was singing and sang the song well,
I showered him with insults and truth is to tell,
I wished Eric Bogle had gone straight to hell
And never had come to Australia.

2nd Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'
was such a well loved refrain
that when Johnny Turk had finished the berk
Started all over again.

And now every April I sit on my porch
And watch my past life pass before me.
And I wished I had written that rambling song
That brought Eric Bogle such glory.
And the songs what I wrote, I don't sing them no more
They're tired old songs from a tired old bore
And the young people ask ‘What did he write them for?’
And I ask myself the same question.
3rd Chorus:

'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' -
How the singers respond to that call,
And as year passes year all my hopes disappear
That no one will sing it at all

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 03:15 AM

NOTE TO FOLLOWERS OF THIS THREAD :

Sorry for promising the new spreadsheets of the thread's CONTENTS up to the Solstice, but I figured most folks will be off celebrating the coming of this year's end (!) and it makes more sense to close off Edition One on Dec 31st.
As Sandra said previously, if you'd like a copy of the two emailed spreadsheets, just PM me (or her) with an email addy (or post it here in code, LoL)

Seasons Greetings,
R-J :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 02:45 AM

Further to yesterday’s song about The Female Factory,
here is a composition from Canadian?? singer-songwriter Catherine Doucet (yes very Joni-like!), Mary Hindle: Ballad of a Female Convict Down Under
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9fl_ZAQCnE
“This song is based on research of the life of Mary Hindle, a young woman falsely accused of a crime and sent to the penal colony of New South Wales, Australia in 1826.
Her punishment was hard labour at the Parramatta Female Factory. 15 years into her sentence, her family died. Shortly thereafter, she took her life.”


Today, I came across this most interesting website and research by Dr. Heather Blasdale-Clarke : http://www.colonialdance.com.au/    Australian Colonial Dance : The History of Music and Dance in Australia 1788-1840
and some pages regarding Song and Dance in the Convict Realms : http://www.colonialdance.com.au/convict-research
and these song links on the pages make interesting reading (well, what else is one to do on The Eve of Merry Bah-Humbug, Down Under?!) :

Auld Robin Grey
Drops of Brandy
King of the Cannibal Islands
Michael Wiggins
Off She Goes
Tekeli

Apparently the song “King of the Cannibal Islands” [i.e. FIJI - and referenced in a number of the Old Sydney Town police reports included here] fell out of currency in Australia, but continues in America ……………………..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNnl63U4bTA

You will note that the female of the species received harsher sentence for disturbing the peace by Singing; namely lengthy times in Mrs Gordon’s establishment (i.e. The Female Factory), whereas the menfolk copped a small fine or a few hours in the stocks.   Such was Life.    HOWEVER, some of the Dancing men were “Sentenced to dance the mazy round of Mr. Murray’s spiritual rectifier [aka the treadmill]” for a few days - not so good :(

But all-in-all, the website does give evidence of another side to early Colonial life, for “the lower orders”!!


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 08:36 AM

THE FEMALE FACTORY

John Hospadaryk

Monday morning, Old Stringybark comes out to take a peep
At the best-behaved girls who stand in line like dirty sheep
It’s one way to get a pardon by being sold, by being married off to some cove who’s far too old
Might be better than this place of infamy
Might be better than this stinking hole : The Female Factory.

Within the hour the Reverend Marsden will have you given away
Oh, you’ll be taken up- country somewhere ‘fore the end of the day
And when you think about it, it could have been a lot worse
For the Authorities there, they were not averse to using the Cat o’ Nine Tails or shaving your head
And you personally knew some girls who made sure they left that place dead.

Let’s not mince words : if you’re not high-born, you’re a whore
And the best that you’ll be called is ‘unfortunate wretch’ and nothing more
You were savaged on the transport ships, you were raped in Sydney Town
You were forced to give them favours on the barge that brought you down
You were forced to live in filth, but what is even worse is that your sex and class have no redress
Small wonder that you curse.

Monday morning, Old Stringybark comes out to take a peep.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSZB-52gdg   Chloe & Jason Roweth (BATTLER’s BALLAD), in 2012.

WIKI : “Female factories were based on British bridewells, prisons and workhouses. They were for women convicts transported to the penal colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. An estimated 9,000 convict women were in the 13 female factories, in the colonies of NSW and Van Diemen's Land. This spanned a period of 52 years -1804 to 1856. An estimated 1 in 5 to 1 in 7 Australians are related to these women. The factories were called factories because each was a site of production. The women produced spun wool and flax in all the factories. In the main factories other work was undertaken such as sewing, stocking knitting and straw plaiting. Hard labour included rock breaking and oakum picking.[1] Women were sent to the female factories while awaiting assignment to a household or while awaiting childbirth or weaning or as punishment.”


https://femalefactoryonline.org/about/history/parramatta-female-factory/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 07:41 AM

WINTER IN AMERICA (1976)

(orig. Leave Love Enough Alone, 1974)

Doug Ashdown & Jimmy Stewart

The harbour's misty in the morning love
Oh how I miss December
The Frangipani opens up to kiss the salty air
I know you're getting ready for the office
I suppose he's still there
With you, sharing our morning sun.

ch:
Winter in America is cold
And I just keep growing older
I wish I could have known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.

I've learned something of love
I wish I’d known before you left me
But it's funny how you don't know what you've got
Until it's gone
And I hope you're getting all the love you’ve ever wanted
But I wish I was there
With you, sharing our morning sun.

I wake into the sadness of the rain
And making love to strangers
And wishing I had known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.

Winter in America is cold
And I just keep growing older
I wish I could have known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.

Winter in America is cold
And I just keep growing older
I wish I could have known
Enough of love to leave love enough alone.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi12rCeWD1A    : Doug Ashdown, c. 1976

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Ashdown

Version by Australia’s Margret RoadKnight (and a Mudcatter!) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1npgoO0mL0k


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 07:00 AM

ANTIQUE ANNIE'S MAGIC LANTERN SHOW

(Jimmy Stewart & Doug Ashdown)

Porcelain plates and penny-farthings
Places you can visit now from long ago
Ruby rings and old brass hearthings
Chippendale, mahoganies that glow
Children's music, box-ed cameos
At ‘Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show’

Come and see her wares
Climb three flights of stairs
Come and see her face at a place
They call Antique

Bentley-driven Edgecliff ladies
Touch and tease, and toil and spoil her show
Dainty, dusty, Dresden dancers
Answers Annie sweetly, bowing low
Annie answers all that you wish to know
At ‘Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show’

They bought her coloured glass
They thought that they’d bought her past
Through the silver and the lace at a place
They called Antique

Chippendale, mahoganies that glow
Children's music, boxed cameos
At ‘Antique Annie's Magic Lantern Show’

Come and see her wares
Climb three flights of stairs
Come and see her face at a place
They call Antique …. Antique


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEA-40wWa7M Marian Henderson’s beautiful rendition from her 1970 “Cameo” album, which became ‘collectable’ (I still have my LP!)

Here is the version by co-writer, Doug Ashdown, an Adelaide boy, from his 1970 album “The Age of Mouse” :    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mROiP4s2u1c


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 05:11 AM

Thanks for posting John’s Fitzgerald Inquiry song, Sandra!
Yes, sadly The Bellevue is merely one of MANY heritage buildings throughout Australia, destroyed (IMHO) mostly by greedy Councils and State Govts in the pockets of Developers – and mostly they seem to be replaced by buildings of absolutely ZILCH architectural qualities etc ….. (IMHO, of course!)

Back to the Song Posts :

I think we’re overdue for a WARHORSE, and I don’t think we’ve had this one yet :

THE CONVICT MAID

trad

You lads and lasses all attend to me
While I relate my tale of misery
By hopeless love was I once betrayed
And now I am, alas, a convict maid.

To please my lover did I try full sore
I spent upon him all of my master’s store
Who in his wrath did so loud upbraid
And brought before the judge this convict maid.

The judge his sentence then to me addressed
Which filled with agony my aching breast
To Botany Bay you must be conveyed
For seven long years to be a convict maid.

For seven long years I toiled in pain and grief
And cursed the day that I became a thief
Oh had I stuck by some honest trade
I’d ne’er have been, alas, a convict maid.


This is, I think, the most basic version of the story (it’s the one I remember singing in my youth, anyway!)
In those days it was sung to good effect by Marian Henderson, as in this clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbct0Jd5X6g
The tune is also known as “The Croppy Boy” & “McCaffery” and even “Lord Franklin” is related ….

AND THEN THERE’S THIS VERSION :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEE7mQ0fAzQ    by Melbourne trio, “BUSH GOTHIC”

“Bush Gothic wander through the dankest, weirdest corners of the trad song books and emerge as post modern slash anti establishment slash folk feminists. Are they outsiders, lurking on the cultural fringe?
Or have they penetrated to the inner core of Australian identity? BBC Music Magazine gave them FIVE STARS and they are multiple Best Music Award winners at The Adelaide Fringe.”

‘Rising folk stars, inventive and edgy’ - The Guardian

'Extraordinary, even revolutionary. Unforgettable folk.' - The Canberra Times

'Rescues Australian folk from the world of beards and blue jeans.' - The Age

From their website bio.



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 02:25 AM

BICYCLE BUILT FOR THREE by Noel Gardner, 2016.
winner of the 2018 Dengate Parody Competition, Illawarra Folk Festival.

Malcolm, Malcolm give us some answers do
We thought, you had principles, but I guess we hadn’t a clue
It seemed like a stylish marriage, leather jacket and gold carriage
But now your, not so sweet, upon that seat, with Pauline and Tony to

Malcolm Malcolm, the blue sweater is more your style
Mr Harbour Side Mansion, making money and flashy smile
Trusts and Cayman havens, reduced tax, with offshore trading
You slather your mates, reduce welfare rates, a right wing repertoire

Malcolm Malcolm, the vision you sold was a lie
Your born to rule mentality, is now well magnified
You sold us a pup for powe, as you climbed your way up the tower
As the walls cave in, you morph into spin, with shallowness quantified

Malcolm Malcolm, how far right, are you willing to go
To outflank Pauline, and appease your bed fellows
Refugees are now dispensable, your lack of caring, reprehensible
Your appeasement to win is such a sin, clearly you were all show

Malcolm, Malcolm you really are such a hack
Rupert’s lap dog, Mr Elite just spreading his crap
You spruik the coal companies message, attack renewable energy
You banker toff why don’t you piss off, and give us our future back

Malcolm, Malcolm give us some answers do
We thought, you had principles, but I guess we hadn’t a clue
It seemed like a stylish marriage, leather jacket and gold carriage
But now you're not so sweet, upon that seat, with Pauline and Tony too

Noel Gardner 1/11/16

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 02:01 AM

Queensland policeman (Fitzgerald Enquiry) by john Dengate. Tune New England Cocky,

'Twas a Queensland policeman, or so I've been told
Whose pockets were bulging with ill-gotten gold.
Though his salary was modest, his rake-offs were big:
Corruption had made him a very fat pig.

He did not build his house out of sticks or of straw;
He built it of bricks and he dead-locked the door.
But when the big bad wolf enquired at his gates,
The pig got so scared that he dobbed in his mates.

"Well, I may be a pig, but my voice is in key,
A bloody canary's got nothing on me."
And his song was so long, by the end of the day,
He had sung the Commissioner's super away.

Well he dobbed and he snitched and he warbled and trilled
Till right across Queensland his guts he had spilled.
From Brisbane to Cooktown his singing was heard
And Mr Fitzgerald wrote down every word.

Now all you bent coppers, take warning from me,
Steer clear of the brothels, the drups and the S.P.
though the wages of sin are exceedingly great;
Remember the bagman and don't trust your mate.


John's note - Inspired by a comment of an ex-wharfie mate of mine: "I couldn't care less about the corruption; it's the dobbing I can't stand".
page 45 'My Shout again', Malaney, Qld, 1989

dobbed/snitched - told tales, (a great sin in all circles, whether it is the innocent, foreign-born child telling the teacher she was blaming the wrong pupil & naming the one who misbehaved, or in adult circles, both suburban or criminal)
super - Superannuation/pension
S.P. - Starting Price, gambling on horses, an illegal activity

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 01:41 AM

I've just delved, & wow!

I was in Brisbane in August 79, just before the Bellevue Hotel was destroyed - Bellvue hotel demolition
I was visiting a friend & she drove me past the gutted, balcony-less building.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 12:23 AM

Thanks Stewie, for The Hills of Coromandel – the late Phil Garland is certainly an ENZED National Treasure.


My last posting of “Brisbane Blacks” c.1982 reminded me that I had recently come across this number - “PIG CITY” by The Parameters, 1983 - in the notorious JOH (Bjelke Peterson) ERA. In an earlier time, a protest song like this would surely have come from The Folk Movement!!      
I have just ordered Andrew Stafford’s publication of the same title, which should make interesting reading!!

Here is Pig City : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehx4CZSsojI

[and where a Commenter observed : “The not so funny thing was that neither Goss [next Labor premier] nor the Fitzgerald Enquiry, gaoled a single member of the various arms of Joh's secret police” …………]

I will post the lyrics “next year” when I further research songs of that very lengthy tyranical and corrupt era.

I look forward to delving into this website : http://radicaltimes.info/
Radical Times Archive : "Collect, Preserve, and Share"
“An audio-visual archival resource focusing on radical activism around Australia, particularly during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (although resources are not restricted exclusively to this time period). The archive recovers "lost" and rare independent Australian documentaries (also vérité footage of historical significance) in order to preserve these films, videos and audio for posterity before they reach end of life and disappear permanently.
The focus is on visual/aural material.....the archive currently has 204 film streams and 91 audio streams. While the focus is on Australian resources, there is an international section featuring films made outside Australia by Australians. To round out the collection and provide context, printed matter, photos, and other images are included where possible. Not only is this archive designed as a tool for appreciating and understanding the past, it is also hoped it will provide perspective and ideas for future endeavours for social and political action.”


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 11:46 PM

BRISBANE BLACKS

Dennis ‘Mop’ Conlon

{Verse 1}
On TV I saw a story, of the Brisbane Blacks
A story that is touching, a story that is right
In the story, a group of people sitting in a park
Drinking in harmony, drinking until dark

{Chorus 1}
You wonder why they’re like that
Those so-called “drunken blacks”
They know that they’ve done no wrong
But the pressure from society is strong

{Verse 2}
Every day, each passing day, our culture slowly dies
Like a piece of paper thrown onto a fire
Now all we’ve got is ancient weapons, now is our only trade
Compared to all the immigrants, look how much we’ve made

{Chorus 2}
You look down through your noses to see
The Black-man problem down at your feet
With weary eyes looking up at you
Waiting for the message to get through

{Verse 3}
Now it’s time for them to sleep, and it’s not in a bed
But in some warm surroundings, in a park or in a shed
Warmed only by the grog that’s been drunk through the day
Warmed only by the grog, the killer of his mates

{Chorus 3}
The very first Australians around
The very first people to be down
And why we fight, is to be recognised
Only to be felt by your blind eyes
Yes, only to be felt by your blind eyes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAIZIPvuKrE&t=20s Brisbane Blacks: Mop and the Dropouts (aka Denis Conlon and the Magpies)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSMIVejAQt0
Brisbane Blacks: The Story of Mop and the Dropouts ..... a video by Ben Carr, 2010 (10mins13secs)
“Brisbane 1982: The Commonwealth Games were on. A land rights movement was taking place, and a little known band from Cherbourg was about to make history.
Despite what Dennis 'Mop' Conlon knew when writing the song Brisbane Blacks, he could not have anticipated it would go on to become an anthem and define a period in time. Looking back on the history of the band, but also the political and social climate of Brisbane in the 1970's and 80's, the film delves into why Aboriginal people needed a voice to stand up against a conservative and racist government. As Dennis Conlon says, "We're not into politics, we play music." However, being in a band at the time and being aboriginal, Mop and the Dropouts couldn't help but be political.”


Cherbourg : This was originally known as Barambah (the 1840s pastoral run), and is now an Aboriginal community, NW of Brisbane, outside the town of Murgon. “The history of Cherbourg is one of Aboriginal people being forcibly removed and brought from all over Queensland and Northern New South Wales to a newly formed government reserve. Under the Aborigines Protection Act of 1897 the settlement then called Barambah, was gazetted and established in 1904.”

“The Cherbourg Memory ….. we offer you a window to our world – the Aboriginal people in South East Queensland, Australia. On this site we tell stories of our people – why they were brought here and what they have become over the 110 years they have lived here. It is a difficult and sometimes sad story, but it is essentially a story of survival and hope” : https://rationshed.com.au/about-cherbourg/

“Mothers Eyes” by Mop and the Dropouts : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_picsVjFlU



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 09:29 PM

Another good'un from the land of the long white cloud. R-J, back in September you indicated that it was one of your NZ favourites.

HILLS OF COROMANDEL
(Dave Jordan)

The hills grow ancient, green and tall, as they have always done there
And press together over all, to shield the earth from sun there
Seedlings grow, young trees grow old, old ones die and turn to mould
Till bush returns to hills once clear, and man, it seems, was never there
But the apple trees still bloom each year in the hills of Coromandel

It was the gold that brought the men when thousands here did rally
Their secret shattered shafts remain, abandoned in the valley
Roads they fashioned in the clay are overgrown or washed away
And fences built by settlers' hands are gone restoring broken lands
And a rusted gateway lonely stands in the hills of Coromandel

No more the taverns where they stood, no more the thousand people
And timber church is gone for good with ruined, rotted steeple
It's years now since the miner came to work the gold, exhaust his claim
Then leave the place for better game than that he'd found, but just the same
The toppled tombstones bear their names in the hills of Coromandel

Those days of gold are past and gone with the men who took their chances
The bush is slowly marching on in a silence no one answers
Now birds call loud to empty air - no one comes, there's nothing there
But a gate that's open to nowhere and names on sandstone faint but clear
And the apple trees that bloom each year in the hills of Coromandel

Youtube clip

Dave Jordan

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 09:11 PM

Bugger! My apologies, R-J, for doubling up on your post. I normally check by using the 'find' function on my Mac, but failed to do so yesterday. I saw your resile post.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 06:35 AM

CATTLE AND CANE

Robert Forster / Grant McLennan

As performed by Brisbane’s “The Go-Betweens”, 1983

I recall, a schoolboy coming home
through fields of cane
to a house of tin and timber
and in the sky
a rain of falling cinders
from time to time
the waste, memory-wastes

I recall a boy in bigger pants
like everyone
just waiting for a chance
his father's watch
he left it in the showers
from time to time
the waste, memory-wastes

I recall, a bigger brighter world
a world of books
and silent times in thought
and then the railroad
the railroad takes him home
through fields of cattle
through fields of cane
from time to time
the waste, memory-wastes
and the waste, memory-wastes

spoken interlude

further … longer … higher … older …


The Go-Betweens, 1983 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCbyByY-A6w

Line-up for this song : / Grant McLennan (bass, vocals / Robert Forster (guitar, vocals) / Lindy Morrison (drummer, backing vocals).

WIKI on the song : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_and_Cane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i76J4kO8eCA Cattle and Cane, as sung in 1999 by Aboriginal singer, Jimmy Little   
Here is Jimmy’s Hit of “Royal Telephone” on Bandstone in 1963 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPVjJaa8fXI       
WIKI on Jimmy Little : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Little


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 22 Dec 20 - 03:48 AM

Sorry Stewie! BLACK BOY was posted and linked exactly one month ago, on 21st Nov!!
This is why we need the alphabetical spreadsheet nowadays :)

Cheers,
R-J

PS   Hope you read my recant/resile post of the 20th, re the proposed thread split? I have indeed seen The Light, haha! :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 07:31 PM

Iconic song by a band from outback South Australia.

BLACK BOY
(Coloured Stone)

A shy black boy you came to the city
To learn about life and how its people are
He's very stubborn, he was just a child
And now his life is mystified

Chorus:
Black boy, black boy
Black boy, black boy
The colour of your skin is your pride and joy
Black boy, black boy,
Black boy, black boy,
Your life is not destroyed

He didn't know school but they called him black boy
He hardly talked to the girls and boys
Don't be a fool just obey the rules
'Cause you'll just learn the truth

Chorus

And one day you'll grow up to be a man
To learn and live and understand
Sticks and stones may break your bones
But names will never hurt you
You'll be the one who's having fun
So you just keep learning on

Chorus

Youtube clip

There is a Wikipedia article on Coloured Stone, but I could not link it here because it has an incorrect address.

--Stewie.

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

CALM AND CRYSTAL CLEAR

-- Neil Murray --

Looking out on the back roads of my life
There's me again as a five year old child               
Staring at the broken toys scattered in the sand         
Knowing deep inside I was already an old man

This road unravels out of darkness now toward me         
I feel the world stretch out vast now before me         
We live and dream in an ancient hallowed land
Some things that happen we may never understand      


For I hear the voices of the past        (Sing of rage and relief
Revelation’s come at last                   (And it's keeping me from sleep
And it's coming to me                        (I hear the word and it's calm and crystal clear
Yes it's coming to my life                
Calm and crystal clear                  

We are bound for an unknown destination
The stars above offer no consolation
We all live and breathe and die alone together
Some place some day we'll leave our bones to the weather

But just like the smell of rain on the wind far away
A little truth arrives at the dying of each day
I wish the mountain would come and take me in her arms
I don't care what happens I won't come to any harm

For I hear the voices of the past        (Sing of rage and relief
The Revelation’s come at last            (And it's keeping me from sleep
Well it's coming to me                        (I hear the word and it's calm and crystal clear
Yes it's coming to my life                
Calm and crystal clear                  


        (I hear the word and it's calm and crystal clear)      
I hear the word and it's calm and crystal clear
        (I see the world and it's coming oh so near)
I see the world and it's coming oh so near
I hear the word and it's calm and crystal clear            
I see the world and it's coming oh so near
Come into my life           (Calm and crystal clear   
Come into my life           (Calm and crystal clear      
Come into my life


Listen Here :   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnp4-YlrCaw   
(this 1989 vidclip has a one-line upload glitch, but is slightly better visual quality than the other available copy….)

Some background at the time on the post-Wurumpi Band Neil Murray :
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jscott/nmurray/ccc_promo.htm
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jscott/nmurray/article_spiritual_element.htm

His 1993 semi-autobiographical novel : SING FOR ME, COUNTRYMAN
and NATIVE BORN (songs of Neil Murray) - are still available : http://www.neilmurray.com.au/index.html


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 09:13 AM

I'm pleased to be able to report that the revamped LIST of Oz/NZ Songs (Lyrics-Links) posted to this thread - now as a spreadsheet - is almost ready to distribute - just waiting for the Solstice to be done.
Dec 21st : that's the cut-off date for this first edition of the Excel spreadsheet, with one sorted by title and another by date posted.

Cheers, Rich-Joy :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 08:00 AM

Woodturner's Love Song Words & Music: Phyl Lobl

If I had a piece of Maple, red or white or pink,
I'd turn you a set of chair legs so you could sit and think.
And when you sit and think love I hope you'll think of me,
For I'd like to be there in your thoughts if not in your company.

If I had a piece of Coachwood white and fine and pure,
I'd turn you a handle smooth and round, a handle for your door.
And when I come to see you, you could make that handle spin,
And open up the door my dear, to let your true love in.

If I had a piece of Silky Oak of even textured grain,
I’d turn you a lamp stand for your light, tapered tall and plain.
And when you turn your light on, I hope it'll be for me,
For you're the light of my life, the only one for me.

If I had a piece of Cedar, the grain well shot with red,
I'd turn you a set of corner posts for a fine double bed.
A bed for you to lie on with the one that you love best,
But I hope you'd lie with me love and farewell all the rest.

Yes I'm a turner, that's my trade, as you can plainly see,
But the thing I'd really like to turn is to turn your heart to me.
Alas in that I have no skill, I've never learnt the art,
And Cedar, Maple and Silky Oak don't make a lover's heart*.

If I had a piece of each of these with singing strings tuned fine,
I'd turn them into an instrument to ease this heart of mine.
I'd let my fingers do the work that words can't quite make plain,
They'd tell you then about love's joy and also of love's pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Audio

This song was written in the early seventies. I wanted to write a song about industrial realities for wood-turners.

I interviewed a woodturner Neil Bollingmoore and it became a love song when he spoke so lovingly about wood that I wrote a love song about someone who had much love to give but was shy and un-sure.

Some years later he rang and asked for the song as he was getting married. A few (too few) years after that his widow rang and wanted the song again to play at his funeral.

Some years later I asked an instrument maker (ROCKY CREEK STRINGS) to make me an all wooden Banjolele made of those woods. I added a verse. I also now repeat the last line of each verse.

The last verse is coloured by my own widowhood and Geri Lobl's love of Fritz Kreisler's compositions for violin LOVE'S JOY - Liebesfreud and LOVE'S SORROW - Liebesleid lover's instead of woman's is more universal.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 05:10 AM

Shoalhaven Man
Words & Music: Geoff Drummond

I was a timber cutter, up in the Cambewarra, long before your mother ever gave you a thought.
There was no fancy schoolin' then, just some pioneering men.
The land was our teacher, hard lessons she taught.

I swung an axe handle before I was eight years old; cuttin' the timber and carryin' the load.
Then down to the Currumbeen, beside some old bullock team.
We took what we needed, but we let the rest go.

Chorus:
It was a wonderful land. I'm a Shoalhaven man.
From the slopes of the mountain to the shores of the sea;
A 'bushie' am I and I'll stay till I die.
Shoalhaven's the country for me.

Now I ain't no saint, and I ain't no bloody scientist
But I still got my eyes and a feel for this land.
In sixty years of bravin' the bush of the Shoalhaven
I've seen me some changes and they're terrible plain.
Now the time came when some of them big city business men
Bought boxes to put their retirements in
And they redone Vincentia as a three bedroom brick veneer
And sold 'em off for holidays to make a few quid.

Chorus:

They come for the stars at night, they come for the peace and quiet.
They come for the bushland that no man can claim.
And they call themselves locals with their haemorrhoids and their ulcers...
It's the damn city livin' that they've got to blame.

They don't like the snakes, so they flatten the greenery.
They can't take the spiders so they Baygon the halls.
And they bulldozed Culburra till it looked like Parramatta.
God! I wonder why they ever went movin' at all.

Chorus:
It was a wonderful land till the damn caravans spread like cancer from Canberra to the coast of the sea.
And it makes a man cry to see his land die.
No she ain't the place she used to be.
But, she's my home, and she's the country for me.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Here are some notes on the song, by Pat Drummond.

This is another of Geoff's songs; one which I left with the Bushwackers in 1986 when I was filling in on guitar with them. A classic tale of early timbergetters and the respect they had for the land, this song finally achieved the recognition it deserved at Tamworth last year. The song was released by the Bushwackers, who were nominated in the nationally televised 1990 Golden Guitar Awards as 'Band of the Year'. The nomination came ironically on the weekend the band was staging yet another of their Melba like 'final ever' performances.

One of those final shows in 1990 saw me teamed with the lads for a double bill at the Imperial Hotel. This concert kicked off in near scorching midday temperatures but if the day wasn't hot enough, the emotional climate was at fever pitch. The 'Bushies' set included a killer version of "Shoalhaven Man" and a real treat for me when I was invited to re-join the band on stage for "Brittania", the classic track penned by bassist Roger Corbett. The awards that night unfortunately brought yet another disappointment for the band that broke the ground that John Williamson, Redgum, myself and a host of others came to profitably build upon. The award for "Best Band of the Year" was won by their oldmates, "The Bullamakankas". It was sad, but almost fitting, for a band that never achieved the measure of recognition they truly deserved; whose rewards always went, as the Lawson poem predicted a century earlier, to "The Men Who Follow After". My version of the song was by way of recognising the long overdue debt so many Australian musicians owe to the Bushwackers.

(Epilogue: The Bushwackers reformed five years later in 1995 with, of all people, Peter Drummond, my son, on Drums. Peter attended his first Bushwackers Concert at The Paris Theatre in Sydney on 30/6/1980 when he was barely 5 years old. In 1999 he was recieving standing ovations for his solo 'showcases' during The Bushwackers sellout shows at The Toyota Country Music Festival.)

Recording by Wongawilli.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 04:26 AM

Of Trees and Humankind
?Wendy Joseph, 1982

The trees of the forest grew tall
The oak and the hazel, the ash and wild apple
Their power respected by all
Their strength safely guarded by priests of the lore
Sacred the old ways, and earth's ancient pathways. No more

Then strangers came onto the land
They lacked comprehension their godheads were different
They simply did not understand
They laughed at the old ways with scorn and derision
They raped and they slaughtered, and all was justified
By the word 'civilised'
See the forests die

Lai lai lai!
Lai lai lai lai luh lai lai lai lai lai
Lai lai
Lai lai lai luh lai lai lai

The trees of the bushland grew strong
The casuarina, the red gum and mulga
Honoured by those who belong
The brown Pitjantjara, the emu, the brolga
Clear understanding and warm affinity
With the earth and the trees
Calm serenity

Then strangers came onto the land
Born of those ancients, both victim and victor
They simply did not understand
They laughed at the old ways with scorn and derision
They raped and they slaughtered, and all was justified
By the word 'civilised'
See the bushland die

Lai lai lai...

And now here we sit on the land
The children of children of children of ages
If only together we'd stand
With courage and love we could turn back the pages
The earth and its fullness are ours if we try
Raise the cry! Raise the cry
And see the trees grow high!

Lai lai lai...

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Recorded by Margaret Walters on For the Future and the Past, and by The Fagans on Kitchen Dance. Video by Ecopella.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 04:12 AM

The TAB Song
John Dengate

Each Saturday morning I crawl out of bed,
Hungover from Friday's excess,
Feeling crook in the comics and crook in the head
And with mountains of sins to confess.
And then I remember it's race day again,
And I collect up my clothes off the floor.
I tune in to Early's selections at ten –
The adrenalin's pumping once more.

[Some insert these lines as a chorus:
At Warwick Farm, Rosehill and Randwick they race,
It's a sign of our moral decay,
But wipe that superior smirk off your face,
I expect a trifecta today.]

I have a snake's hiss, I give breakfast a miss,
Wallet and form guide I grab,
Then I suddenly bolt like a two year old colt
All away down the hill to the Tab.
It's number of units and number of race,
The numbers spin round in my brain,
And I stand there blaspheming and cursing the place,
The biros are broken again.

Oh, the longshots are rough, and the favorites are short,
And I never know what's running dead,
So I ring up my mate, but he got home so late
That his missus won't rouse him from bed.
Beadman could win on a horse made of tin,
So I back everything that he rides,
And the big Melbourne gray is a good thing each way,
And a couple of others besides.

And fellas, quinellas are sometimes a chance,
And doubles are always a go,
So when I walk out I am light in the pants
'Cos the Tab has got most of my dough.

A quick break for grub, then it's into the pub,
And I stand there and weep in my booze,
For the horses I back veer all over the track,
And they lose, and they lose, and they lose.
Oh, seek not escape in the gambling my friend
Though your life may be humdrum and drab.
Seek solace in psalms or in young ladies' arms,
But never go into a Tab.

At Warwick Farm, Rosehill and Randwick they race,
It's a sign of our moral decay,
But wipe that superior smirk off your face,
I expect a trifecta today.

To the tune of Seamus O'Brien, Please Won't You Come Home.
As sung on The Follies of Pollies, also 35 Years of the National
Folk Festival. Many small differences from the version in My Shout.
John would update the names of the radio announcer and the jockey
from time to time.

TAB – off-track betting site.
comics – comic cuts – guts
snake's hiss – piss
biro – brand of ballpoint pen

I couldn't find a recording by John Dengate of this song online. Here's a
recording
by John Thompson.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 12:43 AM

oops! I might forget other stuff, but never that "d" (grin!)

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

I was going to bite the bullet, Stew, and ask you what the heck this “d” reference was all about.
Luckily I went searching first, rem’bering my apparent motto in Life is : “if all else fails, read the instructions”.

And Lo!   There, in the Mudcat FAQ - Newbies Guide, was the answer!!!
Not only that, but there’s HEAPS of other interesting hints that I’d long forgotten (or never known?), coz sadly, the “use it or lose it” thang really does apply to me these days :(


Thread too big to load in your computer?

“In the "messages" column on the Forum Menu, there's a column of numbers that tells how many messages are in each thread.
If the thread has more than 50 messages, that number is a clickable link that will display the thread in batches of 50 messages.
Next to that number is a small "d" that is a link that will display the messages in reverse (descending) order.”
-Joe Offer-


So sorry, Stewie, and I take back my suggestion of a split thread.
Too Easy! (as ‘they’ say constantly in Quoinsland)

Cheers, R-J :))

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

Turning again to McKenzie and dog saga, I recently came across this article on the net which gives a summary of the legend - it's worth a read:

Click

--Stewie.

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

For fans of Paul Kelly's music, today is Gravy Day. Yesterday's 'Canberra Times' has this article:

Click

HOW TO MAKE GRAVY
(Paul Kelly)

Hello Dan, it's Joe here, I hope you're keeping well
It's the 21st of December, and now they're ringing the last bells
If I get good behaviour, I'll be out of here by July
Won't you kiss my kids on Christmas Day, please don't let 'em cry for me

I guess the brothers are driving down from Queensland and Stella's flying in from the coast
They say it's gonna be a hundred degrees, even more maybe, but that won't stop the roast
Who's gonna make the gravy now? I bet it won't taste the same
Just add flour, salt, a little red wine

And don't forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang
And give my love to Angus and to Frank and Dolly
Tell 'em all I'm sorry I screwed up this time
And look after Rita, I'll be thinking of her early Christmas morning
When I'm standing in line

I hear Mary's got a new boyfriend, I hope he can hold his own
Do you remember the last one? What was his name again?
(Just a little too much cologne)

And Roger, you know I'm even gonna miss Roger
'Cause there's sure as hell no one in here I want to fight
Oh praise the baby Jesus, have a merry christmas,
I'm really gonna miss it, all the treasure and the trash

And later in the evening, I can just imagine,
You'll put on Junior Murvin and push the tables back
And you'll dance with Rita, I know you really like her
Just don't hold her too close, oh brother please don't stab me in the back

I didn't mean to say that, it's just my mind it plays up
Multiplies each matter, turns imagination into fact
You know I love her badly, she's the one to save me
I'm gonna make some gravy, I'm gonna taste the fat

Tell her that I'm sorry, yeah I love her badly, tell 'em all I'm sorry
And kiss the sleepy children for me
You know one of these days, I'll be making gravy
I'll be making plenty, I'm gonna pay 'em all back

A beaut collage of Paul Kelly performances:

Gravy and mash

A singalong video:

Click

--Stewie.

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

R-J, I am totally against your proposal of a split. The songs should be kept in a single thread. The Mudcat 'd' function is there to split the thread (presently into 15 pages) if required.

Gerry, great that you are joining us and adding songs. It would be excellent if you could use your influence to alter the thread title to Mudcat Australian and New Zealand Songbook. Let's face it: despite Joe's efforts, the 'rise up' concept has not gotten off the ground. This songbook does overlap with other Australian databases but has many songs unavailable elsewhere and also, as far as possible, is providing video or audio links to performances.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 07:55 PM

You Don't Speak For Me
(Judy Small)

You who scribble on walls with your miniscule minds?
You who make midnight calls, you who rattle my blinds?
The violence you preach is the core of your creed?
You don't speak for me

?You call yourselves patriots, swastika-style?
You feed on the fear of the ignorant child?
There's no love of nation or people or land?In the hatred behind your smile
?You don't speak for me, no you don't speak for me

?I've seen where you come from, I've seen where you lead
?It's a poisonous fruit that grows from your seed?
You stir up the hatred till something explodes
?You don't speak for me

?You who slaughter free creatures and then call it sport?
You proudly display the corpses you've shot?
You talk about freedom and rights and control?
You don't speak for me

?You who poison the airwaves with Ghengis Khan views?
You broadcast your bias and call it the news?
You say that you speak for the millions out there?
And deny that you're lighting a dangerous fuse?
You don't speak for me, no you don't speak for me

?You don't speak for me, you don't speak for my friends?
We've followed that line, we've seen where it ends
?Intolerance, hatred, division and strife?
You don't speak for me

?You who march in your hundreds of thousands for peace
?You who work for political prisoners' release?
You who fight the injustice of women ignored?
You speak for me

?You who combat apartheid wherever it's seen?
You who struggle to keep the unique forests green
?You who fight for the rights of all people in chains
?You speak for me, you speak for me, you speak for me

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Online at https://youtu.be/DEzt1B2Oo9A

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 07:41 PM

Seasons of War
Phyl Lobl

Chorus:
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter,
War has all the seasons.
One and two, three and four,
Man will give the reasons.

Soldier in the Spring of war,
Knows just what he's fighting for,
Told so many times before
Fighting for his freedom.

Chorus

Come the Summer all is growing
And the fruit of war is showing
Pain and hate he will be knowing
Fighting for his freedom.

Chorus

When his friends begin to fall
And the bombs rain down on all
Then he hears the Autumn call
Fighting for his freedom.

Chorus

Winter finds the glory gone.
War is grey to look upon.
Soldier wonders what he's won
Fighting for his freedom.

Chorus

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

From her Broadmeadow Thistle album. She writes,

Written in the summer of the Vietnam War, I hoped this song would not be relevant any more. I no longer have such youthful optimism. The chorus works as a round sung behind the verses.

Recording available here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 07:48 AM

Great to read your posts, Gerry! (sorry, can't answer your questions :(

Sandra, am close to finalising the revamped 'Big List' in 2 versions (one, songs alphabetically, and one, songs by Posting dates)!

Following on from Jack's post alluding to this thread's size and unwieldiness and loading time (which has also concerned me; we're now up to about 730 posts), I wonder how folks feel about requesting that it be split???
Say, from Dec 1st onwards???    And also, for them both to be renamed to include New Zealand!!

How do folks feel?? (and does Joe agree??!)


Cheers,
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 07:34 AM

I've emailed Margaret.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 04:12 AM

Does anyone have the words to Salvation Jane, written by Fay White? This isn't the song of the same name recorded by Chloe & Jason Roweth, back when they were Us Not Them; I want the song recorded by Jill Stevens, with a chorus that goes something like

Salvation Jane
Salvation Jane
For better or worse
Turn Patterson's Curse
Into Salvation Jane.

I've had no luck finding it on the web.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 03:41 AM

Bandwidth
By Nerds & Music
(Clark Gormley & Wayne Thompson)
https://www.clarkgormley.com/nerds-music

Chorus:
Narrow is the bandwidth,
there's nae enough bandwidth,
cut us some more bandwidth, Joe.

[sung once after each line below]

The networks as slow as a sloop in the doldrums

I built me an 80-foot skiff in the meantime

Before I hoist the mainsail the damn screen freezes

We sailed off course, now we're waiting for the bitmap

We sail in stormy seas, but we still don't have the wav file

To get my phone to sync, I had to throw it overboard, yeah

The NBN ain't the promised land that we hoped for

There's bugger-all hope we'll ever see live-streaming

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The NBN is the National Broadband Network, currently being installed around Australia. This is probably the only sea shanty to be written about it. Recording here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 03:34 AM

Whaleroad
John Warner

As the weaver lays her webs, so the seasons turn.            
In the heart an aching sets, the seaward ways to learn.
With the coming of the Spring, and the cruel ice breaking,
Men have built them carven ships, and the whaleroad taken.

The whaleroad is a restless road. The lifting of the prow,
The heaving of the bellied sail, the salt spray on the brow.
The oar thresh on the lifting swell, a white bird on the foam,
The surf snarl on the gravel strand, the heart that aches for home.

Proud Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks took the great whales' way.
Vikings from the icy North dropped anchor in the bay.
Drake, Magellan, Tasman, Cook, and other names beside
Hauled their anchors, trimmed their sails, to catch the morning tide.

Reef the main to gallant there, the squall is coming hard.      
Tiny men string out like crows along the topsail yard.
Reeling from the freezing blast, the ship rides out the wave.
Many an aching tired hand has made Cape Horn his grave.

What's this madness in the blood that spurs them on to fight
The twisting of the wave-flung wheel in the howling night?
Who can answer but themselves? Perhaps not even they, but
Breast the capstan, man the brace, let's get her underway.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Another terrific song by John Warner. On his album, The Sea and the Soil. So far as I know, no recording has been posted to the web.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 03:24 AM

Dark-eyed Daughter
Phyl Lobl

Mother may I go out to swim?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter,
Mother I would go out to swim.
but at the pool I can't get in,
Because of the colour of my skin,
because I'm your dark-eyed daughter.

Mother may I go to the show?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter,
Mother tell me do you know.
which side of the theatre I should go?
Go where the colour of your skin won't show,
my darling dark-eyed daughter.

Mother will I go to school?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter,
Mother when I go to school.
will the children treat me cruel?
Children follow their parents' rule,
my darling dark-eyed daughter.

Mother will I go to work?
Yes my dark-eyed daughter .
You will go to work one day,
But only get half of your pay.
The other half will go the way
Of somebody's dark-eyed daughter.

Mother when will all this end?
I don't know my daughter,
Maybe it will end the day.
when heaven and earth will pass away,
And we will hear a great voice say,
you're welcome here …… my daughter.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Sandra has mentioned this song a couple of times, but I think the lyrics have not been posted to this thread. I quote from Phyl Lobl's website:

My first recorded song, almost my first song, was sparked by media coverage of the student bus ride led by Charles Perkins and University students in 1965.
An old traditional rhyme gave a frame for the song.

'Mother may I go out to swim?'
'Yes my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a Hickory limb,
But don’t go near the water.'

The last verse of the song was born not from a belief, but from realisation and dismay that many of those who did profess to believe could also hold racist views.

‘The 1967 referendum in which 90% of the Australian Community voted in favour of deleting sections of the Constitution discriminating against Aborigines showed goodwill. To enable Aborigines to become independent, self-reliant people this goodwill must be translated into active and positive attitudes. Together we must build a nation where dark and white live in harmony with growing understanding and respect for one another, mutually contributing to the enrichment of our Commonwealth. This is the challenge of these songs and of the present day Aboriginal advancement movement.’

This is still the challenge but now many aboriginal people show us the value of their culture, they show us the meaning of resilience, they show us the way ahead, they show us how to forgive, they show us their worth.

However, the journey for too many of our First People is still hard and slow. When I see the positive stories that do emerge I feel vindicated but humbled by their willingness to accept and continue the struggle. In this new era of recognition, there is still a need for deeper more positive acceptance of responsibility by us all to give value to their existence and to be of assistance. I ask if anyone finds the material on this site to be useful, and are grateful, that they make a donation to an Australian indigenous project or organization.

Access the Phyl Lobl recording here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 03:14 AM

Home Among the Gum Trees
Robert Alexander Brown / Walter Edward Johnson

I've been around the world
A dozen times or maybe more
I've seen the sights, and had delights
On every foreign shore
But when my friends all ask of me
The place that I adore
I tell them right away

Chorus:
Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair

I'll be standing in the kitchen
Cooking up a roast
With Vegemite on toast
Just me and you, a cockatoo
And after tea, we'll settle down
Beside the hitching post
And watch the wombats play

Chorus

There's a Safeway on the corner
And a Woolworths down the street
And a new one's just been opened
Where they regulate the heat
But I'd trade them all tomorrow
For a simple bush retreat
Where kookaburras sing

Chorus

Some people like their houses built
With fences all around
Others live in mansions
Or in bunkers underground
But I won't be contented
Til the day that I have found
The place I long to be

Chorus

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Best known from recordings by Bullamakanka and by John Williamson, both of whom changed the words a bit. I've gone back to the original recording by Captain Rock for the lyrics here. That recording also includes a humorous introduction, and a verse in high school French, neither of which I have been game to transcribe.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 02:52 AM

Mary Parker's Lament
Judy Small

There's a little more grey in the hair nowadays
As I sit here and watching my grandchildren play
And I wonder if they have the faintest idea
Of the life that their grandmother knew.

For it's oh and alas for you Mary my girl
To be torn from the life you knew half round the world
And never again to see home.

It was back in the eighties, a younger girl then
With auburn hair flashing I'd walk with my man
And he'd tell me the places he'd take me to see
If only that he had the means.
But then I was with child and I saw him no more
In the pain of our parting I thought I should die
And I stole from my master some blankets and cloth
Just to keep me and baby alive

But t'was all for a nought for the baby he died
It felt like a part of me perished inside
And for stealing I's sent as a transport to sea
Never knowing for where I was bound.

And it's oh and alas for you Mary my girl
To be torn from the life you knew half round the world
And never again to see home.

Seven long years was the sentence I bore
It felt like a lifetime as I came ashore
And I wept when I saw the life waiting for me
As a chattel, a whore and a slave.

So I married a convict, the safer to be
From the soldiers and the freed men who chased after me
And for seven long years we did work for our keep
Ever dreaming of England and home.

And the children I bore were the joy of my days
I longed for my mother to see them at play
And our hands grew rough from the scrubbing and dirt
And the sun turned our fair skins to brown.

Then on ticket of leave we were granted some land
And worked it and ploughed it by sweat of our hands
And forgot about England except in our dreams
And called New South Wales our true home.

And now here I sit watching my grandchildren play
And looking back over the length of my days
And it's clear in my mind is the Plymouth I knew
And I weep for my mother again.

For it's oh and alas for you Mary my girl
To be torn from the life you knew half round the world
And never again to see home.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The details of the song are fiction, but there was a convict named Mary Parker who came to Australia with the First Fleet, and Judy Small is a direct descendant. Recording by Judy Small here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 01:58 AM

The Goanna Drover
(Ted Egan)

I was drinkin' in the bar of the Birdsville pub when this long skinny fella comes in.
Crazy old moleskins, concertina leggins – on his face was a devilish grin.
Well he pressed the bar, gave a little "Yee-hah!", said I'm sorry that I've got no dough,
But I'll spin you a yarn if you'll buy me a drink – it's a story that you all should know.

Chorus:
Yes, he said he was a drover, the finest in the land.
He was travelling around Australia, ten thousand goannas in hand.

He said, I'm drovin' ten thousand goannas. I've been five years on the track.
Started at Cairns where we dipped the mob, and then we headed for the Great Outback.
We went due West to the 'curry, across them black soil plains.
We got bogged down at the Isa, and had to fit the goannas with chains.

(Chorus)

Well walkin' 'em down the Murranji track the goannas started climbin' trees.
But a drover's got to improvise, so I solved that problem with ease.
The monsoon rains was due to start, we had no time to lose.
We got forty thousand sardine tins, and we fitted the goannas with shoes.

(Chorus)

Well we clanked across them Gibber plains, it be hard on shoes out there.
But the move paid off in the channel country 'cause the rivers had filled Lake Eyre.
I got an old bull camel, and I showed him who was boss.
I hit the camel with the old brick trick, and he water-skied the goannas across.

(Chorus)

So here I am at the Birdsville pub, and if you buy me another drink
I'll tell you about me future plans. That's fair enough wouldn't you think?
He said, I'll have a rum this time, a double. Good luck, yeah, cheers!
Well I'm off now mates, so long, hooroo, I'll be in Hobart within two years.

(NO chorus)

We called, hang on a minute, we can see you're a bit of a star,
But drovin' goannas to Tassie, that's takin' things a bit too far!
How do you get them goannas right across Bass Strait?
He flashed us all his devilish grin, and said, I'm not goin' that way, mate!

(Chorus x2)

Ted Egan sings it here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Dec 20 - 10:35 PM

SAPPER'S LULLABY
(Fred Smith)

Up from the Role 2, and down past the gate, out to the flight line
We stood in the sun, slouch hat and gun as two caskets passed us by

And followed the padre, on to the Herc, and out in to the pale summer sky
We walked back to Poppy’s and went back to work, with the Dust still in our eyes

So soldiers, sing me your sapper’s lullaby
You give it your all, knowing if you should fall
That all good things must die

These young engineers whose job is to clear the roads that we may pass
Always out front and, when they bear the brunt, man it happens fast

Sapper D Smith had a wife and a son, the apple of his eye
Snowy Moerland was just 21, way to young to die

Soldiers, sing me your sapper’s lullaby
You give it your all, knowing if you should fall
That all good things must die

So go call your mother, call your old man, on that welfare line
Tell em you love 'em, while you still can, 'cause all good things must die

Soldiers, sing me your sapper’s lullaby
You give it your all, knowing if you should fall
That all good things must die                  
All   good things must die

Live performance with introductory info:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Dec 20 - 02:24 AM

cartoon about Keith Richard's birthday