Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 09:33 PM

Bob Randall's classic song about the stolen generation:

Brown skin baby

A beaut cover and video by Tom Reid, an Irishman who spent time in Oz:

Tom Reid's rendition

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: HEY RAIN (Bill Scott)
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 09:02 PM

HEY RAIN
(Bill Scott)

CHORUS: Hey rain, rain comin' down
On the cane, on the roofs of the town.

There's rain on me hands and rain on me face,
Oh muddy old Innisfail's a muddy wet place,
Hey rain, hey rain.
And there's rain in me beer and rain in me grub,
And they've just fitted anchors to the Garradunga pub,
Hey rain, hey rain.
Chorus........

There's a Johnstone River crocodile livin' in me frig'
And a bloody great tree on the Jubilee Bridge
Hey rain, hey rain.
And the monsoon sky has sprung a leak
From Flyin' Fish Point to the Millstream Creek,
Hey rain, hey rain.
Chorus.....

And the storm clouds are so black and big
There's an old flyin' fox in the Moreton Bay fig,
Hey rain, hey rain
It's the worst wet season we've ever had,
And I'd swim down to Tully, but it's just as bloody bad
Hey rain, hey rain.
Chorus.....

Youtube clip

Mudcat thread

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: WHERE THE CANE FIRES BURN (Bill Scott)
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:48 PM

WHERE THE CANE FIRES BURN
(Bill Scott)

I've wandered east, I've wandered west,
From the Hamersley Range to the Snowy Crest,
From the Lachlan Plains to the Broken Hill,
But my heart's at the Johnstone River still.
Now the time has come when I must return
Where the vine scrub grows and the cane fires burn.
Where the vine scrub grows and the cane fires burn.

By the Yarra now the cold rain falls
And the wind is bleak from the Bass Strait squalls,
I stand and wonder in the chill
Has the season started at Mulgrave Mill?
For Autumn comes and I must return
Where the harvesters chug and the trash fires burn -
Where the harvesters chug and the trash fires burn.

The smog is thick and stings the eye
Where the Harbour Bridge fills half the sky
And the sirens wail through Sydney town....
But I dream of Tully when the sun goes down
Where the rainforest covers the hills with green
The cane grows tall and the air is clean -
The cane grows tall and the air is clean.

I've been wandering South and West
On land and sea, but the north is best.
Now Autumn comes with its hint of snows
And I must follow where the egret goes
To watch the evening's first faint star
From Flying Fish Point or Yarrabah-
From Flying Fish Point or Yarrabah.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:37 PM

Rabbit Trapper

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:21 PM

Another fine song from Hulett's days in Oz:

Suicide town

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:04 PM

Alistair Hulett's excellent song relating to Wittenoom mine in Western Australia.

He fades away

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 02:44 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c80UR3PtGuQ Where the Brumbies Come to Water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhH0r-0YbFo Reedy Lagoon

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST,Mysha
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:07 AM

Is there a separate chapter on New Zealand songs? Or else, where does By the Dry Cardrona go?

Bye
Mysha

Subject: Lyr Add: ONE OF THE HAS-BEENS (Don Henderson)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 02:12 AM

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6510 - Don Henderson's re-writing of this classic Australian folksong + original song both on this thread & below

One of the has-beens by Don Henderson

I'm one of the has-beens
A folk song I mean.
In oral transmission
I once was serene.
Illiterate agrarians
my worth would avow,
but you may not believe me
'cause they don't do it now.

Chorus

I'm as awkward as a new one,
much more cap and gown,
than a blithe air of arcadia;
I've been written down

Eluding the Banjo,
Vance Palmer, Bert Lloyd,
Jones, Durst and O'Connor
I did likewise avoid.
Manifold, Meredith,
Tate, de Hugard,
both Scotts, all found
finding me was too hard.

One day while engrossed
in making a whip,
my current custodian
let his version slip.
Ron Edwards was on hand
and wrote down all that,
while feigning description
of the sixteen strand plait.

Oh, it's no use complaining,
I'll never say die,
though the variant days
for me have gone by.
Now captured in MS,
stave and magazine,
I merely have told you
just what I have been.

Don Henderson 1937 - 1991

collectors of Australian Folk song
Banjo Paterson, Vance Palmer, Bert Lloyd, Percy Jones, Joy Durst, Norm O'Connor, John Manifold, John Meredith, Brad Tate,
Dave de Hugard, brothers bill Scott and Alan Scott

Ron Edwards collector, folklorist, artist, storyteller, craftsman ...
==================

ONE OF THE HAS-BEENS. It's an Australian shearing song and is from the point of view of an old man who used to be the best shearer in the sheds, i.e. the ringer, but now he is old and has lost most of his shearing prowess.

The tune is PRETTY POLLY PERKINS OF PADDINGTON GREEN, and this tune and lyrics are in the DT database if you search for [Polly Perkins].

I probably found this on an Australian folk music site. I posted these lyrics in a thread called "Feedback please" a while back. I'll check where I got it from and post the site address.

Helen


ONE OF THE HAS-BEENS

I'm one of the has-beens a shearer I mean
I once was a ringer and I used to shear clean
I could make the wool roll off like the soil from the plough
But you may not believe me for I can't do it now

CHORUS: I'm as awkward as a new chum and I'm used to the frown
That the boss often shows me saying keep them blades down

I've shore with Pat Hogan, Bill Bright and Jack Gunn
Tommy Leighton Charlie Fergus and the great roaring Dunn
They brought from the Lachlan the best they could find
But not one among them could leave me behind

It's no use complaining I'll never say die
Though the days of fast shearing for me have gone by
I'll take the world easy shear slowly and clean
And I merely have told you just what I have been

Notes - Printed in Stewart and Keesing Old Bush Songs with the note: "From Mrs G.L.Ginns, of Merrylands, NSW". (Written by Robert Stewart) From the singing of A.L.Lloyd, who writes on the notes for Across the Western Plains that he heard it in Cowra, NSW when he was working there in the 1920s. Tune 'Pretty Polly Perkins'

Subject: Lyr Add: SERVICE SONG (Harry Robertson)
From: JennieG
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 10:00 PM

Yes - a great choice, Helen.

I quite like "Service song" by Harry Robertson.

SERVICE SONG
Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson
Arranged by Evan Mathieson
When I was a boy on my daddy’s farm, he sometimes used to say,
Take the brown cow out for service, son, to the farmer down the way.
Each time I took the cow down there, the farmer he would say,
Just leave the cow with me my boy, and come back another day.

For years it had me puzzled — what did this service mean?
’Til one day I decided that this service must be seen,
Through a knot hole in the barn door — with a youthful naked eye,
I saw what they’ve been doing to us in the years that had gone by.

We hear a lot of talk these days, from companies big and small,
What would we do without them, they’re a service to us all,
We’re here to serve the people — just buy from us once more,
For years we’ve really served you — but we’d love to serve you more.

When you hear a politician say, “I’ve served my country true.”
I don’t know what he means by that, so I’ll leave that one to you.
We’re here to serve the people — elect us just once more,
For years we’ve really served you — but we’d love to serve you more.

So in the next election friends, when you put your cross on the dot,
Be sure you elect a proper man — or you’ll get what the brown cow got!
We’re here to serve the people — elect us just once more,
For years we’ve really served you — but we’d love to serve you more!

(Repeat last two lines — with great gusto — for final chorus)

Any of Harry Robertson's songs would be good.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Helen
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 08:53 PM

One of my favourite Henry Lawson songs is Do You Think That I Do Not Know?

The song is performed by Priscilla Herdman to the tune that Chris Kempster set it to, as shown in The Songs of Henry Lawson which CK compiled.

I like this song because a lot of HL's poems or songs are about people striving to make a living in the bush, some are funny like The Loaded Dog, some are sad, some are about the hard life on the land, but Do You Think ... is different. It seems more personal to HL.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 08:11 PM

Battler's ballad

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 06:52 PM

Certainly, the chapter should include something from Henry Lawson, like The Outside Track.

Lots of ideas in John Thompson's Australian Folk Song a Day

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Mysha
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 10:41 AM

"Now I'm easy"?

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 06:06 AM

As the Mudcat Songbook is intended to be a follow-up to Rise Up Singing and Rise Again, here is a list of the Australian songs that are already in those two books. No point in posting these songs to this thread (unless it's to make corrections/additions to the entries in those books).

Rise Up Singing contains
Kookaburra
Mothers Daughters Wives
No Man's Land
Safe in the Harbor
South Australia
Waltzing Matilda

Rise Again contains
Down Under
Rattlin' Bones
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Leaving the Land
The Court of King Caractacus
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
All For Me Job
If It Weren't For the Union
One Voice in the Crowd
Until

Subject: Lyr Add: ANDERSON'S COAST (John Warner)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 11:00 AM

John Warner Singer Songwriter Poet and good bloke

4. ANDERSON'S COAST
© John Warner 8/5/93

Old Bass Strait roars like some great millrace,
    And where are you, my Annie?
And the same moon shines on this lonely place,
As shone one day on my Annie's face.

    But Annie, dear, don't wait for me,
    I fear I shall not return to thee,
    There's nought to do but endure my fate,
    And watch the moon, the lonely moon
    Light the breakers on wild Bass Strait.

We stole a vessel and all her gear,
And where are you, my Annie?
And from Van Dieman's we north did steer,
Till Bass Strait's wild waves wrecked us here.

A mile inland as our path was laid
And where are you, my Annie?
We found a government stockade
Long deserted but stoutly made.

And somewhere west, Port Melbourne lies,
And where are you, my Annie?
Through swamps infested with snakes and flies,
The fool who walks there, he surely dies.

We hail no ships though the time, it drags,
And where are you, my Annie?
Our chain gang walk and our government rags
All mark us out as Van Dieman's lags.

We fled the lash and the chafing chain,
And where are you, my Annie?
We fled hard labour and brutal pain,
And here we are, and here remain.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 10:22 AM

John and Debra sing Anderson's Coast on YouTube John DOES sing "our chain gang roll".

Subject: Lyr Add: ANDERSON'S COAST (John Warner)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 04:14 AM

Anderson's Coast by John Warner

Old Bass Strait roars like a great mill race
    And where are you, my Annie?
And the same moon shines on this distant place
As shone that night on my Annie's face.

Chorus (after each verse):
And Annie dear, don't wait for me,
I fear I'll never return to thee.
There's naught to do but endure my fate
And watch the moon, the lonely moon,
Light the breakers of wild Bass Strait.

We stole a vessel and all her gear
    And where are you, my Annie?
And from Van Diemen's north did steer
Till Bass Strait's wild waves, they wrecked us here.

A mile inland as our path was laid
    And where are you, my Annie?
We found a government stockade,
Long, long deserted, but stoutly made.

And somewhere's west port Melbourne lies
    And where are you, my Annie?
Through swamps infested with snakes and flies
And the fool who walks there, the fool he dies.

We hail no ships, though time it drags,
    And where are you, my Annie?
For our chain gang roll and government rags,
They mark us out as Van Diemen's lags.

We fled the lash and the chafing chain,
    And where are you, my Annie?
We fled starvation and brutal pain,
But here we are, and here remain.

John Roberts and Debra Cowan sing Anderson's Coast. Words from Mainly Norfolk.
Recording by Nancy Kerr and James Fagan,

---

It's also in the DT: Here

Subject: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 10:32 PM

This is an edited PermaThread®, used for a special project. This thread will be moderated. Feel free to post to this thread, but remember that all messages posted here are subject to editing or deletion.
This thread will be edited by GerryM.
-Joe Offer-