Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Mar 21 - 05:18 AM

a very new song by Phyl Lobl, written at 5am this morning which makes it a bit over 15 hours old.

Phyl has been singing Pete Seeger's 1966 version about LBJ for decades, video here, along with Len Chandler's original words (1964)


BEANS IN MY EARS, SLOMO’S VERSION by Phyl Lobl

Jenny says not to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears, beans in my ears,
Jenny says not to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears.

Why would I want to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears, beans in my ears?
Why would I want to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears?

Y’can’t hear the women with beans in your ears, beans in your ears, beans in your ears,
Y’can’t hear the women with beans in your ears, beans in your ears.

So y’can’t hear the words like NO & ENOUGH, NO & ENOUGH, NO & ENOUGH,
Y’can’t hear the words like NO & ENOUGH with beans in your ears.
Hey, Marise look at me, I've got beans in my ears beans in my ears, beans in my ears,
Hey, Marise look at me, I've got beans in my ears, beans in my ears.

What's that you say? I've got beans in my ears beans in my ears, beans in my ears,
What's that you say? I've got beans in my ears, beans in my ears

Yes too many Pollies have beans in their ears, beans in their ears, beans in their ears,
Yes too many Pollies have beans in their ears, beans in their ears.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Mar 21 - 09:59 PM

This fine song gained the APRA award for song of the year at the 2021 Country Music Association of Australia golden guitar awards.

THE HIGH PRICE OF SURVIVING
(Shane Nicholson & Leyon Milner)

There’s been mistakes and there’ll be again
We’ll fall from grace every now and then
Loving and losing from pillar to post
The things we hold dear can hurt us the most

It’s just the price of surviving we pay
For sticking it out through another day
But it’s better than taking the other way out

Ghosts at the table, junkmail and trash
I bury myself in cigarette ash
I draw the curtain, there ain’t much to see
The world moves along and forgets about me

It’s just the price of surviving we pay
For sticking it out through another day
But it’s better than taking the other way out

Hope, carry me now
Hope, carry me now
It’s gonna take us the long way around

It’s just the price of surviving this life
Learning to breathe through the trouble and strife
When living is only being alive

Then it’s just the price of surviving we pay
For sticking it out through another day
But it’s better than taking the other way out

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Mar 21 - 12:12 AM

SAM HOLT
(w.G.H. Gibson/Air: 'Ben Bolt')

Oh! don’t you remember Black Alice, Sam Holt —
Black Alice, so dusky and dark,
The Warrego gin, with the straw through her nose,
And teeth like a Moreton Bay shark.

The terrible sheepwash tobacco she smoked
In the gunyah down there by the lake,
And the grubs that she roasted, the lizards she stewed,
And the damper you taught her to bake.

Oh! don’t you remember the moon’s silver sheen,
And the Warrego sand ridges white?
And don’t you remember those big bulldog ants
We caught in our blankets at night?

Oh! don’t you remember the creepers, Sam Holt,
That scattered their fragrance around?
And don’t you remember that broken-down colt
You sold me, and swore he was sound?

And don’t you remember that fiver, Sam Holt,
You borrowed so frank and so free,
When the publican landed your fifty-pound cheque
At Tambo, your very last spree?

Luck changes some natures; but yours, Sammy Holt,
Was a grand one as ever I see,
And I fancy I’ll whistle a good many tunes
Ere you think of that fiver or me.

Oh! don’t you remember the cattle you duffed,
And your luck at the Sandy Creek rush,
And the poker you played, and the bluffs that you bluffed,
And your habits of holding a flush?

And don’t you remember the pasting you got
By the boys down in Callaghan’s store,
When Tim Hooligan found a fifth ace in his hand,
And you holding his pile upon four?

You were not the cleanest potato, Sam Holt,
You had not the cleanest of fins.
But you made your pile on the Towers, Sam Holt,
And that covers the most of your sins.

They say you’ve ten thousand per annum, Sam Holt,
In England, a park and a drag;
Perhaps you forget you were six months ago
In Queensland a-humping your swag.

But who’d think to see you now dining in state
With a lord and the devil knows who,
You were flashing your dover, six short months ago,
In a lambing camp on the Barcoo.

When’s my time coming? Perhaps never, I think,
And it’s likely enough your old mate
Will be humping his drum on the Hughenden road
To the end of the chapter of fate.

This song was a parody of 'Ben Bolt', written in 1848 by Dr T.D. English. The tune was a German air arranged by N. Kneass. It was printed in the 'Melbourne Vocalist' 5th edition 1857. Charles Thatcher, the goldfields balladeer, wrote what he called a 'new version' which began:

Oh! don't you remember, sweet Alice, Ben Bolt -
Sweet Alice with hair hazel brown
She wept with delight when you gave her a smile
And trembled with fear at your frown

Thatcher also wrote a mining version titled 'Jack Jolt' that was similar in structure to 'Sam Holt'. In his 'Colonial Ballads', Hugh Anderson noted that 'Sam Holt' derived in part from 'Jack Jolt'. G.Herbert Gibson, whose pen name was Ironbark, wrote 'Sam Holt' which was published in 'The Western Champion' (Blackall/Barcaldine, QLD) in May 1881. It was prefaced by this sentence:
'Overlanding Jim apostrophiseth his quondam mate who hath made his pile and gone home'. It was printed in 'The Bulletin' in 1881. This printing gave 3 notes: 'flashing your dover' = 'taking pot luck with a sheath knife'; 'Towers' = Charters Towers; the original line was 'From the Barks down at Callaghan's store' and 'Barks' was vernacular for 'Irish'.

A.B. Paterson included 'Sam Holt' in his 'The Old Bush Songs' 1905. Strangely, Stewart & Keesing did not include it in their 'Enlarged and Revised' edition of 'Old Bush Songs'. It is included at page 34 of Hugh Anderson 'Colonial Ballads' 1962 edition. Anderson noted that 'Paterson, as in several other instances, took the words, not from newspapers, but from a collection of Gibson's poems'. You can also find it at page 120 of Ron Edwards' big book.

This rendition by Warren Fahey omits a few stanzas:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 11:19 PM

NEW ZEALAND WHALES
(Anon)

Come all you whale men who are cruising for sperm
Come all you seamen who have rounded Cape Horn
For our captain has told us and he says out of hand
‘There’s a thousand whale off the coast of New Zealand’

T’was early one morning just as the sun rose
That a voice from the masthead cried out, ’There she blows’
Our captain cried, ‘Where away and how does he lay?’
‘Three points on our lee, sir, scarce two miles away’

‘Then call up all hands and be of good cheer
Get your lines in your rowboats and tackle-falls clear’
We sailed off the westwind and came up apace
The whaleboats were lowered and set on the chase

We fought him alongside, harpoon we thrust in
In just over an hour, he rolled out his fin
The whale is cut-in, boys, tried-out and slowed down
He’s worth more to us, boys, than five hundred pound

Our ship it is laden for home we will steer
There’s plenty of rum, boys, and plenty of beer
We’ll spend money freely for the pretty girls ashore
And when it’s all gone we’ll go whaling for more

Note:

These were the last days of the hand-harpoon, over a hundred years ago. Sperm and right whales were common in New Zealand waters, as they had been off the coast of Peru. The Spanish-American War meant the world’s whalers came south and Kororareka in the Bay of Islands became a busy whaling port. [’Song of a Young Country’ p 8].

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 08:13 PM

STEEL & SILVER
(Bob McNeill)

Alison, she said, walk with me tonight by the harbour
We will watch the stars
We'll dance among the stones
And you need fear no stumble
For I shall hold your hand
I shall hold your hand

And so with stealthy grace from town they slipped away like shadows
Silent in the dark
No priest or layman saw Alison led boldly
By hand and step, the sand beneath her wet
Between the waves and seawall
Between the waves and seawall

Alison, she said, let go your heavy vest
That we might skip more lightly
Let down your raven hair
That it might fall around you
Likewise your steel & silver
Likewise your steel & silver

And so she let them fall, and with them her resolve
Always to heed the ocean
And so upon the sand they laid their bodies down
And as they slept the silent ocean crept
The waves grew ever higher
The waves grew ever higher

Alison, she said, wake up the tide is high
And we are hard by the seawall
The waves are coming fast
And I fear we are lost
For we must brave the ocean
For we must brave the ocean

And so they turned away from the harbour wall to face the tide
The swirling grey black ocean
The water cold and dark pressed into their hearts
By hand and brine
Maidens intertwined
They found them so next morning
They found them so next morning
 
Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 10:07 PM

WARNING: the songs in this post contain racist components.

In his 'Big Book of Australian Folk Song', Ron Edwards published a trio of songs that were popular in the Northern Territory: 'The Buffalo Shooter's Song', 'Fanny Bay' and 'The Combo's Anthem'. All three songs reference Fannie Bay in Darwin and reflect widespread contemporary attitudes towards Aboriginal women.

In his splendid presentation at the 2000 National Folk Festival in Canberra - 'White on Black: in the spirit of reconciliation' - Keith McKenry gave context to these songs. Keith has kindly given me permission to reproduce his introductory remarks:

No matter where you prick a map of Australia, when the Europeans first arrived there the predominant, and often the only, source of females for male sexual gratification was Aboriginal. It didn’t take long therefore for the term ‘Black Velvet’ to enter the colonial vernacular.

The craving in colonial society for women as sexual playthings became –as it has across the world – a factor in the economic interaction between communities, and a catalyst for violent confrontation, with rape commonplace, and murder and retribution not far behind. Syphilis and gonorrhoea, smallpox and measles, and other diseases previously unknown to Indigenous Australia followed as well, with catastrophic results.

Despite the fear in the popular imagination of sexual violation of white women by blacks – the unspoken sub-text of The Romance of Runnibede, for example— there is scant evidence of it happening. Even in the Governor murders there was never any suggestion the women were sexually assaulted. But violation of black women by white men was so commonplace as to be hardly worth remarking upon.

The supposed loose morals of black women, and their supposed desire, too, for white males, provided a fertile basis for rationalisation. As the next group of songs, from the Northern Territory states, it was just ‘a little bit of nonsense’.

Keith explained earlier in his presentation that 'The Romance of Runnibede' was a 1928 silent film:

Time now to return to the silver screen, and to the making in 1928 of a silent feature film based on a story by Steele Rudd, creator of the beloved characters Dad and Dave. It stars an American, Eva Novak in the role of the virginal white maid Dorothy Winchester, and Dunstan Webb, daubed with black paint, as the evil Witch-doctor Goondai ...

In the same year this film is made, 1928, Fred Brooks, a dingo shooter is killed in the Northern Territory. The murderers are thought to be Aborigines. In retaliation whites, led by Constable William George Murray go on a rampage shooting dead an admitted 31 Aborigines and possibly as many as a hundred or more. Most, if not all, the Aborigines shot have no connection whatever with the killing of Brooks. A court of inquiry finds the shootings ‘justified’.

In the towns and cities few people would have the faintest knowledge of the killings in the Territory. But many would go to the cinema to see the lovely Dorothy rescued from the murderous black savages in Runnibede.

The 'Governor murders' relates to the July 1900 brutal killings of Mrs Mawbey, her 2 daughters, her 2 sons and a governess by 3 Aboriginals:

Jimmy Governor

THE BUFFALO SHOOTER'S SONG
(w.Anon/m.A.Colahan)

If you ever go up north among the buffalo,
Then maybe at the closing of the day,
You will sit and listen to those flamin’ mossies
And watch the sun go down on Fanny Bay.

For again to hear the crying of the curlew,
And the lubras in their nagas salting hides,
And to sit around the campfire by an evening
And listen to those shooters telling lies.

For the gins come down from Oenpelli Mission
All wrapped up in Jesus when they come,
But they soon forget about those Ten Commandments
When you hit ’em with a snort of O.P. rum.

And the strangers came and tried to take our lubras—
So we waited while they had their fun,
For they might have tried to catch the old red dingo
Or rape a flamin’ emu on the run.

And if ever there should be a piccaninny,
You can bet your boots it won’t be all real black,
For those shooters like their little bit of nonsense
Along the Alligator River Track.

Note by Ron Edwards:

'The Buffalo Shooter's Song' was composed by a group of shooters at Nourlangie in the Northern Territory in 1948. It is in the tradition of 'Fanny Bay' and 'The Combo's Anthem' and other Territorian ditties. It goes to the tune of 'Galway Bay' and comes from 'The Green Eyes are Buffaloes' by Allan Stewart.

'Galway Bay' was composed by Dr Arthur Colahan. Allan Stewart was a well-known Territory character. He was a bit of a tosser. I recall that he once stood for the Territory parliament and had his surname changed by deed poll to Allan-Stewart so that he would have first place on the ballot paper. He still lost comprehensively.

FANNY BAY
(w.Anon/m.A.Colahan)

With a couple of little drinks to make us happy,
And a couple of little beers to make us gay,
And a couple of little gins to keep our strength in,
You’ll find yourself at last in Fanny Bay.*

Some are white and some are black and some are yellow,
And some are old and some are young and gay,
But what costs you thirty bob in Castlereagh Street,
You can get for two and six in Fanny Bay.

Note by Ron Edwards:

'Fanny Bay' was one of the slightly bawdy songs that the late Bill Harney used to enjoy singing, partly perhaps to shock the city types that he met when he came south for a holiday from the Northern Territory ... Bill did not know who had composed the song, but he said that it was very popular around the Territory.

Keith McKenry also drew a distinction between these bawdy pieces and the 'thoroughly repugnant ballads of race hatred'.

Fannie Bay is the registered spelling for the suburb and bay. This excerpt from NT Place Names Register is interesting:

Click

THE COMBO'S ANTHEM
(Anon)

When the stock panel slants to the last narli beast,
And the smoke signals rise we will ride to the feast,
Where the pandanus fairies are singing their song,
And the black ducks are mating, by quiet billabong.

’Neath black velvet banners we’ll carve our way through,
As we march to the strains of a didgeridoo,
We love and we laugh as pale introverts sigh,
We sneer at Protectors, whose laws we defy.

We know each girl’s name by her track on the sand,
The girls of the desert, the girls of inland,
The maids of the mountains, and Lord I forgot-
The sirens of seashores, the best of the lot.

They are comely and dark, and the glint of their eyes,
Are as dew drops that gleam on a wintry sun’s rise,
And the firm rounded breasts that seductively tease,
Are like seed pods that sway on squat baobab trees.

So hail Borroloola! The old V.R.D.
The ‘Nash’ and the hill for a cracker old spree,
We are riding with cheques and we sing as we come,
For a gut full of wooing, a gut full of rum.

Let gin-shepherds watch when the rain clouds appear,
And the ring of horse-bells tells his girls we are near,
He may lock up his studs, but we’ll steal them away,
To our smouldering fires till the breaking of day.

So green is the grass when the early rains fall,
And pull off pack bags as we answer the call,
We will ride down bush tracks, and old friendships renew,
To the beat of a tab-stick and didgeridoo.

Ron Edwards supplied a tune at page 92 of his big book. He noted:

'The Combo's Anthem' was collected from the late Bill Harney in 1957. A combo is Territorian slang for one who lives with an Aboriginal woman. Although he described it as a 'real old nostalgic one', it is probably no older than the middle of the late thirties.

It was not only white men who referred disparagingly of Aboriginal women, I once worked with a part-Aboriginal bloke, an ex-stockman, who called Aboriginal women in the bush 'spinifex fairies'.

William Edward Harney

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Mar 21 - 11:02 PM

Forgot to say what “Daggin Round” refers to!

A Dag is pretty much the same thing in New Zealand and Australia, but perhaps the Kiwi descriptor may be a tad more complimentary?!   I believe Stewie posted a Fred Dagg (John Clarke) song from EnZed, here last year?
But in both countries, “Jeez, yer such a DAG!” implies that you are still accepted and loved - despite your different / quirky, appearance, habits, or behaviour!

From the ANU : https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/andc/meanings-origins/d
dag
An unfashionable person; a person lacking style or character; a socially awkward adolescent, a 'nerd'. These senses of dag derive from an earlier Australian sense of dag meaning 'a "character", someone eccentric but entertainingly so'. Ultimately all these senses of dag are probably derived from the British dialect (especially in children's speech) sense of dag meaning a 'feat of skill', 'a daring feat among boys', and the phrase to have a dag at meaning 'to have a shot at'. The Australian senses of dag may have also been influenecd by the word wag (a habitual joker), and other Australian senses of dag referring to sheep (see rattle your dags below). Dag referring to an unfashionable person etc. is recorded from the 1960s.

1983 Sydney Morning Herald 24 September: Has it helped them feel more relaxed with the boys in their PD group. 'Well, most of them are dags', Julie laughs, 'but at least they're easier to talk to'.

2011 Australian Financial Review (Sydney) 11 July: Christian, while your budget may appear to be reasonable .. your dress sense is nothing less than appalling. Never ever wear a striped suit, a striped shirt and a striped tie together - just dreadful ... You look like a real dag.

dag: rattle your dags
Hurry up, get a move on. Dags are clumps of matted wool and dung which hang around a sheep’s rear end. When a daggy sheep runs, the dried dags knock together to make a rattling sound. The word dag (originally daglock) was a British dialect word that was borrowed into mainstream Australian English in the 1870s. The phrase is first recorded in the 1980s.

1984 S. Thorne Battler: C'mon Mum, rattle yer dags - the old girls are hungry!

2010 Countryman (Perth) 11 February: Rattle yer dags, woolclassers, time's running out to re-register yourselves with the Australian Wool Exchange.


WIKI also has some interesting history and variations :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dag_(slang)


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Mar 21 - 10:36 PM

Mark Gillett [ NZ 1953 – 2007 QLD ] – see Mudcat obit.

A sort of bluesy, down-home, banjo groove, that was a Mark favourite – but not yet found online!
It was a bit of a travelling number, with verses as remembered – or made up - at the time of singing!!


DAGGIN’ ROUND SUGARTOWN

Mark Gillett

Dag-Dag Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga, Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga, Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga.....

Cut cane while days are bright, crush it and cook it right
Mills roarin’ through the night
Old Sugartown Namba,
There’s Ted from up the hill, workin’ at Moreton Mill
All dressed in ~King-Gee drill
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Chorus :
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

Tourists with a vide-cam, takin’ snapshots of the sugar tram
~Lorry Loco’s goin’ bam-bam
Old Sugartown Namba,
They’re tryin’ not to stare, at that safari-suited lair
With a beer gut and surfie hair
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

Steppin’ out for pizza snacks, across the railway tracks
In Ugg boots and trackie daks~
Daggin’ round in Namba,
That Westie’s off his face, he’s decked out in perfect taste
Checked shirt around his waist, he’s
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

A victim of the piercin’ craze, rings and studs in his face
His Dad thinks he’s a disgrace, he’s
Daggin’ round in Namba,
A young girl with style to spare, pants got one little tear
Sure enough, that tattoo there, she’s
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

Street childrens doin’ wrong, window glass in their thongs
Spray cans and OJ bottles, they’re
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Down by Petrie-side, banks all wet and wide
Long grass where the travellers hide
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

Black smokestack paints the sky, cinder flakes floatin’ by
They bring tears to my eye, I’m
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Where did the good times go, don’t ask me coz I don’t know
My memory’s as black as snow, I’m
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

I’m goin’ back some day, hope and sometimes I pray
Like I never went away, to go
Daggin’ round in Namba,
I will forget my cares, don my kaftan and flares
Boogie on down to Cemetery Square, I’ll be
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

I’ll do just what I please, hang it all out in the breeze
Just like the 70s, I’ll be
Daggin’ round in Namba,
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown
Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round – Daggin’ Round in Sugartown

Dag-Dag Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga
Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga Dagga ……………………… YEAH!



‘Namba’ (officially, Nambour*), on Petrie Creek in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, was known for its landmark Moreton Central Mill – crushing the sugar cane in the centre of town. Until 2003, the cane ‘trains’ ran regularly in season through the town’s streets, carrying the cane from the outlying farms to the crusher. The strong smell on the air, belching steam, noise and night lights when the Mill ran 24/7 in the Crushing Season (July-December) ….. and the smoke and cinders when the farms were burning the cane thrash* ….. all the traffic giving way to the whistle of the little haulage trams, trundling along the tramway in the centre of the road - it’s all consigned to history now.
And the farms? Well, some are now wasteland (but still with venomous snakes) – while many are turf farms, light industry, or particularly, housing estates optimistically built on the flood plains :) And the Mill (crushing for 106 years), is now a supermarket site, while many vacant shops line the town’s streets and the regional hospital is rebuilt elsewhere. However, a few rail engines and parts of the Mill history were saved for the Museum, built on the nearby old school site https://nambourmuseum.org.au/look-inside/ and the steel Crushers and enormous cogged wheels, have been welded into street sculptures!   Nambour's a little sultry (surrounded by hills); but a town where daggy dressing and cumfy flannos (checked flannel shirts) were unashamedly okay - it's just the way it was …….
Namba wouldn’t die though and there are signs of it at last regenerating ……. perhaps even as a Regional Centre for The Arts, with performance venues and galleries, plus quirky shops and more cafes now opening up – so could be interesting!!

* the name “Naamba” is from an Aboriginal word describing the bark of a prolific red-flowering bottlebrush.
* just like in that great Mary Gauthier song “(Burning the) Sugar Cane” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIQgzCai3EQ
~King Gee – is an iconic, longtime Aussie workwear brand.
~trackie daks – comfortable track suit pants (often worn low-slung, resulting in an “attractive” baggy bum! :)
~Lorry Loco - from kids storybook, plus : https://www.bundysugar.com.au/education/kot.html

A song by Penny Davies for Nambour, which she sings here with partner, Roger Ilott : “Don’t Let ‘Em Close Our Mill (the Sugar Mill’s the Heart of Town)” : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKl1n-mIc0

Just found this documentary called “The Last Crush : Closure of the Moreton Sugar Mill” and the flow-on effects of, first up, global issues (falling price of sugar) - plus all the rest - on the millworkers, the cane farmers, and the town itself : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHKl1n-mIc0

On a historical note, from 1863-1904, some 62,000 South Sea Islanders (men, women, children - known as Kanakas, from Melanesia) were mostly kidnapped/tricked/blackbirded to forcibly work the canefields, cottonfields, coffee plantations of Qld and Nthn NSW. Due to the new Aust'n Federation laws in 1901, the majority were forcibly deported after 1906. By all accounts, life did not improve for those who were shunted back to an island (not necessarily their original one), nor for those who got to stay :   https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/discover/exhibitions/australian-south-sea-islanders


R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 Mar 21 - 10:10 PM

DREAMS MORE REAL

Mark Gillett

I was travelling endlessly on the road, as in dreams I’ve often known myself to do
When the feet found a friend, the path of well-worn stone, when I found myself hand-in-hand with you,
The cool green air washed us free of care and its sweet smell floated on the breeze (on the breeze)
And the light seemed to shine out from everywhere as it poured down golden through the trees.

   And if I dream of me, if I can dream of you
   If you should have to go, would you dream me too
   And if I passed you by, you I didn’t recognise
   Sometimes dreams can seem more real than Life.

We sped on up the track, I couldn’t hold you back, you pulled me on, said we really had to go
And ahead I spied past the round hillside, lofty mountains shimmering with snow,
And it seemed to me like reaching out for a strawberry, almost taste it on your tongue (on your tongue)
Such a promise of plenty and endless happiness, good times really just begun.

   And if you dream of me and if I can dream of you
   If you should have to go, would you dream me too
   And if I passed you by, you I didn’t recognise
   Sometimes dreams can seem more real than Life.

In the wink of an eye, the time to say goodbye, you were gone, lovely dream was swept away
And I tried in vain to find you again, down city streets weary and grey
By the factory gates stood a fairground with travellers, pitched their tents to make a stand (make a stand)
And a glad voice cried to me as if they knew me and a bonny young stranger took my hand,
“You’re still searching, I see” is what he said to me “Won’t you rest with us for just a day” (just a day)
“There’ll be music so sweet; share with us to eat, find beauty and comfort where you may.”

   And if you dream of me, if I can dream of you
   If you should have to go, would you dream me too
   And if I passed you by, you I didn’t recognise
   Sometimes dreams can seem more real than Life.

Well I looked at the sideshow, the coloured lamp glow, the trash and the drab and the poor,
And the smile on your face in that high, bright place, t’was a memory I could not ignore
When I shook my head, the stranger said “We’ll meet again, as you roam” (as we roam)
“May your courage endure and your love stay pure and your one true dream bring you home”,
And as ever I seek a glimpse of the peak, or the high, bright country it surrounds (it surrounds)
There’s a thing yet I know, where e’er I go, you will be there, you’ll be waiting to be found.

   And if you dream of me, if I can dream of you
   If you should have to go, would you dream me too
   And if I passed you by, you I didn’t recognise
   Sometimes dreams can seem more real than Life.



Mark sings, accompanied by guitar and playing his banjo – but not yet found online :(



R-J

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Mar 21 - 08:21 PM

I HUGGED MY MATE
(Andrew London)

Well I’m a kiwi through and through
I’m an All Black follower just like you
and I grew up watching Pine Tree on TV

He’d score a try between the posts
and trot on back with the other blokes
with no display of joyfulness or glee

and I was brought up similarly
we don’t emote spontaneously
and we try to avoid displaying affection publicly

but something happened the other night
that I’d like to share with the group tonight
that signifies a strange anomaly

I was having a beer with a mate, you see
or a shandy it might have been actually
and he told me things were grim as they could be

He’d lost his job at the florist’s shop
and got pulled over by a traffic cop
who booked him on the spot for DIC

and his wife had run off with his kids
and shacked up with a friend of his
who was consequently behaving quite aloof and rather smug

well I don’t know what came over me
but just as we got up to leave
well, bugger me, I gave my mate a hug

You hugged a mate? I hugged a mate
You hugged a mate! I hugged a mate

By the time I realised what I’d done, it was just a bit too late
He was big and he was hairy, and he was understandably wary
and it was scary, but I hugged my mate

‘What’s that for?’ he said to me
and I mumbled about solidarity
and being there for your mates when times get tough

so he wandered off and I fretted a bit
but he seemed to soon get over it
and things got back to normal soon enough

but I was down the pub just after that
having a Pimms with another chap
on a Thursday when they do that excellent dill and salmon quiche

well he seemed distracted as we dined
so I said, ’What’s on your mind?’
he said he’d heard I’d hugged my mate, and what was it like?

well I said at first it was rather strange
and we both felt awkward at this rearrangement
of the traditional way that kiwi blokes behave

but I said that a moment of intimacy
had been enjoyed by my mate and me
and it might have been even nicer actually, had he shaved

and I said I thought we should be allowed
to show affection, even in a crowd
and not be afraid to let it out so everyone can tell

well he looked confused and a little sad
and told me how he missed his dad
well stone the crows, I hugged this bloke as well

You hugged a mate? I hugged me mate
You hugged a mate! I hugged another mate

By the time I realised what I’d done, it was just a bit too late
He was big and he was hairy, and he was understandably wary
and it was scary, but I hugged my mate

so we’ve all gotten used to it now
we seldom fret anymore about how
we show affection indiscriminately

and we get together, put the world to rights
on our weekly Downton Abbey nights
in the spa pool with a tall banana daiquiri

and as Dave and I drove home last week
from the ballet, I began to speak
about how sensitive and caring we renaissance chaps can be

and he agreed we certainly had progressed
said he rather liked the way I dressed
changed gear, and put his hand back on my knee

You hugged your mate? I hugged my mate
You hugged your mate! I hugged my mate

By the time I realised what I’d done, it was just a bit too late
He was big and he was hairy, and he was understandably wary
and it was scary, but I hugged my mate

Yeah, I was sensitive and caring and I hugged my mate
So get out there, you blokes, and hug your mate

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 08:30 PM

raredance - if you'd like a copy of the spreadsheets listing the songs, PM me with your email address & I'll send them to you.

#Alphabetical Listing of Oz-NZ songs-15Aug-31Dec2020 (625 entries)

#Date Posted Listing of Mudcat Oz-NZ songs-from 01Jan2021 (172 entries)

Penguin Book of Australian Ballads by Philip Butterss and Elizabeth Webby, 1993
Penguin Book of Australian Ballads by Russel Ward. 1964
Great Australian Folk Songs by Ron Edwards 1991 (originally published as Big book of Australian folk song,1976)

These are all classic books, Russel Ward was an academic involved in the folk revival of the 50s & Ron was a very early publisher (Rams Skull Press 1952-date) & collector. A biography of Ron is due out next year.

sandra

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 09:44 AM

THE COUNTRY SONG c. Martin Pearson & John Thompson

video Written and sung by John Thompson (left) & Martin Pearson (right). National Folk Festival 2008 & I was there! Note -the video does not include the 3rd verse, but all the other stuff included makes up for the lack of verse 3.

Mama, get the hammer, there's a fly on Papa's head.
I've been roped and thrown by Jesus in the Holy Ghost corral.
I fell in a pile of you and got love all over me,
But who bit the wart off Grandma's nose?

Chorus: I wanna whip your cow; I wanna whip your cow,
'Cause you just can't play a sad song on a banjo, anyhow.
You done tore out my heart and you stomped that sucker flat.
You made toothpicks from the timbers of my heart.

If the jukebox took teardrops, I'd cry all night long.
You stuck my heart in an old tin can and shot it off a log.
Well, I guess if you can't feel it, then it ain't really there,
And the last word in lonesome is "me."

Repeat chorus

If I can't be number one in your life, number two on you.
I can't get over you, 'til you get out from under him.
I'm so miserable without you, it's almost like you're here,
So I flushed you down the toilet of my heart.

Repeat chorus until tired, light blue touch paper and retire

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: raredance
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 03:05 AM

Hi,
I did not see an obvious songbook thread for the New Zealand book where it would not effectively disappear because no one would look for it there. In the for what it is worth department, I have two other volumes that are related to this thread. One is the Penguin Book of Australian BAllads by Phillip Butterss and Elizabeth Webby. It has about 150 entries that includes both folk song lyrics and other verse that may never have been sung. There is another Penguin Book of Australian Ballads by Russell Ward. I do not know the relation between the two. The other volume is Great Australian Folk Songs by Ron Edwards. It has over 300 entries. The latter book has tunes, the former does not. I have no knowledge of how many items in those two books are already in MUdcat or in this thread. Perhaps someone here has one or both of those books. I do not plan to put those contents here. This thread is already unwieldy with no alphabetical list of what is in it. Adding 450 lines of list would be insane.

Rich R

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 02:14 AM

oops, I copied Bob's typo - tune Wild Drover is really Wild Rover, & left off the video - Wild Rover by The Seekers

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 02:06 AM

I'm cleaning up my drafts (some are unsent emails dating back cough, cough, years), others are interesting stuff I found in various places, including mudcat

It was published in Singabout, Journal of Australian Folksong, volume 6, number 1, 1966

This song comes from one of the most valuable sources of Australian traditional song and story during the heady days of the 1950s and '60s - Harold P. C. ('Duke') Tritton. 'Duke' was a thoroughly traditional singer ... meaning that he quite cheerfully wrote new words whenever necessary in a living tradition. I seem not to have selected it for inclusion my collection Singabout - Selected Reprints, Ed Bob Bolton, Bush Music Club, Sydney, 1985. I reproduce the words recorded by Janet Wakefield (and Janet's notes) below.

WILD DRIVER By 'Duke' Tritton, tune: Wild Drover

(Duke wrote this in 1963 or '64 after a friend and I had driven him home several times after Club meetings. It is true that she once went through a red light and I through an orange one, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with Duke writing this song ... Janet Wakefield.)

I've been a wild driver this many a year
And always made sure I had plenty of beer
But now I must give the whole lot away
For an "on the spot copper" got me yesterday.

CHORUS:
So it's NO NO Never, Never no more
Never Never again shall I play the wild driver no more.

I had only ten schooners, which isn't a lot
And sixty was the top speed I had got
But I didn't give way to the man on the right
There was a crash and I got such a fright.

CHORUS:

I had swiped three cars and a two decker bus
And every one there made a terrible fuss.
They all seemed to think that I was to blame
And the way they abused me was a real shame.

CHORUS:

They threatened to lynch me, went looking for rope
Things looked pretty grim, I had given up hope
When the copper he came and he said, "Cut it out"

"Just leave it to me and I'll deal with this lout."
CHORUS:

Then the copper, he pulled out his book and did say
"It's fifty green smackers, the fine you will pay
And I'll cancel you licence for the rest of your life
And then I'll be sure that you'll keep out of strife.

CHORUS:

Perhaps some terms need explaining outside of the Australian context:
"on the spot copper" dates the song to around the introduction of "on-the-spot fines", standardised penalties which could be paid rather than appear in court ... and trust to the mercy of the local magistrate.
"ten schooners" A schooner was (at least in NSW) a beer glass holding an alleged 15 ozs ... certainly a good half bottle. Ten schooners would have meant 5 bottles of good strong beer
. "sixty": Back then we still used miles per hour ... and the suburban limit was 30 mph.
"smackers": Pretty common worldwide English for a note of currency. The only note in Australia's old currency that was green was the pound note.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 03:07 AM

I only recognised some, & I also try not to type up words but sometimes there is no option.

I asked a friend to make an OCR scan of a long song & then I copied & pasted the words, that was so much easier.

sandra

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 09:57 PM

Thanks, Sandra. I got your email with gold star. I merely wished to point out that 'half' is more than 'a few'. I had to copy- type a goodly number of them.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 09:32 PM

well done! gold star on it's way!

Subject: RE: Mudcat Australia/NZ Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Mar 21 - 08:56 PM

Fair go, Sandra. In response to raredance's posting of a list of songs in 'Song of a young country', you commented that we have 'a few'.   Of the 51 songs in the book, I have posted 26.

--Stewie.

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?

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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 03:19 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 - 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: 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: 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: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 05:55 PM

thanks, moderators!

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: 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: rich-joy
Date: 03 Mar 21 - 12:41 AM

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

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: 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 - 02:32 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 - 02:28 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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-