Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 08:52 AM

WHY CAN'T WE GIVE REFUGE TO A REFUGEE?    © Bernard Carney 2002

    We are the lucky country we have hearts enough to care
    We can speak our minds in freedom we have boundless plains to share
    We don't deny our mateship regardless of the cost
    And our doors are always open to the lonely and the lost

    Well that was how it once was we were proud to make the claim
    But a darkening of spirit now has crept across our name
    For the way we treat our weakest is what the world will see
    When we can't give refuge to a refugee
    Why can't we give refuge to a refugee

    This world's known so much chaos there's a shadow through the lands
    I search the stars for answers but I just don't understand
    When broken souls in need of help cried out for us to hear
    We could have offered hope and love instead we offered fear

    The fear of drab detention locked like dingos in a pound
    The fear of no horizon on this so called Christian ground
    And every rule our country makes reflects on you and me
    When we can't give refuge to a refugee
    Why can't we give refuge to a refugee

    And the sharp eyes of the world can see just what we're coming to
    We who have so much but cannot share it with the few
    Reacting to the symptoms never thinking of the cause
    When hunger and injustice are the enemies of us all

    For the faceless wounded spirits locked behind the razor wire
    We rally for their freedom with our consciences on fire
    And our hearts become the harder and we harbour bigotry
    When we can't give refuge to a refugee
    Why can't we give refuge to a refugee

    And I fly no flag of Jesus speak no politicians creed
    But sing the song of human beings crying out in need
    And I'll sing it ever louder until all the wounds are healed
    Til they know our hearts are open even though their lips are sealed

    For we are the lucky country and we have hearts enough to care
    We can speak our minds in freedom we have boundless plains to share
    And we've always known compassion and rejoiced in being free
    But we can't give refuge to a refugee
    Why can't we give refuge to a refugee

    Notes
    Many thanks to Bernard Carney for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection. Unions in Australia have been active in the campaign to change the country's treatment of refugees particularly those the government labels "Illegal Immigrants", and locks up in purpose built privately run jails they call "Detention Camps". These camps are made inaccessible to relatives, lawyers and even politicians. The government describes it's treatment of the refugees as "A Deterent to people smugglers". It narrowly won the 2001 Federal Election by whipping up hysteria on the issue, spreading lies like children being thrown overboard by their parents.


Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 08:48 AM

or this one by Kevin McCarthy, coordinator of the Denis O'Keeffe Memorial Australian Songs Session @ The National?

BATTLE FOR BENELONG, © Kevin McCarthy 2007

    It was on a bleak November day
    John Howard came undone
    the day he took for granted
    the people of Bennelong
    consumed with pride and vanity
    convinced he had it won
    dismissed the polls and he backed himself
    in the Battle for Bennelong

    When Maxine McKew raised her hand
    to run in Bennelong
    Howard scoffed: is this a joke?
    the nerve of this woman
    but she campaigned long and she campaigned hard
    she set her sights on John
    Maxine had come to give her all
    in the Battle for Bennelong

    To Australia’s ultra neo-cons
    John Howard was their man
    his economic miracle
    put wealth into their hand
    but eleven years of fear and hate
    had roused the Aussie mob
    and the battlers rose and had their say
    that day in Bennelong
    yeh the battlers rose and they had their say
    in the battle for Bennelong

    Now on polling day it soon emerged
    the contest would be tight
    Labor prayed whileLiberals choked
    those numbers can’t be right
    neck and neck, too close to call
    but when the count was done
    by a short half head, Maxine had won
    the Battle for Bennelong
    [CHEER]

    Now Maxine McKew has won a place
    in Australian history
    the reporter from the ABC
    brought Howard to his knees
    with Buckleys chance, and against the odds
    she took the bastard on
    and Maxine McKew claimed victory
    in the Battle for Bennelong
    yes Maxine McKew made history
    that day in Bennelong

    Notes

    Many thanks to Kevin "Blarney" McCarthy editor of the Blarney Bulletin at http://www.blarneybulletin.com/ for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.

    Find more of Kevin's work in this collection

    Journalist Maxine McKew was Labor candidate in Sydney seat of Bennelong, a seat Prime Minister John Howard had held for 33 years. Her victory was the icing on the cake of the Labor win on 24 Novembr 2007, a win that decimated John Howard's Liberal party and installed the Labor Federal Government of Kevin Rudd.

Audio

My folk club met that night & I was lucky enough to get some great photos as one of the audience kept popping outside to listen to the counts.
When she interrupted to tell us Labor had won - faces went from shock to cheers but the exhausted bloke in the Union t-shirt who was slumped down in the front row barely raised an eyelid. Unfortunately I didn't publish any of those photos.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 08:31 AM

I've been looking in Union songs & saw lots of songs we've missed!

how could we leave this out?

DON'T BE TOO POLITE, GIRLS, © Glen Tomasetti 1969 Tune "All Among The Wool"

    We're really on the way, girls, really on the way,
    Hooray for equal pay, girls, hooray for equal pay,
    They're going to give it to most of us, in spite of all their fears
    But do they really need to make us wait three years.

    Chorus
    Don't be too polite girls, don't be too polite,
    Show a little fight girls, show a little fight,
    Don't be fearful of offending, in case you get the sack
    Just recognise your value and we won't look back.

    I sew up shirts and trousers in the clothing trade,
    Since men don't do the job I can't ask to be better paid
    The people at the top rarely offer something more
    Unless the people underneath are walking out the door.

    They say a man needs more to feed his children and his wife,
    Well, what are the needs of a woman who leads a double working life?
    When the whistle blows for knock-off it's not her time for fun
    She goes home to start the job that's not paid and never done.

    Don't be too afraid girls, don't be too afraid,
    We're clearly underpaid girls, clearly underpaid,
    Tho' equal pay in principle is every woman's right
    To turn that into practice, we must show a little fight.

    We can't afford to pay you, say the masters in their wrath
    But woman says "Just cut your coat according to the cloth"
    If the economy won't stand then here's the answer boys,
    "Cut out the wild extravagance on the new war toys".

    All among the bull girls, all among the bull,
    Keep your hearts full girls, keep your hearts full
    What good is a man as a doormat, or following at heel?
    It's not their balls we're after, it's a fair square deal.

    Notes

    Many thanks to Choir Choir Pants On Fire from New Zealand for permission to add their version of this song to the Union Songs collection.

    The song was written by Glen Tomasetti who was a well know Melbourne folk singer, writer and political activist. The song is still in use in demonstrations in Australia and has been widely used in films and as a theme song for women's radio and International Women's Day celebrations. It was first sung on Channel 7 television in the current affairs program "This Week".

    In the introduction to 'Songs From A Seat In The Carriage', a folio of her songs published in 1970, Glen wrote:
    'In Charles Dickens 'A Tale of Two Cities' the Marquis St Evremonde rides through the streets of Paris in his carriage. It runs down a child and as the father crouches in the mud, howling like a wild animal over the body of his son, the Marquis dispenses two coins and gives the order, DRIVE ON'. Australia's traditional image identifies us with the poor from whom we are mostly descended. In world society today, however, Australia is part of the old regime, which protects and enlarges its riches at any cost to other people. Occasionally we throw out our loose change and drive on. These songs were written from a seat in that carriage'."

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 07:21 AM

source - Australian Society for the Study of Labour History To mark the centenary of the NSW Teachers’ Federation, we include in this issue of The Hummer two songs about teachers and the challenges of working in the NSW State education system

Twenty-nine kids, Lyrics by Sydney Trade Union Choir (2012), based on Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis 1947) and The Teacher’s Lament (Anon, 1950s)

Now, some people say a teacher’s made out of steel,
But a teacher’s made of stuff that can think and feel.
A mind and a body with a heart and soul,
An ability to teach the shy and the bold.

Chorus

I teach 29 kids and what do I get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St Peter don’t you call me to that Heavenly Gate,
I owe my soul to the youth of this state.
I woke this morning, it was cloudy and cool,
I picked up my briefcase and I drove to the school.
The copier’s jammed; I just can’t win
And there’s playground duty before the bell rings.

Chorus

I teach 29 kids and what do I get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St Peter, don’t you call me to that Celestial Shore,
I got 29 kids and they’re sending me more.

There’s a kid in every seat from wall to wall,
Any more that come will have to stand in the hall.
They’re breathing down my neck; they’re walking on my toes,
They’re telling me their joys and I’m sharing (all) their woes.

Chorus

I teach 29 kids and what do I get?
Younger in heart and nothing to regret.
St Peter, don’t you call me, I can’t leave here;
I’ll have 29 students again next year.

The bell rings at three but I’m not through,
With marking and assessments and reports to do.
The pressure is on, I have to flee,
‘Cause I’ve got to get back for the P & C.

Chorus

I teach 29 kids, I’m putting them first,
But education’s goin’ from bad to worse !
Devolution’s a con – it just ain’t right,
So we have to stick together and win this fight.
And win this fight, and win this fight
Yes, we have to stick together and win this fight!

no video or audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 07:17 AM

another of Maurie's songs

source - Australian Society for the Study of Labour History To mark the centenary of the NSW Teachers’ Federation, we include in this issue of The Hummer two songs about teachers and the challenges of working in the NSW State education system.

I’m Changing our Name to Grammar
Words & Music by Maurie Mulheron (2001)

Oh, the cost of education makes me flinch   
As public schools start to feel the pinch.
From each dollar we have gained
Little has remained;
No, our economic future is no cinch.
But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray
If we can make State Aid come back our way,
So, I’ve devised a plan of action,
Worked it out to the last fraction,
And I’m going into action here today.

Chorus

I’m changing our name to Grammar,
And I’m heading down to Canberra you see
I’ll tell those bureaucrats
What they did for St Ignats
Will be perfectly acceptable to me.
I’m changing our name to Grammar,
And I’m heading for that great receiving line
So, when they hand a million grand out
I’ll be standing with my hand out,
Yes, I’ll get mine!

When the P&C are screaming “Where’s the dough?”
I’ll be proud to tell them all where they can go
They won’t have to scream or holler,
They’ll get ev’ry last dollar
From where endless streams of money seem to flow
I’ll be proud to tell them all what they can do
It’s a matter of a simple form or two,
‘Cause for private education, there’s so much remuneration
In Canberra the cheque waits for you.

Chorus

Since the first amphibians crawled out of the slime,
We’ve been struggling in an unrelenting climb;
We were hardly up and walking
Before money started talking
And subsidies were an awful crime.
Now it’s been that way for a millennium or two
Now it seems there is a different point of view
If you’re enrolling at St Joey’s
No need to spend your dough
‘Cause Canberra will pay the fees for you!

Chorus (with last 3 lines repeated)

lyrics, no audio Based on I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler (Words and music by Tom Paxton, copyright Pax Music, ASCAP) Used by permission. Additional words by Maurie Mulheron
no wonder I can remember the tune!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 07:09 AM

3 days & no songs?????

Four Strong Women © Maurie Mulheron 1996

    Chorus:
    It took a hammer, an act of love
    To turn that jet Hawk into a dove
    It took some courage, it took some strength
    To stop that fighter from dealing death

    Into the hangar, into the plane
    Now use your hammer to stop the pain
    There's steady breathing as your work starts
    Four strong women, four beating hearts

    You sang of justice, you rang the bell
    You drove your hammer through Timor's hell
    You won your freedom but you won more
    You stopped a death plane from making war

    Four strong women with hammers high
    Beating ploughshares for a peaceful sky
    They know the struggle, they know the cause
    Whoever profits keeps making wars

    Coda: Four strong women, four beating hearts

    Notes
    Many thanks to Maurie Mulheron for permission to add this song to the Union Songs site.

    Maurie writes:

    This song celebrates the actions of four British women, Andrea Needham, Joanna Wilson, Lotta Kronlid and Angie Zeltner, who are members of the peace group, Ploughshares. In January 1996, they broke into the high security hangar owned by British Aerospace in Lancashire. Their purpose was to disarm one of the newly built Hawk jets. These jets were due for delivery to the Indonesian Government who use the jet Hawk against the villagers of East Timor.

    The four women had researched the plane well, learning its control panel layout and serial number. Months were spent monitoring the security and general operations of the British aerospace site at Warton until they were sure that they had located the exact plane destined for Indonesia.

    Once they had made a positive identification, Jet ZH 955, they made their last minute preparations. They quit their flats, said their farewells, bought some tools - bolt-cutters, crowbars and small hammers, and made their way to the airfield.

    After an agonising period waiting for the right moment, the four women broke into the hangar and set about destroying the war machine. They developed a steady rhythm, once they realised that the security was not coming. Over a period of about an hour the women methodically destroyed the plane's weapons system with their hammers. As Andrea Needham explains, "I have to admit I thought it might be a kind of religious experience but it felt like work - a job. It was like, here is a weapon that will hurt people, so this is what we have to do to stop it."

    When they finished, they placed banners and streamers over the plane, sang songs of peace and dropped small seeds (of hope) everywhere. As well, they placed a video in the cockpit of John Pilger's documentary on East Timor which has footage of eyewitness accounts of the planes in action.

    Eventually they were arrested and charged. They faced heavy prison sentences. At their trial they argued from a difficult position: that their crime was justified because its intent was to prevent a larger crime, genocide, from occurring.

    As the John Pilger documentary had been found at the scene of the crime, the women were able to show the video to the jury. On the sixth day of the trial, the jury turned in a majority verdict of not guilty. Their defence had been accepted.

    British Aerospace were stunned. On the steps of the courthouse, crowded with supporters, journalists and photographers, a company representative stepped forward to serve an injunction ordering the women not to trespass on the company's property. Angie Zeltner took the papers and, grinning broadly, promptly tore them up. Four strong women!

    For more information, see the article "If I Had a Hammer" by Jane Wheatley in HQ magazine, (September/October 1996) and pages 313-322 of John Pilger's "Hidden Agendas" (Vintage, 1998).

    Ploughshares has a web site: http://tridentploughshares.org/


no video or audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 07:52 PM

Fred Smith has a particular interest in the USA, having worked there for a year in 2006-2007. Here is a recent song about the election of Joe Biden, written before the invasion of the Capitol.

The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honour or dishonour, to the latest generation. Abraham Lincoln, December 1, 1862.

LONG RUN WILMINGTON JOE
(Fred Smith)

Wasn’t such a long time ago… November 2020
Three weeks before the snow fell upon the land of plenty
Couple thousand people a day were succumbing to infection,
Health workers tired and frayed, I was watching the election

The primaries were anyone’s show, Joe talked reconciliation
Clyburn had lived through Jim Crow, helped Joe win the nomination
The President still put on his shows in the midst of the pandemic
30,000 people would go, guess his crowd ain’t academics
TikTok and Twitter, the broken and the bitter listen in to orange man blow
Each to their own bubbles making up their troubles in their own reality show

Tuesday came around soon, boarded windows braced for violence
In the end it went pretty smooth, millions voted there in silence
Florida was quick to succumb then went Texas and Ohio
Lots of people start to feel numb, is the red mirage a lie though?
Michigan the first to turn blue, mail-in counting, Donald scolding
Minnesota, Wisconsin too, you could feel the blue wall holding

Nevada started tipping, Georgia started flipping for the first time since ’92
Even Arizona, Joe won Maricopa and the Goldwater state slid in blue
They just kept on counting in Allegheny County on a Pittsburgh factory floor
Out in Philadelphia things are looking healthier and they still kept counting some more
Officials looking weary, it's turning blue in Erie, even Fox News says it is so
Folks all went insane and, when Joe won Pennsylvania, the champagne started to flow

Long run Wilmington Joe, now you’re feeling presidential,
Plant the seeds and let ‘em all grow, feeling healing is essential

Instrumental break

Long run Wilmington Joe, coming in to Union Station
Riding on a sliver of hope, to the coming generation

There is a beaut video of the song on YT. Fred explained the genesis of the song:

In early November, I was confined to my room for two weeks COVID isolation when a colleague tested positive. I figured out how to make my television work and watched the US elections unfold. I was inspired to see election officials and ordinary citizens working to make the democratic process work in the face of background noise. Sound governance and due process are boring, but better than the alternative. Here is an offering for my friends in America…

He was yet to see 'the alternative' occur.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Feb 21 - 07:05 PM

The Land of Bright Gold
John Thompson

I will go to the land of bright gold
A place of peace and plenty
Where everyone's story is told
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will enter the palace of dreams
A place of peace and plenty
Where magic is just as it seems
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will walk through the towering trees
A place of peace and plenty
Where the leaves sing the song of the breeze
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will go to the cave of the King
A place of peace and plenty
And we'll sit there together and sing
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will dance in the garden of love
A place of peace and plenty
Where our souls can soar high up above
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will climb to the mountains of peace
A place of peace and plenty
The place where all anger will cease
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will sleep in the warmth of the sun
A place of peace and plenty
Where all who are gone will be one
And grief and sorrow can't find me

I will go to the land of bright gold
A place of peace and plenty
Where everyone's story is told
And grief and sorrow can't find me

--------------------------------------------------

Track 13 on the Cloudstreet CD, The Land of Bright Gold. From the liner notes: "John wrote this piece while thinking of the hopes that people carry for the 'other place' that they imagine will be better. It is this type of dreaming that drives us to believe in the next world, or to travel to the far side of the globe in search of new lives." Recording here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 10 Feb 21 - 06:55 PM

Homeless Beaver (to the tune of Drunken Sailor)
John Thompson

In '48 in Idaho
For houses the animals had to go.
They turned for help to a man named Elmo,
Fish and Game employee

Chorus:
What shall we do with a homeless beaver? x3
Throw him from an airplane!

Beavers, they move way too slow.
From Payette Lake they had to go.
Their leader was called Geronimo.
He was fine and brave and furry.

Elmo Heter was the man.
Elmo had a cunning plan.
I will do what no one else can,
Transplant all the beavers!

The beavers their demise were facin'.
They had to get to Chamberlain Basin.
Against the clock Elmo was racin'.
We must save the beavers!

He thought of parachutes, we don't know why,
To take the beavers through the sky.
A dumb idea, but worth a try.
A load of airborne beavers!

Elmo put them into boxes,
Boxes with automatic locks as
Would open when they hit the rockses.
Freedom for the beavers!

The beavers live there to this day,
They tell their tales, they have their say.
It is to Elmo that they pray,
The sky-god of the beavers!

---------------------------------------------------

I'm not sure about the end of the second and start of the third lines in the next-to-last verse. Track 12 on the Cloudstreet CD "Clouded House". From the liner notes: "The headline said, 'In 1948, Idaho airlifted 76 beavers to a new habitat, dropping them via parachute.' A splendidly true story." Recording here.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Feb 21 - 08:30 PM

JOHN SMITH A.B.
(w. D.H. Rogers attrib/m. N.Colquhoun)

When the southern gale is blowing hard
And the watch are all on topsail yard
When five come down where six went up
There’s one less to share the bite and sup

Chorus
Instead of the stone and the carven verse
This is his epitaph curt and terse
John Smith A.B. drowned in latitude fifty-three
A heavy gale and a following’ sea

A name is missed when the roll they call
A hand the less for the mainsail haul
They steal his rags and his bags and bed
Little it matters to him who’s dead

Chorus

We’ve lost the way to the open sea
We’ve missed the doom we hoped to free
For the big ships runnin’ their eastin’ down
Are far from the din of Sydney town

Chorus

Sailing ships began to visit New Zealand around the 1790s, a few on the lookout for tall timbers but most hunting for whale. At this time whalebone was used for strength and flexibility
where steel is now used and whale oil kept the cotton- and woollen-mill machinery lubricated. The tall straight kauri could be used for masts and spars and flax made excellent rope - for these were the great days of sail, the "impressed" sailor, the "run-away-to-sea" and the able-bodied Jack Smith. 'Song of a Young Country' p6.

Youtube clip

Here's a link to information re 'Soon may the wellerman come' on the NZ folk song site. I meant to post it when I posted the lyrics:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Feb 21 - 07:55 AM

Continuing the Nullarbor theme :
Stewie posted Kasey Chambers’ “Nullarbor Song” on Nov 1st last year, but here is a later composition :


NULLARBOR, THE BIGGEST BACKYARD

Kasey Chambers

When I was a little girl, I had the biggest backyard in the world
It went on for miles and miles as wide as it was high
Down to the horizon all the way up to the sky
And every now and then I heard a Mile Tree cry my name,

When I was a little girl, I had the biggest backyard in the world
Covered up with red dirt, as far as I could see
I shared it with the railway and the aborigines
Southwest of Ooldea all the way down to the sea - and back,

When I was a little girl, I had the biggest backyard in the world
The sun would shine until the day I asked for it to rain
Counting down the sleeps until the “Tea and Sugar” train
Ten cents on the track for days before it ever came - and went,

When I was a little girl, I had the biggest backyard in the world
Sitting 'round the campfire that started from a spark
Rolling down the Gunbarrel Highway in the dark
Making sure that I had all the room here in my heart - for the Nullarbor,

When I was a little girl, I had the biggest backyard in the world …….

c.2010

Kasey at Tamworth in 2011 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMNdLzYluY0



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Feb 21 - 07:22 AM

TEA AND SUGAR

Helen Henderson

Out here, there’s nothing for miles
No trees, no water, just an endless sky
Out where the only sound of people
Is the news on the radio at suppertime.

Red sun rising and the river bed’s dry
Light up a cigarette, watch the world roll by
I got one cold beer and my throat is burning
Gonna wash away all this trouble and strife.

I left my soul on ”The Tea and Sugar”
Somewhere out on the Nullarbor Plain
I said me a prayer for my only daughter
I bought me a ticket on the gravy train.

I got some dreams and my grandfather’s bible
A picture of you, an old paper sack
A bottle of whiskey and some tea and sugar
I’m bound for nowhere down this railroad track.

Once upon a time this desert was an ocean
Of fishes in the water, swimming for their lives
Now there’s nothing but this blue horizon
A trail of tears in an indigo sky.

I left my soul on ”The Tea and Sugar” ………….

I’m weary of the world and everything in it
I’m tired of living; I’m chilled to the bone
I’ll buy me a ticket on the “Tea & Sugar”
I’ll ride that train to the end of the line.

I’ll take me away from the people and places
I’ll take me away from the worry and pain
Bleach my bones clean and white
In the sun, in the sand, of the Nullarbor Plain

I left my soul on ”The Tea and Sugar”
Somewhere out on the Nullarbor Plain
Said me a prayer for my only daughter
I bought her a ticket on the gravy train.

I left my soul on ”The Tea and Sugar”……………..
……. Said me a prayer; bought me a ticket .....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlL0SrcXxts   Helen Henderson (NZ) and band
BIO - https://www.muzic.net.nz/artists/3794/helen-henderson    and   https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/82430540/kiwi-singer-helen-henderson-comes-full-circle


Here are a couple of the mini docos on YT on this famous train, the “Tea & Sugar”, that ran weekly from 1917 to 1996 between Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (some 1051 miles),
to service the remote settlements of fettlers (rail workers) and others :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vAh-p0-cPA    This CFU doco from 1954
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOlNnLN8i08   This Yank doco from 1986

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyu9g8k7RwY
This FAC doco from 1925 : Shows construction of the line (including hand ploughing using a Camel Team!) The digging/ploughing of the numerous covered dams for the engine, which used 280 tons of water per trip.
(however, the dam water ended up being mostly too brackish for steam engine use!) The telegraph line all the way alongside the track. 2+ 1/2 Million sleepers used for the rail (now that’s a lotta old growth forest …..) and More.
But all-in-all, a bloody hard slog! (and no one wears gloves! Bet all their backs were Fkd!)


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Feb 21 - 06:19 AM

4 songs listed, no. 3 has comment "BULLETBELT (NZ) – perhaps only press play if you enjoy the effects of thrash-death metal"

Years ago I was on a CBD bus when 4 classical students from the Conservatorium got on (violins, viola & cello!) & entertained us. Alas they didn't bring along their double bass, my favourite instrument, but it really wouldn't have fitted. They said another group - heavy Metal students - were on another bus - driver & passengers were glad we were not on that bus.
I must ask my friend who teaches at The Con if they still send students out on buses (pre-covid of course!)

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 08 Feb 21 - 02:50 AM

A Few Songs About MINNIE DEAN

“The Magdalene Laundry” and other such films and reports, have brought to light many sad tales of infant/child/mother mistreatment and mortality, particularly in Ireland and the US, with many babies and children lost to mothers, not only from a weak constitution or disease, but through institutional neglect (some deliberate), and some from perhaps even outright killing? - with the potentially “lucky” ones on-sold to well-heeled buyers. Events perpetrated by Govt and Religious institutions which, rather than “caring” for, were seemingly intent on punishing mothers who were unmarried and/or poor, and were therefore apparently grossly distasteful and immoral, particularly to many of those “great minds and small hearts” of the Victorian era.

This NZ song refers to the only woman hanged in NZ (in 1895) and who, it seems, was someone who lovingly took care of the evidence of your daughter’s shame, or the mother with far too many mouths to feed, and who thus enabled families to continue to live in polite society.

Minnie (born Williamina McCulloch, in Scotland), is still the sad but interesting subject of books and conjecture – was she a monster, was she a long-time sufferer of post-partum depression – was she some sort of public service for assauging society’s guilty moral attitudes – or was she, as she claimed standing on the hangman’s trapdoor - Innocent?    Trial by media is not a modern thing, by any means.

Interestingly (to me!), Minnie Dean of Winton (north of Invercargill), was allegedly “plying her trade of baby-farming” around the time and place my GGGrandfather was rearing his family in South Island, post his goldmining exploits and now a nearby Waianiwa farmer and Invercargill pub-owner. As a publican, he no doubt heard much gossip and many a tale concerning this local woman!

There is much to read on-line. But try these :
https://adventure.nunn.nz/2019/10/30/the-strange-sad-case-of-minnie-dean/         
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/minnie_dean.shtml
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/black-sheep/story/2018761597/baby-farmer-the-story-of-minnie-dean
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2d7/dean-williamina


THE BALLAD OF MINNIE DEAN [1]

Helen Henderson

[ Helen was brought up in Invercargill. "Minnie was like the bogeyman of our town when I was a kid," she says.
"If you were giving cheek to your mum or being naughty it was like: 'You better watch or I'll send you off to Minnie Dean's farm and you'll never be heard of again.'
http://www.folksong.org.nz/minniedean/index.html ]


Chorus
       Minnie Dean, Minnie Dean, she's gonna ge'cha
       And take you away on the afternoon train.
       Oh, you'd better be good, coz Minnie Dean's gonna ge'cha
       And you'll never, ever, be heard of again.

   
1. She dressed in black and she carried a hat in
    a hat box when early to the station she came,
    And on her way back, she'd always wear the hat
    Invercargill to Winton, on the 5 o'clock train.


2. She was so sweet and gracious to the girls and the ladies
   A home for their babies she said she'd provide,
   It was all done in private and money was provided
   As she wrapped up their little ones and took them away.
   

Bridge:
           Here lie the children nobody wanted         
           Minnie died for her sins and the people they cried
           They cried for themselves and they cried for their children
           They cried for Minnie and for closing their eyes.

   
3. She dressed in black and she carried a hat in
    a hat box when early to the courthouse she came,
   "Judge, I'm innocent" she said, "They just disappeared"
   (“They got lost in the garden” “They crawled under the bed”)
    But they hanged her from the gallows until she was dead.
   
             . . . No, you'll never be heard of again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BLvvllCWH4     Helen Henderson


Other songs about Minnie Dean :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r64jMxUacYw Marlon Williams & the Yarra Benders
(who would be recognisable to ABC viewers from his musical appearances in “The Beauiful Lie” drama, in 2015)

THE BALLAD OF MINNIE DEAN [2]

Marlon Williams

Minnie was a mother to a hundred or more
In Winton town
Red-faced mamas coming knocking on her door
With a whole ten pounds
Winter in the south makes the heart beat slow
But hearts beat slower in the garden below.

Then three went missing and the men start digging in the ground (ground)
Men start digging in the ground (three found)
Bring poor Minnie downtown
But a woman won't hang in Winton town.

Hundreds in the room when Minnie stood trial
Many more outside
Oh Minnie, you're accused of a serious crime:
Infanticide
The crowd all cheered as the gavel rang
But have mercy on the soul of the women you hang.

Then they carried her away and the crowd all followed her down (down)
The crowd all followed her down (three found)
Everybody gathered round
To see a woman hang in Winton town
Oh see a woman hang in Winton town.


MINNIE DEAN [3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqj9UUvdf5Y – BULLETBELT (NZ) – perhaps only press play if you enjoy the effects of thrash-death metal :)

MINNIE DEAN [4]
“….. written by Marylyn Hayes and Brendon Fairbairn. It is on the Passing time CD, Invercargill, N.Z. 2000, by New Zealand celtic folk music group Run the Cutter.”
Which I haven’t yet found on-line ……



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 12:54 AM

BUDDY BREATHING

Mike Harding

Buddy-Breathing, sharing air
Deep-sea diving, taking care
Just make one mistake and you’ll be drowned,
Behind the mask, below the surface
Diving through uncharted waters
Going where no footprints can be found.

Choose the surface, play it safe
Or take a chance beneath the waves
The ripples spread and fade where you went down.

Buddy-Breathing, brave the water
Make no assumptions, trust your partner
When words don’t work, you’ll learn to read the signs,
Conditions change, the tide advances
Never take this life for granted
From far below you won’t know sea from sky.

Declare intentions when you dive
Indifferent water will drown your cries
Buddy-Breathing, share that vital line.

Buddy-Breathing, sharing air
Deep-sea diving, taking care
Just make one mistake and you’ll be drowned,
Diving deep down into love
No marker on the sea above
Going where no footprints can be found
The ripples spread and fade where you went down
The ripples spread and fade ……………

My new favourite song, from the singing of Kiwis, Mike Harding and Chris Priestley! :)
Listen here to Mike, with Chris on harmony, from April, 2011 in NZ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6JQvH0n2to

I like these guys and here is a compilation of some of their songs from that 2011 tour of South Island, called “Kiwi Connections” where they showcased EnZed songwriters :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIqf0gObvyA

[As regards scuba diving, I enjoyed this activity when young and fit but gave it up after my first (daytime) dive with a group in Darwin Harbour – where I could not see my hand in front of me : JEEEZUZ.
Not sure whether the dive companies still do that, considering the increases in the croc populations …..
But just before I arrived, in 1983, Tim Proctor’s Fannie Bay Dive Shop team attempted a Guinness Book of Records, record-breaking attempt of an underwater crossing from Darwin to Mandorah – driving a Toyota Landcruiser :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-18/how-a-car-drove-across-darwin-harbour-35-years-ago/10009608   ]


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Feb 21 - 10:04 PM

This parody of 'Soon may the Wellerman come' turned up recently on the NZ Folk Song site.

THE NEEDLEMAN

I’ll tell you how this all began
A jungle virus in Wuhan
First it went from bat to man
Then round the world it flew.

The tourists flocked here, more and more,
And down on us the Covid bore
Jacinta roused her team and swore
To lay that virus low.

Soon may the Needleman come
An' vaccinate us one by one
One day when the Covid is gone
We can drop our masks and go . . .
FOR A COFFEE! YEAHHH!

The world’s upturned, so much disorder
We’re now locked down inside our border.
An' I've became a loo roll hoarder
'Cause I still have to go!

It's 40 weeks or even more
Since I kissed my sweet Elenore
The frustration's now at Level Four
We're ready to explode!

Soon may the Needleman come
An' vaccinate us one by one
One day when the Covid is gone
We can drop our masks and go...
AN’ MAKE LOVE AGAIN!

As far as I know, the fight’s still on
We still need masks, the bug’s not gone
The Needleman's not yet made his call
To jab our oldies, sick, and all.

Soon may the Needleman come
An' vaccinate us one by one
One day when the Covid is gone
We can drop our masks and go...
ANYWHERE WE WANT TO! YEAHHH!

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 06 Feb 21 - 05:07 AM

R-J, my apologies for not answering your query re Priestley and Harding - I have been busy with stuff in the real world. I do not have any of their albums. As you say, there's some great NZ music and, like Canada, NZ punches above its weight in terms of producing some first-rate singer/songwriters.

It is pertinent to point out that today is the anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi. A Maori song related to the treaty:

Click

Wiki entry:

Treaty of Waitangi

A lighter piece:

T of W in the office

And this one that was possibly inspired by Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson's infamous 'Living next door to Alan':

Living next door to Maoris

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 04 Feb 21 - 10:46 PM

We have posted a number of songs in this thread either written or performed, by John Thompson (& Nicole Murray) of CLOUDSREET.

Please post in John's OBIT thread if you are so moved : /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=169289&messages=4

This recent thread also has info : /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=168955&messages=8


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 04 Feb 21 - 08:15 AM

TEDDY SHEEAN - FOREVER EIGHTEEN

Garth Porter & Lee Kernaghan & Colin Buchanan

The bow cut the swell on a course set for Timor
The Armidale plowed through the waves
The enemy found us, sent bombs and torpedoes
Out-gunned and out-numbered we prayed
Abandon the ship! came the call through the chaos
Jump for your lives, the ship’s going down,

And I saw Teddy Sheean
He was wounded and bleeding, strapped to his oerlikon gun
And he kept on firing as he was dragged under
So noble for someone so young - forever eighteen
We'll never forget Teddy Sheean.

The blood and the oil coated men in the water
The stern rose and then disappeared
We clung to the wreckage and still they came at us
Till the silence of evening drew near
We floated two whalers and a raft from the flotsam
We hung on and waited for help to arrive,

I saw Teddy Sheean
He was wounded and bleeding, strapped to his oerlikon gun
And he kept on firing as he was dragged under
So noble for someone so young - forever eighteen
We'll never forget Teddy Sheean.

The men who survived owe their lives to the lad
The boy who stood strong and held on and fought on till the end

I saw Teddy Sheean
He was wounded and bleeding, strapped to his oerlikon gun
And he kept on firing as he was dragged under
So noble for someone so young - forever eighteen
We'll never forget Teddy Sheean.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QCP8xX6Mmw
Lee Kernaghan sings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z1DxP2YtOU
Teddy’s final service that helped save fellow sailors on the sinking corvette, HMAS Armidale, under Japanese bomber and fighter airfire, in the Timor Sea.
   
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oerlikon_20_mm_cannon
the AA gun Teddy strapped himself into

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Sheean
Teddy’s Story - and Govt Denials for almost 80 years

Teddy was posthumously awarded the VC in August 2020, for his heroic deeds in 1942.
(I note that it took some 78 years for this award to be finally approved, after years of vigorous campaigning. And yet, just recently, an Australian sporting star (born the same year Teddy Sheean died), was awarded yet another gong
(an AC - she already had an MBE and an AO, plus other numerous accolades for her well-deserved tennis prowess).
After retiring in 1977 from being a champion ball-belter, she eventually became a happy-clappy preacher of the same persuasion as our current prime minister and well-known for her outspoken racist and homophobic views.
One can only presume that she is now being rewarded for this ‘christian’? behaviour.
Strange, our societal priorities. And they wonder why so many of us have scant respect for ‘The Authorities’ .....)

Spirit of the Anzacs is an album by Australian country singer, Lee Kernaghan. It was released in Australia in 2015. The deluxe 2017 edition contained 20 songs and I note that we have so far featured 6 of those songs in our Mudcat thread!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqFDN1WdxI&list=OLAK5uy_lCulVvQDuF2H7-NXFx2im4QcjvQroSZH4


“Teddy Sheean 0003” a song by Greg Wells : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2b1-mIdTzE



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 04 Feb 21 - 07:09 AM

Really appreciate all the EnZed songs you've posted, Stewie!
As I think I've said before, I don't know much past Phil Garland and Martin Curtis and I own only one CD from Kiwi land!!    Sure wish I had been there; seems a bit too late now .....
(this is despite my Lancashire GG-Grandfather rearing his family on the various South Island goldfields from 1860s to 1900s, so I must have distant rellies there somewhere!!)

Anyways, I came across a coupla tracks by Chris Priestley and Mike Harding - "Buddy Breathing" and "Rainbird in the Teatree" - and a medley from their 2011 Kiwi Songcatchers Tour on YT - there's obviously some really great material I've missed out on!!!

Do you have stuff from them???

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Feb 21 - 05:50 PM

SCRUB AND BLACKBERRY
(Paul Bond)

Refrain.
Here's to the home I've left so long
Far in the back country
Hidden in the rushes, the scrub and the blackberry

Muddy paths and potholes
Tractor tracks and postholes
Mossy battens dangling there on the wire
And the open fire

Six-inch nails and hay bales
Warratahs and sliprails
Dogs and children yapping away in your ear
And the air so clear

Refrain

Days of chipping thistles
Curses and dog whistles
Crutching in the yard with a flash of the shears
As the evening nears,

Talking round the table
Loud guffaws and babble
Families now split up and splintered like kindling wood
But the life was good

Refrain

Youtube clip

This song was the winner of the NZ Folk Federation songwriting competition in 1981.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Feb 21 - 07:11 PM

LENTILS
(Kath Tait)

Life was cheap, our thoughts were deep
We did not wash for forty weeks
We ate the brown rice and the lentils
We thought we were so existential
We did not weep, we took a leap
To the bottom of the social heap
The view was clearer than from the top
Our wisdom flourished, our wealth did not

The social ladder it was too steep
We watched our friends climb up so high
And we watched them wave bye bye
Disappearing in the sky
We smoked a pipe, we grew a beard
The neighbours thought that we were weird
Yes, we were weird but we were not glum
Our youth was too much fun

We were not dense, we lived in tents
To cut down on bills and rent
Under umbrellas, we ate the lentils
We thought that we were so environmental
We did not mope, we bought the dope
With the money that we saved on soap
We made our choices and there was time
So when things went wrong we could change our mind

The social ladder it was too steep
We watched our friends climb up so high
And we watched them wave bye bye
Disappearing in the sky
We smoked a pipe, we grew a beard
The neighbours thought that we were weird
Yes, we were weird but we were not glum
Our youth was too much fun

Was it uncouth to spend our youth
Throwing parties on the roof
Our new friends were not respectable
Our old friends became aloof
We wrote a poem like Leonard Cohen
About not knowing where we were going
So we stumbled through the years
Chasing a stream of peculiar ideas
While the mice, the ticks and lice
The weevils thrived in the brown rice

The days went round, our lives did go
The price of lentils stayed reasonably low
And we’ve no regrets about the debts
Or the savings we did not collect
We’ll spend our old age eating lentils
With no spare cash for non-essentials
There’ll be no trips on luxury ships
No new false teeth or plastic hips
And as for choices they’ve nothing left
But to become Buddhist nuns, I guess

Another good'un from the wonderful Kath Tait. The above is my transcription from the video. I have no idea of the original stanza structure. Corrections welcomed.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Feb 21 - 08:43 AM

THE LOVE I LEAVE BEHIND

Allan Caswell & Drew McAlister

The worth of the man isn’t measured in minutes, it’s a journey that’s measured in years
And it doesn’t matter where you begin, as long as it brings you here
You learn more from getting it wrong than you ever do getting it right
And you tell your life story with the love you leave behind,
Before my time comes I’m gonna leave some sign that I was here
Won’t be what I own, a fancy home, a car, or my career
If I’ve lived and loved too hard and made good use of my time
I’ll make the world a better place with the love I leave behind.

The worth of a man isn’t measured in things, it’s secret and silent and strong
It’s in the pride you take in your name and the children who carry it on
You can live on this planet for eighty-odd years but it’s only a moment in time
And you tell your life story with the love you leave behind,
Before my time comes I’m gonna leave some sign that I was here
Won’t be what I own, a fancy home, a car, or my career
If I’ve lived and loved too hard and made good use of my time
I’ll make the world a better place with the love I leave behind.

Before my time comes I’m gonna leave some sign that I was here
Won’t be what I own, a fancy home, a car, or my career
If I’ve lived and loved too hard and made good use of my time
I’ll make the world a better place, I’ll make this world a better place
With the love I leave behind.

Graeme Connors : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYdFkbsPsOs

Co-written by country performer, Alan Caswell - who is apparently “…… Australia’s most recorded songwriter, with well over 750 of his songs being released around the world by artists of high calibre, like …… “    http://www.allancaswell.com/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Feb 21 - 01:50 AM

In the very early days of the Bush Music Club (est.Oct 1954), one of the first bush bands was the Spraggers, based in Lithgow - minutes Oct 54-March 55
The names of the first 4 bush bands established during these months are written on the front cover.
Bushwhackers
Spraggers
Rousers (Rouseabouts)
Drovers

Bill Crossdale interview, Rob & Olya Willis folklore collection

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Feb 21 - 12:10 AM

THE DYING SPRAGGER
(Anon)

A handsome young spragger lay dying
With a miner supporting his head
When he raised himself up on his elbow
And then to his workmates he said

Wrap me up with my pit lamp and tallow
And stow my poor body below
Where the ? and the blowflies can’t find me
In some dark and cool tunnel below

Take my old crib can and bottle
Place one at my head and my toe
Then scratch out my name at the pay box
And tell them I’m sleeping below

There’s some tea in the black dixie ? tin
Line your dip tins up in a row
And let’s drink to our next joyful meeting
In the sky where all good workers go

I can hear the big wheel on the popper
And the cage as it moves down the toe
For it sounds the death knell of a spragger
Goodbye my good friends I must go

Pay the piper to pipe me a solo
Ask the union to sing me a song
Have the priests ring out the old church bell
So the whole town will know that I’m gone

Oh if I had the wings of a bell bird
Right over the town I would fly
And I’d fly to the home of my loved ones
But alas, my dear cobbers, I die

Wrap me up with my pit lamp and tallow
And stow my poor body below
Where the ? and the blowflies can’t find me
In some dark and cool tunnel below

This coal mining parody of 'The Dying Stockman' is from Alan Musgrove and His Watsaname Band's 'Behind the Times' CD - no label or number but available via Trad&Now. A beaut album.

There is no lyric booklet with the CD - the above transcription is mine. I was unable to decipher the insect (or whatever) accompanying blowflies in the third line of the repeated stanza. It sounds like 'pie-whys'. There is a piwi gene in some insects, but I doubt that is it. I also couldn't make sense of the reference to a dixie mess tin because it sounds like 'black dixie fountain'. I hope someone can supply the correct words.

Note by Alan Musgrove:

It was learnt from the singing of Bill Crossdale who in turn learnt it from Jack Marsden, a miner at Bellbird Colliery in the Hunter Valley of NSW. In coal mining parlance a spragger is a worker who stops coal skips by inserting a piece of timber (a sprig) between the wheel spokes as the skips have no braking system of their own.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 08:38 PM

AS THE BLACK BILLY BOILS
(Anon)

As the black billy boils
At the end of the whare
I remember the time
When I lived in a hurry
With my hand on a line
Tied to a bundle of money
And I was a very young new chum

As the black billy boils
At the end of the whare
I look back on the days
And how they seem so very funny
Now i've mended my ways
And I never have a worry
And it's thanks to the kauri gum

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 08:18 PM

Sorry for that question mark in Chloe's name!
Mudcat obviously didn't like my attempts at an "umlaut" (or whatever it is called in this case .....)

St Brigid will forgive me! :)

R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 08:09 PM

I love love love this performance/interpretation by Chlo? and Jason!!!! :)

THE WATCH ON THE KERB

Henry Lawson, 1888 / Chloe & Jason Roweth, 2017

Night-lights are falling;
Girl of the street,
Go to your calling
If you would eat.
Lamplight and starlight
And moonlight superb,
Bright hope is a farlight,
So watch on the kerb.

Watch on the kerb,
Watch on the kerb;
Hope is a farlight;
Then watch on the kerb.

Comes a man: call him —
Gone! he is vext;
Curses befall him,
Wait for the next!
Fair world and bright world,
Life still is sweet —
Girl of the night-world,
Watch on the street.

Dreary the watch is:
Moon sinks from sight,
Gas only blotches
Darkness with light;
Never, Oh, never
Let courage go down;
Keep from the river,
Oh, Girl of the Town!

The Bulletin, 19 April 1888

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQfUhhVs5YA

'The Watch on the Kerb' (1888) Words: Henry Lawson, Music: Chloe & Jason Roweth (2017).
['The Day Before I Die' (1907) Words: Henry Lawson. ]

Chloe Roweth: Voice, Tenor Banjo / Jason Roweth: Voice, Guitar / Liz Frencham: Bass

[ Music recorded live at Silver Hill, Cygnet, Tasmania - Jan 16, 2018. / Video recorded at Silver Hill - Jan 19, 2018. / Music and film recorded, mixed and edited by Michael Gissing. ]

“The Soul of The Poet : Songs and Poems of Henry Lawson (2018)” CD
“Chloë and Jason Roweth mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Henry Lawson with a selection of his finest poems in song and spoken word. Their work includes original musical settings, and evocative use of dance music from Lawson’s (and the Roweths') home country - central-west NSW. The Roweths have found great inspiration in Henry's words, learning his poetry, and setting many lesser known poems to music. The poems that resonate with Chloe and Jason are those of a more complex and personal nature; verses that reveal Henry Lawson as a flawed genius, a creative artist, a revolutionary and a humanist.”

"I can love him because he stands above us all. Because his fun and friendship, his troubled, tragic spirit, his rugged ways, the vision that he never lost, the hopes that were broken, his kindness and despair, his heart and soul poured out, everything he thought and everything he wrote for our great heritage, were as much a part of him as his drinking. And I am like him, and I understand."
: From Henry Lawson’s daughter, Bertha Lawson [Jago], unpublished notes. As reprinted in ‘A Wife’s Heart - The Untold Story of Bertha and Henry Lawson’ by Kerrie Davies, first published 2017 by University of Queensland Press.

https://www.rowethmusic.com.au/the-soul-of-a-poet



R-J


PS        Down Under it is already Feb 1st (and our last month of Summer) - but UP NORF it is St Brigid’s Day and that means IMBOLC and Spring - and the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
“Brigid encompasses the stories of two women, Brigid the saint who is considered a patron saint of Ireland and the goddess Brigid a powerful woman and the patroness of healing, arts, fertility, poetry/music, prophecy and agriculture.   
Her feast day on the 1st February marks the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere and it is the season when we CELEBRATE HOPE and new life on earth”

https://www.thereisadayforthat.com/holidays/ireland/imbolc

So Happy Bridie’s Day to you all :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 10:25 PM

A song of a digger leaving the west coast of New Zealand for the Palmer River gold rush in North Queensland.

THE DIGGER'S FAREWELL
(Anon)

Well it's just as you say sir, I'm off once more
To the Palmer River, that's my way
I landed here in sixty-four
That's ten years' struggle along the Grey

Ten long years since I landed here
In a trackless land of wet and cold
Some of our lives were pretty severe
But who lacks hardship looking for gold?

Latterly gold has been hard to find
I've enough to carry me, none to spend
I'm going away and leaving behind
Not one deserving the name of friend

Now the gold was pretty near tuckered out
When Bill - that's me mate - he says to me
There's gold on the Palmer beyond all doubt
So here's for sailing out over the sea

There's the whistle - a drink before we part
'A step to the corner', I hear you say?
My last on the coast - with all my heart
A brandy straight and then I'm away

Here's a long farewell to the old West Coast
With a heart prepared for whatever I find
'Success to the Palmer' - is that your toast?
Mine's 'here's to the land I leave behind!'

The above version is as recorded by Phil Garland:

Youtube clip

Alan Musgrave recorded a slightly different version on his 'Behind The Times' album.

Ron Edwards collected a short song of this title from Frank Evans of North Queensland. In that one, the miner is leaving Bendigo.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 03:07 AM

Gerry, my ukulele group does Bob the Kelpie......living in a rural area as we do, it's always popular and fun.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 01:07 AM

The years 1915 to 1919 saw a huge explosion of working class militancy in response to the First World War which brought Britain almost to the brink of revolution. One of the most important centres of struggle was Glasgow and the Clyde. 'Red Clydeside', a CD written and performed by Alistair Hulett, celebrates its foremost protagonist, John Maclean, and the men and women who contributed to this often neglected period of our history.

The song Don’t Sign Up For War’ is based on one of John McLean’s famous quotes during the lead up to the First World War when he encouraged young men to defer from signing up.

Don't Sign Up For War
Alsitair Hulett

See thon Arthur Henderson, heid bummer o' the workin, men (1)
When war broke oot he pressed his suit an' ran tae catch the train
He signed a deal in London, nae mair strikes until the fightin's done
In Glesga toon the word went roon'. Tak tent o' John Maclean. (2)

He said a bayonet, that's a weapon wi' a working man at either end
Betray your country, serve your class. Don't sign up for war my friend
Don't sign up for war.

When they turned him oot o' Langside Hall, John stood up at the fountain
Whit he said was tailor-made tae magnify the friction
Ye patriots can roar and bawl, it's nought but braggarts fiction
The only war worth fightin' for is war against oppression.

He said a bayonet, that's a weapon wi' a working man at either end
Betray your country, serve your class. Don't sign up for war my friend
Don't sign up for war.

The polis wheeched him oot o' there and doon tae Queens Park station (3)
They telt him plain offend again an' we'll mak' ye rue the day, son (4)
But Johnny didnae turn a hair, he ca'd for a demonstration
A mighty thrang ten thoosan strang turned oot against conscription (5)

He said a bayonet, that's a weapon wi' a working man at either end
Betray your country, serve your class. Don't sign up for war my friend
Don't sign up for war.

The next time that they came for him, John kent they meant the business (6)
He didnae plea for mercy, he said gi'e me British justice (7)
The justice that he ca'd for stunned many intae silence (8)
When oot o' hell the hammer fell, three years was the sentence.

He said a bayonet, that's a weapon wi' a working man at either end
Betray your country, serve your class. Don't sign up for war my friend
Don't sign up for war.

The clamour tae release Maclean reached fever pitch and mair, man (9)
In a year an a' hauf they they ca'd it aff, but Christ it taxed him sair man (10)
He came back auld afore his time, but he didnae seem tae care. Man
Dae a' ye can, I'm still the wan wha'll cause ye tae beware, man.

He said a bayonet, that's a weapon wi' a working man at either end
Betray your country, serve your class. Don't sign up for war my friend
Don't sign up for war.

The last time that they jailed Maclean he came gey close tae scunnert (11)
Wi' a rubber hose pit up his nose they kept him swap suppert (12)
Let him oot or keep him in, Red Clyde was ower blaistert (13)
Ilk wey they turnt the Government was weel and brawly gouthart. (14) (15)

He said a bayonet, that's a weapon wi' a working man at either end
Betray your country, serve your class. Don't sign up for war my friend
Don't sign up for war.

Notes:

1) heid bummer = leader
2) tak tent o' = pay heed to
3) wheeched = rushed
4) telt = told
5) thrang ten thoosan strang = crowd ten thousand strong
6) kent = knew
7) gi'e = give
8) ca'd = called
9) mair = more
10) sair = sore
11) gey close tae scunnert = to the brink of collapse
12) swap suppert = forcibly fed
13) ower blaistart = in an uproar
14) Ilk wey = whichever way
15) weel an' brawly gouthart = in a quandary

----------------------------------------------------------

Recorded by Alistair Hulett and Dave Swarbrick.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 12:59 AM

Since Then
Henry Lawson, 1895

I met Jack Ellis in town to-day —
       Jack Ellis — my old mate, Jack —
Ten years ago, from the Castlereagh,
We carried our swags together away
       To the Never-Again, Out Back.

But times have altered since those old days,
       And the times have changed the men.
Ah, well! there's little to blame or praise —
Jack Ellis and I have tramped long ways
       On different tracks since then.

His hat was battered, his coat was green,
       The toes of his boots were through,
But the pride was his! It was I felt mean —
I wished that my collar was not so clean,
       Nor the clothes I wore so new.

He saw me first, and he knew 'twas I —
       The holiday swell he met.
Why have we no faith in each other? Ah, why? —
He made as though he would pass me by,
       For he thought that I might forget.

He ought to have known me better than that,
       By the tracks we tramped far out —
The sweltering scrub and the blazing flat,
When the heat came down through each old felt hat
       In the hell-born western drought.

The cheques we made and the shanty sprees,
       The camps in the great blind scrub,
The long wet tramps when the plains were seas,
And the oracles worked in days like these
       For rum and tobacco and grub.

Could I forget how we struck 'the same
       Old tale' in the nearer West,
When the first great test of our friendship came —
But — well, there's little to praise or blame
       If our mateship stood the test.

'Heads!' he laughed (but his face was stern) —
       'Tails!' and a friendly oath;
We loved her fair, we had much to learn —
And each was stabbed to the heart in turn
       By the girl who — loved us both.

Or the last day lost on the lignum plain,
       When I staggered, half-blind, half-dead,
With a burning throat and a tortured brain;
And the tank when we came to the track again
       Was seventeen miles ahead.

Then life seemed finished — then death began
       As down in the dust I sank,
But he stuck to his mate as a bushman can,
Till I heard him saying, 'Bear up, old man!'
       In the shade by the mulga tank.

He took my hand in a distant way
       (I thought how we parted last),
And we seemed like men who have nought to say
And who meet — 'Good-day', and who part — 'Good-day',
       Who never have shared the past.

I asked him in for a drink with me —
       Jack Ellis — my old mate, Jack —
But his manner no longer was careless and free,
He followed, but not with the grin that he
       Wore always in days Out Back.

I tried to live in the past once more —
       Or the present and past combine,
But the days between I could not ignore —
I couldn't help notice the clothes he wore,
       And he couldn't but notice mine.

He placed his glass on the polished bar,
       And he wouldn't fill up again;
For he is prouder than most men are —
Jack Ellis and I have tramped too far
       On different tracks since then.

He said that he had a mate to meet,
       And 'I'll see you again,' said he,
Then he hurried away through the crowded street
And the rattle of buses and scrape of feet
       Seemed suddenly loud to me.

And I almost wished that the time were come
       When less will be left to Fate —
When boys will start on the track from home
With equal chances, and no old chum
       Have more or less than his mate.

-------------------------------------------------------

Above, the full 16 verses. Slim Dusty set it to music and recorded it, but he only sang seven verses: 1, 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, and a mash-up over stanzas 14 and 15.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 12:51 AM

The Drover's Sweetheart
Lawson, Henry (1867 - 1922)

An hour before the sun goes down
    Behind the ragged boughs,
I go across the little run
    To bring the dusty cows;
And once I used to sit and rest
    Beneath the fading dome,
For there was one that I loved best
    Who'd bring the cattle home.

Our yard is fixed with double bails,
    Round one the grass is green,
The bush is growing through the rails,
    The spike is rusted in;
It was from there his freckled face
    Would turn and smile at me --
For he'd milk seven in a race
    While I was milking three.

He kissed me twice and once again
    And rode across the hill,
The pint-pots and the hobble-chain
    I hear them jingling still;
About the hut the sunlight fails
    the fire shines through the cracks,
I climb the broken stockyard rails
    And watch the bridle-tracks.

And he is coming back again,
    He wrote from Evatt's Rock
A flood was in the Darling then --
    And foot-rot in the flock
The sheep were falling thick and fast,
    A hundred miles from town,
And when he reached the line at last
    He trucked the remnant down.

And so he'll have to stand the cost,
    His luck was always bad,
Instead of making more, he lost
    The money that he had;
And how he'll manage, heaven knows
    (My eyes are getting dim)
He says -- he says -- he don't -- suppose
    I'll want -- to -- marry -- him.

As if I wouldn't take his hand
    Without a golden glove;
Oh! Jack -- you men won't understand
    How much a girl can love.
I long to see his face once more --
    Jack's dog! thank God, it's Jack! --
(I never thought I'd faint before)
    He's coming -- up -- the track. x2

Notes
drover: someone who herds droves of livestock.
run: "range of pasture- or grazing-land; a sheep station", pastoral holding (OED "run" n1, 22; courtesy of Eric Sharpham).
dome: the firmament (the sky's concave vault).
bails: stakes, fence-posts.
pint-pots: bells, shaped like small beer pots.
the hobble-chain: a small loose chain around the hind fetlocks, preventing cattle from running.
Darling-River: the longest river in Australia, flowing from Queensland to join the Murray River at Wentworth in New South Wales and continuing on through South Australia to empty into the Great Australian Bight (courtesy of Eric Sharpham).
bankers: full up to their banks.
Bourke: in the centre of the Australian outback, once the largest inland port on the Darling River.

Set to music and recorded by Priscilla Herdman. The lyrics given here match what she sings, which is a modification of what Lawson wrote.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 12:40 AM

Wife to a Cocky Farmer
Richard Keam

I am the one who has carried the can since time before time began,
Or that's the way that it's often seemed since I married a dairying man.
We've had our times, and we've had our strife. It's a good but an awful hard, hard life,
And the one thing sure is you'll pay the price when you're wed to a cocky farmer.

I was the one got the bookwork done when the kids were in bed at night,
And up every morn before the dawn when the winter frosts would bite,
And I swapped me good clothes long ago for gum boots and an overcoat,
And a lifetime bailing a sinking boat for the sake of a cocky farmer,

And the sound of the scenes in me very dreams is the sound of the milk can lids,
And I never knew how we'd get through but we managed to raise four kids,
And the time that we spent away from here was less than a month in twenty years.
Now the kids have gone but they shed no tears for the life of a cocky farmer.

And the price we get never keeps in step with the prices that we pay,
But you can't tell cows that they're out on strike. You're a slave to them night and day,
And we've seen the neighbours all around toss it in and move to the local town,
But you talk of this and he only frowns. He'll die a cocky farmer,

And they used to say that i wore the pants in the days when they said such things,
But I was a one when I was young for a bit of a wild old fling.
Saturday nights at the Shire Hall dance, stars in me eyes and a head for a romance,
And sometimes I think that I'm still young Nance, not the wife of a cocky farmer.
Sometimes in me dreams I'm still young Nance, not the wife of a cocky farmer.

Recorded by Judy Small. Also by Margaret Walters, but I don't think Marg's recording is online.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 30 Jan 21 - 12:29 AM

BOB THE KELPIE
Don Spencer/Allan Caswell

CHORUS
Sheep are cute, sheep are beaut, sheep are soft and curly.
But when I take them into town, I have to start off early,
‘Cause they never go the way I want, so I need someone to help me -
I just give a whistle, and I call for Bob the Kelpie.

Bob the Kelpie he’s my dog, and though he’s not too pretty.
He’s worth more than all those fancy dogs up in the city.
He works hard in the yard to show the sheep who’s boss,
I guess they’ve learned by now it doesn’t pay to make Bob cross.

CHORUS X 2
Bob the Kelpie he’s my mate, he never lets me down.
He loves to ride in the back of the Ute when we go into town.
And we never have to lock it up, with Bob there for protection,
‘Cause he will bark at anything that comes in his direction.

CHORUS X 2
Yes I just give a whistle… I just give a whistle,
And I call for Bob the Kelpie.

Recording by Don Spencer here.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Trivia: Don Spencer is Russell Crowe's father-in-law.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Jan 21 - 06:43 PM

A kiwi kids' song:

RAILWAY BILL
(Anon)

Way down the line
At any time
Who is sittin' on the railway line
Why there is poor old Bill

Chorus
Railway Bill, oh Railway Bill
He won't work and he never will
They'll fire old railway Bill

We'll bang and strike
This steel spike
Nobody works like good old Mike
But never poor old Bill

Chorus

Go toot the peeper
Go press the beeper
Bill, he's a railway sleeper
Go wake up poor old Bill

Youtube clip

Neil Colquhoun commented:

I don't know who Railway Bill was, but to us kids he seemed some kind of hero , defying foremen, inspectors and perhaps even holding up the express to remain sitting on the line. 'Song of a young country' p57.

For the joy that's in it, here is a fine rendition of a version of the traditional song from which the song derives. Beaut!

Railrosd Bill

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 06:47 PM

THE NEVER NEVER LAND
(H.Lawson/I.MacDougall)


    By homestead, hut, and shearing-shed,
       By railroad, coach, and track —
    By lonely graves of our brave dead,
       Up-Country and Out-Back:
    To where 'neath glorious the clustered stars
       The dreamy plains expand —
    My home lies wide a thousand miles
       In the Never-Never Land.

    It lies beyond the farming belt,
      Wide wastes of scrub and plain,
A blazing desert in the drought,
      A lake-land after rain;
To the sky-line sweeps the waving grass,
      Or whirls the scorching sand —
A phantom land, a mystic land!
      The Never-Never Land.

Where lone Mount Desolation lies,
      Mounts Dreadful and Despair —
'Tis lost beneath the rainless skies
      In hopeless deserts there;
It spreads nor'-west by No-Man's-Land —
      Where clouds are seldom seen —
To where the cattle-stations lie
      Three hundred miles between.

The drovers of the Great Stock Routes
      The strange Gulf country know —
Where, travelling from the southern drought
      The big lean bullocks go;
And camped by night where plains lie wide,
      Like some old ocean's bed,
The watchmen in the starlight ride
      Round fifteen hundred head.

And west of named and numbered days
      The shearers walk and ride —
Jack Cornstalk and the Ne'er-do-well
      And the grey-beard side by side;
They veil their eyes — from moon and stars,
      And slumber on the sand —
Sad memories steep as years go round
      In Never-Never Land.

By lonely huts north-west of Bourke,
      Through years of flood and drought,
The best of English black-sheep work
      Their own salvation out:
Wild fresh-faced boys grown gaunt and brown —
      Stiff-lipped and haggard-eyed —
They live the Dead Past grimly down!
      Where boundary-riders ride.

The College Wreck who sank beneath,
      Then rose above his shame,
Tramps west in mateship with the man
      Who cannot write his name.
'Tis there where on the barren track
      No last half-crust's begrudged —
Where saint and sinner, side by side,
      Judge not, and are not judged.

Oh rebels to society!
      The Outcasts of the West —
Oh hopeless eyes that smile for me,
      And broken hearts that jest!
The pluck to face a thousand miles —
      The grit to see it through!
The communion perfected! —
      And — I am proud of you!

The Arab to true desert sand,
      The Finn to fields of snow,
The Flax-stick turns to Maoriland,
      While the seasons come and go;
And this old fact comes home to me —
      And will not let me rest —
However barren it may be,
      Your own land is the best!

And, lest at ease I should forget
      True mateship after all,
My water-bag and billy yet
      Are hanging on the wall;
And if my fate should show the sign
      I'd tramp to sunsets grand
With gaunt and stern-eyed mates of mine
      In the Never-Never Land.

The above is the complete poem as published in 1901 with the title 'The Never-Never Country'. Loaded Dog recorded an edited version with a tune by Ian MacDougall on their 'dusty gravel road' album. You can listen to it on this page:

Click

Another edited version with MacDougall tune:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 07:02 PM

ALTERED DAYS
(w. John Barr attrib/m. Anon)

When to New Zealand first I cam’
Poor and duddy, poor and duddy
It was a happy day, sirs
For I was fed on parritch thin
My taes they stickit thro’ my shoon
I ruggit at the pouken pin
But could’ mak’ it pay, sirs

Baith nicht and day upon the board
Ruggin’ at it, tuggin’ at it
I strived to please a paper lord
Wha once had been a weaver
But he got up and I got down
I wandered idly thro’ the town
A tattered bonnet on my croon
And wasna worth a steever

Nae mair the laird comes for his rent
For his rent, for his rent
When I hae nocht to pay, sirs
Nae mair he’ll take me aff the loom
Wi’ hangin’ lip and pouches toom
To touch my hat and boo to him
The like was never kent, sirs

But now it’s altered days, I trow
A weel a wat, a weel a wat
The beef is tumblin’ in the pat
And I’m baith fat and fu’, sirs
At my door cheeks there’s bread and cheese
I work or no’ just as I please
I’m fairly settled at my ease
And that’s the way o’t noo, sirs

Youtube clip

Scots in NZ

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 04:50 AM

As well as being a songwriter par excellence, John Hospodaryk was a really nice bloke. I have his CD of railway songs.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 04:00 AM

another of the late John Hospodaryk's excellent songs

Black Armband, a song by John Hospodaryk ©2002

    Hey there Johnny this song it is for you
    It's not behind the razor wire hidden from our view
    That's why I'm wearing a black armband
    A black armband to demonstrate my stand
    White picket financial security
    Leafy suburban nuclear family
    The benifits of a growing economy
    Middle class utopia where the market's so free
    But I got a better term for all this inequity
    It's not incentivation Menzies nor prosperity
    Not back to the future to 1953
    It's myopia which means that you can barely see

    Balacava guards rottweillers and alsatians
    Such is the face of your industrial relations
    Anti-union tyranny right across the nation
    On the waterfront and down the mines you're proud of your creation
    You've got the gall to call it reforms in the workplace
    When waging war on workers is a retrograde disgrace
    You want us cap in hand to crawl you're smug and mean and base
    You want our rights and hard earned gains to sink without a trace

    And hey now Peter this song's aiming at you too
    You're mean of spirit you and all your crew
    And that's why I'm wearing a black armband
    A black armband to demonstrate my stand
    A hundred and twenty years of public education
    Is being destroyed by your discrimination
    In favour of the rich or some denomination
    You call that a fair go it's an abomination
    There's now freedom of choice in our schooling so you say
    Who do you think you are fooling when most of us can't pay
    Then if funding the elite with our taxes is OK
    Then this nation will fall like a dingo stricken prey

    And hey there Johnny this song it is for you
    I see rack and ruin in all the things you do
    You can tell 'cause I'm wearing a black arm band
    For all those stolen generations you can't understand
    Well here's your report card you dont get many marks
    On greenhouse emissions and logging national parks
    At reconciliation you've chained up all our hearts
    You score a zero just a naught you get a buggery of arts
    Of liberty equality fraternity I didn't know
    Ownership of shares is democracy the way to go
    But on a privatised planet I guess it must be so
    Where any soul is bought and sold your marks are very low

    Well I know what you stand for will shrivel up and die
    We'll throw it overboard and that wont be a lie
    But until that day I wear a black armband
    In mourning for what you are doing right across the land
    But until that day I wear a black armband
    In mourning for what you are doing right across this
    right across this right across this right across this land

Notes Thanks to John Hospodaryk for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection. Black Armband was one of nearly 100 songs entered in Wobbly Radio's 2002 union song competition and is on the MayDay MayDay CD

    John writes: "This is my homage to John Howard. When you said selling Telstra would make Australia the "world’s greatest share-owning democracy", you disenfranchised a large section of the population. When you set about to replace unions with Opposition of showing "the politics of envy" in its frankly lily-livered criticism of your nation-destroying education policy, you insulted the 70% of parents who send their children to public schools. When you criticised those historians (myself included) as having a "black armband view" because we choose to explore the oppression of the Aboriginal people, you offended the suffering of those people. This song, then, is an attempt to throw your remark right back in your face"

    (1) "Razor wire": type of wire used to surround detention centres for asylum seekers.

    (2) "Black armband": First coined by historian Geoffrey Blainey, and adopted by John Howard, this is a criticism of those historians who mention events and conditions like impoverishment, oppression and genocide as having occurred at some stage in Australia's past. Things that are just not nice. Things that fail to mention the achievements of great men. Things that fail to paint a rosy picture of life under conservative governments. To Howard, the "black armband" view of history is very ungrateful because conservatives , after all, were born to rule and know what is good for us.

    (3) "White picket financial security/Nuclear suburban nuclear family": Metaphoric reference to an 80s Federal election campaign by the Liberals which included a poster depicting a white middle class family standing in front of a prestigious heritage home...as if that was the typical Australian family!

    (4) "Incentivation": Campaign catchphrase used by John Howard in a federal election back in the 80s. You won't find the word in a dictionary, either!

    (5) "Peter": Howard's Treasurer, Peter Costello. It could just as easily be the disgraced former Defence Minister and Industrial Relations Minister, Peter Reith.

    (6) "you've chained up all our hearts": reference to Howard's use of Joe Cocker's song "Unchain My Heart" as a taxpayer-funded propaganda weapon to sell the GST to the electorate.

    (7) "I didn't know/Ownership of shares is democracy": When he suggested he would sell off Telstra, Howard asserted that it would make Australia "the greatest share-owning democracy in the world", thus disenfranchising, at least in spirit, not only any citizen who doesn't own shares, but also any citizen whose shares really don't add up to much. This is real pocket borough mentality!

    (8) "We'll throw it overboard and that won't be a lie": reference to the "children overboard" lie.

John sings the song on the MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms"

Audio

I really do need to other things, but it's great fun mining "With These Arms" & Mark Gregory's Union songs.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:54 AM

Bucket O’ Rust © John Hospodaryk 2002

    Well hey ho you landlubbers here’s a tale of a ship of shame
    A leaky tub that’s manned by slaves and the Bucket O’ Rust is her name
    Bucket O’ Rust is her name

    The flag of convenience she flies the Jolly Roger of today
    With laundered money contraband and drugs and a crew that gets no pay
    A crew that gets no pay

    Well the Bucket O’ Rust is a grimy heap it’s a wonder that she can float
    And if she sinks you can’t escape you can’t launch the safety boats
    Launch her safety boats

    Her urinals are full of slime and scum but what’s even worse than that
    Is the rancid food in the galley must be shared with the roach and the rat
    You got to share it with the roach and the rat

    Well the Bucket O’ Rust is a great success she’s welcome in our ports
    She undercuts our local ships with her cheapness and her rorts
    Cheapness and her rorts

    Deregulated industry is her blood her life line
    You can be substandard and be a sweatshop and the government don’t mind
    No the government don’t mind

    Well sad to say the Bucket O’ Rust could this have been God’s will?
    On the Great Barrier Reef she ran aground with two crew members killed
    Two crew members killed

    And it took them twelve days to blast her away and free her from the reef
    And all through the time the oil she spilled it brought the sea to grief
    You know it brought the sea to grief

    It’s hard to believe that this story ends well and this great heap of shit
    The Minister of Transport saved the day when he issued a new permit

    (Spoken) – John Anderson was his name it’s a true story

    Our shipping must be competitive he said in the world economy
    So the Bucket O’ Rust continues to crawl like a coffin on the sea
    A coffin on the sea

    Yeah the Bucket O’ Rust continues to crawl
    Upon the grimy the sea

Notes Many thanks to John Hospodaryk for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.

This song won first prize in the 2002 MUA song competition. It is on the MUA centenary CD "With These Arms"

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:50 AM

The Pig-Iron Song, a song by Clem Parkinson ©1964

aka Pig Iron Bob on MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms"

    Did you ever stop to wonder why the fellows on the job
    Refer to Robert Menzies by the nickname Pig-Iron Bob?
    It's a fascinating tale though it happened long ago
    It's a part of our tradition every worker ought to know

    Chorus
    We wouldn't load pig-iron for the fascists of Japan
    Despite intimidation we refused to lift the ban
    With democracy at stake the struggle must be won
    We had to beat the menace of the fascist Rising Sun

    It was 1937 and aggressive Japanese
    Attacked the Chinese people tried to bring them to their knees
    Poorly armed and ill equipped the peasants bravely fought
    While Australian water siders rallied round to lend support

    Attorney General Menzies said the ship would have to sail
    "If the men refuse to load it we will throw them into jail"
    But our unity was strong - we were solid to a man
    And we wouldn't load pig-iron for the fascists of Japan

    For the Judas politicians we would pay a heavy price
    The jungles of New Guinea saw a costly sacrifice
    There's a lesson to be learned that we've got to understand
    Peace can only be secured when the people lend a hand

Notes

Many thanks to Clem Parkinson for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection. Clem sings the song on the MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms"

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:46 AM

Right That Time, A song by Maurie Mulheron ©1998

    They speak about it proudly, it's now union folklore
    How wharfies wouldn't load any pig-iron for war
    Japan was a threat so they walked off the job
    They wouldn't help the fascists for old Pig-iron Bob

    Chorus:
    They were right that time and they're right again now
    But the strength of one isn't much of a power
    So united they stand against all odds
    Fighting for us all against the little tin gods

    Indonesia's young and fighting to be free
    But the Dutch had different plans for their former colony
    When the people rose up with freedom on their lips
    The wharfies stopped loading any Dutch bound ships

    Chorus:
    They were right that time and they're right again now
    But the strength of one isn't much of a power
    So united they stand against all odds
    Fighting for us all against the little tin gods

    Korea was in trouble, overrun by the Yanks
    Wharfies told to load rifles, guns and tanks
    Why get involved in this bloody civil war?
    We're not gonna ship any weapons anymore!

    Chorus:
    They were right that time and they're right again now
    But the strength of one isn't much of a power
    So united they stand against all odds
    Fighting for us all against the little tin gods

    Pig-iron Bob's back, says we're off to Vietnam
    Tugging his forelocks for good old Uncle Sam
    The seamen wouldn't work on the war ship 'Boonaroo'
    And the wharfies held the line when they sacked the ship's crew

    Chorus:
    They were right that time and they're right again now
    But the strength of one isn't much of a power
    So united they stand against all odds
    Fighting for us all against the little tin gods

    The struggle's moved on, mass sackings overnight
    The union's survival is the heart of the fight
    We'll defy your threats, your thugs and court
    We're standing united, no wharfie can be bought!

    Chorus:
    They were right that time and they're right again now
    But the strength of one isn't much of a power
    So united they stand against all odds
    Fighting for us all against the little tin gods

    History's on our side, we'll see this battle through
    There's too much at stake for the profits of the few
    Our fathers, before us, stood on every picket line
    Keep their mem'ries alive and we'll win every time.

    Last Chorus:
    They've been right ev'ry time and they're right again now
    But the strength of one isn't much of a power
    So united they stand against all odds
    Fighting for us all against the little tin gods

Notes Maurie Mullheron emailed this song as the Wharfies were mobilising for a battle to defend their right to organise. Today (Feb 9th 1998), the attempt by the National Farmers Federation and its Federal Government backers to set up a non union wharf at Web Dock in Melbourne is the main front of the battle. Maurie's song is a timely reminder of how far back the battle extends.
Maurie sings this song on the MUA Centenary CD "With These Arms" which I have, & there are lots of good songs on it.

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:39 AM

Green Bans Forever, A song by Mick Fowler ©1979 Mick Fowler, Tune: Waltzing Matilda

    Once some jolly squatters camped in Victoria Street
    There they lived for months on end
    They fought and struggled for the own community
    The rights of the tenants to defend

    Green Bans forever Green Bans Forever
    Green Bans forever in Victoria Street
    We sang as we hopped from chimney top to chimney top
    Green Bans forever in Victoria Street

    Down come the coppers mounted on their rescue vans
    Up come the thugs vans one two three
    We laughed as we struggled down behind the barricades
    You'll never drive us away said we

    Out come the squatters carried by the constables
    Into the wagon one two three
    The thugs with their crow bars smashed all the premises
    They cost 'em dough but the coppers come free

    Up jumped a squatter high into the chimney pot
    You'll have some trouble to get me said he
    His voice could be heard as the moon shone on the chimney top
    Green Bans forever in Victoria Street

    People of Sydney fighting for Victoria Street
    Should keep a watch by the Sycamore trees (spoken: they are Sycamores you know folks)
    And the Green Bans will stay on Bellows and their property
    Green Bans forever in Victoria Street
    ... Kings Cross the top of William Victoria Street forever hooray!

Notes - This song was released as side 2 of a 45rpm 7" record in 1979 With Mick Fowler on vocals and a jazz band called Green Ban'd. Mick was a jazz musician and member of the SUA (Seamen's Union of Australia) who lived in Victoria Street Sydney. He was the last tenant to leave in 1979.

correction - he left in 1976, & died in 1979

Mick Fowler monument, Butler Stairs, Victoria St
inscription -
Memorial plaque to Mick Flower
Seaman, Musician & Green Ban Activist
For his gallant stand against demolition of workers homes with the Builders Labourers Federation Green Bans
They were hard old days, they were battling days, they were cruel times - but then In spite of it all Victoria Street will see low income housing for workers again.
From his friends.

I haven't walked down Victoria St for a few years, but when I did, I always smiled at that last line - low income housing didn't last in Victoria St or the Potts Point/Kings Cross area. There is a fair bit down the bottom of Butler Stairs in Wooloomooloo but it is mainly richer folk in the wider area.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 03:06 AM

THE TWO-STAR HOTEL

Geoff Francis & Peter Hicks ©2006

"Dark as the dungeon" they sing in the song
Where the miners alone know what really goes on
On that day the earth shook and the mighty rocks fell
One brave man was taken, two trapped there in hell.

Above ground the families they wait and they wait
In fear and in hope for some news of their fate
The five longest days and nights ever passed by
Till a voice shouted out, "Todd and Brant they're alive!"

For day after day, they kept calm and stayed cool
With jokes and bold laughter, oft playing the fool
Two bravest of miners in that holiest of hell
Union men bunkered in the "Two Star Hotel".

Their rescuers ne'er faltered by day and by night
Their own lives they risked with just one goal in sight
The rocks that they fought were the hardest on earth
All as one put their comrades before their own worth.

There was no room to move, trapped down there in their cage
Where each day that passed it seemed more like an age,
Then an air hole gave food, a few comforts as well
Country songs and Foo Fighters rang out in their cell.

There's no flat screen TV there or in-house video
And there's no satin sheets in that pit down below
But you never could buy what they had in that cell
That's the guts and mateship of the "Two Star Hotel".

Seemed the Earth was determined to not let them go
But these Tasmanian men had a few tricks to show
The rescuers held firm, would not yield from their task
And each one he gave more than could ever be asked.

At the end of two weeks they stepped out and walked tall
With a wave they clocked off, into lovin' arms to fall
And to pay their respects to their comrade who fell
So rejoice for the tenants of the "Two Star Hotel"
Yes rejoice for the heroes of the "Two Star Hotel".

There's no flat screen TV there or in-house video
And there's no satin sheets in that pit down below
But you never could buy what they had in that cell
That's the guts and mateship of the "Two Star Hotel"
That's the guts and mateship of the "Two Star Hotel".

http://unionsong.com/u363.html audio link and lyrics from Mark Gregory’s excellent “Union Songs” website.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaconsfield_Mine_collapse
details of the 2006 Tasmanian goldmine disaster, 40kms NW of Launceston, and a kilometre below the surface, caused by an earthquake-induced rockfall.

ABC reports of Beaconsfield mining rescue
“8 May - Late at night, a test probe is sent through the last metre of rock separating the men from their rescuers. The men say they can see the probe, and workers begin the final push.
9 May - 4:47am AEST - rescue workers use a hydraulic rock splitter, and finally break through to the two trapped men. They are brought to a crib at the 375-metre mark, where they prepare to reach the surface. At 6:00am AEST, Brant Webb and Todd Russell walk out of the mine and move their miners' tags to the 'safe' side of the board after their two-week ordeal.”


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 01:55 AM

The F-111 by Lyell Sayer, Traditional (Johnny Lad)

Now, Mr Robert Menzies was walking down the street,
And thinking of our airforce which was mostly obsolete;
"Our Canberra bombers are getting old as hell,
I'd better call up Uncle Sam and see what he can sell."

Chorus:
Oh, the F-one-double one it is a lovely plane,
It flies at twice the speed of sound and scatters bombs like rain,
It's wings go back and forward, it's the latest thing around,
It's a pity that it isn't safe to take it off the ground.

He said to Uncle Sammy, "We want to buy a plane
To save our lovely country from going down the drain;
We want to scare some Asians, so see what you can do."
The answer was, "Bob, buddy, we've got just the thing for you."

Bob said, "We'll take two dozen." The plane they had to make,
And soon they had one ready, its first flight for to take,
It whistled down the runway with a dreadful roaring sound,
And then broke up in little bits and fell back on the ground.

They sent six off to Vietnam, the country to defend,
To wipe out all the Viet Cong and cause the war to end,
But Ho Chi Min said, "Comrades, don't waste our precious shells,
These brand-new planes the Yankees have all fall down by themselves."

Now years have come and years have gone, and we all still depend
On our nice old Canberra bombers our country to defend;
The plane's prices double every time one takes a spill,
And if Sir Robert was still here, we'd make him pay the bill.

And when they are all ready, and we have paid the fee,
Our Generous Uncle Sammy will make delivery,
But I doubt if it will be much good to him or you or I,
At the present rate of accidents we've got a week's supply.

notes - The General Dynamics F-111C was a controversial aircraft purchased by the Royal Australian Air Force in 1963. Problems began with a 10-year delay in delivery. For more, see Wikipedia

video

bio of Lyell Sayer - with pic of Martyn Wyndham Reed! with Collette & JohnH in the background, probably taken at the 2016 Bush Traditions Gathering the year Lyell also attended. I have a photo of a bloke who could be Lyell, for my own satisfaction I'll ask a friend who knew him in his younger days.

extract from Warren Fahey's website re 60's revival - Lyell Sayer started singing and playing in public after attending the Emerald Hill concerts, and consciously patterned his style after Martyn Wyndham-Read.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 09:02 PM

More Moondyne Joe songs!

In 1969 the Bush Music Club received 2 songsheets from a West Wustralian member Moondyne Joe and other Sandgroper Ballads (1969) by L.G. Montgomery see images 9a & 9b for the lyrics & tune ... a variant of Johnny goes down to Hilo - I loved this shanty tune - above all others - as a boy out on Blackadder Creek, in Moondyne country. I remember singing 'the bathing beauty with the seaboots on' ...

I contacted friends in WA but no-one knew Sandgroper, & he was not related to Roger, who wasn't aware of his songs when Mucky Duck sang about Moondyne Joe.

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 08:09 PM

Great stuff, R-J. You have been busy.

I am fond of this one by Joe Daly. See Sandra's post with comments and links re Joe Daly on 30 October last year.

I GUESS YOU HAVE
(Joe Daly)

I guess you've sat down in a strange pub in town
And the locals are holdin' the floor
The barman walks up with a ‘How are ya mate?
I've never seen you here before
Are you just travelling through, what work do you do?’
He takes in all what you can give,
‘Have you come very far, are you driving your car
What's the name of the town where you live?’

As you drink the first glass he'll be certain to ask
The highway or track that you took
He heard on the news that there's thousands of roos
And he tells me the potholes are crook
The questions come strong, ‘Are you stayin' for long
Are you married or just on the court
Have you been to the war, what's that scar on your jaw?’
Then he asks of the team you support

When the questions have rolled and your life story's told
A new barman arrives on the shift
You think it's all rosy but he's just as nosey
And starts on the same lousy drift
I head you know where for a breath of fresh air
But find a new menace and strife,
The bloke there beside me starts in how to guide me
Away from the pitfalls of life

So if ever in town and just looking around
For a friend then there's likely as not
Just slip into the pub, give the elbow a rub
Of the barman, he'll tell you the lot
Wherever you travel the barman unravels
Your history in town or the scrub
Some barmen need trimmin’, they talk worse than women
Most rumours are born in the pub

Oh, I guess you've sat down in a strange pub in town
And the locals are holdin' the floor
The barman walks up with a ‘How are ya mate?
I've never seen you here before
Are you just travelling through, what work do you do?"
He takes in all what you can give

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 09:21 AM

Two bushranging songs from Western Australia about one John Bolitho Johns:

MOONDYNE JOE [1]

Jenny Gaunt, c.2018

Joseph Johns (or “Moondyne Joe”) came on the ‘Pyrenees’
From Wales to West Australia in 1853
10 years for stealing food, his hungry mouth to feed
The judge was tough who sentenced him: “A lesson to his breed” .
CHORUS : Said Moondyne Joe:
“You may be the boss, my friend, but you’re not the boss of me”
‘Cos all men want to be free.

Joseph worked hard on the land with good behaviour true
‘Cos when you do that, they will hand a ticket of leave to you
‘Ticket of leave!’ he cried aloud, ‘I’m free again’ he sang
‘I’ll head inland to Toodyay and work as a bushman’.
CH : Said Moondyne Joe ……

Being good can be difficult when opportunity calls
And unmarked cattle would be tempting to you all
Arrested time and time again, the governor declared
‘If Joe escapes this gaol again, I swear he will be spared!’
CH : Said Moondyne Joe ……

    To be free of shackles, to live at liberty; Said all men want to be free

Locked in Freo Gaol again, he just unscrewed the door
And stole the judge’s thoroughbred, by god that man was sore
Two years on the run and captured at an inn
The promise stood and Joe was soon escaping once again.
CH : Said Moondyne Joe ……

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok_ReCWZar4   Jenny Gaunt
A Perth, WA, singer-songwriter, Jenny is joined here by musicians Ash Wheeler (double bass, piano accordian), Alex Kent (percussion), Dan Walsh (banjo).


MOONDYNE JOE [2]

Roger Montgomery, c.1980

Come all you convicts bold and true and listen to my tale, Of a transportee who did refuse to stay in Fremantle Gaol
Ten years was his sentence long, for the stealing he was taken, Of two cheeses and two loaves of bread and a piece of old chewed bacon.

For serving ten years Joe was freed and he moved out of town, But only to be harmed by them who try to drag us down
Arrested and then gaoled on suspicion of bush ranging, Joe says “Me boys, I’ll not stay here for another ten year’s caging”.

CHORUS :
“Away, Away, Moondyne Joe’s Away!” – the convicts smile, the screws they roar, “Moondyne Joe’s Away!”

The traps they then took after Joe and brought him back to town, Sentenced him to full three years : “We’ll keep this bastard down!”
But no evidence of bush ranging could those police find to charge him, Three years was the lesson, me boys, for trying to escape them.

Again Joe served his time then left the gaol, the bars, and locks, Once again bold Joe was caught for the stealing of an ox
Ten more years they sentenced him, he swore he would not stay, Four months later, hear the cry : “Moondyne Joe’s Away!”

CH:   “Away, Away, Moondyne Joe’s Away!” – the convicts smile, the screws they roar, “Moondyne Joe’s Away!”

Again those traps they follow Joe; he’s got to finish time, Eleven years in gaol and one in irons, that magistrate did sign
Moondyne Joe wrote out his case, pleading false arrest, That judge agreed, took off four years, but made him serve the rest.

They built a special cell for him with a ring set in the floor, Ten bars upon the window, ten bolts upon the door
Joe tried to escape again : “We’ll have him till he dies!”, He dug a hole just like a mole – and once again they cried :

CH:   “Away, Away, Moondyne Joe’s Away!” – the convicts smile, the screws they roar, “Moondyne Joe’s Away!”

This time Joe took to bush ranging and “Bail Up!” was his call, For two short months he rode the bush until the traps did pall
The bullets flew, a man went down, the police were armed too well, Once again bold Joe was caught and thrown back into gaol.

He took a job in prison, lads, in the carpenter’s workshop, The warders caught him making a key for the front door lock
Six more months in irons he got, in his special prison cell, In solitary confinement there, but his spirits never fell.

An averter it was written out in Moondyne Joe’s own hand, Delivered to the Governor, seated in his house so grand
Joe tells his own story and owned the law’s delay, The Governor’s written a pardon and it’s “Moondyne Joe’s Away!”

CH:   “Away, Away, Moondyne Joe’s Away!” – the convicts smile, the screws they roar, “Moondyne Joe’s Away!”


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mjq9dbT0hQ   MUCKY DUCK BUSH BAND, 1980 [from “At Last! The Mucky Duck Album”
The lineup at that time was : Davey Browne / Roger Montgomery (Composer) / Butch Hooper / Rob Kay / Jerry Everard]

I note that the “Moondyne Joe” song and its Reprise, both written by Roger Montgomery (Music Roy Abbott), for the 1982 Perth musical-play of the same name, are not the same as that above.
(I also note that a copy of the musical’s program/libretto is currently going on EBay for close to US$70 - Well, I still have my copy!!!)

There are more songs about Moondyne Joe on YT by, for instance, Russell Morris, Johnny Ashcroft, Renegade, Ashlea Reale, et al. Plus there are some anonymous historical verses on some websites. e.g.

Anonymous – sung by the public at the time of his 1867 escape[15] WIKI :
The Governor's son has got the pip,
The Governor's got the measles.
For Moondyne Joe has give 'em the slip,
Pop goes the weasel.

See the history (and photo) of WA’s bushranger and escapeologist, John Bolitho Johns, 1826 – 1900 - aka “Moondyne Joe” :
https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/history/the-convict-era/characters/moondyne-joe/

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moondyne_Joe_-_A_Picturesque_Outlaw - by Charles William Ferguson, 1928

Plus lots more stuff online……..



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 08:15 PM

NORTHERN GULF

Sean Byrne / Ewan MacColl

Come all you gallant fishermen
That plough the stormy seas
The whole year round
On the fishing grounds,

Chorus:
   In the northern Gulf
   In the Wessel Isles
   In the banks of the bays
   On the northern shore
   Where the prawning shoals are found.

It's there you find the northern lads
And the men from Mornington;
There's Burly Blue
And the men from Groote

Chorus:
   In the.....etc

From Albatross to Old Fog Bay
From Weipa to Karumba town
The fleet's away
At the break of day

Chorus:
   To the northern Gulf
   To the Wessel Isles
   To the banks of the bays
   On the northern shore
   Where the prawning shoals are found.

They take their whole catch ashore
Which they try to sell;
There's shark and squid
And tons of grubs

Chorus:
   In the..... etc


Thanks to Peter Bate for retrieving Sean’s lyrics from the early 1980s!

Tune :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7wJxRl2n0s    NORTH SEA HOLES - Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger   (from 1983 x LP “Freeborn Man”)
(I've yet to find, then digitise, a cassette tape with Tropical Ear's singing of this!)

TROPICAL EAR
Darwin’s Troppos were much of the backbone of the Top End folk music scene in the 1980s.
Apparently starting in 1983 with 5 potential members, they quickly coalesced into a trio of multi instrumentalists who all sang both lead and harmony, and with a large and popular repertoire.
Regular performers at the TEFC’s famous Gun Turret venue and around festivals and events, they were : Peter Bate / Sean Byrne / Leonie Carville.



R-J