Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM

Another fine song relating to an immigrant worker is Ted Egan's 'Sayonara Nakamura' - one of his best:

Mudcat thread

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 10:44 PM

Another Ted Egan song posted by rich-joy. 'Back to Broome always feature in 'uglies' at Top Half Folk Festivals here in the Northern Territory.

Mudcat thread

Youtube clip

--Stewie

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 10:55 PM

My apologies, the Youtube link in my previous post was the wrong one.

It should have been:

Back to Broome

Where are other Oz 'catters? Is our thread moderator going to post any songs?

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Aug 20 - 11:00 PM

Please ignore my previous post. It appears the Youtube link was correct. Somehow when I first clicked it, the Nakamura clip came up. I'll go and lie down.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 09:59 PM

In Sydney the Redfern Shanty club does a great version of "Broome" & it might be on their facebook page as it's not on their Reverbnation page
I met Ted Egan at Illawarra Folk Festoval one year & suggested he see Shanty club as thy were on the program, I hope he got to see them

When you get (got! preCovid) a legal maximum for the premises of 45 mainly young singers all roaring out a shanty or sea song under the instruction to the newcomers "if you don't know the words, sing louder" it is magic. One day they will be back.

sandra

Subject: Lyr Add: NORTHWARD TO THE SHEDS (Will Ogilvie)
From: Stewie
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 10:17 PM

Here's another fine Ogilvie poem that has been put to music. At this very moment, due to COVID-19, there are challengers to bringing in the NZ shearers needed to do the job in Oz.

NORTHWARD TO THE SHEDS
(Will Ogilvie)

There's a whisper from the regions out beyond the Barwon banks
There's a gathering of the legions and a forming of the ranks
There's a murmur coming nearer with the signs that never fail
And it's time for every shearer to be out upon the trail

Chorus:
For the western creeks are calling,
And the idle days are done
With the snowy fleeces falling,
And the Queensland sheds begun

They must leave their girls behind them and their empty glasses too,
For there's plenty left to mind them when they cross the dry Barcoo
There'll be kissing, there'll be sorrow much as only sweethearts know
But before the noon tomorrow they'll be singing as they go

Chorus

There is shortening of the bridle, there is tightening of the girth
There is fondling of the idol that they love the best on earth
Northward from the Lachlan River and the sun-dried Castlereagh
Outward to the Never-Never ride the ringers on their way

Chorus

From the green bends of the Murray, they have run their horses in
For there's haste and there is hurry when the Queensland sheds begin
On the Bogan they are bridling, they are saddling on the Bland,
There is plunging and there's sidling -- for the colts don't understand
      
Chorus

They will camp below the station, they'll be cutting peg and pole
Rearing tents for occupation till the calling of the roll
And it's time the nags were driven, and it's time to strap the pack
For there's never licence given to the laggards on the track

Chorus

Hark the music of the battle: it in time to bare our swords!
Do you hear the rush and rattle as they tramp along the boards?
They are past the pen-doors picking light-wooled weaners one by one
I can hear the shear-blades clicking, and I know the fight's begun!

Ted Egan printed the complete Ogilvie poem in his 'The Shearers: Songbook', but the clip on Youtube for 'Northward to the sheds' has 3 stanzas only - the song begins at the 2-minute mark.

Gerry Hallom also messes with and shortens the Ogilvie text, but it's worth a listen:



--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM

I don't know what happened in my above post, but it seems that my signature became the
link to Youtube.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: LAST COAL TRAIN (Paul Wookey)
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Aug 20 - 10:02 PM

Sandra, it looks like it is down to us. I don't mind posting some more - our moderator can always chuck 'em out.

LAST COAL TRAIN
(Paul Wookey)

No more black-faced miners
Buying carbide at the store
All the lamps that lit the darkness
Are hangin’ empty by the door
And the chilly winds that blow no good
Have blown no good once more
And the last coal train is leavin’ town

No more kids out on the trestle bridge
Playin’ that dangerous game
You’ll never have to mend a broken track
Or drive the spike again
You can leave the sleepers rotting
The signals rusting in the rain
‘Cause the last coal train is leavin’ town

You’ll never have to feed a family
Upon a striker’s pay
You’ll never have to fight for what’s yours by right
In this game that rich men play
And for the first time in a long time
You might see the light of day
And the last coal train is leavin’ town

So the word came down from Melbourne
Said they’ve got to close the mine
Oh we can’t afford to dig it out
We’ll just have to leave it lyin’
With all the men who died in 20 shafts
Who’ll lie there for all time
And the last coal train is leavin’ town

Youtube clip

Paul Wookey, was raised in the Dandenong Ranges. An excellent singer and guitarist, he was heavily influenced by American folk, blues and country. He had a solid reputation in Melbourne’s folk clubs – Traynor’s, Outpost Inn and One-C-One. A fine example of his original work is 'The Last Coal Train' which he noted ‘was the last coal train that left Wonthaggi some time in 1968 after the coal mines were finally closed down. It represents the passing of a period in Australian history – the generational move from the land to the city, the loss of country jobs, the dislocation of the pre-war generation.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: SERGEANT SMALL
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Aug 20 - 10:24 PM

SERGEANT SMALL

I went broke in western Queensland in 1931
Nobody would employ me so my swag carrying begun
I came down into Charleville through all the western towns
I was on my way to Roma destination Darling Downs

My pants were getting ragged my boots were getting thin
But when I stopped at Mitchell a goods train shunted in
I heard the whistle blowing and looking out could see
She was on her way to Roma it was quite plain to me

Chorus
I wish I was about twenty stone and only seven feet tall
I'd go back to western Queensland and beat up Sergeant Small

Now as I sat and watched her inspiration's seed was sown
I remembered the government slogan: Here's the railway that you own
By this time the sun was setting and the night was getting nigh
So I gathered my belongings and took her on the fly

When we got into Roma I kept my head down low
I heard a voice say "Any room, mate?" I answered "Plenty Bo"
"Come out of there my noble man" came the voice of Sergeant Small
"I have trapped you very nicely - you've ridden for a fall"

The judge was very kind to me he gave me thirty days
Saying "Maybe this will help to cure your rattler jumping ways"
So if you're down and outback boys I'll tell you what I think
Stay off those Queensland goods trains for they're a short cut to the clink

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 24 Aug 20 - 11:21 PM

DUSTY GRAVEL ROAD
(Alan Mann)

Have you travelled northwards past the slime dumps of Kalgoolie
Out upon the old Broad Arrow Road
Have you seen the heaps of mullock like the tombstones in a graveyard
That signify the finding of a lode
Have you ever stopped to wonder how many picks and shovels
And aching muscles on bodies young and old
Would have scraped the dust of legend, the clay and the ironstone
Searching for a dish of yellow gold

Chorus:
For the passing of some years seats you in a four-wheel-drive
The exhaust pipe leaves your sweat and your worries far behind
The air-conditioned faint north-easter blows cool air across your mind
Travelling on the dusty gravel road

Well ahead there's corrugations and you spot the blackened carcass
Of a tyre gone to pieces on the side
Christ, what happens if you break down - the petrol tank is holed
Or, worst of all, the grog supply runs dry
Like the heroes in that legend maybe you'll walk a while
Maybe you'll get lucky, hitch a ride
But would you push your barrow, loaded up with life's possessions
Like some of them damn near three hundred mile

Chorus

At the turnoff there's some diggings and you stop to rest a while
As nightfall pulls the curtain on the day
By the last few glints of sunlight something on that yonder hillside
Beckons you to come and walk that way
Glittering in the gully, piles of champagne bottles
Signs they caught up with the golden fate
And you lift the flimsy flip-top from a frosty ice-cold can
And you join their celebration just eighty years too late

Chorus

Alan Mann, a fine musician and songwriter, has been part of the West Australian folk scene for ever. 'Dusty gravel road' is the title track of an album by Loaded Dog. In respect of this song, Alan noted: 'The first prospectors had a great and intimate understanding of the goldfields country. It was not until 1986 that the output of gold in Western Australia exceeded that of the halcyon year of 1904'.

Unfortunately, the only clip of Loaded Dog on the Net is the one I posted re 'Waltzing Matilda'. Loaded Dog's website has disappeared. They have 4 excellent CDs. If any 'cattier is interested in obtaining their music, send me a personal message and I will put you in touch.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Aug 20 - 11:37 PM

Loaded Dog are fantastic, they turned up at Jamberoo years ago & I had hopes of booking them for the Loaded Dog Folk Club, but alas, they never came east again. I think they had a grant from some Govt agency to travel that year.

Poison Train is one of the best session songs, & we've had it many a time at the Dog, often sung by Margaret & Bob Fagan. The Dog is run by singers for a singing audience. I remember the first time I went to another club after a friend took over the Dog in 1995 & NO-ONE SANG ALONG!

sung by Chloe & Jason Roweth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45fvCPqTm8M

Subject: ADD: The poison train ^^
From: Stewie - PM
Date: 04 Mar 00 - 08:52 PM

THE POISON TRAIN
(Michael O'Rourke)

This old town has had its day
All the people moved away
And the houses standing empty
In the dry and the dusty day
No one cares for this old town
Now the money's not around
And the railway lines are rusty
And the station's falling down

Chorus:
There's a light down the line
Let it shine, shine, let it shine
There's a camp down the way
All the fettlers will be coming home today

When the railway opened here
All the gutters flowed with beer
And the people stood beside the line
To watch and wave and cheer
All the speeches that were made
When the bosses smiled and said
'The good times are just beginning
Follow us and you'll go ahead'

Chorus

Well, they built the street so wide
It would be a thing of pride
To walk across it drunk
Or throw a stone to the other side
And the buildings grew so tall
You would tremble at the fall
But they've just dried out
And you would never know
There was anyone there at all

Chorus

I still hear the tall man say
To the children at their play
'You'd better go home early
And you'd better stay away
Stay away from the line
Can't you hear the railway humming
The grass has grown too tall
And the poison train is coming

Chorus

You feel sorry for the grass
All it did was grow too fast
All the weapons used against it
It was never made to last
And the man and his offsider
Are all dressed in black
As the poison train goes through the town
And blisters all the track

Chorus

Well, it never lasted long
Half the town was packed and gone
And everybody was afraid
To be left there alone
All the people stayed away
And there was no celebration
Nobody made a speech the day
They closed the railway station

Chorus

Published by Greenhouse Publications. Source: Roy Bailey 'New Directions in the Old' Fuse CFCD 402. Recorded by 'Mike O'Rourke on 'Flying Pieman' 1980.
PS.

The image of the 'Poison Train' is used by O'Rourke to describe the decay of outback towns that grew too quicly. The fast-growing grass around the railway tracks has to be burnt back.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 12:10 AM

You are doing a great job, Stewie!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 12:19 AM

PADDY'S BACK
(Alan Ralph)

Father had a soft spot for the men out on the track
And somehow Paddy featured regularly
He worked upon the rabbit-proof and when he came to town
He'd doss down in our shed for a week or three
He'd spend his days in the town's hotels drinking pinkie wine
And shouting drinks for almost all the town
We'd feed his horse and dog and keep them watered regularly
And when he left, he'd give us half-a-crown

Chorus:
And the spring-cart tracks led through our gate
His horse and dog were there
We ran to mother, shouting out the news
'Paddy's back from the rabbit-proof, he's in from way outback
And I'll bet he's down at the Federal getting boozed'

When Paddy staggered home alone or on a copper's arm
We'd take him down some supper on a tray
A plate of snags and murphys or mother's shepherd pie
He thought it like a banquet, so he'd say
And often when we'd go out to the outhouse in the night
We'd hear old Paddy talking to his dog
Or singing Irish melodies or spieling to the stars
He'd stay a gentle man despite the grog

Chorus

When his money was all gone, then father told him so
His clothes were laundered, he was scrubbed and shaved
He'd join us at the table and tell stories of the bush
Us kids would listen spellbound to his tales
Then next day he'd load his cart up with stores to see him through
And father'd slip some pinkie in the back
He'd head off to the rabbit-proof to check along the fence
And we'd watch him disappear along the track

Chorus

At christmas time there'd always be a parcel for us kids
That Paddy got the local store to send
And one year I remember when he really got it right
Tin soldiers in a box - a hundred men
Father would get a cherry pipe, a tablecloth for mum
The gifts were better than a lump of gold
A flask of Irish whisky was what father'd give to him
To frighten off the snakes and beat the cold

Chorus

But somehow Paddy drifted from our lives as we grew up
I often wonder where old Paddy went
Did he meet a childhood sweetheart and settle down in town
Or did he die out by that lonely fence
The snake that killed his old blue heeler, did it get him too
Or did he strike it rich in someone's will
Either way I still can hear those Irish melodies
And tin soldiers march across the table still

Chorus

That cracker of a song was written from an old-timer's recollections of growing up in country Western Australia. It is on Loaded Dog's 'Dusty gravel road' album. Alan Ralph is not a member of the group. His song was published in 'The West Australian'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 11:28 AM

thanks for the memories, Stewie, I need to locate my Loaded Dog CDs from wherever they are hiding.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 09:08 PM

Cheers Jennie and Sandra.

I'll post a few more favourites from the Dog albums. Bob Rummery wrote the tune for this one:

CALL OF THE NORTH
(J.Sorensen/R.Rummery)

Oh the western wind is blowing
So there’s rain and storm in store
And the teams have long been going
Down the road to Glindawor
To where tropic sun is gleaming
And the fragrant winds blow free
I’ve awakened from my dreaming
And the north is calling me

Chorus:
Oh, the steam is in the boiler
In the expert’s room below
While upon the board each toiler waits
To hear the whistle blow
For the shearing is beginning
And my heart is fancy free
And the friction wheels are spinning
So the north is calling me

From the southward to the nor’ward
Where the long brown tracks wind down
All me mates have hastened forward
To the wilderness from town
Gone! By stony hill and hollow
To where I now fain would be
Where they lead, I needs must follow
For the north is calling me

Chorus

What’s this news I have been hearing
Tidings strange to me indeed
Bidgimia now is shearing
With Sawallish in the lead
Straining camels teams are swaying
From the junction to the sea
Why so long am I delaying
When the north is calling me

Chorus

And so northward I am going
For I cannot linger here
For the starting whistle’s blowing
And the ‘guns’ are into gear
So to be there I am yearning
I will hail the sheds with glee
For the friction wheels are turning
And the north is calling me

Chorus

The song is on 'Dusty gravel road'. Here is a rendition by Wongawilli:

Youtube clip

My mate, Phil Beck from Perth, and I once presented a themed concert 'Songs of Separation' which included 'Call of the north'. For those who may be interested, here are Phil's remarks about the life of Jack Sorensen:

Sorenson was amongst other things a shearer and a pugilist (at one time welter weight champion of WA) who once said you had to be prepared to be the latter if you were going to pretend to be the former in and around a shearing shed in the outback. In other words that one needs to be a hard man in a hard environment.

Born in Western Australia he began his working life as an orchardist on his family's property in Perth, and then worked as a shearer on stations in the Murchison, Gascoyne and Kimberleys. Returning to Perth, Sorensen took up employment with Mr Sampson, a local MP, who was influential in having some of his early poems published in local papers.   Throughout his life he drew on his early bush experiences to write poetry and songs mainly about life in rural Western Australia, often with an environmental theme. He clearly loved the bush and the sense of peace that living in the outback can bring.

The outbreak of war evoked in Sorensen a sense of doom that was to haunt him forever. The death of his friend and mentor, Mr Sampson had a further detrimental effect on his mental health to the point that he was discharged from the military. Not long after his discharge, his mother also died, further deepening his melancholia.

Seeking happier times, Sorensen set out for the Kimberleys searching for that inner peace that he’d felt in the north of WA in earlier years. This song, probably written around that time, revolves around the start of the shearing season in northern Western Australia. The Bidgemia mentioned is a reference to Bidgemia Station located on the south bank of the Gascoyne River. Sawallish refers Bob Sawallish a gun shearer of the time. Mullewa, inexplicably referred to as Glindawor in our version of the song, is a shire in mid west WA.

Sadly the inner peace Sorensen sought eluded him, so in 1949, he decided to fulfil his lifetime dream of going to the Queensland outback. He sailed from Fremantle, but never reached his goal, for it was on the ship in Sydney, just a week or so short of his destination that Jack decided his life was no longer worth living.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 09:25 PM

My apologies, I once again forgot to log in before posting 'Call of the north'.

A couple of decades ago, Bob Bolton posted the lyrics to Alan Mann's 'Windmill run' together with a few notes to assist non-aussies:

THE WINDMILL RUN
(Alan Mann)

The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling
There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears,
Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised,
The blades have turned for fully fifty years.

One day's dawn will find him, astride his faithful Harley
Just a kerosene tin jammed between his knees.
There's a hessian bag of tucker, twitch wire and some pliers,
And his camouflage, khaki dungarees.

Out along the western fence, the three-mile troughs are full,
And it's north along the track 'till deadwood bore.
There's spinifex and mulga, plus the dozen mills or so,
'Till nightfall finds him on an Alcan floor

The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling
There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears,
Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised,
The blades have turned for fully fifty years.

Well, every now and then, there's a breakdown - and he finds it
Depressing as the jammed-up rods he frees.
Fifty head it cost him ... and the crows with bellies full;
Sitting there ... laughing in the trees.

Mostly, though, it's endless toil – adjusting floats and valves,
And checking out the fences near and far.
Visions of the wife and kids – see him through the afternoon,
'Till his nightly destination with the stars.

The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling
There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears,
Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised,
The blades have turned for fully fifty years.

Gone again's another week and he turns up at the homestead,
Just a silhouette against the setting sun,
There's just two days at home, for there's sheep to dip tomorrow.
And a rest before another windmill run.

The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling
There's a finger-full of grease for cog and gears,
Clockwise, ever clockwise, hot-dipped and galvanised,
The blades have turned for fully fifty years.

The Southern Cross is turning, creaking joints need oiling ...

Notes:

Alcan: Local brand of aluminium (well, lots of Canadian money in it as well). Presumably the floor of a work shed or store out on the run. Clockwise, ever clockwise: Of course, the blades always turn in the same direction because the tailpiece keeps them pointing up wind Dungarees: Work overalls – in this case ex-army
Fifty head it cost: On these huge inland runs, there is little permanent water and the bore (artesian) water brought up by the windmill may be all there is. A pump breakdown can mean death to all the cattle in that paddock.
Harley: Harley Davidson motorbike? Maybe an old WWII despatch rider's bike, rather than the fat road bikes of today
Hot-dipped and galvanised: They made things to last back then … not that there is much rain to rust windmill blades out in the outback!
Mulga: Low scrubby acacias of the arid interior
Southern Cross: The best known Australian brand of water-pumping windmill (named for the famous southern sky constellation).
Spinifex: Thorny weed - the Australian species is zygochloa paradoxus.
Tucker: Food, supplies
Twitch wire: Binding or tie wire for minor repairs

You can find the song on Loaded Dog 'A Coastline Facing West'. Here is a rendition by Wongawilli:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 10:07 PM

DOWN THE RIVER
(H. Lawson/I. MacDougall)

I've done with joys an' misery,
       An' why should I repine?
There's no one knows the past but me
       An' that ol' dog o' mine.
We camp an' walk an' camp an' walk,
       An' find it fairly good;
He can do anything but talk,
       An' he wouldn't if he could.

We sits an' thinks beside the fire,
       With all the stars a-shine,
An' no one knows our thoughts but me
       An' that there dog o' mine.
We has our Johnny-cake an' "scrag,"
       An' finds 'em fairly good;
He can do anything but talk,
       An' he wouldn't if he could.

He gets a 'possum now an' then,
       I cooks it on the fire;
He has his water, me my tea —
       What more could we desire?
He gets a rabbit when he likes,
       We finds it pretty good;
He can do anything but talk,
       An' he wouldn't if he could.

I has me smoke, he has his rest,
       When sunset's gettin' dim;
An' if I do get drunk at times,
       It's all the same to him.
So long's he's got me swag to mind,
       He thinks that times is good;
He can do anything but talk,
       An' he wouldn't if he could.

He gets his tucker from the cook,
       For cook is good to him,
An' when I sobers up a bit,
       He goes an' has a swim.
He likes the rivers where I fish,
       An' all the world is good;
He can do anything but talk,
       An' he wouldn't if he could

You can find the song on Loaded Dog 'That there dog o' mine' album. They note that the
tune they use is by Ian MacDougall. I can't find any rendition on the Net. There is a tune by Chris Kempster in his songbook (page 12):

Kempster

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 10:41 PM

Here's another good'un from the pen of John Warner. Kitty Kane is a tough woman who thumbs her nose at convention and not only survives but thrives. Good on her!

KITTY KANE
(John Warner)

I came up the Thomson with thousands of others
When Walhalla's gold wove its wild, shining spell
I was young, I was pretty, I called myself Kitty
I offered the best jewels a woman could sell
A length of fine velvet in well fitting burgundy
Tight round the curves where a man's eye could fall
Lace at the edges and eyes full of laughter
Oh young Kitty Kane was the pride of them all

(Chorus)
I might take a walk by the wild Thomson River
Where the mountain ash rise in the soft misty rain
There's gold in the range and there's gold in the memories
Of the lady of pleasure they call Kitty Kane

The publican brought a piano from Melbourne
I could tell you right now, it was never in tune
But the work-weary diggers came crowding to hear it
When Samson would play in the late afternoon
On nights when Walhalla lit up like a fire
And the miners were roaring some boozy refrain
There would always be eyes lit with lust and desire
And bright gold for evenings with young Kitty Kane

Chorus

There were schemers and sailors and bearded old diggers
Whose tough, hairy hides had the gravel ground in
Young men far from home who still needed a mother
And sad furtive parsons who needed to sin
Rough, drunken brutes with the manners of cattle
Who let me lie bleeding and shaking in pain
I served them their drinks while my bruises were healing
And I laughed and I shone, I was still Kitty Kane

Chorus

I've heard the men singing down at the piano
That youth it soon passes and beauty will fade
But I gave them their pleasure when I was past forty
It's the light in me eyes made me queen of my trade
Though Walhalla now is all merchants and farmers
Whose wives see in me what they think of as shame
I'll die in this valley with fine, singing memories
My name's Kitty Kane, I was best in the game

Chorus (X2)

You can find the song on Margaret Walters' excellent 'Pithead and Fern' album.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 11:15 PM

I did it again - lost my cookie.

Here's an amusing little poem that my good mate, the late Paul Lawler, put to music. It is by the late John Manifold, a fine poet, activist and editor of the original 'Penguin Australian Song Book'. Perhaps Rich-Joy will post the tune to the website of Paul's music in due course.


ON THE DEATH OF MR HOLT
(John Manifold/Paul Lawler

Only a week before Christmas,
   The happiest day of the year,
They held a wake for Harold Holt,
   And the bigwig guests came here.

Bonnie Prince Charlie came owre the sea
   With Wilson, who never smiles,
And L.B.J. from the U.S.A
   And the king of the Cannibal Isles;

Chaps from Siam and from South Vietnam
   And the Philippines too, I think;
Some for the sake of the free, free world,
   And some for the free, free drink.

They made long speeches and shed loud tears
   To propitiate Harold's ghost,
And the king of the Cannibal Isles got up
   To propose a final toast.

He said: "We have had such a splendid time,
   Such generous Christmas cheer,
We hope you'll be able to drown
   A Prime Minister every year!"

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 03:52 AM

good one, Stewie, the more serious side of John Manifold

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 04:02 AM

& I located my Loaded Dog CDs today, so can play them again.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 10:57 PM

Many thanks for that, Sandra. It is very interesting, albeit difficult (physically), reading. Have you read his 'Who wrote the ballads'? He wrote one of Australia's finest poems:

The Tomb of John Learmonth AIF

THE SHAME OF GOING BACK
(Henry Lawson)

When you've come to make your fortune, and you haven't made your salt
And the reason of your failure isn't anybody's fault
When you haven't got a billet, and the times are very slack
There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back

Chorus:
Crawling home with empty pockets
Going back hard-up
Oh! it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup

When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone
And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known
When your clothes are very shabby, and the future's very black
There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back

When you've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall,
'Tis the sneer of man, not conscience, that makes cowards of us all
And while you are returning, oh! your brain is on the rack,
And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back

When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain
They post-mortem him, and try him, and they say he was insane
But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack
And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back

Ah! my friend, you call it nonsense, and your upper lip is curled
You have had no real trouble in your passage through the world
But when fortune rounds upon you and the rain is on the track
You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 12:37 AM

we have copies of "Who wrote the Ballads" in BMC library.

THE PEOPLE HAVE SONGS
(Miguel Heatwole)

Here voices are tuned to each other in gladness
To all here in common affection belongs
Here joy and laughter meet keening and sadness
Here tyranny's cursed for the people have songs

Chorus:
Let us set the room ringing with the sound of our singing
When we come to the end let us hold the chord long
Hear the harmonies rise and all close our eyes
'Til the last cadence dies the people have songs

Here is war parting sweethearts
Here are strong sweating sailors
And poets for beauty who ardently long
Here are people at work singing loud at their labours
Here are marriage and drinking for the people have songs

Respect for each other gives each one a hearing
And whether the voice be uncertain or strong
We listen with love if the heart is endearing
Supported in harmony the people have songs

Disdaining oppression like others before us
Our gentleness angered by history's wrongs
Our tradition endures, and our voices in chorus
Are lifted in hope for the people have songs!

People have Songs on bandcamp

anotehr greta session song -

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 12:43 AM

TYPO! how did I hit submit?

another great session song is former Catter Canberra Chris's Call to Song , also recorded by Miguel for his latest CD More People Have songs, also available on Bandcamp. I'll ask him to pop in with the words.   

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 01:25 AM

Gotta have Union Street by Alistair Hulett

Siege of Union Street video

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118813
THE SIEGE OF UNION STREET (words & music by Alistair Hulett) words taken from 'The Cold Grey Light of Dawn' by Alistair Hulett & Dave Swarbrick
Musikfolk Ltd, 1997.

The Unemployed Workers Union was formed in Melbourne during the Great Depression to fight evictions by heartless landlords of destitute families for non-payment of rent. A Sydney branch soon followed and the UWU drew thousands into it's ranks. Matters came to a head in Union Street in the inner city suburb of Erskinville in Sydney, when over a thousand militants fought a pitched battle with police that lasted several days. The tenants were a 'war widow' and her children, so emotions were running high and the struggle received much media coverage
The Communist Party was deeply committed to supporting the UWU and the police had assistance from the covert right wing paramilitary group identified by D.H. Lawrence in his novel "Kangaroo." Casualties on both sides were high but the issue was finally resolved when the Labor State Premier, Jack Lang, introduced legislation to protect the unemployed from being thrown out of their homes. Jim Munroe, a founding member of the UWU is the source of the material on which much of this song is based.


You should have seen us down at Erko
Fourteenth August, Saturday night
To Newtown, Stanmore, Enmore and Petersham
Calls went out 'Workers unite!'
We built a bloody great wall
With planks and boards full seven foot tall
We didn't mind the howling wind and sleet
When we stood around the fire at Union Street

The man from the shop said put it on tick
The kids came round with bottles and bricks
There was Irish stew and home-made lemonade
They were grand old days on the barricade

I never thought I would join a party
Carry a card or see things red
The sight of bare foot children crying
Out on the pavement turned my head
Their old man's over in France
Flapping like a rag on a barbed wire fence
Their Mum does what she can to make ends meet
And she's down at the siege of Union Street

The cops came down and they came down hard
They must have numbered five hundred strong
They called us reds and they cracked our heads
To teach us poor sinners right from wrong
I learned a lesson that night
It's all out war when you stand and fight
I saw those brisk young coppers on their beat
Behave like thugs in Union Street

Sunshine danced on the broken glass
It shone like diamonds as morning broke
The cops were back by the railroad track
And the streets were filled with working folk
They'd bashed us bloody and raw
But it forced Jack Lang to change the law
Now the landlords have to cop it sweet
And the Red Flag flies over Union Street

The man from the shop gave out licorice sticks
To the kids who cleaned up the bottles and bricks
Down the years those memories never fade
Of the grand old days on the barricade.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 10:50 PM

Another fine song from Alan Mann. Alan noted:

Home thoughts from abroad! Sitting in a Canadian airport in winter knowing that in Western Australia it is summer and remembering the landscapes and associated farming activities.


WINNIPEG IN WINTER
(Alan Mann)

Winnipeg in winter is not the place to be
When the wind is up to 30 knots and it's minus 23
And all around a sea of white, snow drifts and sheets of ice
Frozen lakes, high latitudes don't make for paradise

Freezing, fevered snowbound - I'm sitting all alone
In Winnipeg in winter, ten thousand miles from home

Summertime is beautiful, so the locals say
I'm not convinced to press my luck and stay another day
Instead of this white wilderness, I see the big red heart
Purple hill and spinifex - I'm ready to depart

Brown and yellow's on the fields, a harvest's coming in
Sweaty seat, the Inter truck, Kellerberrin bin
And all along the gravel roads, lines of eucalypts
Dance and shimmer in the heat, and make the light of it

There an azure ocean laps a golden beach
A little line of breakers is curling out of reach
Majestic stands off karris and ghostly river gums
Throw their shade at red-brown dirt 'til evening's blanket comes

Of this distant dreaming it's not hard to make some sense
When from a fresh-cut field of oats or along a barbed-wire fence
Dust clouds spiral skywards, you'd pause and take a guess
'It's forty in the water bag' - more or less

Stooped against the driving snow, hail the brave Canuck
Wrapped up in fur and feathers, shuffling through the muck
Tugging at the parka hood, he nods and says 'G'day'
Breaking links to a train of thought - ten thousand miles away

Winnipeg in winter is not the place to be
When the wind is up to 30 knots and it's minus 23
And all around a sea of white, snow drifts and sheets of ice
Frozen lakes, high latitudes don't rate with paradise

Freezing, fevered snowbound - I'm sitting all alone
In Winnipeg in winter, ten thousand miles from home

You can find the song on Loaded Dog's 'That there dog o' mine' album. For this one, there
is a beaut video on Youtube. Bob Rummery is lead singer:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 11:41 PM

AWAY TO TINTINARA
(Mike O'Connor)

It's away to Tintinara and miles to Emu Springs
Every year a little farther to the song the drover sings
It's a hundred miles from Adelaide the Overlander rolls
Then a dusty road to sunrise where open bushland calls

Chorus:
And the music on the wind is the creaking of the saddle
And the rhythm of the song are the hooves upon the ground
Where the fences run forever to the dusty blue horizon
And like gems on distant velvet, stars echo to the sound 'Call me back'

There's a lonely crossroad beckons to the blue remembered hills
Then beyond the sands of Sugarloaf where memory lingers still
On the sunlit plains of yester year where lyre birds dance and sing
Are the echo of the voices a bushman's dreams can bring

Chorus

And around the paddock dreaming, you know that she'll be right
And around the billy boiling the stories last the night
For there's room enough for breathing, there's space to be your own
And to sing again the old song and watch the sun go down

Chorus

Martyn Wyndham-Read explains the genesis of the song at the end of this video:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 03:57 AM

Sorry, only just got my 'puter back from the Docs (with a warning that it won't last too much longer :(   
I will try to add some more suggestions too!

Crikey Sandra, that's funny about "Poison Train" - it was a firm favourite in SE Qld sessions when I arrived some 27 years ago and is still frequently heard. Good Song!

Stewie, re "On the Death of Harold Holt" : a good 18 months back I was preparing Lawls' TEFC bracket of Manifold songs, with pics, for upload to his YT channel ..... not quite sure why they haven't manifested there yet ..... LtU&E, I guess :(

I was always very fond of "Fannie Bay" [by D&A Tainsh] as sung by the late "Tropical Ear" in Darwin. Their version was quite unlike the (Dobe Newton's) Bushwackers version, more poignant and more singable. And not at all like the "Galway Bay" parody on John T's "Oz Folk Song a Day" webpages!!!
So I'll just have to add another to my upload list, along with the previously mentioned "Northern Gulf", sung by Smokey.

Happy Friday!!
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 09:04 PM

R-J, good to hear you got your 'puter back. What is LtU&E? Is it something like a 'round tuit'?

Bob Rummery put the tune to this one:

WHEN YOU'RE FLUSH
(T.Brittain/R.Rummery)

The work's been long and steady, now the contract's finished up
When the pass is hard, it doesn't pay to rush
Burning in my moleskin pocket is what I got from it
And there's other things you think of when you're flush
So I'll wind up the stringline, I'll put the tools away
And I'll turn the old camp-oven upside down
And in quest of earthly capers, I will look around a bit
And I'll try the bill of fare in Bunbury town
Yes, I'll try the bill of fare in Bunbury town

By the noon I'd crossed the sandplain and I didn't raise a sweat
'Cause a traveller that day was kind to me
I alighted from his sulky at the Prince of Wales Hotel
And soon afterwards embarked upon a spree
When a lady I befriended, so delightful was her charm
My desire of it was soon to wear me down
I feted her a fortnight with all the spice of life
It was nice, the bill of fare in Bunbury town
Yes, it was nice the bill of fare in Bunbury town

And then a day out at the races, some pennies that I tossed
Soon relieved me of my remaining dough
So I shouldered my possessions, I whipped the cat a bit
To the bush I stretched, 'twas time to strike a blow
Back across the Preston River, and about a mile beyond
Resting in the shade of Boyle O'Reilly's tree
My mind's eye shaped a picture of him trudging years before
In a way that seemed a parallel with me
Yes, In a way that seemed a parallel with me

Having finished with my dreaming at the junction of the roads
And with thirty mile or more still left to tramp
And past another sunrise to a gully farther on
I've rested in the refuge of my camp
Where I've unwound the stringline, I've turkeyed up my axe
And I hope my daily tallies bring renown
Cooking in the old camp-oven there's a lovely mutton stew
And it beats the bill of fare in Bunbury town
Yes, it beats the bill of fare in Bunbury town

I've been toiling long a steady since the contract started up
When the pass is hard, it doesn't pay to rush
I'll settle up and clean the slate with what I get from it
And I'll satisfy my needs when I am flushed
Yes, I'll satisfy my needs when I am flush

The song is on 'A coastline facing west'. Bob introduces the song in one of the few videos of the Dog available on the Net (there's some competition from sprog noises):

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 09:53 PM

Alan Mann used the tune of an old favourite for this one. He noted:

This is the true story of the founding of the town of Menzies in WA's goldfields in 1894. After striking it rich, Leslie Robert Menzies tipped his nuggets on the floor of the Bank of Coolgardie and proceeded to shout the town 4000 pounds worth of champagne. Lonnie Donegan had a great skiffle version of this tune which had previously been covered by Leadbelly and collected by Alan Lomax.

MENZIES' SHOUT (HAVE A DRINK ON ME)
(Alan Mann)

In the eighteen nineties down a dusty road
Came a saddle-bagged miner with a six ton load
Everybody - have a drink on me
He was caked in dust from his foot to his head
But he had a 'gold smile' it had to be said
Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me

He reined his camels, hitched them to the rail
Shouted to his mates: 'Found the Holy Grail'
Everybody - have a drink on me
He staggered to the bank, tipped nuggets on the floor
'I've pegged out ground, there's a whole heap more'
Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me

Chorus:
Have a drink, have a drink, have a drink on me
Ev'rybody have a drink on me
Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me
Have a drink, have a drink, have a drink on me
Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me

There's trouble in store at the Old Camp Saloon
It being quite early - not yet noon
Everybody have a drink on me
'First things first, a day of champagne
Settle in boys for a long campaign'
Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me

Well I've been to Hannans and to Kununulling
Toasted success - this time we're skulling
Everybody have a drink on me
This new show, a hundred miles from here
Has beaten all the rest for all of last year
Hey, hey ev'rybody drink on me

I went to the Barossaa to float another mine
The gold was scarce, but the red was fine
Everybody have a drink on me
Seems like the gold and my luck have run out
But I remember the day it was my turn to shout

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 10:23 PM

"Life, the Universe, & Everything" Stew!
(#1 excuse for not coping, or doing!!!)
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 28 Aug 20 - 11:20 PM

Thanks R-J.

There are fewer Paterson poems set to music than those of Lawson, but there are some. Cathie O'Sullivan put a tune to this one years ago.

SONG OF ARTESIAN WATER
(Paterson/O'Sullivan)

Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought,
But we're sick of prayers and Providence - we're going to do without,
With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below,
We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
As the drill is plugging downward at a thousand feet of level,
If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil;
Yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down.

Now, our engine's built in Glasgow by a very canny Scot,
And he marked it twenty horse-power, but he didn't know what is what.
When Canadian Bill is firing with the sun-dried gidgee logs,
She can equal thirty horses and a score or so of dogs.
Sinking down, deeper down
Oh, we're going deeper down:
If we fail to get the water, then it's ruin to the squatter,
For the drought is on the station and the weather's growing hotter,
But we're bound to get the water deeper down.

But the shaft has started caving and the sinking's very slow,
And the yellow rods are bending in the water down below,
And the tubes are always jamming, and they can't be made to shift
Till we nearly burst the engine with a forty horse-power lift,
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we're going deeper down:
Though the shaft is always caving, and the tubes are always jamming,
Yet we'll fight our way to water while the stubborn drill is ramming-
While the stubborn drill is ramming deeper down.

But there's no artesian water, though we're passed three thousand feet,
And the contract price is growing, and the boss is nearly beat.
But it must be down beneath us, and it's down we've got to go.
Though she's bumping on the solid rock four thousand feet below,
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we're going deeper down:
And it's time they heard us knocking on the roof of Satan's dwellin',
But we'll get artesian water if we cave the roof of hell in-
Oh we'll get artesian water deeper down.

But it's hark! the whistle's blowing with a wild, exultant blast,
And the boys are madly cheering, for they've struck the flow at last:
And it's rushing up the tubing from four thousand feet below,
Till it spouts above the casing in a million-gallon flow.
And it's down, deeper down-
Oh, it comes from deeper down:
It is flowing, ever flowing, in a free, unstinted measure
From the silent hidden places where the old earth hides her treasure-
Where the old earth hides her treasures deeper down.

And it's clear away the timber and it's let the water run,
How it glimmers in the shadow, how it flashes in the sun!
By the silent belts of timber, by the miles of blazing plain
It is bringing hope and comfort to the thirsty land again.
Flowing down, further down:
It is flowing further down
To the tortured thirsty cattle, bringing gladness in its going;
Through the droughty days of summer it is flowing, ever flowing-
It is flowing, ever flowing, further down.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 01:35 AM

Gerry Hallom put a tune to Paterson's beaut poem 'With the cattle'. He makes some minor changes and omissions: here is how he sings it:

WITH THE CATTLE
(Paterson/Hallom)

The drought is down on field and flock
The riverbed is dry
And we must shift the starving stock
Before the cattle die
So we muster up with weary hearts
At breaking of the day
And turn our heads to foreign parts
And take the stock away
By the stock routes bare and eaten
On dusty roads and beaten
In heat and drought and hopeless pain, we take the stock away

We cannot use the whips for shame
On beasts that crawl along
We have to drop the weak and lame
And try to save the strong
For the wrath of God is on the track
The drought fiend holds his sway
With blows and cries and stock whip crack
We take the stock away
As they fall we leave them lying,
With the crows to watch them dying
With half a chance to save their lives we take the stock away

So in dull despair the days go by
With never hope of change
But every stage we draw more nigh
The distant mountain range
And some may live to climb the pass
And reach the great plateau
And revel in the mountain grass
By streamlets fed with snow
As the mountain wind is blowing
It starts the cattle lowing
The creatures smell the mountain grass that's twenty miles away

They press towards the mountain grass
They look with eager eyes
Along the rugged stony pass
That slopes towards the skies
Though their feet may bleed from rocks and stones
And though the blood-drop starts
They struggle on with stifled groans
For hope is in their hearts
As the mountain wind is blowing
And the mountain grass is growing
They break in to a kind of run – pull up, and let them go!

The days are done of heat and drought
Upon the stricken plain
The wind has shifted right about
And brought the welcome rain
The river runs with sullen roar
All flecked with yellow foam
And we must take the road once more
And bring the cattle home
And it's `Lads! we'll raise a chorus
There's a pleasant trip before us
Towards the far-off mountain-land, to bring the cattle back'

We have to watch them close at night
For fear they'll make a rush
And break away in headlong flight
Across the open bush
And by the campfire's cheery blaze
With mellow voice and strong
We hear the lonely watchman raise
The overlander's song
While the stars shine out above us
Like the eyes of those who love us
The eyes of those who watch and wait to greet the cattle home

The plains are all awave with grass
The skies are deepest blue
And leisurely the cattle pass
And feed the long day through
But when we sight the station gate
We make the stockwhips crack
A welcome sound to those who wait
To greet the cattle back
And through the twilight falling
We hear their voices calling,
As the cattle splash across he ford and churn it into foam
And the children run to meet us
Our wives and sweethearts greet us
Their heroes from the overland who brought the cattle home

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:04 AM

geez, Stewie, don't you have anything else to do!

I'd love to put some of Kevin Baker's songs up, but I'd have to type them. Tthere's not much online, just this bio from a 2006 appearance at Sutherland folk club.

Kevin Baker
A long time political activist and historian, Kevin Baker is a brilliant exponent on the social, economic and industrial life of the Illawarra. He has recorded in song the struggles of workers and the despair of unemployment. Kevin’s song The Snowy River Men” is regarded as the most powerful anti-war song ever written. His three recordings, The Snowy River Men, Still a Rich Man’s Land and Harvest and Heartbreak, all his own compositions carry a wealth of Australian history and are an invaluable Australian Folk Collection. A poet/singer/songwriter Kevin knows and feels the real Australia and has that special gift of telling a story in song.

Kevin Baker - Snowy River Men - video

Dear Mrs Allen I write to you today
To say that I was with your son just before he passed away
I trained with him at Goulburn and we traveled on to France
And I was there when he got hit in the German advance.

It seems so long ago since we marched into your town
And all the young men heard the call and signed their name straight down
And the girls and the children proudly all cheered us all along
At Bibbenluke that day was a feast of speech and song.

CHORUS - And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today
There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way
The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood
There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud

From Goulburn to Sydney and then a ship from Circular Quay
A spirit of adventure stirred and filled both Les and Me
It was great to be with comrades true and travelling abroad
For a while the war seemed far away and the world was to be toured

In Durban the natives took us travelling in style
In rickshaws that they pulled along at a shilling a mile.
In Capetown we watched the black boys diving in the Bay
The Snowies had a good time there and would have liked to stay

CHORUS - But the Snowy River men just couldn't march today
There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way
The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood
There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud

When we landed at Plymouth, we'd spent 8 weeks at sea
And entrained straight way for Wilton where our camp turned out to be,
They treated us well there so we really can't complain
That the sky was grey, the weather bleak and it always seemed to rain

When we set sail for France, the weather had turned fine
And it wasn't long before the call to reinforce the line
Then a shell whined above us and we were raked with stones and mud
And I turned and saw Les sitting there in a pool of his own blood

CHORUS And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today
There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way
The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood
There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud

He stared as the blood poured out of his legless thigh
And I carried him back to the aid post close nearby
His blood soaked my uniform but he never breathed a sigh
And I had no idea then that he was going to die

When I left him he spoke of a pain inside his chest
I suppose that's what killed him, I just don't know the rest
But I know that we all miss him and cant help but wonder why
So many Snowy men so quickly had to die.

CHORUS - And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today
There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way
The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood
There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud

We hear the king's grateful for all the men who've died
And is sending home a photo of the graves in which they lie
Well I still think that the cause is right but it's not clear any more
Why so many Australian men should die in Europe's war

We hope with our hearts that time will ease the pain
Of never once to see his face or hear his voice again
But I've seen so much death now since that day on which he died
That I can't now be the snowy man that once I was inside

CHORUS - And the Snowy River men just couldn't march today
There's far too many of them dead for the rest to feel that way
The cold ground of Europe has been watered with their blood
There's a strange new crop of crosses rising in this foreign mud

Subject: LYR ADD - Kevin Baker - Superstar
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:52 AM

Kevin Baker - Superstar

I still hear my mother whistling as she hung clothes on the line
While our neighbour did the Monday wash and sang away the time
Down the road on a building lot where hammers kept the beat
Workmen sang and shared their lunch with the boy from up the street
And the Baker's cart and the Rabbito came trading to a tune
As we lived to our own music morning night and afternoon.

CHORUS - But now you've got to be a superstar if you want to sing a song
If they catch you quietly singing people think there's something wrong
Somehow we lost the right to sing: it almost seem a crime
To share the things you care about in music, words and rhyme.

I hear echoes of my father in the songs he used to know
Of love and work and freedom; the memories start to flow
And my mother played an old squeeze-box as he people had before
And friends would visit friends and bring their songs in through the door.
And no-one was at all surprised or thought it indiscreet
If the friendly sound of music were to spill out on the street.

CHORUS

But now we get our music with an electronic sound
In accents strange and foreign that aren't heard on our home ground
It's slick and flash but hasn't got a thing to do with me
But it clogs up all our radios and floods out from TV
And I can't help looking back to when we thought we all belonged
Before we lost our voices and bought other people's songs.

CHORUS

Rabbits were poor people's meat & Rabbitos sold them door to door.

Recording by Penny Davies and Roger Ilott.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RABBITER (Stan Wakefield)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 11:08 AM

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=23038

THE RABBITER
Words and music: Stan Wakefield

I read about the fortunes that the rabbiters make outback -
The sporting life and the lairy tales of prices fetched at Sydney sales,
So I started out across New South Wales on the roving rabbiters' track.

CHORUS: With a hool-em-up and a sool-em-up And the fool-em-up decoys;
The men who scalp the rabbiters Are the Sydney market boys.

A free and independent life, a life of simple joys
I camped beneath an old belah ' and my tucker was mostly fried galah,
And I trapped 'em near and I trapped 'em far, for the Sydney market boys.

I poisoned out at Hillston, and I trapped at Gundagai,
I followed 'em over creeks and bogs, and chopped 'em out of hollow logs,
And tailed 'em up with yelping dogs, 'way back of Boggabri.

Besides the bunnies that you catch, there's things that you despise:
A hawk, a snake, a crow, a rat, a bandicoot, a tiger cat,
And when you're lucky, a lamb that's fat is a welcome enough surprise.

I skinned and scalped and scalped and skinned, till my back was nearly broke,
With blood and muck all stiff and brown, the stink of my clothes would knock you down,
And I slaved all day for half a crown for the Sydney market bloke.

I thought I'd get a snifter cheque for skins I sent from Bourke,
But the broker rogues in Sydney Town, they weigh them short and they grade them down,
And they sent me back three lousy pound, for a month of slavin' work.

Some day we're going to set our traps to catch the hungry crew
Who live on useful workers' sweat -- we'll stop their thieving racket yet,
And to make them earn their tucker, you bet, is the job for me and you.

With a hool-em-up and a sool-em-up,
And there'll be no more decoys;
Then a-hunting, hunting we will go
For the Sydney market boys.


Stan (died early 1960s) wrote The Rabbiter's Song in the 1930s. It refers to the Government attempt to persuade the unemployed to go out and make money from trapping rabbits, instead of applying for the dole (which required working for the Government anyway - usually on public works programmes ... sometimes of utility and value).

Of course, when a whole mob of unemployed city slickers started sending off rabbit skins to the Sydney or Melbourne markets ... the price dropped (the law of supply and demand) as well as a number of the skins arriving rotten due to poor preparation. Anyway, there wasn't much money to be made in the game and Stan, being the good Left-winger that he was, wrote a beaut song and, being the competent musician that he was, wrote his own tune to it.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 04:50 PM

Thanks for The Rabbiter Sandra. It's one I've sung occasionally for many years, but I was missing the last verse. Now I have to graft that onto what is already in my brain.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:24 PM

Extracts from Singabout - the early songwriters - Stan Wakefield (1906 - 1962)

Subject: Lyr Add: BRUNSWICK ROAD (S Groves & D Bourke)
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 10:37 PM

It keeps me off the streets, Sandra. Thanks for posting the Wakefield songs - excellent. it looks like it is up to us. I am puzzled by the absence of our thread moderator who listed songs in Joe's original thread, but has posted none.

Anyhow, this lovely song is one of my wife's favourites.

BRUNSWICK ROAD
(Steve Groves & Danny Bourke)

I know a woman who says she's old
She weaves a spell around my rented house of stone
It's late when we leave at the foot of the stairs
The gas pipes ring as she laughs and sings of her dancing years

Chorus:
And she tells me we should go home down Brunswick Road
Where we would walk and we would talk till the moon went down
We were arm in arm, as in days of old
We thought the street was lined with gold down Brunswick Road

We live in the heart of the town she loves
She doesn't mind I can't recall her yesterdays.
Outside the hall, the iron lace
Her dancing's over now the pain is on her face

She laughs again, she sees her man
He's singing Daisy on a bike out in the rain
He fades from sight, he's out of view
and if I had the chance I'd bring him back to you

Chorus

As sung by Graham Dodsworth:

Brunswick Road

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHEARING IN A BAR (Duke Tritton)
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 11:03 PM

SHEARING IN A BAR
(Duke Tritton)

My shearing days are over, though I never was a gun
I could always count my twenty at the end of every run
I used the old trade union shears, and the blades were always full
As I drove ’em to the knockers, and I chopped away the wool
I shore at Goorianawa and didn’t get the sack
From Breeze out to Compadore, I always could go back
And though I am a truthful man, I find when in a bar
My tallies seem to double, but I never call for tar

Shearing on the western plains where the fleece is full of sand
And the clover burr and corkscrew grass is the place to try your hand
Where the sheep are tall and wiry where they feed on the Mitchell grass
And every second one of them is close to the cobbler class
And a pen chock full of cobblers is a shearer's dream of hell
So loud and lurid are their words when they catch one on the bell
But when you’re pouring down the grog, there's no need to call for tar
For a shearer never cuts ’em, when shearing in a bar

At Louth I caught the bell sheep, a wrinkled, tough-wooled brute
Who never stopped his kicking till I tossed him down the chute
My wrist was aching badly, but I fought him all the way
I couldn’t afford to miss a blow, I must earn my pound a day
So when I’d take a strip of skin, I’d hide it with my knee
Turn the sheep around a bit where the right bower couldn’t see
Then try and catch the rousie’s eye and softly whisper 'tar'
But it never seems to happen when I’m shearing in the bar

I shore away the belly wool and trimmed the crutch and hocks
Opened up along the neck while the rousie swept the locks
Then smartly swung the sheep around and dumped him on his rear
Two blows to clip away the wig – I also took an ear
Then down around the shoulder when me full blades open wide
As I drove ’em on the long blow and down the whipping side
And when the fleece fell on the board, he was nearly black with tar
But this is never mentioned when I’m shearing in a bar

Now when the season's ended and my grandsons all come back
In their buggies and their sulkies -I was always on the track
They come and take me into town to fill me up with beer
And I sit on a bar stool and listen to them shear
There’s not a bit of difference – it must make the angels weep
To hear a mob of shearers in a barroom shearing sheep
For the sheep go rattling down the race with never a call for tar
For a shearer never cuts ’em when he’s shearing in a bar

Then memories come crowding in and they wipe away the years
And my hand begins to tighten and I seem to feel the shears
I want to tell them of the sheds, the sheds where I have shorn
Full fifty years and maybe more, before these boys were born
I want to speak of Yarragin, Dunlop or Wingadee
But the beer has started working and I’m wobbling at the knees
So I’d better not start shearing, I’d be bound to call for tar
Then be treated as a blackleg when I’m shearing in a bar

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 11:33 PM

Extracts from Singabout - the early songwriters - Duke Tritton (1886-1965)

I'll contact Gerry

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 11:35 PM

Pete Seeger talks with Duke Tritton 1963

Subject: Lyr Add: LEWIS ISLAND LUGGER (Murray & Silvester)
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Aug 20 - 07:14 PM

Western Australian Herald - 23 October 1869:

Preparation for the New Pearling Season ...take the first of the ebb and glide away out of the creek ... then comes the most important part, the picking up of niggers ... for pearling after all would never pay white labour.

LEWIS ISLAND LUGGER
(M.Murray & L.Silvester)

The lugger is painted already
She is painted in red and in green
She is painted so gaily we smile at her
She is painted in red and in green

The lugger is rigged out already
She's rigged out with tackles and ropes
She's rigged out to take us a-pearling
She's rigged out with tackles and ropes

And the lugger is charted already
She's charted out from Nichol Bay
She's charted to go for the pearling
She's charted out from Nichol Bay

O father why are we waiting
Away from our home far away
Why do we wait on Lewis Island
For the lugger to take us away

And the lugger is loaded already
She's loaded with beer and with wine
Loaded with blackbirds from the Gascoyne
Loaded with beer and with wine

The lugger is waiting already
She's sailing away from the land
She's taken away my family
She's sailing away from the land

O father why are we waiting
Away from our home far away
Why do we wait on Lewis Island
For the lugger to take us away

And the lugger is stranded already
She's stranded between surf and reef
Now gone are my sister and brother
Stranded between surf and reef

And their headstone is written already
Written in pearl shells and blood
A headstone to stand among many
Written in pearl shells and blood

O father why are we waiting
Away from our home far away
Why do we wait on Lewis Island
For the lugger to take us away

And the lugger is saiing already

The song may be found on Mike Murray and Lesley Silvester 'Strangers on the Shore' TimeTrackers TT0101 2001. It is an album of true stories of ships, the sea and first contact with Western Australia.

Mike and Lesley noted:

Blackbirding flourished in the pearling industry in NW Australia. Kidnapped Aborigines from the Gascoyne region were held captive on islands such as Lewis Island, and the luggers would call in from time to time to replace those who had perished either from the bends, ill-treatment or shipwreck.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: BENEATH ULURU (Dave Oakes)
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Aug 20 - 07:57 PM

Here's another one from the NT. Dave Oakes is a fine singer/songwriter from Alice Springs.
[He's not the one you get if you put the name in Youtube search],

BENEATH ULURU
(Dave Oakes)

Looking forward to seeing you
You're just a week away
And like so many times before
I'd want that time to stay for more
And yet before we know it
We'll be saying our goodbyes
Time will have come and gone
To be seen through memory's eyes

Time has no time, time's passing through
No one can hold it, it's always anew
That was a time, the memory of you
Under the starlight beneath Uluru

Nothing comes from yearnin'
Just an achin' for the heart
And time is just like learnin'
With no endin' and no start
Got no time for worryin'
'Bout tomorrow or yesterday
Stop the clock and turn the tide
It's on the wings of change time flies

Time has no time, time's passing through
No one can hold it, it's always anew
That was a time, the memory of you
Under the starlight beneath Uluru

That was a time, the memory of you
Under the starlight beneath Uluru

Youtube clip

Perhaps R-J could check my above transcription.

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHIP REPAIRING MEN (Harry Robertson)
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 20 - 10:36 PM

SHIP REPAIRING MEN
(Harry Robertson)

To the workshop off we go, toolkits heavy in our hands
To a big ship that’s come in, from a trip to foreign lands
Salty streaks of rust have marked her, but her moorings hold her tight
And we’ll work to fix her engines, all today and half the night

CHORUS:
Don’t wait up for me this evening — I’ll be out all night again
Working on the Brisbane River with the ship repairing men.

Oil-fired boilers throb with power, drinking up the furnace heat
Water turns to driving steam to make the engines beat
But the feed pump’s sighing wail to us cuts through all other sound
As it sings a song of triumph, for the valves that we have ground

Engine bearings that knocked and hammered through the wild and stormy seas
Will be machined and fitted till they run with silent ease
And that winch that rattles every time the piston turns the shaft
Will hum along and sing its song to men skilled in their craft

When you see an ocean liner glide between the river banks
And the Captain in his gold braid orders men of lesser ranks
Have you thought perhaps this stately craft might never sail again
If it wasn’t for the toil and sweat of ship repairing men

The National Sound and Screen Archive released a CD of Robertson: 'Whale Chasing Men' SSA/WC0022. This song is not on it. I first heard it on a Declan Affley LP. You can find it on Evan
Mathieson 'Harry's Legacy' Mamaia 0701. Evan Mathieson has a second CD devoted to Robertson: 'Tribute to Harry Robertson' Mamaia 0902.

Here is a rendition by John Thompson.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: HOMELESS MAN (Harry Robertson)
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Aug 20 - 11:14 PM

Bugger, I did it again - all the nameless GHESTS in this thread are yours truly.

Here's another Robertson favourite that I first heard on Declan Affley's 'Rake and a Rambling Man' LP.

HOMELESS MAN
(Harry Robertson)

I've travelled hard these last ten weary years
And my youthful dreams have slowly turned to fears
If you think I am complaining I can tell you that I'm not
For I know that this is just the drifter's lot

Many years my home has been the wayside camp
And I've starved and sweated on the river banks
And I've fought with fists and feet, rough-neck drifters that I meet
Broken dreams and bottles pave my lonely street

As a homeless boy I thought when I'm a man
I'll change this world and right what wrongs I can
Since then I have met defeat, it's a bitter bread to eat
And the homeless boy is now a homeless man

Happiness has not been mine upon this earth
Both my parents left me when they met their death
And I'll drink before I eat with the drifters that I meet
But the sorrow here is mine and mine alone

So my friends I think that I should move along
And I'm glad that you have listened to my song
For the road is all I know and I'll wander it alone
As an outcast homeless drifter, and unknown

The text above is copied from the booklet to Mathieson's 'Harry's Legacy'. Evidently, the tune is traditional Norwegian.

The only clip I could find on the Net is by Warren Fahey:

Youtube clip

Stewie.

Subject: Lyr Add: WEE POT STOVE (Harry Robertson)
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Aug 20 - 11:43 PM

Perhaps the best-known of Robertson's songs is 'Wee Pot Stove'. I've copied this text from the booklet to Mathieson's 'Harry's Legacy':

WEE POT STOVE
(Harry Robertson)

How the winter blizzards blow when the Whaling Fleet's at rest
Tucked in Leither Harbour's sheltered bay, safely anchored ten abreast
The whalers at their stations, as from ship to ship they go,
Carry little bags of coal with them, and a little iron stove.

Chorus:
In that wee dark engine room, where the chill seeps in your soul
How we huddled roon' that wee pot stove, that burned oily rags and coal

Fireman Paddy worked with me, on the engines stiff and could
A stranger to the truth was he, there's not a lie he hasn't told
He boasted of his gold mines, and the hearts that he had won
And his bonny sense of humour shone, just like a ray of sun.

Chorus

We laboured seven days a week, with could hands and frozen feet
Bitter days and lonely nights making grog and having fights
Salt fish and whalemeat sausage, fresh penguin eggs a treat
And we trudged along to work each day through icy winds and sleet

Chorus

Then one day we saw the sun, and the factory ship's return,
Meet your old friends, sing a song, hope the season won't be long
Then homeward bound when it's over, we'll leave this icy cove
But I always will remember that little iron stove

Perhaps the best-known cover is the one by Nic Jones who recorded it under the title 'The Little Pot Stove' and used a phrase in the song as the title of his album.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 12:27 AM

Speaking of Henry Lawson, I'd like to put in a vote for Reedy River.

http://folkstream.com/073.html

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 05:00 AM

good one, Andrez

Stewie - Chloe & Jason Roweth present Saturday Streaming 8th August, 7-8.30pm (Aus Eastern Standard time), The Songs & Tunes of Bob Rummery, live on facebook, donations welcome (To be posted on youtube a week later)

Over the years our repertoire has greatly benefited from the addition of songs from Bob Rummery, and we are thrilled to have the chance to focus on his work in this special presentation.

Bob has been performing and championing West Australian songs and music both as a solo performer and with West Australian band Loaded Dog for many years. He is a fine tune writer and sets Australian poetry to music as though it was always meant to be sung that way.

It occurs to me that many folks who loves Bob Rummery’s work, might not be Facebook users. If you know anyone who might be interested, please pass it on... As usual for our Saturday Streaming shows, it will be on YouTube early next week.

Likewise - it’d be great to have mates of Bob’s join in the craic on Saturday night. It’ll be a real pleasure to focus on his great work - all in one show!

We’d appreciate any folks sharing this one - hoping to reach all Bob’s friends and fan...

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Andrez
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 07:37 AM

Another one of my all time favourites, Weevils in the Flour by Dorothy Hewitt in 1962. Somewhere on one of my old cassettes I've got a version of the late Hugh McDonald singing this and I also have fond memories of Dave Brannigan singing it around the traps and or folk festivals too.

The link belowis a video with her son (I think) singing a version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgp7zWdZtoM

Cheers,

Andrez