Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Jan 21 - 07:28 PM

A none too flattering historical snapshot of my birth city.

ONE MORE BORING NIGHT IN ADELAIDE
(John Schumann)

Well it's one more boring Thursday night in Adelaide
And it looks like everybody must have died
There's no one on the streets and nothing on TV
Well I think I'll go and burn my TV guide
Doesn't Ernie Sigley bring you down?
Don't you think Mike Willesee's a clown?

Oh well I think I'd like to go and hear some rock'n'roll music played
So I'll check the amusement pages of the paper
Reggae bands doing one night stands at the Lion Hotel and Arkaba
And the girl at the bar thinks I'm going to take her home in my MG and
Hanging out at discos brings you down
Hanging out at discos brings you down

Down on Anzac highway in my rusty old FV
And I'm looking for some food to take away
Finger lickin' kitten and a double fisted bun
Well I've chewed and spewed and so I'm here to say
Orange laminex pizza bars bring you down
Orange laminex pizza bars bring you down

Yes we know it was the festival of art and all that stuff
And the culture vultures still sat on the fence
Before you put your bum on those plush red seats take a look in your backyard
Don't we need some changes in this town?
Arty farty cities bring you down
Don't we need some changes in this town?
Before you put your bum on those plush red seats take a look in your backyard
Don't we need some changes in this town?

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Jan 21 - 07:10 AM

THE PLAINS OF WOOMERA
~ Phil Underwood ~ © 2015

It’s 10,000 miles from Scratchell Bay where the cliffs of the white do shine
To the red red sand of Australia’s land where there’s a thing (??) opal mine.

We tested our rockets at High Down, and we all went out by air
Through Bahrain and Singapore, to Australia’s southern shore.
And the Plains of Woomera.

The sun beats down on the barren ground, as far as the eye can roam
“Black Arrow” she did stand on the native’s sacred land
Of the Plains of Woomera.

We could not launch when the wind blew up and the dust around did fly
The Aussies they did chaff : “did the wind blow out your match?!”
On the Plains of Woomera.

But the very next day was fine and clear and her engines roared with fire
And shining like a star she rose into the air
Above the Plains of Woomera.

The Government had said : The Project’s Dead – but we launched her anyway
And “Prospero” will orbit for a hundred years
Above the Plains of Woomera.

It’s 44 years since I stood there, and now I have returned
My spirit it does fly like “Black Arrow” in the sky
Above the Plains of Woomera.
My spirit it does fly like “Black Arrow” in the sky
Above the Plains of Woomera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XVy6993jnI
sung by Phil Underwood, composer and folk performer. Dedicated to his father, John Underwood (1930 – 2014) “who helped pioneer British spaceflight …. and bluegrass music on the Isle of Wight” :)

“A song composed and played by me, Phil Underwood, December 2015. My father John Underwood was a senior engineer on the Black Arrow rocket programme which, despite successfully launching satellite Prospero into orbit in 1971, was cancelled. Black Arrow was tested at Highdown on the Isle of Wight and launched from Woomera rocket range in Australia. Dad and his colleagues appeared on BBC Television's flagship programme Coast in 2010. He was also a fine folk singer and morris dancer.   
I play his banjo in the video. Prospero still orbits.”


HIGH DOWN was the British Rocket Testing Facility, on the western end of the Isle of Wight, near the famous Needles. Whatever still remains now, is a National Trust precinct.
Most design and static test firing was done at High Down in the UK, and then transported and launched at Woomera, in South Australia (an enormous tract of land – 270,000 square kilometres in those days).   Geographically, the UK was less than ideal to do final launches and the two most likely places investigated for satellite launches were UIST ( islands in Scotland’s Hebrides), and, on the north coast of Norfolk. However, the closeness of the trajectories to the North Pole, and to the North Sea oilrigs,
(and to mainland Europe!), easily won the toss for the vast “Plains of Woomera” instead!!

Those with a yen for this interesting slice of history, and why it eventually stopped at both locations, should delve into this website : http://www.spaceuk.org/    Of course, it wasn’t just about the space race, the arms race was also intertwined……

Meanwhile, try this rocket tests clip from Woomera’s local museum : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x80sNNusBs&t=14s    And this one too, for some alternative shots of tests and collisions - and also the local Aboriginals :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5khcr8DO34

Here is the Dept of Defence explanation of Woomera’s history and its current purpose : https://www1.defence.gov.au/bases-locations/sa/woomera/about but checkout this 2010 story from the Australian Geographic magazine : https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/travel-destinations/2010/05/woomera-nuclear-danger-zone/

Plenty more historical clips on-line.

[I didn’t mention that it was also a shame job Govt Detention Centre for a while too, for “unauthorised” refugees…… ] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woomera_Immigration_Reception_and_Processing_Centre

Finally, just came across the legendary adventurer, JACK ABSALOM! : “Red Dirt And Rockets”, 1993 – if you’re pushed for time, the Woomera segment starts at 22:20 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akQSZ071f2k&list=PLDa33Rs7vBKojDLOkDaCzfIns0g_n1DLL&index=6


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 11:46 PM

Ah, thank you, JennieG!

I found a version of David's excellent song, sung by Fay White and co, while a "going backwards getting nowhere" dance was done, in Hobart : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfKpdUO7F-k

"This dance is supposed to symbolise that when dealing with politicians, and “The Establishment” in general, all we achieve is a lot of puff, getting nowhere. We danced it when the French were yet again testing their bombs in the South Pacific.
You progress backwards … how we often feel when dealing with governments!"

There is also a different song of the same name, by Robert Danielson, also protesting the French tests at Mururoa : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbcKL1RLXUA


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 10:13 PM

As promised:

Mururoa Mon Amour – David O'Connor

Je suis annoye about the Mururoa tests:
Dans mon opinion ce n'est pas la best.
J'ai un bon suggestion pour toute la France:
If you wanna make a mess, mess your own damn pants.

Chorus: Drop it in Paris, c'est votre bombe:   
If it's so darn safe, test it at home:
Stick it up the Eiffel Tower, or stick it up your vest:
Use the Champs Elysees for your nuclear tests.

Tous le monde ecoute the crack of doom:
Quand votre bombe va boom! Boom! Boom!
Permettez-moi de vous assure,
When you're radio-active, il y a no cure.

Chorus: Drop it in Paris, c'est votre bombe:   
If it's so darn safe, test it at home:
Stick it up the Eiffel Tower, or stick it up your vest:
Use the Champs Elysees for your nuclear tests.

Ne droppez pas votre bombe dans my backyard:
Makes normal living tres, tres hard.
Pick up your installations both old and new:
Have your next explosion chez vous.

Chorus: Drop it in Paris, c'est votre bombe:   
If it's so darn safe, test it at home:
Stick it up the Eiffel Tower, or stick it up your vest:
Use the Champs Elysees for your nuclear tests.

Cher monsieur, ecoute what I say,
Pas plus tests, take them away.
Cher monsieur, do this for me:
Make the South Pacific nuclear free!

Chorus: Drop it in Paris, c'est votre bombe:   
If it's so darn safe, test it at home:
Stick it up the Eiffel Tower, or stick it up your vest:
Use the Champs Elysees for your nuclear tests.

The tune is in the same family as 'Midnight Special'.

David writes: "This was obviously written when the French were still testing their nuclear weaponry on Mururoa, and after they sank the 'Rainbow Warrior' in Auckland Harbour. I have always felt that the normal of deeply committed protest song helps the committed to express their feelings, but doesn't help the target to change. I think that maybe humour will at least get the target to think a bit. I have even sung it to French people; it made them laugh as well."

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 09:35 PM

My favourite ballad of Ben Hall is one that I have recited over many years. I have been unable to find any audio or video of it as a song. Graham Jenkin put a tune to it which you can find at page 100 of his 'Great Australian Balladists'. Stewart/Keesing printed it in their 'Australian Bush Ballads'. In an early edition, they attributed it to 'anon', but in a subsequent edition attributed authorship to the great Will Ogilvie. Jenkin rejects this attribution claiming that there is no evidence to support it and that it is nothing like Ogilvie's style. I like to think it is by Ogilvie who is one of my favourite bush balladists.

THE DEATH OF BEN HALL
(Anon/W.Ogilvie?)

Ben Hall was out on the Lachlan side
With a thousand pounds on his head
A score of troopers were scattered wide
And a hundred more were ready to ride
Wherever a rumour led

They had followed his track from the Weddin’ heights
And north by the Weelong yards
Through dazzling days and moonlit nights
They had watcher him over their rifle sights
With their hands on their trigger guards

The outlaw stole like a hunted fox
Through the scrub and stunted heath
And peered like a hawk from his eyrie rocks
Through the waving boughs of the sapling box
As the troopers rode beneath

And every night when the white stars rose
He crossed by the Gunning Plain
To a stockman's hut where the Gunning flows
And struck on the door three swift, light blows
And a hand unhooked the chain

And the outlaw followed the lone path back
With food for another day
And the kindly darkness covered his track
And the shadows swallowed him deep and black
Where the starlight melted away

But his friend had read of the big reward
And his soul was stirred with greed
He fastened his door and window-board
He saddled his horse and crossed the ford
And spurred to the town at speed

You may ride at a man's or maid's behest
When honour or true love call
And steel your heart to the worst or the best,
But the ride that is ta'en on a traitor's quest
Is the bitterest ride of all

A hot wind blew from the Lachlan bank
And a curse on its shoulder came;
The pine-trees frowned at him, rank on rank,
The sun on a gathering storm-cloud sank
And flushed his cheek with shame.

He reined at the court and the tale began
That the rifles alone would end
Sergeant and trooper laid their plan
To draw the net on a hunted man
At the treacherous word of a friend

False was the hand that lifted the chain
And false was the whispered word
'The troopers have turned to the south again,
You may dare to camp on the Gunning Plain'
And the weary outlaw heard

He walked from the hut but a quarter mile
Where a clump of saplings stood
In a sea of grass like a lonely isle
And the moon came up in a little while
Like silver steeped in blood.


Ben Hall lay down on the dew-wet ground
By the side of his tiny fire
And a night breeze woke, and he heard no sound
As the troopers drew their cordon round
And the traitor earned his hire

And nothing they saw in the dim grey light
But the little glow in the trees
And they crouched in the tall, cold grass all night
Each one ready to shoot on sight
With his rifle cocked on his knees

When the shadows broke and the dawn's white sword
Swung over the mountain wall
And a little wind blew over the ford
A sergeant sprang to his feet and roared
‘In the name of the Queen, Ben Hall!’

Haggard, the outlaw leapt from his bed
With his lean arms held on high
‘Fire!’ And the word was scarcely said
When the mountains rang to a rain of lead
And the dawn went drifting by

They kept their word and they paid his pay
Where a clean man's hand would shrink;
And that was the traitor's master day
As he stood by the bar on his homeward way
And called on the crowd to drink

He banned no creed and he barred no class
And he called to his friends by name
But the worst would shake his head and pass
And none would drink from the bloodstained glass
And the goblet red with shame.

And I know when I hear that last grim call
And my mortal hour's spent
When the light is hid and the curtains fall
I would rather sleep with the dead Ben Hall
Than go where that traitor went

Paul Slade printed a truncated version on his murder ballad site. However, he also presented extensive research on the Ben Hall story. It is well worth a read:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 08:36 PM

Several songs about Ben Hall have been posted above, but not the ballad that John Meredith collected from Sally Sloane.

BEN HALL
(Anon)

Come all you young Australians and everyone besides
I'll sing to you a ditty that will fill you with surprise
Concerning of a ranger bold whose name it was Ben Hall
But cruelly murdered was this day which proved his downfall

An outcast from society. he was forced to take the road
All through his false and treacherous wife who sold off his abode
He was hunted like a native dog from bush to hill and dale
Till he turned upon his enemies and they could not find his trail

All out with his companions men's blood he scorned to shed
He oft-times stayed their lifted hands with vengeance on their heads
No petty mean or pilfering act he ever stooped to do
But robbed the rich and hearty man and scorned to rob the poor

One night as he in ambush lay all on the Lachlan Plain
When thinking everthing secure to ease himself had lain
When to his consternation and to his great surprise
And without one moment's warning a bullet past him flies

And it was soon succeeded by a volley sharp and loud
With twelve revolving rifles all pointed at his head
Where are you Gilbert, where is Dunn, he loudly did call
It was all in vain they were not there to witness his downfall

They riddled all his body as if they were afraid
But in his dying moment he breathed curses on their heads
That cowardly hearted Condel the sergeant of police
He crept and fired with fiendish glee till death did him release

Although he had a lion's heart more braver than the brave
Those cowards shot him like a dog no word of challenge gave
Though many friends had poor Ben Hall his enemies were few
Like the emblems of his native land his days were numbered too

It's through Australia's sunny climb Ben Hall will roam no more
His name is spread both near and far to every distant shore
For generations after this parents will to their children call
And rehearse for them the daring deeds committed by Ben Hall

You can hear Chloe and Jason Roweth's fine rendition at about the 1-hour mark of this video:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 01:34 AM

a fantastic session song - I wonder when we will hear it again!

That’s Not The Way, by Leon Rosselson, additional words by Robin Connaughton

sung by Robin Connaughton ON THE PEOPLE HAVE SONGS (2001) “I am an occasional songwriter, Tech teacher, singer and unionist. Exasperated by the rise of economic rationalism and the sustained move to the right in the major Australian political parties, I wrote new words to ‘The Plan’, a song by Leon Rosselson that I’d learned and couldn’t get out of my head. Don’t try for an exact birthday for the current version, the song keeps acquiring and losing new verses as needed!”

    That’s not the way it’s got to be
    There should be jobs for you and me
    Hiring not firing should be the master plan
    The workers shouldn’t have to pay
    Just to keep the boss at bay
    The world shouldn’t turn just to please a wealthy man

    I don’t like Keating, I didn’t like Hawke
    All they bloody did was talk
    And fight with each other while the country went to pot
    The Labour party doesn’t seem
    To know what the word labour means
    Retrenchment and recession
    They are now the workers’ lot

    We’ve got John Howard for a year or three
    Captain mediocrity
    Cutting back on welfare and the poor old ABC
    Costello, Reith and Vanstone too
    And a Labour rat to spice the brew
    Senate rat or rationalist they’re no friends to you or me

    In NSW we’ve got Bob Carr
    More like a Liberal every hour
    Fighting with his workers, nurses, teachers and police
    Who said the DLP was dead?
    The Labour right lifts up his head
    He’s just a Labour squatter
    And we're cockies on his lease

    Victoria ran under Kennett’s rules
    Closing down the government schools
    Sacking public servants and stealing their back pay
    Victoria is on the dole
    And Kennett thought he was on a roll
    If you want to help the workers mate there is a better way

    Economic rationalism, now there’s another sacred cow
    Sane as scientology, and as fallible as the pope
    I don’t like trickle-down, y’see
    No money trickles down to me
    Meanwhile me wages goes on trickling up like smoke

the first verse is repeated as a chorus.

I didn't know the original song, & found the first part of the video very confusing! The familiar words arrive at 2.14

wot a shame this old song refers to a prehistoric world ...

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 09:35 PM

r-j, Sandra has my email addy and keeps me updated!

Re the version of the national anthem......I would like to chuck it completely and start afresh. It's a dreary tune and nobody knows the words - mumble mumble Straya fair mumble - a new tune with new words.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 09:00 PM

new year, new anthem?


Anthem. The lyrics for this revised anthem were written by Judith Durham, Kutcha Edwards, Lou Bennett, Camilla Chance and Bill Hauritz.

video performed by Kutcha Edwards during the KAGE Team of Life theatre production.

Australia, celebrate as one, with peace and harmony.
Our precious water, soil and sun, grant life for you and me.
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts to love, respect and share,
And honouring the Dreaming, advance Australia fair.

With joyful hearts then let us sing, advance Australia fair.

Australia, let us stand as one, upon this sacred land.
A new day dawns, we’re moving on to trust and understand.
Combine our ancient history and cultures everywhere,
To bond together for all time, advance Australia fair.

With joyful hearts then let us sing, advance Australia fair.

Australia, let us strive as one, to work with willing hands.
Our Southern Cross will guide us on, as friends with other lands.
While we embrace tomorrow’s world with courage, truth and care,
And all our actions prove the words, advance Australia fair,

With joyful hearts then let us sing, advance Australia fair.

And when this special land of ours is in our children’s care,
From shore to shore forever more, advance Australia fair.
With joyful hearts then let us sing, advance . . Australia . . fair.

Campaign to make Anthem our national anthem Would you like this revised anthem to become our Australian official anthem? If so, we welcome your involvement in having this version sung and performed in your local community. No matter how small your action we’d then like to hear about it. In the comments section below, please tell us the story of how you talked about this with friends, in your workplace, had it sung in your child’s school, at your sporting event and so on. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 08:04 PM

Sorry guys. It is my intention to get those Alphabetical & Date listings of the first 4+ 1/2 months of song postings (almost 620 of them!), out to you today (Sandra, Stewie, Gerry).

Jennie, if you could PM me an email addy for the 2 x Excel spreadsheet attachments, you could get a copy too!
Plus any other interested readers?!

Gerry and Myrtle the Turtle will start the Next Edition listing, from 01Jan2021. [back to you now, Sandra, hehe]

We are having 'Woodford Withdrawals' here in Maleny and missing the Music and Community, and the Fire Event (first festival missed since 1992, bar one, in my case!), but after breakfast, I promise I will do my darnedest to finalise these spreadsheets!
I SO HOPE there are no errors, but that mouse can get a bit wayward in a spreadsheet, so I can't realistically promise that :)

Meanwhile, Wishing All of Us a New Improved 2021,
Cheers! Rich-Joy :)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 07:10 PM

Legendary Torres Strait Islander, Seaman Dan, has died aged 91. Like Uncle Dave Macon, he didn't begin making recordings until late in life. He was 70 when he made his first recording.

Click

I couldn't find any lyrics for 'Old Man Blues' so this is my transcription:

OLD MAN BLUES
(Seaman Dan)

Chorus
I got no time for old man blues
So many things I love to do
Got no time for old man blues
One of those things is singing for you

When I was a young man I rambled around
Just couldn’t keep my feet on the ground
Turn of the tide, off I’d be gone
Sailing the ocean with a cargo of song

I’m eighty-seven, some days I feel young
I still recall every song that I’ve sung
The glad ones, the sad ones, the ones in-between
Flow like a river, run through my dreams

Chorus

And when the day is over, sun is sinking low
I trust in luck tomorrow, that’s all I need to know

Instrumental break

Now that I’m older, no spring in my step
I still remember, I never forget
With Georgie and Terry, Izzy and Ray
All us old ramblers still rambling today

And when the day is over, sun is sinking low
I trust in luck tomorrow, that’s all I need to know

Chorus (x2)

Youtube clip

Rest easy, Dan.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 07:00 PM

oops, that was the day I sent my list to Rich-Joy & I missed them (blush)

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 03:43 PM

Sandra - I posted both those songs (and anothr one) on 16th December.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 07:45 AM

I thought we had Norman Brown, but it had been omitted!

Ballad of Norman Brown by Dorothy Hewett, ©1962

There was a very simple man,
Honest and quiet, yet he became
The mate of every working man,
And every miner knows his name.

Chorus
Oh Norman Brown, oh Norman Brown
The murderin' coppers they shot him down,
They shot him down in Rothbury town,
A working man called Norman Brown.

"An honest man," the parson said,
And dropped the clods upon his head,
But honest man or not, he's dead
And that's the end of Norman Brown.

Coal bosses wiped their hands and sighed,
"It is a pity that he died."
It will inflame the countryside,
And all because of Norman Brown.

At pit-top meetings and on strike
In every little mining town,
When miners march for bread and rights
There marches honest Norman Brown.

He thunders at the pit-top strike,
His voice is in the women's tears,
With banner carried shoulder-high
He's singing down the struggling years.

A miner's pick is in his hand,
His song is shouted through the and,
A land that's free and broad and brown,
The land that bred us Norman Brown.

Last chorus
Oh Norman Brown, oh Norman Brown,
The murderin' coppers they shot him down.
They shot him down in Rothbury town,
To live forever ... Norman Brown.

lyrics

video

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rothbury songs -

The Country Knows the Rest by Graham Seal, posted 08 Sep 20 - 03:51 AM 

A Sad Day on the Coalfields (Tragedy At Rothbury), by Roger Grant (1929), posted 01 Jan 21 - 07:31 AM

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 07:31 AM

I haven't heard Myrtle for many years, what a wonderful song.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Sad Day on the Coalfields (Tragedy At Rothbury) A Song by Roger Grant (1929)

There were sounds of sobs and crying as the daylight floods the sky,
The hour of life has vanished and the long night passes by,
I lift my eyes to heaven and in tears I'll call her son,
Who was taken from his mother by the crack of someone's gun.

Yes, in the hour of sorrow there's one thing I can't conceal,
For my heart is always longing and my thoughts will often steal
Across the bush to Rothbury whose surface leaves a track
To the boys who went on picket and the boy who'll never come back.

There was music at the graveside and in grief the mourners stood,
Still the wind a hymn was humming with the trees upon the hill,
The sun was shining brightly on sad friends from every town,
And the minister started praying for our dead pal Norman Brown.

Yes, in the hour of sorrow there's one thing I can't conceal,
For my heart is always longing and my thoughts will often steal
Across the bush to Rothbury whose surface leaves a track
To the boys who went on picket and the boy who'll never come back.

Lyrics, history & audio - sung by Alan Musgrove from his 1999 CD 'A young man and able'

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 04:23 AM

MYRTLE THE TURTLE
© Bernard Bolan
"Eric Bogle once said:
'And I thought I was half mad until you started
writing songs about turtles running banks.'
He's probably right." - Bernard Bolan


I've got a little pet and his name is Frank
He's always very wet, 'cos I keep him in a tank
In my office, in a city bank,
A long-necked turtle is my little mate, Frank.
A long-necked turtle, his mother called him Myrtle,
'Til he started doing what a Myrtle doesn't do
But the bank's been booming since he came on deck
'Cos he isn't just a pretty face and one long neck.

I got him as an egg at a very early age.
I thought he'd be a budgie, so I put him in a cage.
Got a little ladder, and a little bag of seed,
And a book on budgies for my wife to read.
When she saw him hatch out, she saw there was a catch out -
"Funny bloody colour, and he's got four wings!
"Isn't very cuddly, in fact he's bloody ugly,
"Falls off his ladder, and he never sings."

But once in my office, and swimming in his tank
He soon became immersed in the business of the bank
Noted each deposit, and every payment made,
Who was overdrawn or who had not been paid.
He continued learning,
soon he showed a yearning
To influence decisions that I had to make.
So if you were penniless and had a loan to take
His neck would waddle and his head would shake.

Last week, Frank created quite a stink
When his pocket calculator went upon the blink
Banging on his window, water everywhere,
Threw his bowler hat in my maiden hair.
Soon he got a better one, albeit a wetter one
Back in business was my little mate Frank.
Tap tap tapping, he was underway,
We took over Westpac the following day.

Very soon the profit of the company had soared.
Frankie was appointed as the Chairman of the board.
A company tank with water weeds and lights
A little lady turtle to warm his nights
When he started wooing, nearly brought us ruin
His mind was of'n'on the job, - and he was too!
But the phase soon passed, and we all gave thanks,
Now there's lots of little turtles, little Franks and Myrtles,
Shaking and a'nodding all the livelong day.

So if you're having trouble with your banks,
Be sure to be kind to the turtles in the tanks.
And if you get your money, you can all give thanks
To the little Myrtle turtles and their long-necked Franks.

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

Can't find any videos online. More Bernard Bolan lyrics.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 07:34 PM

Here's a cracker of a song about coping with Covid.

WE ALL COPE IN DIFFERENT WAYS
(Darren Hanlon)

I had a ground breaking idea but I forgot to write it down
Now every thought starts to distort and they chase themselves around
Every concept loses meaning when you look at it too long
Today’s amazing line becomes tomorrow’s awful song
Well time’s longer than rope I once heard somebody say
There’s nowhere to tie the end on to so I just float away
It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve seen the cheeks of friends I’s goodbye kissing
Now I feed the magpie mince and hope he’ll stay a while to listen

Chorus:
We all cope in different ways
So don’t be too hard on yourself
A hopeless string of empty days
Like standing on an arctic shelf
Staring deep into the void
Of your undiscovered mind
Searching desperately to find
Some comfort from the malaise
We all cope in different ways

We now watch the kind of films our former selves would not believe
Old dvds of Keanu Reeves as we sneeze into our sleeves
I make calls to my great aunty and file tax 10 quarters old
But each receipt reminds me of when we were free and bold
Then I got lost in Jane Austin, her posthumous work ‘Persuasion’
She’s the early 1800’s poster girl for isolation
Her characters claim love if from some wealthy socialite
But Jane retained her single life and stayed at home to write

Chorus

They say the world’s been granted this chance for collective Zen
But I keep refreshing to find more death and my heart it breaks again
But statistics are just fish sticks without their human faces
How can I empathise with all the lives that each number embraces
When the behaviours of my own neighbours are making me suspicious
They prance around all over town like mobile Petri dishes
So I lock all the doors and windows and pull the blinds to make a blinker
I’ve become my own worst nightmare - anti-social over-thinker

We all cope in different ways
So don’t be too hard on yourself
A hopeless string of empty days
Like standing on an arctic shelf
Staring deep into the void
Of your undiscovered mind
If you’re lucky you might find
Some comfort from the malaise
We all cope in different ways

Youtube clip

Darren Hanlon

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 09:23 AM

Continuing some music in the Australian Atomic Age :

Two very different approaches in songwriting, about the (on-going) disasters of Maralinga.
First up is Pitjantjatjara band, The Wedgetail Eagles, and the second, Midnight Oil.


But meanwhile, more on THE GREAT SHAME JOBBERY (and sorry for the long post ….)

Scholar, poet, author, visual artist, musician, Judith Nangala Crispin, has written ***Five Threnodies for Maralinga published here : https://www.axonjournal.com.au/issue-c1/five-threnodies-maralinga (recommended reading) and on this webpage : http://demosjournal.com/maralinga/ has included a 1952-1963 timeline and comprehensive list of Britain’s nuclear tests in Australia, including the quantities contained of Plutonium, Uranium, Beryllium, and so on ** in comparison to the small quantities in the devastating bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which is illuminating, to say the least.

Also included are the names, ages and death-dates of 68 babies and young children buried in Woomera Cemetary during the years of the Tests, many of whose deaths have been attributed to the 10 years of “minor” trials (some 550) of nuclear weapons at Maralinga, which ultimately, generated more contamination than the major tests. Those people who lived and worked at the long-range missile-testing “Woomera Rocket Range” (open to tourists these days but a “closed town” from 1947-1982), had signed the “Official Secrets Act” and their pleas for a proper explanation of their family deaths were met with either silence, lies, or sealed records. 68 babies and children lost to their families. Something to think on.

Read about “Project Sunshine” testing for Strontium 90 : “…. Young bones were chosen because they were particularly susceptible to accumulating the Sr-90 isotope. Around 1,500 exhumations took place, in both Britain and Australia — often without the knowledge or permission of the parents of the dead…..” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-24/maralinga-nuclear-tests-ground-zero-lesser-known-history/11882608 “The Advertiser” in Adelaide reported in Sept 2001 about these tests - AND the payments made to pathologists and morticians to persuade them to provide the bones – almost 22,000 in Australia and Papua-New Guinea between 1952 and 1978 : https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Advertiser-Maralinga-Dossier.pdf

It has been estimated that some 17,000 servicemen from Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada, and civilians, were exposed (many deliberately) to the atomic testing and radiation during the period from 1952 to 1963 the vast majority of whom, were never compensated in any way for resulting ill health. For most, any records were edited, hidden or destroyed, meaning they could never even prove they had been present.

The 1985 McClelland Royal Commission report :   read the Conclusions from page 7
https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Royal-Commission-conclusionsrecs.pdf

[ and in 2020, Govts and MSM wonder why folk would rather believe “conspiracy theories” than TRUST politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, et al : I mean, REALLY???!!! ]

There are many short documentary films and clips on YT concerning the history of atomic testing in Australia and elsewhere.    I missed the documentary film “Maralings Tjarutja” earlier this year, but maybe it can be found somewhere….. : “The film shows the experiences of the Maralinga Tjarutja people, in which the elders "reveal a perspective of deep time and an understanding of place that generates respect for the sacredness of both", their ancestors having lived in the area for millennia.[185] Despite the disregard for the traditional homelands of the Maralinga Tjarutja shown by the British and Australians involved in the testing, they have continued to fight for their rights to look after the now-contaminated land..[190] :

Meanwhile, this 50min one is on YT “Australian Atomic Confessions” but not yet watched by me : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WMsJxTe-hU&list=PL1Wo0ifL6HBeESJaotuaEmlQRPfcXPfnP

Footnotes :

*** A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. WIKI

** also radioactive Cobolt 60 tracer pellets, found scattered all over the landscape after one test, not listed

“MARALINGA” was an Aboriginal word meaning "thunder", but not in the Western Desert language of the local people; it came from Garik, an extinct language originally spoken around Port Essington in the Northern Territory.[28]

BtW, Happy New Year! [I think I’m almost ready to move on from this particular research – it’s just too depressing]

To The Music!!


MARALINGA – WEDGETAIL EAGLE BAND

The Wedgetail Eagles were a popular central desert Aboriginal rock band from the Pitjantjatjara tribe in Australia.

Pumani Michael / Amos Lennon / Victor Tunkin c.1984

Where the red dust blows across the land
Is the place where my people used to stand
Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day

And now Mamu*** roams everywhere
And Anangu wait to go back there
Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day

They came across our land that day
Our food and homes they took away
It seemed as though we might just fade away

By Anangus strong and living still
We'll make the white man pay the bill
Till the Maralinga people go back home

The wind it blew, the stormclouds grew
And when the sky went dark we knew
That the Maralinga bomb went off that day

It's my fathers land you see
And its calling out inside of me
It's the land my people still call "back home"

They came upon our land that day
Our food and homes they took away
It looked as though we might just fade away

By Anangus strong and living still
We'll make the white man pay the bill
Till the Maralinga people go back home

Where the red dust blows across the land
Is the place where my people used to stand
Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day

And now Mamu*** roams everywhere
And Anangu wait to go back there
Where the Maralinga bomb went off that day

They came upon our land that day
Our food and homes they took away
It looked as though we might just fade away

By Anangus strong and living still
We'll make the white man pay the bill
Till the Maralinga people go back home

*** The Maralinga Tjarutja people, refer to the land around ground zero as "Mamu Pulka", Pitjantjatjara for "Big Evil".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nEhzQn6-Ek The Wedgies



MARALINGA – MIDNIGHT OIL

James Moginie and Peter Garrett , c.1983

Spoken : I come from a land of wide open spaces
Where the world turns around us and we just follow suit
There's heat in the air and peace reigns supreme
Got white flags on the clothes lines and the deals are clean

In the wind, the ashes fly
The poisoned crown, the charcoal ground
And if you can't see the smile in me
That's where I wanna be

There's only god, there's only christ
Think I'll lie down, for just a while
And if you can't see the smile in me
Well, that's where I wanna be

Spoken : And the grass became granite
And the sky a black sheet
Our bed was a graveyard
We couldn't feel our blistered feet
And the moaning and groaning and sighing of death
And the silence that followed
And the very harsh reality

So we watch and check them out and listen as we learn
Throw the pearls before the swine, ebb and flow and turning tide
Yeah we watch and catch them up no matter how they jump
The pigs will have to come to ground,we got to make it happen
Well, it's not really that new, yeah, try and make it happen now
What are we to do, yeah, maybe there's a chance for you

All around, an eerie sound
Their dreams a cloud, their world in shrouds
Coz in the wind, those ashes fly
Not much time, but time to try

And if you can't see the smile in me, that's coz I wanna be
I wanna be here at the end, Yes I want to be here at the end
Well, we have to be here at the end …..
I got to be here at the end, We must be here at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66FeJzGvfTg    The Oils


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 08:46 PM

R-J, here's a kiwi one for you:

NO WARSHIPS
(Gumboot Tango)

I’ll tell you a tale about my little town
Well, it looks like the whole place is just closing down
With the shops disappearing and businesses folding
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

The hospital’s closed and the factory’s been sold
And the milkman and the mailman are collecting the dole
So take me some place where the future is golden
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

Now everyone’s going ‘round holding their breath
Saying, ‘what can we sell when we’ve got nothing left?’
Give back the hopes and the dreams that you’ve stolen
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

Now they tell me that the government is the servant of the people
But the people they’re serving they aren’t my people
And I don’t care how high the percentage they’re polling
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

Now where is the voice that once was so loud
Of nuclear freedom of which we’re so proud
When the Aussies and the Yanks can treat us like children
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

Now everyone’s going ‘round holding their breath
Saying, ‘what can we sell when we’ve got nothing left?’
Give back the hopes and the dreams that you’ve stolen
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

You can give back the hopes and the dreams that you’ve stolen
And I’ve painted ‘No Warships’ on the back of my Holden

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 08:12 AM

Yet More Atomic Tests Music :

Checkout some (or all) of the articles linked to in this Dossier (and more clips on YT from survivors and investigators) :
https://nuclear.foe.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Advertiser-Maralinga-Dossier.pdf

Sobering reading.

The secrets and deliberate withholding +
The deliberate lies +
The callous disregard for the Australian population – both black and white – both civilian and military –
by both the British Govt AND the Australian Govt (who, to be fair, were also lied to by the Brits),
including the denials from both that radiation problems had occurred - and even that servicemen were involved!!!!

Perhaps they were hoping the rank-and-file would all be dead before they could be tempted to break the “Official Secrets Act”???
Guess it cuts down the cost of potential compensation claims and negative publicity….


Here is Paul Kelly’s contribution :

MARALINGA (aka Rainy Land)

This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land
No thunder in our sky
No trees stretching high
But this is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

My name is Yami Lester
I hear, I talk, I touch but I am blind
My story comes from darkness
Listen to my story now unwind
This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

First we heard two big bangs
We thought it was the Great Snake digging holes
Then we saw the big cloud
Then the big, black mist began to roll
This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

A strangeness on our skin
A soreness in our eyes like weeping fire
A pox upon our skin
A boulder on our backs all our lives
This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land

No thunder in our sky
No trees stretching high
But this is a rainy land

My name is Edie Millipuddie
They captured me and roughly washed me down
Then my child stopped kicking
Then they took away my oId man to town
They said 'Do you speak English?'
He said 'I know that Jesus loves me I know
Because the bible tells me so'

This is a rainy land
This is a rainy land
No thunder in our sky
No trees stretching high
But this is a rainy land
This is a rainy land


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvXgspzP0go


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 05:42 AM

many years ago we had a session on body counts - singers sang songs where people die, I can't remember what the bloodiest song was, but
I won by reciting (I can't hold a tune on my own) "When the wind blows".

No own could beat 'a billion lost souls falling into hell'

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 05:01 AM

More Music of the Atomic Age:

Possibly the saddest 14+ minutes you can spend, is to watch and listen to the following presentation on YouTube by Japanese artist, Isao Hashimoto – the soundtrack representing 2,053 of the nuclear explosions over our World from 1945 to 1998 and therefore of the destruction of parts of the Earth and inhabitants - in one form or another.   Very sobering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY&t=128s    This version has a music composition overlaid, by Andrews Wax : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAKH9KU3BHc&t=492s


A reminder here that Sandra posted Eric Bogle’s “When the Wind Blows” on Sept 18th. This song was based on Raymond Briggs’ 1982 graphic novel of the same name, which, as he said, was “a chilling little book” :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Wind_Blows_(comics)

Meanwhile, Paul Lawler, in Darwin, wrote this number for his folk-rock band, “Gutter Press”. It is, however, yet to be digitised and posted to his channel.


NUCLEAR FISSION ( aka MARILINGA ON )

Paul Lawler, May1983 ©


Nuclear fission, provoked a decision
To find out why I had no emission.

I was given permission to see a physician
Who told me I should stop all coition.

Exit creation, no ejaculation
Radiations, yield mutation.

With trepidation, I applied embrocation
And tried to stop this ulceration.

Contamination, incarceration
Expectation – castration.

Amputation, desolation
Causation – detonation.

~ Paul Lawler ~



Some Industry and Govt hype infers that we’re naïve to worry overly much about the ongoing and unsolved problem of nuclear waste; that it’s just not as dangerous to the planet and inhabitants as many have made out.
But, we’ve trusted Them before, eh…………… :(

Anyway, here is what France is trying, underneath the town of Bure : https://www.ft.com/content/db87c16c-4947-11e6-b387-64ab0a67014c
(and SONGS, STORIES, and ART may all have a part to play!)



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 10:23 PM

THE RED ROSE TOP
(Traditional)

I'll cut off the red rose top
And plant the willow green, green
In all this world the you may see
It's slighted I have been, been

Oh, when your thyme is pulled and gone
They care no more for you, you
There's not a place your thyme goes waste
But it spreads all over with rue, rue
It spreads all over with rue

John Meredith collected this from Sally Sloane who learned it from her grandmother. It is derived from the English song, 'The seeds of love'.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 12:35 AM

a most excellent song

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 10:50 PM

The late David O'Connor wrote a good one about the French nuclear tests in the Pacific - when I have time I'll type it out. It starts off:

Drop it in Paris, c'est votre bomb......

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 10:02 PM

The Reedy River still flows © Bruce Watson 2013, winner of the Bush Music Club 60th Anniversary Song competition         

Chorus:
Time goes by, how the years they fly
And fashions may come and may go
But as long as there’s music, as long as there’s dance
The Reedy River still flows
The Reedy River still flows

In the far distant times of the Dreaming
When people first walked this land
There was music and dancing to sing up the spirits
To bring us together, every woman and man

Chorus

And from far distant lands others came
And still come to our bounteous shores
They bring stories and songs that tell who we are
And we dance round the room as did others before

Chorus

In far distant places through the bush of Australia
The song catchers tirelessly roamed
Collecting the stories and tunes of our country
Collecting the dances, the songs and the poems

Chorus

So let’s sing songs of those come before us
And let’s strike up the fiddle and bow
And let’s dance till we drop, and then sing one more chorus
So the River of Music still flows

Chorus

video - Bruce & the "Ringwood All Stars" a scratch band from the Ringwood Folk Club. Bruce wrote this song to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Sydney Bush Music Club, the longest running folk club in Australia, in 1954. The club emerged from the folk musical production "Reedy River". The song celebrates tradition and continuity using the metaphor of a river.
Musicians: Harry Gardner, Peter Ellis, Maggie Somerville, Maree Butler, Don Gingrich

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 09:01 PM

BtW, I did NOT mean to suggest in my earlier post, that there were NOT songs about the French Muroroa and British Christmas Is. tests etc etc, just that I hadn't yet found the obvious ones on YT (MORE TIME! is the thing .........)

Here, for example, is the HERBS number called "FRENCH LETTER" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuJ8PP1Icfw

"When Herbs’ recording of ‘French Letter’ – a song protesting French nuclear testing in the South Pacific – spent eleven weeks on the New Zealand charts in 1982, it represented a mainstream peak for a musical movement that had begun in this country some 50 years earlier....."
from "Decades of Dissent : Protest Songs in New Zealand" : https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201852325/decades-of-dissent-protest-songs-in-new-zealand

Be good to hear this one :"Unity Singers member Rudy Sunde can be heard performing ‘Talking Radiation’, a talking blues adapted from Pete Seeger in which he asks ‘How would you like to spend Christmas on Christmas Island’?" [aka Kiritimati Island, that the British nuked)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_nuclear-free_zone

Cheers,
R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 07:11 PM

SEND THE BOATS AWAY

Lynn Clark

Once, in seas of silver, fishermen would cast their nets
To take the bounty of the Sea: those men are fishing yet,
But now their boats are laden down with goods of lethal store,
And in these peace-times we should fear those sea-bound men-of-war.


Chorus:
(so) Send the boats away, my friends, (now) send the boats away.
We care not how we run them out, but send the boats away,
For if we choose to live in peace then who are they to say?
Let's take a stand, protect this land, and send the boats away.


Who will want those nuclear holes when those nets are raised?
To our oceans whose seas are filled with waste,
And fishing-boats of fisher-folk lie useless on the shore,
For bearing down upon them now are those sea-bound men-of-war.

Chorus

Once I slept easy in my bed, mind free from Holocaust,
But now it seems like nuclear-free Pacific zones we've lost,
For now the boats are laden down with goods of lethal store,
And in these peace-times we should fear those sea-bound men-of-war.

Chorus

Send them away

Send them away

Send them away.

[lyrics taken from Mudcat thread]

This song was very popular in Sessions when I first came to Qld years ago – and esp the heartfelt harmonising by Lonnie Martin and Helen Rowe – I find it hard to believe that the only YT version I can find is by a Teesider – but a goodun, nonetheless!!   

So here is the late Vin Garbutt singing Lynn Clark’s NZ plea for a Nuclear-free Pacific : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ElwvsTVMIk


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 28 Dec 20 - 06:45 PM

After Stewie’s posts of 12Dec of “The Eagle & the Islanders” re the US atomic tests on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, and “Anchor Me”, re the French bombing of the peace vessel “Rainbow Warrior”,
I mentioned that I was researching Britain’s atomic testing in Australia and subsequent songs.

I haven’t found any yet about the Montebello Islands off WA, nor Emu Field in SA . Nor even the British tests on two Kiribati islands (aka Christmas / Malden) – or oddly, songs in English re the French (193 tests, 1966-96) on two Tuamotu islands (aka Mururoa / Fangataufa) - in the Pacific),
but, there are quite a few songs nowadays about Maralinga (though this situation seems to have taken a long time to develop!!) and this one below, by the late Alistair Hulett, is probably the best (and to-the-point), so far.

But I’ll cover a bit more of the Test histories and deplorable results, when I post a couple of the other 15+ songs (like Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil) ….
R-J


THE PLAINS OF MARALINGA

Alistair Hulett

Remember in the old days how we sucked up to the Poms
We stood and sang their anthem like a pack of Uncle Toms
And they bought our beef and wool
So we let them test their bombs.

In the heartland of Australia where the black-skinned nation roams
There was nothing in the papers about what was being done
If Robert Menzies knew, by Christ, he wasn’t letting on
For he loved his flamin’ knighthood, that great Australian son
Much more than he loved the land where the Pitjantjatjara run.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

No one asked the local people if they thought it was okay
If you haven’t got a job, mate, you haven’t got a say
Oh, and if we lost a few, they were only in the way
If they’d been white, then bet your backside there’d be holy shit to pay.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

They said fallout was harmless, they knew that was a lie
But it never slowed them up when there were people camped close by
Who tell a story how they saw a big flash in the sky
Then they all got sick and one by one began to slowly die.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

Now the sun set on the Empire though they never thought it would
And now your Uncle Sam controls the neighborhood
Andin the name of peace and justice, he swears he’s Robin Hood
But in Chile and El Salvador, the truth is understood.

He’s got bureaucrats and technocrats, diplomats and spies
Working for the Pentagon, they’re its bloody nose and eyes
But you only feel disheartened until you realize
When the workers of the world unite, we’re twice their bloody size.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the black Australian race.

Out on the plains of Maralinga
What happened there was a bloody disgrace
Out on the plains of Maralinga
It was total disregard for the whole human race.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BxpFy_1kM&t=3s
– Alistair Hulett (with slideshow)


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 09:08 PM

A little late, but a poem with a christmas reference. Wongawilli put a sprightly tune to this favourite from John O'Brien.

TANGMALANGALOO
(John O'Brien)

The bishop sat in lordly state and purple cap sublime
And galvanized the old bush church at confirmation time
And all the kids were mustered up from fifty miles around
With Sunday clothes, and staring eyes, and ignorance profound
Now was it fate, or was it grace, whereby they yarded too
An overgrown two-storey lad from Tangmalangaloo?

A hefty son of virgin soil where nature has her fling
And grows the trefoil three feet high and mats it in the spring
Where mighty hills uplift their heads to pierce the welkin's rim
And trees sprout up a hundred feet before they shoot a limb
There everything is big and grand, and men are giants too
But christian knowledge wilts, alas, at Tangmalangaloo

The bishop summed the youngsters up, as bishops only can
He cast a searching glance around, then fixed upon his man
But glum and dumb and undismayed through every bout he sat
He seemed to think that he was there, but wasn't sure of that
The bishop gave a scornful look, as bishops sometimes do
And glared right through the pagan in from Tangmalangaloo

"Come, tell me, boy," his lordship said in crushing tones severe
"Come, tell me why is christmas day the greatest of the year?
"How is it that around the world we celebrate that day
"And send a name upon a card to those who're far away?
"Why is it wandering ones return with smiles and greetings too?"
A squall of knowledge hit the lad from Tangmalangaloo

He gave a lurch which set a-shake the vases on the shelf
He knocked the benches all askew, up-ending of himself
And so, how pleased his lordship was, and how he smiled to say
"That's good, my boy. Come, tell me now; and what is christmas day?"
The ready answer bared a fact no bishop ever knew -
"It's the day before the races out at Tangmalangaloo"

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:44 PM

Wongawilli's Oz take on Martin Curtis' 'Gin and Raspberry'.

RUM AND RASPBERRY
(Wongawilli/Curtis)

Searching for cattle - we first came this way
From Talbingo township took many long days
To cut through the scrub till we found a good claim
And we called it the Rum and Raspberry.

The rumours went out and thousands poured in
A handful grew rich while many grew thin
They all hoped to find their own patch of ground
As rich as the Rum and Raspberry

Chorus:
Oh but it's hard, cruel and cold
Searching Kiandra for nuggets of gold
An ounce to a bucket - we'll all sell our souls
For the taste of the Rum and Raspberry

At first it was summer, we all thought it grand
No shirts on our backs as we sluiced and we panned
But then came the snow and the westerly blow
And there's ice down the Rum and Raspberry

Chorus

Jimmy McGrath, he worked hard and worked long
Ready to smile or to sing us a song
But then he struck gold and was found dead and cold
Down in the Rum and Raspberry

Chorus

I'll work out my time and I'll stay out of strife,
Save all me tin to send home to me wife
And when me time's done, I'll leave on the run
And to hell with the Rum and Raspberry.

Chorus

But to hell with the Rum and Raspberry!

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 09:47 AM

Wake up landlord by Dick Diamond, tune Charles Allen (an historical item, published here for posterity)

You know a feller always has to make
A speech when there's a celebration,
The thing we celebrate of course
Is the Land Act legislation.

CHORUS
So come on fellers, we're going to sing;
Ring out people, we're having a ding;
Dance up ladies, from near and far,
Wake up landlord and open the bar.

A thousand squatters owned this state
With not an acre over
For farming folk like you and me
Until we did 'em over.

CHORUS

We fought it out with tooth and nail
Until there came a testing,
And we got our good green acres
By the strength of our protesting.

CHORUS

And we stocked our free selections
With free cattle when we could,
Just to show there's no ill feeling
As any cocky would.

CHORUS

Wake up Landlord, from 1954 Reedy River song book

Wake Up, Landlord is a structural part of the play & it didn't stand alone as a song. (email from Alex Hood, who appeared in 1953/54 Sydney production of Reedy River, 27th Dec 2020)

When I found Don Henderson's parody 'One of the Has-Beens' about the collection of a folk song (19 Aug 20 - 02:12 AM), I took it to a session to get someone to sing it for me (I can't hold a tune on my own!) but I won't be taking 'Wake up landlord' anywhere.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:50 AM

Another song from Reedy River

Widgegoweera Joe. words Bill Tully, music traditional (note in RR program)


I'm only a back-blocks shearer, as easily can be seen
I've shorn in almost every shed on the plains of the Riverine
I've shorn in most of the famous sheds, I've seen big tallies done
But somehow or other, I don't know why, I never became a gun

CHORUS:
Hurrah, me boys, my shears are set, I feel both fit and well
Tomorrow will find me at my pen when the gaffer rings the bell
With Haydon's patent thumbguards fixed and both my blades pulled back
Tomorrow I go with a sliding blow for a century or the sack

I've opened down the windpipe straight, I've opened behind the ear
I've shorn in every possible style in which a man can shear
I've studied all the cuts and drives of the famous men I've met
But I've never succeeded in plastering up those three little figures yet

When the Boss walked past this morning, he stopped and he stared at me
For I'd mastered Moran's Great Shoulder Cut, as he could plainly see
But I've another surprise for him, that'll give his nerves a shock
Tomorrow I'll show him I have mastered Pierce's Rang-tang Block

And if I succeed, as I hope to do, next year I intend to shear
At the Wagga Demonstration, that's held there every year
And there I'll lower the colours, the colours of Mitchell and Co
Instead of Deeming, you will hear of Widgegoweera Joe


Also known the Backblocks Shearer. Another from Ron Edwards. Some online versions have W Tully as the author. Featured in Reedy River.

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:37 AM

Another song from Reedy River, very close to RR version

Lazy Harry's   

Oh we started down from Roto when the sheds had all cut out
We'd whips and whips of Rhino as we meant to push about
So we humped our blues serenely and made for Sydney town
With a three-spot cheque between us as wanted knocking down

Chorus
But we camped at Lazy Harry's, on the road to Gundagai
The road to Gundagai
Not five miles from Gundagai
Yes we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Well we struck the Murrumbidgee near the Yanco in a week
And passed through old Narrandera and crossed the Burnett Creek
And we never stopped at Wagga for we'd Sydney in our eye
But we camped at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Oh I've seen a lot of girls my boys and drunk a lot of beer
And I've met with some of both chaps as has left me mighty queer
But for beer to knock you sideways and for girls to make you sigh
You must camp at Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Well we chucked our blooming swags off and we walked into the bar
And we called for rum-an'-raspb'ry and a shilling each cigar
But the girl that served the poison she winked at Bill and I
And we camped at Lazy Harry's not five miles from Gundagai

In a week the spree was over and the cheque was all knocked down
So we shouldered our Matildas and we turned our back on town
And the girls they stood a nobbler as we sadly said good-bye
And we tramped from Lazy Harry's not five miles from Gundagai

Last chorus
And we tramped from Lazy Harry's not five miles from Gundagai
The road to Gundagai
Not five miles from Gundagai
Yes we tramped from Lazy Harry's on the road to Gundagai

Notes

First published by Banjo Paterson as "Lousy Harry's" in an article in the Adelaide newspaper The Chronicle 10 March 1900 in this collection. Later printed in Paterson's Old Bush Songs in 1905.

This version from the singing of A.L.Lloyd.

Ron Edwards collected a version of the song from Jack Parveez in Charters Towers, Qld. Parveez had a different tune and his shearers "started out from Reio".

Roto is a station in south central NSW. Gundagai lies on what is now the main road from Sydney to Melbourne, the Hume Highway. Perhaps more songs mention Gundagai than any other town in Australia.

Three-spot-check: a check in the hundreds of pounds

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 08:31 AM

Another song from Reedy River, but not the same words

Click go the Shears

Out on the board the old shearer stands,
Grasping his shears in his long, honey hands,
Fixed is his gaze on a bare-bellied "Joe,"
Glory if he gets her, won't he make the "ringer" go.

Chorus: Click go the shears boys, click, click, click,
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick,
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow,
And curses the old snagger with the blue-bellied "Joe."

In the middle of the floor, in his cane-bottomed chair
Is the boss of the board, with eyes everywhere;
Notes well each fleece as it comes to the screen
Paying strict attention if it's taken off clean.

The colonial experience man, he is there, of course,
With his shiny leggin's, just got off his horse,
Casting round his eye like a real connoisseur,
Whistling the old tune, "I'm the Perfect Lure."

The tar-boy is there, awaiting in demand,
With his blackened tar-pot, and his tarry hand;
Sees one old sheep with a cut upon its back,
Hears what he's waiting for, "Tar here, Jack!"

Shearing is all over and we've all got our cheques,
Roll up your swag for we're off on the tracks;
The first pub we come to, it's there we'll have a spree,
And everyone that comes along it's "Come and drink with me!"

Down by the bar the old shearer stands,
Grasping his glass in his thin honey hands;
Fixed is his gaze on a green-painted keg,
Glory he'll get down on it, ere he stirs a peg.

There we leave him standing, shouting for all hands,
Whilst all around him, every "shouter" stands
His eyes are on the cask, which is now lowering fast,
He works hard, he drinks hard, and goes to hell at last!

The first version of this song was titled "The Bare-Belled Ewe" and was published the Bacchus Marsh Express in 1891. The version above was published much later in the Twentieth Century magazine in 1946 in an article by Percy Jones. Recent research has discovered a 1939 version titled "The Shearers Song" published in the Sydney newspaper the World's News A variant of that was published in the NSW newspaper the Wellington Times in December 1939.

Printed in Stewart and Keesing's Old Bush Songs with the following note: "From Dr Percy Jones's collection, with one additional stanza, "Now Mister Newchum" etc., collected by John Meredith from Mrs Sloane, of Lithgow, New South Wales. "Mrs Sloane is 60, and learnt most of her songs from her mother in the early part of this century. Mrs Sloane plays button-accordion, fiddle, mouth-organ and jewsharp, and her mother, Mrs Frost, played concertina, accordion and jews-harp." The word "Joe" is presumably a corruption of "Yowe" or "ewe."

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 07:53 AM

One of the songs from the first Sydney production of Reedy River

words as sung in Reedy River

By The Eumerella Shore, as sung by John Thompson

There's a pretty little valley on the Eumerella shore
Where I've lingered many happy hours away
On my little free selection I have acres by the score
When I unyoke my bullocks from the dray

To my bullocks I will say, "Now, no matter where you stray,
For you'll never be impounded any more,
For you're running, running, running on the duffer's piece of land,
Free selected on the Eumerella shore."

When we find a mob of horses, and the paddock rails are down,
Though before that they were never known to stray,
Oh how quickly we will drive them to some distant inland town
And sell them into slavery far away.

To Jack Robertson we'll say, "You've been leading us astray,
For we'll never go a-farming any more,
For it's cheaper running cattle on the duffer's piece of land
Free selected on the Eumerella shore."

From Ron Edward's Great Australian Folk Songs, taped from the singing of Sam Long (b. 1894) of "The Glue Pot", Wondecla, Queensland, 25 March 1965.

Ron notes that the correct spelling is probably "Umaralla" from the river by that name near Cooma, NSW. There is also a town on that river called Numeralla.

Audio

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Dec 20 - 06:07 AM

Some of the songs from Reedy River are missing from this songbook!

Shock, horror, 4 iconic songs from THE iconic Australian musical drama set in the years following the Shearers' Strike of 1891 plus another that is unknown. The unknown song is Wake Up, Landlord, lyrics, Dick Diamond, music Charles Allen, and is "a structural part of the play & it didn't stand alone as a song. (email from Alex Hood, who appeared in 1953/54 Sydney production of Reedy River, 27th Dec 2020)

These are the songs from the 1954, 1960 & 1966 editions of the Reedy River songbook.

Ballad of 1891, posted 10 Sep 20 - 08:14 PM

Banks of the Condamine, posted 15 Oct 20 - 08:27 PM

By The Eumerella Shore

Click go the Shears

Four Little Johnny Cakes   24 Sep 20 - 04:36 AM

Lazy Harry's

My Old Black Billy, posted 03 Oct 20 - 07:30 AM

Reedy Lagoon, posted 21 Aug 20 - 11:52 PM

Reedy River, posted 20 Aug 20 - 11:04 AM

Wake Up, Landlord lyrics, Dick Diamond, music Charles Allen -

Widgegoweera Joe

Wild Rover No More, posted 20 Aug 20 - 11:04 AM

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 11:37 PM

that track comes from his 1987 LP Declan Affley - TAR 020.

I have a CD of that record & play it constantly along with Dave Brannigan's 2003 CD, I love his voice.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 10:58 PM

I didn't look hard enough. Here's Declan Affley's recording of the Chris Kempster setting of Do You Think That I Do Not Know.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 10:55 PM

This Henry Lawson poem was mentioned upthread (18 Aug 20 08:53 PM) but I thought we should also have the words here:

Do you think that I do not know
Henry Lawson

They say that I never have written of love, as a writer of songs should do.
They say that I never could touch the strings with a touch that is firm and true.
They say I know nothing of women and men in the fields where Love's roses grow.
I must write, they say, with a halting pen – do you think that I do not know?

My love-burst came, like an English Spring, in days when our hair was brown.
And the hem of her skirt was a sacred thing, and her hair was an angel's crown.
The shock when another man touched her arm, where the dancers sat in a row.
The hope, the despair, and the false alarm – do you think that I do not know?

By the arbour lights on the western farms, you remember the question put,
While you held her warm in your quivering arms, and you trembled from head to foot.
The electric shock from her finger-tips, and the murmuring answer low,
The soft, shy yielding of warm red lips – do you think that I do not know?

She was buried at Brighton, where Gordon sleeps, when I was a world away,
And the sad old garden its secret keeps, for nobody knows to-day.
She left a message for me to read, where the wild wide oceans flow.
Do you know how the heart of a man can bleed? Do you think that I do not know?

I stood by the grave where the dead girl lies, when the sunlit scenes were fair,
Neath white clouds high in the autumn skies, and I answered the message there.
But the haunting words of the dead to me shall go wherever I go.
She lives in the Marriage that Might Have Been – do you think that I do not know?

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

There are (at least) two outstanding musical settings for this poem. One is by Slim Dusty, as recorded here by Priscilla Herdman. The other is by Chris Kempster. It was recorded by Declan Affley. I can't find that online, but there's nothing wrong with this recording of Chris Kempster's setting by Martyn Wyndham-Read.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 09:34 PM

Sandra, Loaded Dog sing Lawson's original words. Their tune is by Phil Roeterdink, a member of the band.

R-J has posted a couple of songs by Doug Ashdown. Since we were born in the same city - Adelaide, South Australia - and he was the first live folk act that I saw back in the '60s, I thought I should post another of his songs. I couldn't find the lyrics on the Net so this is my transcription.

THE SADDEST SONG OF ALL
(D.Ashdown/J.Stewart)

The papers got wet in the morning rain
The birds sang - Friday started early that day
Mr Albert Aloysius Jones rubbed the sleep out of his bones
Ate his toast and he spoke her name
His feet went off to find a train
Same old way and his hand reached out to catch its pay
There was much he didn’t know about his life
The girl who typed his letters loved him better than his wife

And he couldn’t hear the song the children sang
He couldn’t see the trees behind the wall
And he never heard the melody the bells played when they rang
For the city sang the saddest song

Mrs Milly Jones arose and ran a comb around her curls
Did the washing and the ironing for 3 dirty little girls
And her body glowed as she recalled that the man who sold the milk
Still thought her young and sweet enough to say that she was made of silk
And she smiled as she remembered all the things about his touch
She wondered how a man like that could make her feel so much
And then she cooked the dinner

The Jones’ leaves were in a pile
The children smiled and brought them breakfast on a tray
Mr and Mrs Jones rubbed the sleep out of their bones
Took the food and said, ‘thank you’
Then they wondered what to do with Saturday
And her hand reached out to catch his pay
And as he gave he smiled and called her ‘mother’
She spent some upon the children and rest upon her lovers

And they couldn’t hear the song the children sang
Couldn’t see the trees behind the wall
And they never heard the melody the bells played when they rang
For the city sang the saddest song of all

Youtube clip

I heard Ashdown at a small folk club called The Catacombs.

Folk revival in Adelaide

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 07:50 PM

I feel I should put in a little mention of Australia's fabulous Russian Men's Choir - from Mullumgrad in Northern NSW!!

They are DUSTYESKY*** and don't speak Russian, just sing in it and they are now (well, pre-Covid) garnering world-wide attention - and the Russians love them!!!

Watch this recent clip from ABC-TV's Australian Story program, about the group : https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2002Q034S00 ( their part starts at 13:10 )

: A wonderful fun and blokey experience!


Na Zdorovie!!!
(Nostrovia/Cheers!)


R-J

*** an "ESKY" (or "chillybin" in NZ), is an Australian portable icebox, first and foremost to keep yer beer cold.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 09:18 AM

SING FOR NO-ONE (SING FOR EVERYONE)

© Kavisha Mazzella, 2015

“There is a gypsy saying "Sing for No-one sing for everyone"
I love this philosophy and it helps me put a perspective on what I'm here to do ...”


Before we were born, song was there
She pulled us from the womb for us she cared
And whispered in our ears life's mystery
And when we die she surely will be there
Song says "Oh please use me, you're my voice, you're my hands
Fashion me into a melody That tells the human story
It's misery and glory Don't be silent that would be a tragedy!"

Sing for no one sing for everyone . . . sing for we are servants of the song
Sing for being together never mind the weather Sing for no one sing for everyone!

Our instruments the weapons of our choice to disarm oppression with our voice
Though we make an orphans choir we set all hearts on fire and angels weep as we do rejoice

Sing for no one sing for everyone . . . sing for we are servants of the song
Sing for being together never mind the weather Sing for no one sing for everyone!

We cry because there's evil in this world watch the oyster as her art unfurls
Why not turn your sorrow into a song tomorrow and let your tears become a string of pearls...

Sing for no one sing for everyone . . . sing for we are servants of the song
Sing for being together never mind the weather Sing for no one sing for everyone!


Kavisha Mazzella sings this song here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSzgZCV9ikI


If you are new to Kavisha, read something of her amazing musical History here – and be sure to checkout her many beautiful earlier compositions, too : https://www.kavisha.com/index.php/about/history


e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY-bfG6PJYc   WEDDING SHEETS, 1993 (re-recorded 2015)
“ ….. is a song set after WW2. It describes the feelings of a young Italian bride who is coming out to Australia by boat to meet her husband for the first time.Many women experienced this way of migrating to the new world especially after WW2.It was called "Sposa Procura". Sometimes the marriages were very successful but other times, sadly, it was a disaster.   
I had the great fortune to meet these women whilst I was doing a community music project of traditional Italian folk song collection and songwriting the stories of the Italian migrants and formed a choir in Fremantle West Australia, in the late eighties called "The Joys Of The Women" It was then that I heard their true stories and wanted to create songs to tell their tales.

Their story has also been documented in the award winning 1992 film "The Joys Of The Women" by Franco Di Chiera. ….. You can purchase the DVD of The Joys Of The Women from Electric Pictures, Fremantle West Australia http://electricpictures.com.au”

Here is are 3 short music clips from 1992 about these earlier projects of Kavisha’s : https://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/joys-women/clip1/


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 06:19 AM

Flash Jack from Gundagai - trad

I've shore at Burrabogie and I've shore at Toganmain
I've shore at Big Willandra and out on the Coleraine
But before the shearing was over I longed to get back again
Shearing for old Tom Patterson on the One Tree Plain

Chorus
All among the wool boys all among the wool
Keep your blades full boys keep your blades full
I can do a respectable tally myself whenever I like to try
And they know me round the backblocks as Flash Jack from Gundagai

I've shore at Big Willandra and I've shore at Tilberoo
And once I drew my blades boys upon the famed Barcoo
At Cowan Downs and Trida as far as Moulamein
But I was always glad to get back again to the One Tree Plain

I've pinked them with the Wolseleys and I've rushed with B-bows too
And shaved them in the grease boys with the grass seeds showing through
But I never slummed a pen my lads whatever it might contain
When shearing for Old Tom Patterson on the One Tree Plain

I've been whaling up the Lachlan and I've dossed on Cooper's Creek
And once I rung Cudjingie shed and blued it in a week
But when Gabriel blows his trumpet lads I'll catch the morning train
And push for Old Tom Patterson's on the One Tree Plain

Audio

Notes

Printed in Paterson's Old Bush Songs with the note:

"Wolsleys and B-bows are respectively machines and hand-shears, and 'pinking' means that he had shorn the sheep so closely that the pink skin showed through.... 'I rung Cudgingie shed and blued it in a week' i.e he was the ringer or the fastest shearer of the shed, and he dissipated his earnings in a single week's drunkeness.... 'Whaling up the Lachlan' In the old days there was an army of professional loafers who walked from station to station, ostensively to look for work, but without any idea of accepting it. These nomads often followed up and down certain rivers, and would camp for days and fish for cod in the bends of the river. Hence whaling up the Lachlan".

The song was also published (without attribution) in The Land 4 July 1930.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 05:56 AM

When the Army Prays for Watty, poem by Henry Lawson

When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star,
Hide the picture on the signboard over Doughty's Horse Bazaar;
When the last rose-tint is fading on the distant mulga scrub,
Then the Army prays for Watty at the entrance of his pub.

Now, I often sit at Watty's when the night is very near,
With a head that's full of jingles and the fumes of bottled beer,
For I always have a fancy that, if I am over there
When the Army prays for Watty, I'm included in the prayer.

Watty lounges in his arm-chair, in its old accustomed place,
With a fatherly expression on his round and passive face;
And his arms are clasped before him in a calm, contented way,
And he nods his head and dozes when he hears the Army pray.

And I wonder does he ponder on the distant years and dim,
Or his chances over yonder, when the Army prays for him?
Has he not a fear connected with the warm place down below,
Where, according to good Christians, all the publicans should go?

But his features give no token of a feeling in his breast,
Save of peace that is unbroken and a conscience well at rest;
And we guzzle as we guzzled long before the Army came,
And the loafers wait for `shouters' and -- they get there just the same.

It would take a lot of praying -- lots of thumping on the drum --
To prepare our sinful, straying, erring souls for Kingdom Come;
But I love my fellow-sinners, and I hope, upon the whole,
That the Army gets a hearing when it prays for Watty's soul.

audio from Loaded Dog -CD That there dog o' mine I don't have this Loaded Dog album, but I know the song from Dave de Hugard's version on "Songs of the wallaby track"

Stewie, do Loaded Dog sing Henry's original words?

When the Army Prays for Watty by Henry Lawson, as sung by Dave de Hugard

When the kindly hours of darkness, 'cept for the light of moon and star,
Hide the picture on the signboard over Watty's Horse Bazaar;
When the last rose-tints are fading on the distant mulga scrub,
The Salvos pray for Watty at the entrance of his pub.

And I often sit at Watty's when the night is very near,
With a head full of jingles and as I sip back me beer,
For I sometimes have the fancy that, if I am over there
When the Salvos prays for Watty, I'm included in the prayer.

There's Watty in his arm-chair, in its old accustomed place,
With a fatherly expression on his round passive face;
And his folded arms before him in a calm, contented way,
He nods his head and dozes when he hears the Salvos pray.

And I wonder does he ponder on the distant years and dim,
Or his chances over yonder, when the Salvos pray for him?
Has he not a little fear of that hot place below,
Where, according to the good Christians, all publicans should go?

But his features give no token of a feeling in his breast,
Except of peace unbroken and a conscience well at rest;
And we guzzle as we guzzled long before the Salvos came,
And the loafers wait for "shouters" and we all get there just the same.

It'd take a lot of praying, lots of thumping on that drum
To prepare our sinful, straying, erring souls for Kingdom Come;
But I love my fellow-sinners, so I hope, upon the whole,
That the Salvos get a hearing when they pray for Watty's soul.

final verse is repeated.

It'd take a lot of praying, lots of thumping on that drum
To prepare our sinful, straying, erring souls for Kingdom Come;
But I love my fellow-sinners, so I hope, upon the whole,
That the Salvos get a hearing ...   when they pray for Watty's soul.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:43 AM

TUMBA-BLOODY-RUMBA
Traditional

He looked for work at muster-time. We tried him as a rider,
We tried him as the rouseabout, and as the cook’s off-sider.
He said he'd sailed the seven seas, he’d been up in Alaska,
He’d been in every western state from Texas to Nebraska.

Chorus (after each verse):
He said he’d shorn a sheep or two, and cut a bit of lumber,
And waged war on the kangaroos, at Tumba-bloody-rumba.

We tried him as a shearer, we tried him as a stacker,
We tried him digging rabbits out. He wasn’t worth a cracker.
He had a shop in Singapore, he owned a pearling lugger,
He was a champ at baccarat, Australian rules and rugger.

He never showed his aptitude at jobs he was allotted,
But showed his skill upon the booze, and cigarettes he blotted.
He said he’d climbed the Matterhorn, he’d been a union leader,
And years ago in Adelaide he was a pigeon breeder.

We tried him digging fencing posts, we tried to find his caper,
Until that happy pay-day when he got his piece of paper.
I wonder where he is now, perhaps back on the lumber,
Or shooting kanga-bloody-roos at Tumba-bloody-rumba.

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

Recorded by Warren Fahey.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:32 AM

BLOODY ROTTEN AUDIENCE
(Tony Miles)

Well, here's a song I've written specifically for you
Who sit out in the audience and talk through all I do
I cannot understand it cause I'm pretty good, you see
So there must be something wrong with you, there's nothing
wrong with me

Chorus (after each verse)

You're a bloody rotten audience whilst I am very good
If brains were made of oak and ash then you'd have balsa wood
I'm ethnic and authentic and I'm really full of class
While you're ignorant, you're cultureless, you're philistines
en masse.

I'm an artist and authority on music and what's more
I'm incredibly informative on folksong and folklore
I'm a wonderful performer and so you all must be
So bloody thick and stupid not to like the likes of me

I'm a folkie and that's obvious, you can tell it by me clothes
And when I sing traditional, I sing it through me nose
And if you persist in talking every time I sing a song
I'll fix you with 'Bold Robin Hood', that's eighty verses long.

And when I sing contemporary, my heart and soul are pure
I must be bloody brilliant, cause my writing's so obscure
My hero's Leonard Cohen, I dig him perfectly
But I must be so much better, because no-one here digs me.

But now I'm going to leave you, cause I feel I'm wasting time
Couldn't possibly be wasting yours, so you must be wasting mine
And let me tell you now that I'm not up here for me health
So if you don't come and pull with me, I'll go and pull meself

Ch.: You're a bloody rotten audience whilst I am very good
If brains were made of oak and ash then you'd have balsa wood
I'm ethnic and authentic and I'm really full of class
But underneath it all I'm just a pain in the flipping ass.

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

Recording by Eric Bogle.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:29 AM

THE DEATHS GO ON

Peter Kearney

Eddie Murray was drinking the night into day
Police picked him up and took him away
One hour later he was dead in his cell
Took his own life – so police records tell
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On.
Dying of 200 years.

Robert Walker was lowered and beaten in hell
In Broome, Dixon Green dropped dead in his cell
John Pat, in Roebourne, was kicked to the ground
They cleaned up his body - then the doctor came round
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On
Dying of 200 years.

The Coroner spoke from his smooth white face
“Death by misadventure : the usual case”
Charlie Michaels was bent like a bow on the floor
His heart just snapped – he couldn’t take any more
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On.
Dying of 200 Years.

And how must it feel to be black in this land?
When all of the power is in the white hand
When that hand can suddenly turn to a fist –
You’re no one. You’re nothing. You’ll hardly be missed
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On
Gone.
And The Deaths Go On
GONE.


(NB These lyrics reflect the Hammer & Tongues and No Strings Attached arrangements, rather than keeping strictly to Peter Kearney’s original song.)


It’s nigh on 40 years since the death of Eddie Murray in police custody, which sparked public debate on these police crimes - and which eventually led to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, running from 1987-1990.

Sadly, Eddie’s wasn’t the first death – and he certainly wasn’t the last - and the families of the young men in this song, and of many other Aboriginal men and women, are still trying to get some sort of justice from the Australian judicial system.

The song was written by prolific singer-songwriter, Peter Kearney, and it won the Declan Affley Memorial Award at The National Folk Festival, for 1988.   Peter is known for his “folk-hymns”, strong social justice/peace focus and indigenous and christian issues.

However, the version that I sang with Darwin a cappella harmony group “No Strings Attached” was set to music by Perth’s Kerry Fletcher, and arranged with Phillip Griffin, for that fabulous West Aussie trio, “Hammer & Tongues”(Kerry Fletcher, Lyn Hazleton, Maria Wilson? ) who blew me away at the Maleny National Folk Festival in 1989. Very sad that their 1991 cassette “Voices Abreast” is not available on the internet, as all their songs were just great. Hopefully in the New Year, I’ll at least be able to post to my YT channel, a version by “No Strings” ……

Here is Peter Kearney’s website : https://peterkearneysongs.com.au/home   and this is his song version on YT : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqNd4DxxBW0   (although, I must confess that it doesn’t quite sound like I remember from the cassette I had, possibly with the group CROSSOVER (maybe just my aging memory?!) Plus it has an extra verse one may like to incorporate ……)
Here is an Adelaide choir version using Kerry Fletcher’s setting, from The Tutti Ensemble : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKhPId2tFw
[“The original Tutti Choir : a performing choir and band with up to 75 participants over half of whom identify with disability.”]



R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GerryM
Date: 26 Dec 20 - 04:27 AM

WHERE THE DEAD MEN LIE
Barcroft Boake

Out on the wastes of the Never Never -
That's where the dead men lie!
There where the heat-waves dance forever -
That's where the dead men lie!
That's where the Earth's loved sons are keeping
Endless tryst: not the west wind sweeping
Feverish pinions can wake their sleeping -
Out where the dead men lie!

Where brown Summer and Death have mated -
That's where the dead men lie!
Loving with fiery lust unsated -
That's where the dead men lie!
Out where the grinning skulls bleach whitely
Under the saltbush sparkling brightly;
Out where the wild dogs chorus nightly -
That's where the dead men lie!

Deep in the yellow, flowing river -
That's where the dead men lie!
Under the banks where the shadows quiver -
That's where the dead men lie!
Where the platypus twists and doubles,
Leaving a train of tiny bubbles.
Rid at last of their earthly troubles -
That's where the dead men lie!

East and backward pale faces turning -
That's how the dead men lie!
Gaunt arms stretched with a voiceless yearning -
That's how the dead men lie!
Oft in the fragrant hush of nooning
Hearing again their mother's crooning,
Wrapt for aye in a dreamful swooning -
That's how the dead men lie!

Only the hand of Night can free them -
That's when the dead men fly!
Only the frightened cattle see them -
See the dead men go by!
Cloven hoofs beating out one measure,
Bidding the stockmen know no leisure -
That's when the dead men take their pleasure!
That's when the dead men fly!

Ask, too, the never-sleeping drover:
He sees the dead pass by;
Hearing them call to their friends - the plover,
Hearing the dead men cry;
Seeing their faces stealing, stealing,
Hearing their laughter, pealing, pealing,
Watching their grey forms wheeling, wheeling
Round where the cattle lie!

Strangled by thirst and fierce privation -
That's how the dead men die!
Out on Moneygrub's farthest station -
That's how the dead men die!
Hard-faced greybeards, youngsters callow;
Some mounds cared for, some left fallow;
Some deep down, yet others shallow.
Some having but the sky.

Moneygrub, as he sips his claret,
Looks with complacent eye
Down at his watch-chain, eighteen carat -
There, in his club, hard by:
Recks not that every link is stamped with
Names of the men whose limbs are cramped with
Too long lying in grave-mould, camped with
Death where the dead men lie.

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

Recorded by Gerry Hallom, who only used stanzas 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8, and made some changes in the words. Also recorded, to a different tune, by Margaret Bradford. Nothing up on the web, to the best of my knowledge. Boake, born in 1866, wrote the poem in 1891, and took his own life in 1892.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 10:50 PM

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAND - [2nd version]

Hugh McDonald

The rivers are dry across the land
And the farmers’ fields have turned to sand
'Cause the rain hasn't come
For two years, almost three
The topsoil’s gone with the hot north wind
The crops won't grow and rust set in
And the cruel south wind of Winter brought no relief.


Ch.
And the old men in the public bar
Talk of floods and droughts before
The night goes on and the conversations die
But the battlers don't give up
It's written on their hands and in their eyes
And the spirit of the land survives.

On Saturday nights in the Royal Hotel
Hank the Dutchman plays guitar
He sings Country and Western favorites - and requests
It used to be his second job
A bit of a laugh for a couple of bob
Now it's all he's got 'cause his crops all died from thirst.

So he spent his savings on cattle and sheep
He got some credit, got in too deep
But stock won't graze on pastures turned to salt
He tried to get work as a travelling man
Selling Rawleighs products from the back of his van
But the cockies all shop in town where things are cheap.

chorus

The school’s all rundown
The roof’s rusted and the paint peeling
The playground’s just a dustbowl; not a spot of green
But kids still kick their footballs
Sending dustclouds to the sun
And it's good to know that drought can't spoil the fun.

And in the cricketers’ lounge late at night
Where the cockies talk and the shearers fight
And their wives drink shandies 'cause they'll be driving home
The talk centres around the price of wheat
The lack of rain and the lack of sheep
'Cause credit’s stretched - and it won't stretch any more.

Chorus


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFIgEIvnL-E    The late, renowned, Hugh McDonald, singing at Brisbane’s 1988 EXPO.

This song is from the REDGUM album "Spirit Of The Land". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_McDonald_(Australian_musician)



R-J