Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:35 AM

no Judy Small - wot kind of session is this???

Mothers, Daughters, Wives

Chorus (after every other verse):
The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons,
And in between your husbands marched away with drums and guns.
And you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives,
For all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives.

You can only just remember the tears your mother shed;
As she sat and read their papers, through the lists and lists of dead.
And the gold frames held the photographs that mothers kissed each night,
And the doorframes held the shocked and silent strangers from the fight.

And twenty-one years later, with children of your own,
The trumpets sounded once again and the soldier boys were gone.
And you drove their trucks and made their guns and tended to their wounds,
And at night you kissed the photographs and prayed for safe returns.

And after it was over, you had to learn again
To just be wives and mothers when you’d done the work of men,
So you worked to help the needy and you never trod on toes
And the photos on the pianos they struck a happy family pose.

Then your daughters grew to women and your little boys to men,
And you prayed that you were dreaming when the call-up came again.
But you proudly smiled and held your tears as they bravely waved goodbye
And the photos on the mantelpiece, they always made you cry.

And now you’re getting older and with times the photos fade
And in widowhood you're sitting, and reflect on the parade,
Of the passing of your memories as your daughters change their lives,
Seeing more to their existence than just mothers, daughters, wives.

Final chorus:
The first time it was fathers, the last time it was sons,
And in between your husbands marched away with drums and guns.
And you never stopped to question, you just went on with your lives,
For all they’d taught you who to be was mothers, daughters, wives,
And you believed them.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:52 AM

a song I love - even tho I'm a very atypical Australian. I can't swim, hate summer heat, glare & humidity & never go to The Beach (I do like looking at beaches & oceans etc, & taking photos of them, tho - I also hate seeing places spoiled by over-development)

CHARLESWORTH BAY by Judy Small


I have heard the songs about the coal mines
stripping mountainsides of beauty
Heard the songs of whales
to make a marble statue weep
And I have wept to see the ice run crimson
For the sake of human fashion
Heard the forests groaning
as the axes cut them deep
But it never touched me deeper
than the tears upon my face
And it never lasted than a day
Until that summer when I went
back home to visit friends and family
And I saw what they have done
to Charlesworth Bay.

Now it's not the kind of place that ad-men
want to glorify in posters
Not the kind of place to
set a greenies heart alight
And I can't say that it filled my dreams
or even held a special memory
But when I look back on my life
It's in my line of sight
And the cry left my lips that day
came not from conscience thinking
I had no chance to think of what to say
It was a grief so pure and deep
that I cannot tell where it came from
When I saw what they had done
to Charlesworth Bay.

Now I have spent my holidays
in hotels at the seaside
I have stood on sun-drenched balconies
and breathed the salt sea mist
But not again shall I lie by some pool or stroll
some private shoreline
Without wandering
whose Charlesworth Bay was this?

So now when I hear songs of coalmines
or of forests gone forever
Or of city buildings sacrificed
to feed the millionaires
I see again the giant shadow cast where
once the marsh and swamp were
Feel again the rising anger
and the bitter sting of tears
For I have never felt so frightened
for the future as that morning
When I saw what they had done to Charlesworth Bay
Oh just look at what they've
done to Charlesworth Bay

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 05:54 AM

another favourite - From the Lambing to the Wool   (Judy Small)

My father was a cocky as his father was before him
And I married me a cocky nearly fifty years ago
And I've lived here on this station and I've seen the seasons changing
From the drought round to the flooding, from the lambing to the wool

    And there've been times when I've wondered
    If it all was worth the doing
    And there've been times when I've thought
    This was the finest place there is
    For though the life here's never easy
    And the hours are long and heavy
    I'm quite contented nowadays
    To have joined my life to his

Together through the thirties while others' lives were broken
We worked from dawn to twilight to hold on to what was ours
And at night we'd sit exhausted and I'd stroke his dusty forehead
With him too tired to talk to me and me too tired to care
CHORUS

Then the children came unbidden bringing laughter to the homestead
And I thanked the Lord my sons were young, too young for battle then
And I counted myself lucky to lose no-one close to family
Though the neighbours lost their only son, sold up and moved to town
CHORUS

And the children have grown and left me for careers in town and city
And I'm proud of them but sadly for none chose station life
And now I smile to hear them talking of the hard slog in the office
For when I think of working hard I see a cocky and his wife
CHORUS

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 08:20 PM

The Westgate Bridge Disaster

A song by Ken Mansell   ©Ken Mansell

Oh time is a power that is precious and golden
That's needed so much by a working class bloke.
It's ours in the cradle then sold, seized and stolen.
If you're caught off your guard it is snuffed at a stroke.
Oh time is our own when we wake in the morning,
When stomachs are empty we clock on each day.
And high on the scaffold you are given no warning;
If a pylon comes crashing it will take you away.


There are men with more time than they know what to do with;
Who decided one day that a bridge we would build.
We rushed the job through to save costs on its finance;
The structure it split and cost thirty five killed.
It's safe in the boardroom when wind a bridge seizes.
When you hear the bolts snapping you can't strike for more pay.
They can hire more and fire more, start again when it pleases,
But the man who builds bridges, he is crushed in the clay.


The concreted decks bore down hard on the girders;
The foremen were blind when we looked down with fear.
While experts debate, who will punish these murderers?
'It's tragic; some say, 'for our two engineers',
For each one that forgets us there'll be two who remember
That profit, the culprit, in its greed was revealed.
Though many will stand by me, now I'm only an ember,
The lips of the judges have a price, and are sealed.


You can speed through the Westgate, AItona and Newport,
Past widows and children whose memories can't fade,
And use it for business or use it for pleasure,
Spare a thought for the men from whose flesh it was made.
Don't wait for the inquest or coroner's verdict;
Don't send for the priest to place me below;
But tell all my mates, if there's any still breathin'
To fight for the day when our time is our own.


Listen to this song here : https://unionsong.com/u317.html
The tune being based on the (trad Scots?) song "The Blantyre Explosion"

“Notes : Many thanks to Ken Mansell for permission to add this songs to the Union Songs collection.   This song details the tragic events of the 15th October 1970 when a steel span on the west bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne collapsed and 35 workers were killed. Visit the West Gate Bridge Memorial Committee web site at http://www.westgatebridge.org/   “

All data has been taken from Mark Gregory’s excellent “Union Songs” website, with thanks.

I was reminded of it because of this article on today’s ABC news website regarding the 15th Oct,1970 bridge collapse :
West Gate Bridge disaster still haunts the men who were there, 50 years on : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-11/west-gate-bridge-collapse-haunts-survivors-50-years-on/12739324


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 09:31 PM

AROUND THE BOREE LOG
(John O’Brien)

Oh stick me in the old caboose this night of wind and rain
And let the doves of fancy loose to bill and coo again
I want to feel the pulse of love that warmed the blood like wine
I want to see the smile above this kind old land of mine

So come you by your parted ways that wind the wide world through
And make a ring around the blaze the way we used to do
The fountain on the sooted crane will sing the old, old song
Of common joys in homely vein forgotten, ah, too long

The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?
Yet spend another night with me around the boree log

Now someone driving through the rain will happen in I bet
So fill the fountain up again and leave the table set
For this was ours with pride to say - and all the world defy
No stranger ever turned away, no neighbour passed us by

Bedad, he'll have to stay the night, the rain is going to pour
So make the rattling windows tight and close the kitchen door
And bring the old lopsided chair, the tattered cushion too
We'll make the stranger happy there, the way we used to do

The years have turned the rusted key, and time is on the jog?Y
Yet spend another night with me around the boree log

He'll fill his pipe and good and well and all aglow within
We'll hear the news he has to tell, the yarns he has to spin
Yarns, yes, and super yarns, forsooth, to set the eyes agog
And freeze the blood of trusting youth around the boree log

Then stir it up and make it burn, the poker’s next to you
Come let us poke it all in turn, the way we used to do
There's many a memory bright and fair will tingle at a name
But leave unstirred the embers there we cannot fan to flame

For years have turned the rusted key and time is on the jog
?Still, spend the fleeting night with me around the boree log

Youtube clip

John O'Brien was pseudonym for Patrick Hartigan who was a Catholic priest. My mother, a devout Catholic, used to read his poetry to me. By the time I was in my teens, she correctly pointed out that I had 'no more religion in me than the cat'. However, I maintain a great fondness for the poems in the collection 'Around the Boree Log'.

Australian Dictionary of Biography

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 10:03 PM

THEY THOUGHT I WAS ASLEEP
(Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys)

We were driving back from the country one night
Mum and dad up the front and the rest of us snug and tight
My kid brother grizzled for a little minute
'Til my big sister told him he'd better quit it or die
It had been a long day in the countryside
Playing with the cousins on my mother's side
The sound of the radio closed our eyes, drifting across the seat

And then I fell asleep

Well, I don’t know what woke me up
Maybe a country song or a big truck passing by
But I could hear mama and papa talking
Papa said something, then mama began to cry
No more words then, just soft sobs and my head began to throb
I just lay there playing dog, breathing slow and deep

They thought I was asleep
They thought I was asleep

It seemed like forever ’til the sobbing stopped
Then they talked a little, but just too soft to hear
Daddy kept looking at the side of her face
One hand on the wheel and one hand stroking her hair
The headlights shining from the other way
Showed tears on the cheeks of daddy’s face
I prayed for Jesus to send his grace
And all our souls to keep

Back then I believed
They thought I was asleep
The night was dark and deep
How I wishedI was asleep

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 10:18 PM

BEDS ARE BURNING
(P.Garrett et alia)

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent, now
To pay our share
Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent, now
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
We're gonna give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 01:52 AM

314 songs!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 08:53 PM

Wongawilli's reworking of a Lawson - a good'un:

SONG OF THE BULLOCK DRIVER
(Henry Lawson)

Far back in the days when the blacks used to ramble
In long single file 'neath the evergreen tree
The wool teams in season came down from Coonamble
And journeyed for weeks on their way to the sea
With mates who have gone to the great Never-Never
And mates whom I've not seen for many a day
I camped on the banks of the Cudgegong River
And yarned at the fire by the old bullock-dray

We rose with the dawn, were it ever so chilly
When yokes and tarpaulins were covered with frost
And toasted the bacon and boiled the black billy
Where high on the campfire the branches were tossed
On flats where the air was suggestive of 'possums
And homesteads and fences were hinting of change
We saw the faint glimmer of appletree blossoms
And far in the distance the blue of the range

And here in the rain, there was small use in flogging
The poor, tortured bullocks that tugged at the load
When down to the axles the wagons were bogging
And traffic was making a marsh of the road
Then slowly we crawled by the trees that kept tally
Of miles that were passed on the long journey down.
We saw the wild beauty of Capertee Valley
As slowly we rounded the base of the Crown

Twas hard on the beasts on the terrible pinches
Where two teams of bullocks were yoked to a load
And tugging and slipping, and moving by inches
Halfway to the summit they clung to the road
And then, when the last of the pinches was bested
(You'll surely not say that a glass was a sin?)
The bullocks lay down 'neath the gum trees and rested
The bullockies steered for the bar of the inn

And, oh! but the best-paying load that I carried
Was one to the run where my sweetheart was nurse
We courted awhile, and agreed to get married
And couple our futures for better or worse
And as my old feet grew too weary to drag on
The miles of rough metal they met by the way
My eldest grew up and I gave him the wagon
He's plodding along by the bullocks today

Youtube clip

Poem

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 09:38 PM

LOVE'S REQUEST
(Traditional)

Thy form it is airy and slight, love
Its graces are free from restraint
Thy hair sheds a halo of light, love
Round features like those of a saint
Oh, to bathe in the light of thine eyes
What destiny sweeter could be
But visions of doubt will arise, love
Could you make me a damper for tea?

Thy mouth is a fountain of song, love
Whence melody flows like a stream
To list to thee all the day long, love
Would be pleasure too sweet for a dream
But my courage to ask for thee fails, love
To accept my hand, oh would you stoop
And again, if I brought you the tails, love
Would you make me some kangaroo soup?

And so then I bid thee farewell, love
And my claims to another I yield
But you will not grieve, I can tell, love
There are others than me in the field
You can sing, you can play, you can dance, love
But your feelings I don't mean to hurt
Your charms you would greatly enhance, love
Could you make me a Crimean shirt?

As printed at p226 of Ron Edwards 'The Big Book of Australian Folk Song'. Ron's note:

'Love's Request' is a gently ironical song, based on the form of the popular love song of the
day, but with a sting in its tail. It is from 'The Native Companion Songster 1889' and is to the tune of 'We have lived and loved together' by Nicolo. Crimean shirts, mentioned in the last line, were introduced into Australia during the period of the gold rushes and, together with cabbage tree hats, became the mark of the bushman of the period.

Martyn Wyndham-read recorded it and penned a new penultimate stanza:

Oh to be with you out in the day, love
With pride I’d take hold of your hand
And at night with the stars shining brightly
We would dance to a shearers’ bush band
But I wonder at times if your heart, love
Would take me to be your good mate
And again, if I asked you right now, love
Would you wash all the dishes and plates?

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 04:32 AM

Great Northern Line collected from Duke Tritton by John Meredith

My love he is a teamster, a handsome man is he,
Red shirt, white moleskin trousers, and hat of cabbage-tree;
He drives a team of bullocks, and whether it's wet or fine
You will hear his whip a-cracking on the Great Northern Line.

Chorus:
Watch him, pipe him, twig him how he goes,
With his little team of bullocks, he cuts no dirty shows;
He's one of the flash young carriers that on the road do shine,
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

And when he swings the greenhide whip he raises skin and hair;
His bullocks all have shrivelled horns, for, Lordy, can he swear!
ut I will always love him, this splendid man of mine,
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

When he bogged at Mundowie and the bullocks took the yoke,
y strained with bellies on the ground until the bar-chain broke.
e fixed it up with wire and brought wool from Bundamine
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

When he comes into Tamworth you will hear the ladies sigh,
And parents guard their daughters, for he has a roving eye;
But he signals with his bullock-whip as he comes through the pine,
With his little team of bullocks on the Great Northern Line.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 04:48 AM

Hughie by Duke Tritton

Halfway through the shearing and the weather was very dry,
But the clouds were gathering, and lowdown in the sky;
Just as we were having a smoke, a shower came over the plain,
And we heard from the shearing shed the rouseabouts roaring refrain:

Chorus:
Send it down a little bit harder, dear old Hughie do!
Send it down a little bit harder and we'll love you;
Send it down for a week or two,
All the rousies will stick like glue,
Just a little bit harder - dear old Hughie do!

It is known as the rouseabouts prayer, it's been sung in every shed,
For when the sheep are too wet to shear the rousies get board and bed,
And their pay goes on if it's wet or dry, and they haven't a worry or care,
So they lay in their bunk and sleep or read, and sing the rouseabouts' prayer:
CHORUS

Ten points of rain and the shearers vote on whether it's wet or dry,
And if they all decide to shear, you will hear the rouseabouts sigh,
'Spare me days', you will hear them say, 'There's frogs in the blanky wool”,
And they stare over the counting pens and sing, for their hearts are full:
CHORUS

When the rain is tumbling down the shearers grumble and curse,
And the boss goes round with a hungry look, for it hits him in the purse;
So he prowls about the shed all day like a bull in a stockyard ring,
And grinds his teeth in futile rage when he hears the rouseabout sing:
CHORUS

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 04:49 AM

ps. we now have 318 songs.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: JennieG
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 05:44 AM

I must have missed him when he came through on the Great Northern Line.......

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 08:44 PM

There is some interesting stuff in Roger Montgomery's fascinating 'Pilbara Connection' compilation. He included a song by my good mate, Alex Green, who spent several years in Darwin before moving to Queensland after Cyclone Tracy. 'Mile Seven' was written when he was working for a mining company in the Pilbara. The tune may be found at p138 of 'Pilbara Connection'.

MILE SEVEN
(Alex Green)

The sun comes o'er the red rock hills
To the east of Dampier town
It breathes its fire upon the earth
It turns the dust red-brown
It breathes its fire upon the men who work upon the track
It burns their minds and it burns their souls
It turns their bodies black

Into this hell of flies and sweat
For money men are driven
To work upon the railroad track
At a place they call Mile Seven
To earn their pay, to buy their drinks
To earn a young gin's smile
Down in the camp they share their bunks
Just like a prison cell

In the pubs, they drink and talk
Of girls they once knew well
They drink and talk of girls they knew
Until their hearts are sore
Then back into the empty room
And close the money door

Repeat stanza 1

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 09:15 PM

THE MAYOR OF PARABURDOO
(J.Wain/R.Montgomery)

I would have to blame the missus
For the reason I got caught
'Cos we wintered up in England
Through a raffle she had bought
We had seen most of the places
And were ready to shoot through
But I was tonguing for a tinnier
Like we have in Paraburdoo

So I'm standing in a London pub
When this joke stands by me
And I can tell by his expression
That he'd like some company
When ya drinking in strange places
Ya sometimes shoot a line or two
So I hits him with a beauty
'I'm the mayor of Paraburdoo'

He sounded posh and proper
When he said, 'By jove, that's nice'
So I thinks, the mug's a pommy
Won't know wheat from bloody rice
I'll dish him up some bull-o
He wouldn't have a bloody clue
'I'm a cocky and my station's
On the plains of Paraburdoo'

I thought that that would rock him
But he asked me, 'Stock or sheep?'
'Naw, I'm keeping bloody goannas
And we milk them once a week
Ya must have heard of goanna oil
And about the good they do
Keeping white ants out of jumbo jets
That land in Paraburdoo'

No, he said, he hadn't heard it
As he handed me a drink
So I tells him, 'Not to worry
It was scarcer than you think
Soon we'll start the season shearing
I've forty thousand jack-a-roo
Grazing out upon the alpine slopes
Just above from Paraburdoo'

'Forty thousand, why that's amazing
But I find it hard to guess
Will you use the wide combs and cutters
With a cradle and a press?'
'Naw, shearing jack-o's them are different
For their legs are only two
Which makes the crutching harder
In the sheds at Parabadoo'

Then I thought I'd better lay off
Try and think of some grand thing
To praise this flamin' ice-block
They call the Mother Land
I says, 'Ya beer is bloody lousy
For you get a bonza brew
Drinking H.I. Export Lager
When it's made in Paraburdoo'

'Oh', he said, 'I'm not a pommy
And I hope I've not misled
But I come from bally Melbourne
Where the woolly bunyip's bred
Like you, I'm just a farmer
Growing something I find nice
Easter eggs on my selection
Down south from Mount Tom Price

Words: S.J. (Jack) Wain, Paraburdoo, WA. Tune: Roger Montgomery.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 09:19 PM

Apologies, in the penultimate line of the first stanza, the word should be 'tinnie' - a can of beer.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Oct 20 - 12:13 AM

I just noticed another ridiculous typo. In the last line of 'Mile Seven' the word should be 'lonely' not 'money'.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Oct 20 - 01:57 AM

typos noted on my list of 320 songs!

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Oct 20 - 08:19 PM

TOOK THE CHILDREN AWAY
(Archie Roach)

This story's right, this story's true
I would not tell lies to you
Like the promises they did not keep
And how they fenced us in like sheep
Said to us come take our hand
Sent us off to mission land.
Taught us to read, to write and pray
Then they took the children away
Took the children away
The children away
Snatched from their mother's breast
Said this is for the best
Took them away

The welfare and the policeman
Said you've got to understand
We'll give them what you can't give
Teach them how to really live
Teach them how to live they said
Humiliated them instead
Taught them that and taught them this
And others taught them prejudice
You took the children away
The children away
Breaking their mother’s heart
Tearing us all apart
Took them away

One dark day on Framingham
Came and didn't give a damn
My mother cried go get their dad
He came running, fighting mad
Mother's tears were falling down
Dad shaped up and stood his ground
He said 'You touch my kids and you fight me'
And they took us from our family
Took us away
They took us away
Snatched from our mother's breast
Said this was for the best
Took us away

Told us what to do and say
Told us all the white man's ways
Then they split us up again
And gave us gifts to ease the pain
Sent us off to foster homes
As we grew up we felt alone
Cause we were acting white
Yet feeling black

One sweet day all the children came back
The children came back
The children came back
Back where their hearts grow strong
Back where they all belong
The children came back
Said the children came back
The children came back
Back where they understand
Back to their mother's land
The children come back

Back to their mother
Back to their father
Back to their sister
Back to their brother
Back to their people
Back to their land
All the children came back
The children came back
The children came back
Yes I came back

Youtube clip

The Story

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Oct 20 - 09:44 PM

A song from 'Pilbara Connection' relating to an even darker side of the horrendous ill-treatment of Aboriginal people. Editor's note:

Early Western Australian history tells us of slave trading. Aboriginal women out collecting mai (food) were captured by the two Shay Brothers and sold to fishermen at the port of Broome.

THE SHAY BROTHERS
(Laughton/Lambert)

Here's another lubra, Bill
Just push her down the back
Our cart is full of native girls
And who cares if they're black
We've earned some gold this side of Broome
Then brought it to the port
Let's hope this load brings fifty pounds
And none of us gets caught

It's stinking hot around these hills
Those bucks might miss these here
I'd hate to cop a boomerang
Or stop an Abo spear
The horses sweat too much, I guess
Some camels may be best
We'd better get those women there
And we can stop and rest

The sun sinks low in bed of gold
There's thirty miles to sea
I hoped to be in town 'fore dark
... those blacks are after me
You use the gun and kill a few
If someone starts to fight
By looks of faces on our dray
They'd have our guts by night

Another mile, another turn
I need another drink
The water's low - don't give them much
I'm glad they're black, not pink
Yeah! Perfect pearls inside that bay
Are paid to me with price
I'll hand this mob to China Joe
And keep the one that's nice

We've made the grade - a sun-up sale
There's some they train to dive
If we go out again next week
Can we get back alive?
Now shove 'em up ... the stubborn ...cuss!
She bit me on me 'and
I'll use the whip - it keeps them right
To make them understand

Another week - it's time to go
Bought camels from a Jap
I hired a man who's seen some tribe
That's camped along our gap
Hold on, Bill - we're ambushed here
So there's no turning back
I dunno why these blasted blacks
Decided to attack!

Written by V.J. Laughton of South Hedland. Source: pp148-150 'Pilbara Connection' compiled by Roger Montgomery.

I couldn't find anything specifically about the Shay Brothers on the Net, but there is plenty of info about black birding and the pearling industry.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 15 Oct 20 - 07:34 AM

Andy Irvine sang The Dandenong on his 2013 CD with Rens van der Zalm, Parachilna. In his chorus he changed the phrases “I dream of” to “I long for”.

He noted: The Dandenong, a song that Australian folk singer Kate Burke found in the archives of the National Library of Australia. Collected in 1954 by John Meredith from a Mrs Mary Byrnes, an old lady of Irish descent, the song tells the story of the loss of the Dandenong and most of its passengers during a voyage from Melbourne to Newcastle, NSW in 1876.

From Mainly Norfolk

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Oct 20 - 09:20 AM

thanks, henryp

I've found 3 items in the Meredith collection about the Byrnes siblings, Tom Byrnes, Mary Byrnes and Alf Fuller interviewed by John Meredith & Mary Byrnes interviewed by John Meredith & Mary Byrnes & others interviewed by John Meredith - this one includes The Dandenong

sandra

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Oct 20 - 07:17 PM

This song is a favourite with Alice Springs folkies.

OLD BAMBOO CHAIR
(Alan Hughes)

He sits on his porch in his old bamboo chair, his old eyes straining to see
The smoke curling up from a campfire so clear as the sun rose on men making tea
He could see the first rays strike the wattle in bloom, he could smell the sweet tang of the trees
Don’t pity this tired old man who is blind for he surely sees more than we see

Chorus:
For he’s been around, he’s walked to the gulf, he’s driven a steer or two
From Barcaldine down to Narromine, he’s seen a lot it’s true
He’s a bushy, a drover, a man of the land, a poet and a sage
Now he sits on his porch in his old bamboo chair for his eyes have died of old age

Now pity is not what this old man needs, he needs time for memories to flow
He can still hear the cracks of the whips in the hills, the snorting of cattle in snow
And the old blue dog running with joy at the heels of the pony he’s had for so long
And young Sandy Duggin edging the herd, crooning the cattle a song

Chorus

His mind wandered back to those days long gone by and the mates that he knew e’er so well
To the stock camps and shearing sheds out to the west on the plains where the summers are hell
To the high country streams with their tinkling sweet wine and mountain ash grow straight and tall
His mind drew him back to a vision sublime, but his eyes would not heed the call

Chorus

Now far, far away from the outer Barcoo in a township down by the sea
This weary old man sits alone on his porch and dreams of black billy tea
And he dreams of returning to those rolling plains where the myall and sheoak still stand
And his heart swells with pride as he recalls his life in that wide and wonderful land

Chorus

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Oct 20 - 07:42 PM

BUNDABERG RUM
(Bill Scott)

God made the sugar cane grow where it's hot
And teetotal abstainers to grow where it's not
Let the sin bosun warn of perdition to come
We'll drink it and chance it, so bring on the rum

Chorus:
Bundaberg rum, and it's overproof rum
Will tan your inside and grow hair on your bum
Let the blue ribbon beat on his empty old drum
Or his waterlogged belly, but we'll stick to our rum

We're men who drink it, oh yes, men indeed
Of the bushranging hairy-necked olden time breed
We shave with our axes, we dress in old rags
We feed on old boots and we sleep on old bags

Chorus

Dull care flies away when our voices resound
And the grass shrivels up when we spit on the ground
When we finally die and are buried in clay
Our bodies are pickled and never decay

Chorus

On the Morning of Judgment, when the skies are rolled back
We'll stroll from our graves up the long golden track
And our voices will echo throughout kingdom come
As we toast the archangels in Bundaberg rum

Chorus

Source: Graham Jenkin 'Great Australian Balladists' p130.

Youtube clip

Bill Scott

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 15 Oct 20 - 08:27 PM

As sung by Trevor Lucas:

ON THE BANKS OF THE CONDAMINE

Oh hark! The dogs are barking now, I can no longer stay
The men have all gone mustering and it is nearly day
And I must be off in the morning, love, before the sun does shine
To meet the Sydney shearers on the banks of the Condamine

Oh Willie, dearest Willie, oh let me go with you
I'll cut off all of my auburn fringe and I'll be a shearer too
And I'll help you count your tally, love, while ringer-o you shine
And I'll wash your greasy moleskins on the banks of the Condamine

Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know you cannot go
The boss has given his orders, love, no woman shall do so
And your delicate constitution isn't equal unto mine
To stand that constant tigering on the banks of the Condamine

Oh Willie, dearest Willie, then stay at home with me
We'll take up a selection, love, and a farmer's wife I'll be
And I'll help you husk the corn, my love, and I'll cook your meals so fine
You'll forget that ram-stag mutton on the banks of the Condamine

Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know I cannot stay
The men have all gone mustering, I heard the publican say
So here's a goodbye kiss, my love, to homeward I'll incline
When we've shorn the last of the jumbucks on the banks of the Condamine

Youtube clip

Note from Mark Gregory's Australian Folk Songs site:

Folklorist Dr Edgar Waters writes (Australian Tradition Oct 1966) : "The Banks of the Condamine seems to have been one of the most widely distributed bush songs. In recent years it has been reported from singers in northern Victoria and the Northern Territory, and a number of different versions have been recorded in New South Wales and in Queensland. Sometimes the man is going off to a horse-breaking camp rather than a shearing shed. In Victoria, and at least in southern New South Wales, it seems to have been known as 'The Banks of the Riverine', and perhaps this was the original form. The words of 'The Banks of the Condamine' were made over from 'The Banks of the Nile', a British Ballad of the beginning of the nineteenth century."

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 16 Oct 20 - 08:54 PM

WEST BY NORTH AGAIN
(Harry Morant)

We've drunk our wine, we've kissed our girls and funds are sinking low
The horses must be thinking it's a fair thing now to go
Sling the swags on Condamine and strap the billies fast
And stuff a bottle in the bags and let's be off at last

What matter if the creeks are up - the cash, alas, runs down
A very sure and certain sign we're long enough in town
Old Bobby rides the boko and you'd better take the bay
Quart Pot will do to carry me the stage we go today

No grass this side the border fence and all the mulga's dead
The horses for a day or two will have to spiel ahead
Man never yet from Queensland brought a bullock or a hack
But lost condition on that God-abandoned border track

When once we're through the rabbit-proof - it's certain since the rain
There's whips o' grass and water so it's west by north again
There's feed on Tyson's country - we can spell the mokes a week
Where Billy Stevens last year trapped his brumbies on Bough Creek

The Paroo may be quickly crossed - the Eulo Common's bare
And, anyhow, it isn't wise, old man, to dally there
Alack-a-day, far wiser men than you and I succumb
To woman's wiles, and potency of Queensland wayside rum

Then over sand and spinifex and o'er the ridge and plain
The nags are fresh - besides, they know we’re north by west again
The brand upon old Darkie's thigh is that upon the hide
Of bullocks we must muster on the Diamantina side

We'll light our campfires where we may and yarn beside their blaze
The jingling hobble-chains shall make a music through the days
And while the tuckerbags are right, and we've a stick of weed
A swagman shall be welcome to a pipe-full and a feed

So, fill your pipe and, ere we mount, we'll drink another nip
Here's how that west by north again may prove a lucky trip
Then back again - I trust you'll find your best girl's merry face
Or, if she jilts you, may you get a better in her place

Repeat stanza 1

Youtube clip

Harry 'Breaker' Morant

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 16 Oct 20 - 09:28 PM

THE BRIGALOW BRIGADE
(Harry Morant)

There’s a band of decent fellows
On a cattle run outback
You’ll hear the timber smashing
If you follow in their track
Their ways are rough and hearty
And they call a spade a spade
And a pretty rapid party
Are the Brigalow Brigade

They are mostly short of sugar
And their pockets if turned out
Would scarcely yield the needful
For a decent four-man shout
But they’ll scramble through a tight place
Or a big fence unafraid
And their hearts are in the right place
In the Brigalow Brigade

They’ve painted Parkes vermilion
They’ve coloured Orange blue
They broken lots of top-rails
‘Twixt the sea and Dandaloo
They like their grog and palings
Just as stiff as they are made
These are two little failings
Of the Brigalow Brigade

The Brigalow Brigade are
Fastidious in their taste
In the matter of a maiden
And the inches of her waist
She must be sweet and tender
And her eyes a decent shade
Then her Ma can safely send her
To the Brigalow Brigade

But women, grog and horses
With polo in between
Are mighty potent forces
In keeping purses lean
But the spurs are never rusty
Though they seldom need their aid
For the cuddles ain’t too dusty
In the Brigalow Brigade

Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) is a wattle occurring in inland areas of NSW and Queensland. The Brigalow Brigade refers to stockmen and drovers who worked in remote areas.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 16 Oct 20 - 10:28 PM

A softer side of the breaker:

WHEN STOCK GO BY
(Harry Morant)

Tom rode a bonny dark bay nag
He wore a battered cabbage-tree
And as I filled our water-bag
He came and asked a drink from me

The cattle passed our hometead gate
Beside our well I watched them pass
While dad was in a fearful state
About his water and his grass

Tom said that drink was just like wine
He said my eyes were soft and brown
He said there were no eyes like mine
From Dandaloo to Sydney Town

I watched him with a trembling lip
Yet little thought I then that he
Who asked a drink from me that trip
Would next trip ask my dad for me

Tom's droving days long since are done
The wet tear oft has dimmed my eye
For days when I was woo’d and won
Come back to me when stock go by

Brad Tate put a tune to this little poem:

Youtube clip

Graham Jenkin also put a tune to it. It can be found at page 74 of his 'Great Australian Balladists'.

Both Jenkin and Davies & Ilott omit the second stanza.

The final stanza suggests unhappiness in the marriage. At one stage, Breaker Morant was briefly married to Daisy Bates. My mate Colin Smiley from Perth compiled a themed concert relating to the Morant/Bates relationship which was presented at a Top Half Folk Festival and repeated in Perth.

There is some info on this interesting relationship here:

Breaker and Bates

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 05:49 AM

Daisy Bates
as sung by Cobbers Bush Band; composed by ??

Oh Daisy, if they’d only heard the things you had to say
How differently we might have read the history of your day
But what was one white woman’s word against the whole white nation
Alone you could not stem the tide of our civilisation.

Our bureaucratic government could never understand
The beauty of the culture of the people of this land
Simplicity was far beyond the white man’s complex mind
And to the beauty of your love he was completely blind.

He couldn’t see that in his own uneducated way
The aborigine might have some worthwhile things to say
The time had come for him to get a decent education
That he became a token white was our main obligation.

So why waste time in listening to you who lived with them
Your whole eccentric lifestyle was a reason to condemn
A woman of the wilderness who shunned society
To live beneath the desert sun with aborigines.

But, even so, for fifty years you fought against the odds
While ignorant white leaders played their game of being gods
And if you eased the suffering of one among their race
Your life has served to counteract a part of our disgrace.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-o-4N0JIgc

I had meant to post this a few weeks back!

I thought there’d be more info about Kabbarli (Daisy Bates) online. The 60minute documentary promised on YT turned out to be a 3+ minute clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7_EkDSJ84A

Maybe Stewie has some other songs too??


R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 09:26 PM

R-J, lyrics and music for 'Daisy Bates' were composed by Chris Armstrong of the Cobbers. I don't have any other songs specifically about Daisy Bates.

NED KELLY'S FAREWELL TO GRETA

Farewell to home in Greta, to my sister Kate farewell
It grieves my heart to leave you, but here I must not dwell
They placed a price upon my head, my hands are stained with gore
And I must roam the forest wild within the Australian shore

But if they cross my chequered path, for all I hold on earth
I'll give them cause to rue the day their mothers gave them birth
I'll shoot them down like carrion crows that roam our country wide
And leave their bodies bleaching upon some woodland side

Oh, Edward, dearest brother, surely you would not go
So rashly to encounter with such a mighty foe
Now don’t you know that Sydney and Melbourne are combined
And for your apprehension Ned, there are warrants duly signed

To eastward lies great Bogong, towering to the sky
From east to west and then you’ll find that Gippsland’s lying by
You know the country well dear Ned, go take your comrades there
And profit by your knowledge of the wombat and the bear

And let no childish quarrels cause trouble in the gang
Bear up with one another, Ned, and guard my brother Dan
See, yonder ride four troopers. One kiss before we part
Now haste and join your comrades, Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 09:43 PM

MARY CALLED HIM MISTER
(H.Lawson/J.Armstrong)

They’d parted just a year ago - she’d thought he’d ne’er come back
She stammered, blushed, held out her hand and called him 'Mister Mack'
How could he know that all the while she longed to murmur, 'John'?
He called her 'Miss le Brook' and asked how she was getting on

They’d parted just a year before; they’d loved each other well
But he’d been down to Sydney since and come back such a swell
They longed to meet in fond embrace, they hungered for a kiss,
But Mary called him 'Mister' and the idiot called her 'Miss'

He paused, and leaned against the door - a stupid chap was he
And when she asked if he’d come in and have a cup of tea
He looked to left, he looked to right, and then he glanced behind
And slowly doffed his cabbage-tree and said he didn’t mind

She made a shy apology because the meat was tough
Then asked if he was quite quite sure the tea was sweet enough
He stirred his tea and sipped it twice, and answered 'plenty quite'
And cut himself a slice of beef and said that it was 'right'

She glanced at him at times and coughed an awkward little cough
He stared at anything but her and said 'I must be off'
That evening he went riding north - a sad and lonely ride
She locked herself inside her room and sat her down and cried

They’d parted but a year before; they’d loved each other well
But she was such a country girl and he’d grown such a swell
They longed to meet in fond embrace, they hungered for a kiss
But Mary called him 'Mister' and the idiot called her 'Miss'

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 10:03 PM

ACROSS THE WESTERN SUBURBS
(Denis Kevans & Seamus Gill)

Tune: traditional 'All for Me Grog'

Oh, me name it is Fred
I'm Sydney born and bred
And the inner-city used to be me home, boys
But it's caused me heart to grieve
For I've had to take me leave
Now across the western suburbs I must wander

Chorus:
Under concrete and glass
Sydney's disappearing fast
It's all gone for profit and for plunder
Though we really want to stay
They keep driving us away
Now across the western suburbs we must wande

Now where is me house,
Me little terrace house
It's all gone for profit and for plunder
For the wreckers of the town
Just came up and knocked it down;
Now across the Western Suburbs we must wander

Before I even knew it
We were shifted to Mount Druitt
And the planners never gave me any say, boys
Now it really makes me weep
I am just at home to sleep
For it takes me hours to get to work each day, boys

What's happened to the pub
Our little local pub
Where we used to have a drink when we were dry, boys
Now we can't get in the door
For there's carpets on the floor
And you won't be served a beer without a tie, boys

Now I'm living in a box
In the west suburban blocks
And the place is nearly driving me to tears, boys
Poorly planned and badly built
And it's mortgaged to the hilt
But they say it will be mine in forty years, boys

Now before the city's wrecked
Those developers must be decked
For it's plain to see they do not give a bugger
Or we soon will see the day
If those bandits have their way
We will all be driven out past Wagga Wagga

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 10:27 PM

WIND IN THE TUSSOCK
(Phil Garland)

Chorus:
There's snow on the hills and frost in the gullies
Where winters are keen and the air tastes like wine
My heart feels the pull of the wind in the tussock
Calling me back to the mountains again

The scent of the speargrass is drawing my heart in
As I long again for the High Country air
The wind in the tussock is calling me homewards
To the valleys and ridges that I love so dear

There's a fragrance in the tussock fire as it's burning
Wisps of smoke curling up to the sky
The dew in the dawning of a clear spring morning
As the sun warms the tops all white skiffed with snow

There's pleasure in working the snow crested mountains
In boiling a billy and watching stars fall
To be lost in a world remote from the city
With the mist far below like a great rolling sea

When the old man nor-wester blows hot down the valley
Reminds me of a girl that I knew long ago
Her hair was as fair as the snowgrass in summer
Breaking my heart when she drifted away

There are dreams in the twilight of long autumn evenings
When the embers of memory still flicker and fade
The tussock reflecting the deep golden sunset
Gently caressed by the evening breeze

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 10:43 PM

LEATHERMAN
(Anon)

I'm a stockman and my work is droving cattle
With my whip and dog, I set them at a rattle
Droving down the dusty road
I'm the roughest kind o' bloke you'll ever know

Chorus:
Jog along, jog along, jog along, leatherman
In the wind and in the rain, driving cattle for the can

At night I just sleep underneath a tree
There's no feather mattress poster-bed for me
Ridin' 'till I'm saddle worn
I'm the roughest kind o' bloke 'twas ever born

In the early morning when the sun is up
I roll up me swag and whistle to me pup
Go in Darkie, bite their tails
Go back them up along the dusty trail

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 11:22 PM

OLD PALMER SONG
(Traditional)

The wind is fair and free, my boys, the wind is fair and free
The steamer's course is north, my boys, and the Palmer we will see
The Palmer we will see, my boys, and Cooktown's muddy shore
Where I've been told there's lots of gold, I'll stay down south no more

Chorus
So, blow ye winds, heigho
A-digging I will go
I'll stay no more down south, my boys
So let the music play
In spite of what I'm told
I'm off in search of gold
I'll make a push for that new rush
A thousand miles away

They say the blacks are troublesom and spear both horse and man
The rivers are all wide and deep, no bridges them do span
No bridges them do span, my boys, and so you'll have to swim
But never fear the yarns you hear, and gold you're sure to win

So let us make a move, my boys, for that new promised land
And do the best we can, my boys, to lend a helping hand
To lend a helping hand, my boys, where the soil is rich and new
In spite of the blacks and unknown tracks, we'll show what we can do

The song may be found at the 28 minute mark of the video of the Rafferty Band album. It's great to hear the voice of the late Chris Buch leading the song. The Palmer is about 160 km from Cooktown in north Queensland.

Youtube

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Oct 20 - 05:39 AM

OLD PALMER SONG (Traditional) Above/below. From Wikipedia;

Ten Thousand Miles Away is a sea shanty whose writing and composition are attributed to Joseph B. Geoghegan. In his Shanties from the Seven Seas Hugill says that this was originally a shore ballad sung by street singers in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. Later it became a popular music hall number. The Scottish Student's Song Book gives the author as "J. B. Geoghegan". This is Joseph Bryan Geoghegan (c. 1816 – 1889) who was manager of the Star and Museum Music Hall in Bolton, Lancashire.

The song is numbered 1778 in the Roud Folk Song Index and it has been passed from singer to singer as a traditional shanty. The figure of "ten thousand miles" could well refer to the distance between England and Australia, and the separation of the lovers arises because the singer's lover has been transported.

So blow the winds, Heigh-ho; A roving I will go,
I'll stay no more on England's shore, So let the music play!
I'll start by the morning train, To cross the raging main,
For I'm on the move to my own true love, Ten thousand miles away.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Oct 20 - 07:28 PM

TUAPECKA GOLD
(Phil Garland)

'Twas in the year of sixty-two as near as I can guess
When I left my dear old hometown in trouble and distress
My family didn't want me I was left out in the cold
Until I started searching for the Tuapeka gold

The day I left Dunedin I could not help but cry
For not one single person came to bid myself goodbye
So I set off on my journey and soon I did behold
The hills that were covered with the Tuapeka gold

When some six months later I came back to my home town
Carrying the fortune that I'd taken from the ground
Strange to say my old friends turned out to say hello
But I knew all they were after was my Tuapeka gold.

The other day while walking I met young Maggie Brown
Who once took all my money while I was sleeping sound
Says she, 'Come to my bedside, we'll be lovers as of old'
But says I, You don't love me but my Tuapeka gold'

So come all you bold young fellows and attend to my advice
And don't trust man nor woman 'til you've looked them over twice
I've travelled for experience and many a time been sold
Ah-ha, but this time they won't get me nor my Tuapeka gold

See also 'Bright Fine Gold' posted above on 30 September. Gabriel Read discovered a large deposit of alluvial gold along the Tuapecka River in Otago in May 1861. Within a week of his reporting the find to authorities in Dunedin, a city of tents appeared along the banks of the Tuapecka.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Oct 20 - 08:17 PM

THE MURRUMBIDGEE SHEARER

Come all you jolly natives and I'll relate to you
Some of my observations adventures too a few
I've travelled about the country for miles full many a score
And oft-times would have hungered but for the cheek I bore

I've coasted on the Barwon low down the Darling too
I've been on the Murrumbidgee and out on the Paroo
I've been on all the diggings boys from famous Ballarat
I've loafed upon the Lachlan and fossicked Lambing Flat

I went up to a squatter and asked him for a feed
But the knowledge of my hunger was swallowed by his greed
He said I was a loafer and for work had no desire
And so to do him justice I set his shed on fire

Oh yes I've touched the shepherd's hut of sugar, tea, and flour
And a tender bit of mutton I always could devour
I went up to a station and there I got a job
Plunged in the store and hooked it with a very tidy lob

Oh, yes my jolly dandies I've done it on the cross
Although I carry bluey now I've sweated many a horse
I've helped to ease the escort of many's the ounce of gold
The traps have often chased me more times than can be told

Oh yes the traps have chased me and been frightened of their stripes
They never could have caught me they feared my cure for gripes
And well they knew I carried it which they had often seen
A-glistening in my flipper chaps a patent pill machine

I've been hunted like a panther into my mountain lair
Anxiety and misery my grim companions there
I've planted in the scrub my boys and fed on kangaroo
And wound up my avocations by ten years on Cockatoo

So you can understand my boys just from this little rhyme
I'm a Murrumbidgee shearer and one of the good old time

From Paterson's 'Old Bush Songs'. This video supposedly has the singing of Gary Shearston, but actually it is Bert Lloyd:

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Oct 20 - 08:43 PM

THE MARYBOROUGH MINER

Come all you sons of liberty and listen to my song
I'll tell you my observations and it won't take very long
I've fossicked around this continent, five hundred miles or more
And many's the time I might have starved but for the cheek I bore

I've been on all the diggings, boys, from famous Ballarat
I've long-tommed on the Lachlan, and I've fossicked Lambing Flat
So you can understand, my boys, just from my little rhyme
I'm a Maryborough miner and I'm one of the good old time

I came to the Fitzroy River, all with my Bendigo rig
I had a shovel, a pick and a pan, and for a licence I begged
But the assay man called me a loafer, said for work I'd no desire
And so to do him justice, boys, I set his office on fire

Oh yes, my jolly jokers, I've done it on the cross
Although I carry my bluey now, I've sweated many a horse
I've helped to rob the escort of many an ounce of gold
And the traps have trailed upon my tail more times than I've ever told

Oh yes, the traps have trailed me and been frightened out of their stripes
They never could have caught me for, they feared my cure for gripes
And well they knew I carried it, for they had often seen it
Glistening in my flipper, chaps, my patent pill machine

I'm one of the men who cradled on the reef at Tarrangower
Anxiety and misery my grim companions there
I puddled the clay at Bendigo and I chanced my arm at Kew
And I wound up my avocation with ten years on Cockatoo.

A.L. Lloyd collected this mining version of 'The Murrumbidgee Shearer' from Bob Bell in Condobolin in 1934.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 19 Oct 20 - 02:39 AM

Stew, I have to disagree with the label of A.L.Lloyd singing "The Murrumbidgee Shearer" that you linked to - it is definitely Gary Shearston in his folk-sheep-shearing-Lloyd style of singing, as on that whole LP of "The Springtime It Brings on the Shearing"!!
I still have my LP and absolutely loved it years ago :)

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Oct 20 - 07:43 PM

R-J, thanks for the correction. I don't have the album. I would have sworn it was Lloyd singing. It must be deliberate on Shearston's part.

--Stewie.

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

Another fine Kiwi singer/songwriter with a song about an incident on Norfolk Island in the 1840s.

EMILY BAY
(Andrew London)

Johnny was a wild one, got sent down
Seven years hard in Sydney Town
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ayElizabeth cried on the dock, says he,
‘You’re a good girl, Lizzie, don’t you wait for me’
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay

Johnny was a thief, he was quicker than some
Got caught with a bottle of the captain’s rum
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay

Judge said, ‘I can turn a hard man around
You can do your time out in Kingston Town’
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay
Johnny said, ‘ Well you can cut a chain for me
But I’ll curse your eyes till the day that I’m free
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay

Johnny took a hundred till the blood ran black
And the chaplain said, ‘That’s a dead man’s back’
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay

Jackie said, ‘Now brother come along with me
Gonna kill me a copper been a-worryin’ me’
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay
Johnny said, ‘Well Jack I been a thinkin’ just the same’
And they got three more before the soldiers came
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay

The commandant said, ‘You’re gonna hang this morn
And England’s sorry that you ever been born
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay

Johnny was a wild one, got sent down
He never did a year in Kingston Town
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay
Elizabeth cried on the day she read
He was thrown in a hole, not a prayer was said
Tura-lura-lura-luralie-ay

And on the Murderers’ Mound, you can hear his plea:
‘You’re a good girl, Lizzie, don’t you wait for me’
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay
And the blood runs down to the sand on Emily Bay

Youtube clip

Bob McNeill does a lovely cover of the song with Gillian Boucher on fiddle:

Click

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Oct 20 - 09:18 PM

I OWE YOU
(Paul Metsers)

Have you still got those pages?
From friends of days gone by
Their words, in paper cages
?Came winging through the sky?
Or did you make some bargain?
That one day you would rue
?Like the hasty note the gambler wrote
The loser’s I.O.U.

It seems the days are speeding
The time it strips the bone?
The snow it falls beside the wall
And follows winter’s moan
And through the crystal window
The ever-changing hue?
The years decline, the debt is mine
How will I pay my due

I.O.U. for mystery
?I.O.U. for colour
?I.O.U. for children?
Born in love and labour
And I.O.U. for letting go
When parting needs must sever
And I.O.U. for holding on
I.O.U. forever

They say no one’s an island
That each on some depends
But lonely hearts and silence
Make such bitter friends
For to have your own true lover
Is to live in fortune’s glow
But try as you may, you’ll never pay
Your lover what you owe

I.O.U. for mystery
?I.O.U. for colour?
I.O.U. for children
?Born in love and labour
And I.O.U. for letting go
When parting needs must sever
And I.O.U. for holding on
I.O.U. forever

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Oct 20 - 09:37 PM

I don't know where those ?s came from. Anyhow, the lyrics are there.

A song about the possible inspiration for Miss Havisham:

THE BALLAD OF ELIZA EMILY DONNITHORNE
(J.Armstrong)

She stands at the window watching the carriages
Approaching the house in the spring of the year
She smiles at the people hurrying everywhere
Lovely Eliza’s wedding draws near
In the fine mansion in King St in Newtown
Beautiful ladies, some haughty, some gay
With horses and carriages, the cream of old Sydney Town
Lovely Eliza gets married today

Over the fireplace, a portrait in oils
Old Judge Donnithorne looks kindly down
Sees his young daughter, the flower of Sydney Town
Looking lovelier than ever in her wedding gown
But something is wrong - the smiles are fading
The hours are passing, the people must go
Eliza still stands and she looks from her window
Waiting in tears for the man she loves so

The table is set still, the places are counted
But gone are the people so laughing and gay
The gifts are unopened and tired of waiting
The beautiful wedding cake crumbles away
The old house is closed now, the windows are shuttered
Nobody leaves and nobody comes near
Eliza grows old now but still in her wedding dress
She faithfully waits for her love to appear

Thirty years pass now - the waiting is over
Six fine black horses await at the door
The beautiful carriage is decked in black ribbons
Lovely Eliza will wait here no more
She’s seeking a new world to search for her lover
If she will find him nobody can tell
She’s a young girl again, happy and carefree
Eliza Emily Donnithorne farewell

Youtube clip

Eliza Emily Donnithorne

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Oct 20 - 10:30 PM

Seems like I'm on my Pat. Never mind - onwards. Another cracker from the wonderful Kath Tait.

POOR DIM SALLY
(Kath Tait)

Poor dim Sally from old Vim valley
She was taken in by the Moonies
Her friends said they would rather be dead
Than sucked in by a bunch of loonies
Her mother cried and her father nearly died
To see their Sally being hypnotised
And listening to strange philosophical lies
And giving all her money to the guru

While dancing to the tune of the Reverend Moon
Sally was benevolent and breezy
But it made her sad to see her mum and her dad
Being hypnotised by the TV
And giving all their money to the politicians
Who wasted it all on their greedy ambitions
And Sally was obsessed by her dubious position
Enlisting more disciples for the guru

Poor dim Sally from old Vim valley
She went knocking on doors
Explaining her views and proclaiming the news
And naming the Moonies' laws
When she came upon a mysterious charmer
Who appeared at the door in his pink pajama
And talked her into following the Dalai Lama
And that's how she was rescued from the Moonies

Sally took a ferry to a monastery
Where upon she shaved her head.
Her mother cried and her father said , 'Why
Is our Sally so easily led?'
The deprogrammers came to unravel her brain
But their threats and bribes were all in vain,
And her poor mother she did proclaim
Why can't we all just be nice Presbyterians

Now poor dim Sally from old Vim valley
Was told to spend eleven days fasting
But her need for food was so basic and crude
And she really wasn't very good at lasting
When they found her hiding behind a tree
With a marmite sandwich and a cup of tea
She said,’I wouldn't be a failure spiritually
If I was the leader of my very own religion’

So she became the guru of her own fringe sect
She got all of the money and all of the respect
And she made her disciples swear an oath
To eat their way to spiritual growth
Have another sausage roll, have another cream bun
She said sitting there on her big fat bum
They said, ‘We’ll all be saved from being eternally glum
In Sally's own original religion’

Kath’s note:

Having been involved in a disreputable fringe sect when I was much younger, I decided to read a few sociological studies on the phenomenon. I discovered that they are all much the same, they all involve some sort of guru/con-artist and they all end up committing some kind of abuse involving sex or money. I have learnt the hard way that you have to be your own guru.

Vim is a bathroom cleaning powder. The phrase Vim valley is a common New Zealand term describing a squeaky clean suburb where people behave a bit like they do in household appliance advertisements.

Mike Harding covered the song. I always fondly remember Mike's visit to Darwin on his Australian tour back in the day. At his gun turret concert, he said that visiting Darwin was like living in someone's sweaty sock. A fair comment - the humidity here at the moment is horrendous.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Oct 20 - 10:40 PM

My apologies, the video linked in my previous post is not the Mike Harding to whom I was referring. I was referring to the pommy Mike Harding. I'm losing it. I think I'll go downstairs into the air-conditioning with my dog and watch a pommy police drama dvd.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Oct 20 - 11:25 PM

I can recommend, Stewie, a good Pommy show I just watched last night on YT (don't recall it being on Oz TV), based on a 1920s true story, called "Dandelion Dead" in 2 Eps over less than 4 hours, but starring the always EXcellent Michael Kitchen & Sarah Miles!!! People are still, to this day, debating whether the main man was guilty or not ......

I will return to song posts on this thread, but I seem to have found a few more urgent things to do!

But I wonder whether Joe could be persuaded to amend the thread title to include reference to New Zealand???

And if the excellent Sandra in Sydney could be persuaded to update the Song Listing??!!


Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Oct 20 - 04:41 AM

Poor Dim Sally is no. 342, & I'll send you the list.

Australia's greatest song AS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED in The Bacchus Marsh Express Sat 15th December, 1891 - note the last line was bowdlerised, so please sing the proper word in the famous version!!

THE BARE BELLED EWE by C.C. of Eynesbury, Nov. 20, (tune - Ring the bell, Watchman)

Oh, down at the catching pen an old shearer stands,
Grasping his shears in his long bony hands ;
Fixed is his gaze on a bare belled ewe,
Saying " If I can only get her, won't I make the ringer go."

Click goes his shears; click, click, click.
Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick,
The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow,
And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe.

At the end of the board, in a cane bottomed chair,
The boss remains seated with his eyes everywhere ;
He marks well each fleece as it comes to the screen,
And he watches where it comes from if not taken off clean.

The "colonial experience" is there of course.
With his silver buckled leggings, he's just off his horse ;
With the air of a connoiseur he walks up the floor ;
And he whistles that sweet melody, "I am a perfect cure."

"So master new chum, you may now begin,
Muster number seven paddock, bring the sheep all in ;
Leave none behind you, whatever you do,
And then we'll say you'r fit to be a Jackeroo."

The tar boy is there, awaiting all demands,
With his black tarry stick, in his black tarry hands.
He sees an old ewe, with a cut upon the back,
He hears what he supposes is--" Tar here, Jack."

"Tar on the back, Jack; Tar, boy, tar."
Tar from the middle to both ends of the board.
Jack jumps around, for he has no time to sleep,
And tars the shearer's backs as well as the sheep.

So now the shearing's over, each man has got his cheque,
The hut is as dull as the dullest old wreck ;
Where was many a noise and bustle only a few hours before,
Now you can hear it plainly if a pin fall on the floor.

The shearers now are scattered many miles and far ;
Some in other sheds perhaps, singing out for "tar."
Down at the bar, there the old shearer stands,
Grasping his glass in his long bony hands.

Saying "Come on, landlord, come on, come !
I'm shouting for all hands, what's yours--mine's a rum ;"
He chucks down his cheque, which is collared in a crack,
And the landlord with a pen writes no mercy on the back !

His eyes they were fixed on a green painted keg,
Saying " I will lower your contents, before I move a peg."
His eyes are on the keg, and are now lowering fast ;
He works hard, he dies hard, and goes to heaven at last.

C. C. Eynesbury, Nov. 20, 1891.

As performed on ABC Landline by Jason & Chloe Roweth in 2014 after Mark Gregory discovered the original on TROVE. Jason reported that after the filming the shearers suggested Mr Folksinger join them shearing, thinking he was just a city folksinger, but he has worked in a shearing shed & done a little (tiny) bit of shearing.

Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Oct 20 - 04:50 AM

SECOND CLASS WAIT HERE by Henry Lawson, 1899 (tune Tony Miles, 1981 as sung by Margaret Walters on "For the Future and the Past")

On suburban railway stations - you may see them as you pass
There are signboards on the platforms saying, 'Wait here second class';
And to me the whirr and thunder and the cluck of running gear
Seem to be for ever saying, saying 'Second class wait here'

Chorus -
Wait here second class, second class wait here
Seem to be for ever saying, saying 'Second class wait here

And the second class were waiting in the days of serf and prince,
And the second class are waiting - they've been waiting ever since.
There are gardens in the background, and the line is bare and drear,
Yet they wait beneath a signboard, sneering 'Second class wait here'

I have waited oft in winter, in the mornings dark and damp,
When the asphalt platform glistened underneath the lonely lamp.
Ghastly on the brick-faced cutting 'Sellum's Soap' and 'Blower's Beer;
Ghastly on enamelled signboards with their 'Second class wait here'

And the others seemed like burglars, slouched and muffled to the throats,
Standing round apart and silent in their shoddy overcoats,
And the wind among the wires, and the poplars bleak and bare,
Seemed to be for ever snarling, snarling 'Second class wait there'

Out beyond the further suburb, 'neath a chimney stack alone,
Lay the works of Grinder Brothers, with a platform of their own;
And I waited there and suffered, waited there for many a year,
Slaved beneath a phantom signboard, telling our class to wait here.

Ah! a man must feel revengeful for a boyhood such as mine.
God! I hate the very houses near the workshop by the line;
And the smell of railway stations, and the roar of running gear,
And the scornful-seeming signboards, saying 'Second class wait here'

There's a train with Death for driver, which is ever going past,
And there are no class compartments, and we all must go at last
To the long white jasper platform with an Eden in the rear;
And there won't be any signboards, saying 'Second class wait here'