Origins: Melbourne Tram Song

Subject: Origins: Melbourne Tram Song
From: GUEST,kettecat
Date: 24 Oct 24 - 06:13 PM

There is a modern folk rock song I really like called Melbourne Tram Song. The earliest recording of it I can find is by Australian folk punk band Catgut Mary (from 2008). Did they write it or is it an older song? It has been covered multiple times since by groups such as Rogue Scholars and Bartley's Folly.

The chorus, for reference, is:

Daughter of the Thames
Won't you come out with me then
We can breakfast in the city
Coffee cigarettes and eggs
And if the rain keeps coming down
We'll find a good bar underground
Where they serve up all the merry beers of England

Subject: RE: Origins: Melbourne Tram Song
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Oct 24 - 05:31 PM

I checked with a Melbourne-based friend -

The lyrics quoted in Mudcat don’t seem to relate to Melbourne and trams at all. I had a bit of a listen and found it hard to distinguish the words.

I don’t know the song or anything about it.

The only Melbourne tram song I know is very different - Bernard Bolan’s very old song Toorak Tram

Subject: RE: Origins: Melbourne Tram Song
From: Hagman
Date: 25 Oct 24 - 09:31 PM

Sandra,

I agree that the song doesn't relate to trams per se, but the references to Carlton, Collingwood and the Fitzroy Gardens certainly make it geographically sound.

(I suspect the "good bar underground" is the Charles Dickens Tavern in Collins Street, which still serves good UK beers from the cask... As does the Sherlock Holmes, further west on Collins, and also underground.)

Michael in Melbourne. :-)

Subject: RE: Origins: Melbourne Tram Song
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Oct 24 - 10:07 PM

thanks, I'll pass on your info.

were you able to get all the words, could you transcribe them?

Subject: RE: Origins: Melbourne Tram Song
From: Helen
Date: 25 Oct 24 - 11:18 PM

Melbourne Tram Song performed by Rogue Scholars

The Catgut Mary website is here. You could contact the band and ask them for more info.

Subject: RE: Origins: Melbourne Tram Song
From: DaveRo
Date: 26 Oct 24 - 05:06 AM

Googling this I came accross Songs from the 86 Tram which I concluded was nothing to do with the Melbourne Tram Song but an interesting concept for an album:

The album is notable for its theme; narrating the lives of passengers on board a Melbourne tram, navigating the Route 86, from Bundoora to Docklands via Northcote, Collingwood and through the Melbourne CBD.
Heazlewood describes the album as an exercise in character exploration: In comedy, bogans get made fun of all the time, and old people and junkies are all easy targets. I was interested in taking on demographics that are rarely satirised in any way.