Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line (Duke Tritton)

Subject: The Sandy Hollow Line ^^ (Duke Tritton)
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Mar 00 - 03:38 AM

THE SANDY HOLLOW LINE
(Duke Tritton)

The sun was blazing in the sky,
dray And the waves of shimmering heat
Glared down on the railway cutting;
We were half dead on our feet.
And the ganger stood on the banks of the cut,
And snarled at the men below:
'You'd better keep them shovels full
Or all of you cows will go;

I never saw such a useless mob,
You'd make a feller sick,
As shovel men you're hopeless
And you're no good with the pick'.
There were men in the gang could belt him
With a hand tied at their back,
But he had the power behind him
And we dare'nt risk the sack

So we took his insults in silence,
For this was the period when
We lived in the great depression,
And nothing was cheaper than men.
We drove the shovels and swung the picks
And cursed the choking dust;
We'd wives and hungry kids to feed
So toil in the heat we must.

And as the sun rose higher,
And the heat grew more intense,
And flies were in their millions
And the air was thick and dense,
We found it very hard to breathe,
Our lungs were hot and tight
With the stink of sweating horses
And the fumes of gelignite.

But still the ganger drove us on
We couldn't take much more;
We prayed for the day we'd get a chance
To even up the score.
A man collapsed in the heat and dust,
He was carried away to the side.
It didn't seem to matter
If the poor chap lived or died.

'He's only a loafer', the ganger said,
'A lazy, useless cow. I was going to sack him anyway,
He's saved me the trouble now'.
He had no thought of the hungry kids
No thought of a woman's tears
As she struggled and fought to feed her brood
All down the weary years

And one of the government horses
Fell down and died in the dray;
They hitched two horses to him
And they dragged his corpse away.
Well the ganger was a worried man
And he said, with a heavy sigh:
'It is a bloody terrible thing
To see a good horse die.

You chaps get back to work', he said,
'And don't stand loafing there
Get in and trim the batter down
I'll get the engineer.
Well, the engineer he looked around
And he said, as he scratched his head,
No horse could work in this dreadful heat
Or they would all be dead.

'They're much too valuable to lose
They cost us quite a lot,
And I think it is a wicked shame
To work them while it's hot,
So we will take them through the creek
And spell them in the shade;
You men must all knock off at once -
Of course, you'll not be paid.

And so we plodded to our camps,
And it seemed to our weary brains
We were no better than convicts,
But we didn't wear the chains.
And in those drear Depression days,
We were unwanted men,
And we knew that when a war broke out
We'd all be heroes then,

And we'd be handed a rifle
And forced to fight for the swine
Who tortured us and starved us
On the Sandy Hollow line.


Source: Various Artists 'Navvy on the Line: Songs from the Australian Railway Tradition' Larrikin LFR009.
PS.

Roughly hewn, but a powerful song nonetheless. The Sandy Hollow line was begun as a depression relief project, but was eventually shelved as being 'impossible'.

I am not certain about the 'Get in and trim …' line in the second last section above. Can someone confirm or correct?

Some Oz 'Catters may have personal knowledge of Duke Tritton who evidently bridged the gap for southern urban folkies - many of whom had not experienced the bush - in the heady days of the so-called 'folk revival'. It would be great to hear some stories about him. We Top Enders were already in the bush and exposed mostly to Slim Dusty ditties (except, of course, in the oasis of the Top End Folk Club, then flourishing as a stepping stone on the hippie route to Asia)!

--Stewie.

^^

---

Recording by Steam Shuttle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydV3DTgZL4


Note from Joe Offer: I know this melody as Knickerbocker Line, the verses (not chorus) of The Bigler's Crew, sometimes used for "Hot Ashpelt." It's also Lachlan Tigers

---

Recording by Cobbers (different melody): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrBVJJ2vbFE

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 Mar 00 - 06:22 PM

G'day Stewie,

This was written as a poem by Harold Percival Croydon ('Duke') Tritton during the time he worked on the 'Susso' - Government 'sustenance' projects during the 1930s. 'Duke' managed to get work as a powder monkey (explosives expert) so he didn't endure the very worst of it, but he saw it all and wrote about it.

I only met 'Duke' briefly in the last years of his life but he was fit and sprightly until a rapid decline after an accident. He was involved with the Bush Music Club for its first decade and was the 'union rep' and moral (and performance value)conscience of the Concert Party.

Duke's words were set to a tune by John Dengate (Sydney singer/songwriter, BMC memeber) late 1965 and I first heard it on a tape brought down to Tasmania by a friend while I was working on the Tasmanian Hydro Electric Scheme. It took a long time before I realised that the slow, minor tune was identical with that of the Irish comic song "Mick McGuire" ... but played much slower! I'm not sure about the tune the Larrikins used on their LP Steps of the Dole-Office Door; I'm fairly sure it differs and it is likely to be the tune on other 'cover' versions.

'Duke' was born in what is now a Sydney suburb Croydon. His family also lived from early 10th century in what is now the Sydney suburb of Lakemba. The park dividing Lakemba from Greenacre, where I grew up, was originally called Tritton Green, being donated by Duke's grandfather ... but was renamed by one of our shonky aldermen after himself! I attended the same Primary School as duke's children, but a generation later on.

In the lean days after the 1890s depression, there was little work in Sydney so 'Duke' went 'bush'. He got a shearing job in 1905 and spent the next few decades doing every sort of rural work in the Australian outback ('bush'). His early years a described in his book Time Means Tucker. He lived in Sydney again after he married and his daughter Linda has written about the depression days (when the part of Greenacre I lived in was a desolate scrubby waste full of snakes and known locally as "the Devil's Playground") in her book Faded Sandshoes and Pumpkin Pie.

In the years of the 1930s depression, 'Duke' went bush again, fossicking for gold in old Turon golfields area when he was on the 'Susso' (or while he was finding enough colour to keep him and family fed).

'Duke' turned up at the Sydney 'Bulletin' office when Nancy Keesing was researching for an expanded version of 'Banjo' Paterson's book of early collected songs Old Bush Songs. Nancy had advertised for anyone who knew the old songs - especially Goorianawa that Paterson had never been able to track down in 1905.

"Duke' knew it well, having been taught it by an uncle around 1895 ... and he knew many more songs ... and had written poems and songs of his own. Nancy referred him to John Meredith, just beginning to record Bush songs on the new-fangled tape recorder that cost him half a year's wages. He was one of the 2 most important and prolific singers found by John Meredith (along with Sally Sloane).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Mar 00 - 06:44 PM

Bob, many thanks for taking the time to provide all that excellent information.

Regards, Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 Mar 00 - 07:07 PM

G'day again Stewie,

I see I need to correct two minor mistakes:

I credited the wrong Larrikin record - you are right; it was Navvy on the line not Steps of the Dole House Door

The other point is the line:
Get in and trim and batter down

This is actually:
Get in and trim THE batter down
(batter is an engineering term for a sloping face - as on a railway cutting, which is what they were building). I looked through the words and didn't see anything else that conflicts with my memory of the words I wrote in my notebook in 1966!

BTW: That tape had another good song set by John Dengate from Dukes words: Hayes' Gap. This was also about working on the Sandy Hollow Line (presumably a point on the line) and John set it to the Irish melody Dunlavin Green. I haven't heard that on commercial recordings. I imagine the words are in John Meredith's book Duke of the Outback, Red Rooster Press, 198?), but I don't remember whether the tune is there. I will look it up and see whether I can post the lyrics and tune.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Stewie
Date: 14 Mar 00 - 09:45 PM

Thanks for clearing up that line, Bob. I had looked up 'batter' in the Macquarie, but it failed to give that engineering meaning - and I had no other dictionaries to hand.

Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Mar 00 - 07:35 AM

G'day again Stewie,

This is starting to look like a private thread! (We'll have Praise nagging us.)

Anyway, I was just aware of the term "batter" - I spent a few years, in the 1960s, building Hydro dams, including earth fill types ... and I have friends working in mining areas, where the term is also still alive and well.

(However, the Oxford Concise Australian Dictionary gives this sense as meaning #4.)

TUNES: I can't have been paying attention when I named the tunes John Dengate set to Duke's words. It was Hayes' Gap that has the slow version of Mick McGuire (although it also fits to Lonely Banna Strand or Van Diemans Land).

The Sandy Hollow Lines was set toDunlave Green but the Larriking used the tune of Great Northern Line (or: Shearing at Towlers Bay, or Knickerbocker Line, or ...)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Helen
Date: 16 Mar 00 - 09:34 PM

Bob,

I assume you meant the 19th Century and not the 10th, unless Duke can trace his ancestry back through Aboriginal lines. (BG)

Helen

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 Mar 00 - 11:55 PM

Er, G'day Helen,

(I haven't been hiding from my typing errors - I've been down at the Illawarra Folk Festival, in Jamberoo.)

The moving finger types and having submit,
Moves on,
And not all my profanity, less wit,
Can lure it back, or change a character ... Oh ****!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sandy Hollow Line
From: Helen
Date: 20 Mar 00 - 05:00 AM

The moving finger - very eloquent!

Helen

Subject: ADD: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 07:53 AM

G'day,

I posted 2 other songs (yesterday) from or by 'Duke' Tritton (1886 – 1965), a fine singer of Australian traditional songs – and a writer of very good songs of his own experience of the bush life. Here is another, describing conditions on a Government 'make-work' project of the Great Depression years (1930s) – a rural railway line to Sandy Hollow. 'Duke' worked on this line as a powder monkey – the explosives expert, so he may not have had it quite as hard as the labourers, but he saw and told the truth.


THE SANDY HOLLOW LINE

The sun was blazing in the sky and waves of shimmering heat
Glared down on the railway cutting, we were half dead on our feet,
And the ganger stood on the bank of the cut and snarled at the men below.
'You'd better keep them shovels full or all of you cows will go.'

'I never saw such a useless mob, you'd make a feller sick.
As shovel men you're hopeless and you're no good with the pick.'
There were men in the gang could belt him with a hand tied at their back
But he had the power behind him and we daren't risk the sack.

So we took his insults in silence, for this was the period when
We lived in the great depression and nothing was cheaper than men
And we drove the shovels and swung the picks and cursed the choking crust
We'd wives and hungry kids to feed so toil in the heat we must.

And as the sun rose higher the heat grew more intense,
The flies were in their millions, the air was thick and dense.
We found it very hard to breathe, our lungs were hot and tight
With the stink of sweating horses and the fumes of gelignite.

But still the ganger drove us on we couldn't take much more
We prayed for the day we'd get a chance to even up the score.
A man collapsed in the heat and dust, he was carried away to the side
It didn't seem to matter a damn if the poor chap lived or died.

'He's only a loafer,' the ganger said, 'A lazy useless cow.
I was going to sack him anyway, he's saved me the trouble now.'
He had no thoughts of the hungry kids, no thought of a woman's tears
As she struggled and fought to feed her brood all down the weary years
.
But one of the Government horses fell down and died in the dray.
They hitched two horses to him and dragged his corpse away.
The ganger was a worried man and he said with a heavy sigh
'It's a bloody terrible thing to see a good horse die.'

'You chaps get back to your work, don't stand loafing there.
Get in and trim the batter down, I'll get the Engineer.
The Engineer came and looked around and said as he scratched his head,
'No horse could work in this dreadful heat or all of them will be dead.'

'They're much too valuable to lose, they, cost us quite a lot
And I think it's a wicked shame to work them while it's hot,.
So we will take them to the creek and spell them in the shade.
You men must all knock off at once. Of course you'll not be paid.'

And so we plodded to our camps and it seemed to our weary brains
We were no better than convicts, though we didn't wear the chains.
And in those drear depression days we were unwanted men
But we knew that when a war broke out we'd all be heroes then.
(last 2 verses to 'b' part of tune)
And we'd be handed a rifle and forced to fight for the swine
Who tortured us and starved us on the Sandy Hollow Line.

MIDI file: sandyhol.mid

Timebase: 240

TimeSig: 9/8 36 8
Tempo: 075 (800000 microsec/crotchet)
Start
0960 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 68 080 0096 0 68 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 68 080 0096 0 68 064 0024 1 66 080 0057 0 66 064 0003 1 66 080 0048 0 66 064 0012 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0552 0 66 064 0048 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 68 080 0096 0 68 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 68 080 0096 0 68 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0552 0 66 064 0048 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 71 080 0096 0 71 064 0024 1 73 080 0096 0 73 064 0024 1 71 080 0096 0 71 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 71 080 0096 0 71 064 0024 1 73 080 0096 0 73 064 0024 1 71 080 0096 0 71 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 61 080 0048 0 61 064 0012 1 64 080 0048 0 64 064 0012 1 66 080 0552 0 66 064 0048 1 61 080 0048 0 61 064 0012 1 61 080 0048 0 61 064 0012 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 68 080 0096 0 68 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 68 080 0096 0 68 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 61 080 0096 0 61 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 66 080 0552 0 66 064
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:
M:9/8
Q:1/4=75
K:C
^C9|^C^F^GA^G^F/2^F/2E^CE|^F2^F^F5^C|^C^F^GA^G^FE^CE|
^F^F^F^F5^F|^FB^cBAB^cBA|^FE^C/2E/2^F5^C/2^C/2|
^C^F^GA^G^FE^CE|^F^F^F^F37/8||

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 08:22 AM

G'day again,

I was a bit remiss with my last posting: I only provided 1 of the 2 common tunes for The Sandy Hollow Line.

This is the one set to the words in 1966 by Sydney singer/songwriter John Dengate, based on the Irish tune Dunlavin Green. There is a second tune, popularised by The Larrikins in the 1970s - based on the English song The Knickerbocker Line - which 'Duke' also sang for an Australian bullock-driver's version The Great Northern Line.

Here is the MIDIText version of this tune:

MIDI file: sandygnl.mid

Timebase: 240

TimeSig: 2/4 24 8
Tempo: 075 (800000 microsec/crotchet)
Start
0360 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 67 080 0048 0 67 064 0012 1 67 080 0048 0 67 064 0012 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 69 080 0288 0 69 064 0072 1 65 080 0048 0 65 064 0012 1 65 080 0048 0 65 064 0012 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 62 080 0048 0 62 064 0012 1 62 080 0048 0 62 064 0012 1 74 080 0096 0 74 064 0024 1 74 080 0048 0 74 064 0012 1 74 080 0048 0 74 064 0012 1 74 080 0096 0 74 064 0024 1 74 080 0096 0 74 064 0024 1 72 080 0096 0 72 064 0024 1 71 080 0048 0 71 064 0012 1 71 080 0048 0 71 064 0012 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 72 080 0288 0 72 064 0072 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0048 0 69 064 0012 1 69 080 0048 0 69 064 0012 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:
M:2/4
Q:1/4=75
K:C
A8|A2A2A2A2|A2A2A2A2|G2A2G2E2|C6E2|G2GGG2G2|
A2G2F2E2|D2E2F2G2|A6FF|D2D2D2DD|d2ddd2d2|
c2BBA2G2|c6E2|F2F2E2F2|D2E2F2G2|A2AAG2E2|
C5||

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: GUEST,mark latin cookie
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 10:46 PM

Hi Bob,

Mark Campbell here. . .

Would it be Kosher (to mix my metaphors) to put Dumlavin Green and The Sandy Hollow line (first tune version) together as a set?

ie: (now that's latin)Dunlavin Green followed by Duke's Sandy Hollow line.

Or would this be asking for trouble?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: GUEST,Mark the cookieless linguist
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 10:49 PM

Hi Bob,

What were the two other tunes you posted "yesterday" (mentioned in your posts above).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 11:46 PM

G'day Mark,

I really should go back and check the notes on these tunes. I am now uncertain as to whether the tune Dunlavin Green is really this tune or the tune used for another of Dukes songs Hayes' Gap. Sometimes rattling of a posting, without checking the sources (due to a nasty tendency for my internet connection to drop out if I don't post or access something every 5 minutes!) is not a safe thing.

I will get back to you tonight, after going through my notes.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 09:17 AM

G'day again Marcus CampusBellorum,

Hmmm, my notes indicate what my memory managed to dredge up ... The Tune John Dengate used for Sandy Hollow Line was indeed Dunlavin Green (and the Larrikins tune was Great Northern Line / Knickerbocker Line / Musselborough Fair / &c).

It was Hayes Gap (to the best of my knowledge, not published ... except possibly in Meredith's Duke of the Outback) that used a slowed down version of the Mick McGuire / Hot Asphalt tune.

However ... the 2 tunes sound very similar and I can see why I got rather fuddled on the correct tune. They are typical of the sort of minor Irish tune John Dengate likes to use when he doesn't write a new tune.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: GUEST,Marcus CampusBellorum
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 07:55 PM

Thanks Bob and others.

Hot Asphalt. That sounds interesting.

What is the link between Mick McGuire and Hot Asphalt?

I will also go for a search in Merediths book "Duke of The Outback" for "Hayes Gap"

I will also go looking for Dunlavin Green and Mick McGuire.

In addition I will pull John Dengate aside at the next festival and "pick his brains".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 11:47 PM

G'day again Mark,

I have always suspected that both Mick McGuire and Hot Asphalt were scurrilous English libels on the Irish, dating from the Music Hall period and using an older traditional Irish tune. That was confirmed recently by notes on Hot Asphalt that identify the tune as Napoleon Crossing the Rhine. The Irish were quite partial to Napoleon ... he didn't like the English either!

Re questions to John Dengate: if you have any queries, float them past me as I will be talking to John (who lives not far away)about some music and chords for his songs ... and raising the possibility of a third songbook (My Shout! - yet again?.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 01:01 AM

I was going to ask John about Australian tunes with celtic links.

Also, Bob, Do you have a list of BMC publications?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sandy Hollow Line - Australian Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Aug 00 - 03:13 AM

G'day again Mark,

Most of John's borrowed tunes are from the Irish tradition (inevitable, when his mother's maiden name was Kate Kelly!). I don't think John diligently researched the provenance ... just picked a good tune and a good song on which to model a new one. However, he probably picked up a lot of information in singing to people with special interests in the repertoire and I'm sure he has a lot to say on any given tune.

I have list of publications for sale - both BMC's own and interesting (and often otherwise unobtainable) books we have picked up along the years. I sent a list to Joe Offer and one or two other Mudcatters and I will dig it out of my home files and email it to you.

Regards,

Bob Bolton