Lyr Add: Bold Johnny Crane (~ Tommy Payne) Au

Subject: Bold Johnny Crane (~ Tommy Payne) Aussie
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 May 01 - 11:45 PM

G'day bbc,
Here's another Australian song (immigrant...) animal,
I thought this has been posted before, but I couldn't find it in the DigiTrad. Perhaps it is one I supplied to an enquire on the Aus - Worldfolk forum (especially since I seem to have fully detailed the two versions of the song).
Anyway, this is a poem / song (to a familiar tune) and deals with an animal (feral, but firmly in Australia nowadays) that comes out ahead in the deal:
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The following is basically from Singabout, Journal of Australian Folksong, Volume. 4, Number 1, 1960, pp 6 & 7, Bush Music Club, Sydney, (with additions and minor corrections from Singabout, Volume. 4, Number 3, 1961, p15).
:
The author is the indefatigable collector Ron Edwards of Kuranda, North Queensland.

Birth of a Folk Song -
BOLD TOMMY PAYNE
:
The dangers of mistaking a recent song for a traditional one are very real and Bold Tommy Payne with its references to pig dogs and wild boars is good case in point. Written as recently as 1953, it has already appeared on LP records and in the Queensland Centenary Songbook, under the heading of "traditional" on William Clausen's record and "heard in Garradunga Pub1947" in the songbook.
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In 1953 Jack Crossland, the author of the song and John Crane (Tom Payne) both canefarmers of Smithfield, N. Q. were out hunting wild pigs which come down from the Kuranda ranges and cause extensive damage in the canefields. Their pig dogs set up a big black and white boar which came charging down the track towards them. Jack set off smartly for the nearest sapling but John was slower and the boar caught him, tusking him in the groin and tearing his clothes about.
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Later on both men saw the humour of the incident and Jack Crossland wrote a song about the incident, "Bold Johnny Crane" which soon became very popular in the district. When the American singer William Clausen visited Cairns he heard the song and later put it on his record of Australian songs. He changed the name Johnny Crane to Tommy Payne at the request of the Crane family. Originally sung to the tune On Top of Old Smokey it was later. changed to Villikins and his Dinah. Here then is the original: -
:
BOLD JOHNNY CRANE
:
I'll tell you a story it's sad but it's true,
Of the wild pigs where I come from and the damage they do,
There once was a farmer called bold Johnny Crane.
Who grew some sweet Pindar and Q50 cane.

It was late in the night time when an old boar he came,
He started a'dining on bold Johnnie's cane;
Up stepped bold Johnnie the fire in his eye,
"That old boar will ruin me, so that old boar must die!"

He reached for his rifle that stood by the door,
He called for his pig dogs and they came by the score.
Down to the canefields all dressed for the fray,
In waistcoat and trousers bold John made his way.

As he stood on the headland and he gazed all around,
He heard the cane cracking and he heard a strange sound,
As the big boar came charging straight for bold John
The dogs were all barking, the battle was on.

Up stepped bold Johnnie six feet in the air,
As he straddled that grunter he heard his pants tear,
Oh you should have heard the language that came from Bold John,
When he found to his sorrow that his trousers were gone.

Out in old Smithfield where the pindar it grows,
The folk tell the story and they ought to know,
They say on Black Mountain an old boar resides
And they say that he's still wearing bold Johnnie's strides.

Notes: As well as appearing on Clausen's Australian record, the song may be heard on Wattle's Billygoat Overland.
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Pig dogs: Pig dogs are a feature of most farms in the Smithfield area and are bred all over North Queensland. Most cattle dogs can be used for pigs, but the recognised pig dog has a large percentage of bull terrier in him. Many dogs are trained to catch the pig by the ear and hold him till the shooter catches up. Jack Crossland also uses a black dingo for pigs.
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Smithfield: About 7 miles north of Cairns.
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Headland: The space left between cane crops.
Some of the wild boars have quite formidable tusks and are a mixture of the "Captain Cook" wild pig and domestic pigs which have gone wild.
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Ron Edwards

Now, here are the text and notes as they appear in The Queensland Centenary Pocket Songbook, Federation of Bush Music Groups Brisbane, Edwards & Shaw, Sydney, (1959), pp 62/3.
:
BOLD TOMMY PAYNE

Repertory of Bill Scott Source: heard by Bill Scott in Garradunga pub, 1947
The tune first appears in the 1830s in England as "Villikins and his Dinah," later in the U.S.A. as "Sweet Betsy from Pike." An expanded version was sung by Australian troops in both World Wars as "Dinky-die."

Bold Tommy Payne
Source: see note below

I'll tell you a story, it's strange, but it's true,
Of the wild pigs where I come from and the damage they do.
There was once an old boar went devouring the cane'
Of a very rash character called Bold Tommy Payne.
Chorus:
With a tooral i-ooral i-ooral i-ay.

Bold Tommy rose up and he cursed and he swore,
Then with rifle and pig-dogs, a dozen or more,
He strode towards the cane-brake with murder in mind;
But the boar laid an ambush and charged from behind!
(Chorus)

Bold Tommy jumped up sixteen feet in the air;
Came down on the porker and heard his pants tear.
Oh you should have heard the language that came from bold Tom
When the cold wind made him realise that his trousers were gone!
(Chorus)

Now up in Garradunga where the sweet Pindar grows
The blokes tell the story, so everyone knows
How up in the mountains an old boar resides
Who is wearing the remnants of Bold Tommy's strides.
(Chorus)

The words collected by Bill Scott ran to more length than we had space for, This "reduction" of the text comes from the Brisbane Realist Writers' Group.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bold Johnny Crane (~ Tommy Payne) Au
From: MMario
Date: 16 May 01 - 01:15 PM

NWC file sent to Joe