Seeking Harry Robertson Songbook

Subject: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: lamarca
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 05:14 PM

We've got a few of Harry's wonderful Aussie whaling songs in the DT, and discussions of some others. I thought that someone had published a book of them at one point. Do any of our Oz Mudcatters know if such a collection exists? How about a CD reissue of Harry singing his own songs?

If either a book or CD exists, could someone give the ISBN # or recording number for them?

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From:
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 06:05 PM

'Whaling Songs Of Harry Robertson' Published by J. Albert Publications Pty, Ltd., Sydney, Australia.

Unfortunately I have no idea whether the firm still exists. The songs are from: 'Whale Chasing Men' Songs composed and sung by Harry Robertson. MFP 8272 Albert Productions.

Jack

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 06:32 PM

The album has been reissued by the Australian National Screen and Sound Archive. Details here:

Click Here

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 07:03 PM

G'day lamarca,

I have the book at home (if I had many more books ... I'd have to move into a bigger home ...) It is an interesting style - the full text of the recording ... all Harry's introductions and tales as well as the actual songs ... is presented in illustrated book format, rather than the song booklet style you normally find. I'm sure the book is long out of print ... I could check a few local book resellers (best chance would be Da Capo, in Glebe.

But ... the booklet in the CD may be sufficient (at least for the moment). If you follow up Stewie's link, you'll get a lot of information from the web site. Lyn and Evan Mathieson, who were the driving forces behind the National Library re-release are working on another CD of previously unreleased material. They are pretty hard to keep track of ... moving about a bit much for e-mail contacts ... but I will see them in Canberra for the National Folk Festival, over Easter.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 08:43 PM

B'lieve it or not, Whale Chasing Men has just been reissued as a CD. And is available (where else) at CAMSCO. So there.

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 09:43 PM

G'day again,

jacko@nz: Just a passing thought, keeping all queries tidy ... Alberts was an old-established music firm, started by a Swiss luthier who did well in 19th century Australia. In gratitude, he adopted a number of distinctively Australian brand names for his instruments (admittedly, most imprted from Germany ... or, occasionally Switzerland).

The best known of these is Boomerang, which was a brand for a line of mouthorgans (made, mostly, by Siedel & Sohne, in E. Saxony), acordions and concertinas. He named his mansion, in the posh eastern suburbs of Sydney, "Boomerang" and it was a social mecca in its day.

Now he is long gone ... the music business seems to have closed ... and his descendants have sold the mansion for millions and invested all the music business profits into real estate ...

A friend of mine, Ray Grieve, wrote A Band in a Waistcoat Pocket, a history of the mouthorgan in Australia (poor beggar plays flute ... but used to share a microphone with me when I played mouthorgan in Selectors bush Band, back in the 1970s ... must have bend his poor brain ...).

When was researching the Alberts/Boomerang history, quite important to the Australian mouthorgan story, the current generation didn't want to know about it ... would not approve the use of any company advertisements or literature ... didn't want anyone to mention that Grandfather had been involved in anything as vulgar as music ... in case it affected the credibilty of their real estate dealings!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From:
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 10:08 PM

Thank you Bob, appreciated

Jack

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: lamarca
Date: 10 Jan 02 - 06:47 PM

Thanks, all - I'll try to get the CD! Oh, Dick...do you have to order it or do you actually have one in stock?

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 10 Jan 02 - 09:40 PM

G'day lamarca,

Yeah ... you go nag Dick to front up with a few copies of the CD ... it is really worth it! (You may need to re-tune your ears to Scots ... but it's nae sa braid as some aroon t' Mudcat ... pace, LJC ... and a lot easier for us non-Scots to understand than, say, Dick Gaughin.)

Marion Henderson's contribution, particularly in Whaling Wife and Norfolk Island Whalers really lifts things too, with her fine voice contrasting with Harry's earthy tones ... and fine Scots tunes.

I'll sound out the Mathiesons about the progress and content of the later album they are pushing for, from the NLA.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 10:02 PM

Refresh (more for my own benefit than otherwise ... )

G'day again lamarca,

The (Australian) National Folk Festival is imminent (Easter) and I'm off for Canberra mid-next week. I should see Lyn & Evan Mathieson there ... and will ask them (and any of the National Library Push I meet) about how the "further works of Harry" is progressing. I will be at launches of a number of other re-release/compilation CDs from the '50s - '70s era, so I should be near the right people.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: lamarca
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 10:50 AM

Having purchased "Whale Chasing Men" from Dick Greenhouse at the FSGW Minifest, I highly recommend it to any 'Catter who's interested in Australian song. Harry was a fine songwriter, and his work captures the lives and feelings of the men who worked in this industry. Whatever we may feel about whaling today, it was an important and difficult way of life for many working folks for many years, and the songs should be preserved both for historical significance, and because they're damned fine songs to sing!

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From:
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 08:09 PM

The "Whale Chasing Men" CD is available through the Chantey Cabin (they'll be at Lancaster Maritime Festival over the Easter week-end - see thread for details). I was thrilled to get the CD from them a couple of weeks ago, as I still haven't found the tape that friends made for me some years back. I am also seeking further Harry Robertson material - I shall check this thread again after Easter in case anything transpires from Canberra. Regards Ross Campbell

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 07:17 AM

G'day Lamarca,

I'm glad you enjoyed Harry's whaling songs ... it is indeed a real part of our history, whatever we have done since to be more humane (or, in the case of the Japanese scientific experiment to determine just how many whales they can kill and eat, in the name of strict and disinterested science ... not done).

As I have probably mentioned elsewhere in this forum, during the 1940s, my mother's sister married a Danish Whaler. He worked as a stockman (roughly, in US terms, a 'cowboy') in the Australian country ... but chucked it all in, every few years, to sign on for a season's whaling in the southern ocean ... then was back on a horse in the Australian 'Overflow' area for a few more years!

I love Harry's songs and will see what eles we can offer.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Apr 23 - 03:31 PM

Does anyone know if Harry was the writer of the song "Cold, bloody cold", a song about a tug-boat mis-hap in the North Sea,?
Jack

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Reinhard
Date: 14 Apr 23 - 12:03 AM

Yes: Deep Sea Tug (Aye It’s Cold — Bloody Cold)

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Apr 23 - 06:30 AM

In 2001 Harry's friends Evan & Lyn Mathieson organised the CD release of Harry's only album the 1971 LP 'Whale Chasing Men".

A few years later they started a project to record all his works - "Harry's Legacy" (2007) which was completed with "Tribute to Harry Robertson 1925 - 1995" (2009)

They had also planned a re-release of "Whale Chasing Men" in 2019, but this did not eventuate.

Harry Roberston website - home
Complete works of Harry Robertson
Harry Robertson archives

Subject: RE: ISO Harry Robertson Songbook
From: Hrothgar
Date: 16 Apr 23 - 04:48 AM

If I remember correctly, "Deep Sea Tug" was Harry's first song.