Lyr/Tune Add: The Pommies' Lament

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THE POMMIES' LAMENT
From:
Date: 06 Aug 98 - 02:49 AM

Gday all,

I was reminded of this old Australian (well ... nearly) song by a thread which sought, inter alia, the words for a song about a cannibal Island. This song goes to the popular old tune "King of the Cannibal Islands" and comes from ~ the 1840s.

The song was sung at a shipboard concert of some British immigrants heading for Australia and probably made up for the occasion, using all the hard luck tales and warnings they had copped on the way out. The date must be within the convict era (~ before the 1850s) since it talks about having convicts working the farm ... as well as the depredations of bushrangers and hostile natives ... and rapacious land-agents.

BTW, Pommy is an Australianism for an English person. There is controversy about whether it derives from POME - allegedly "Prisoner Of Mother England" ... shown on immigration records or else from contracting Pomegranate ... in reference to the sunburned faces of new chums.

My slight research tends to support the second theory - there are no good examples of the term showing any transition from POME and the term actually appears in print about 1912 - in a rather scurrilous newspaper "The Truth", edited by a notorious scoundrel ... something like Ambrose Bierce with an editorial position!

Anyway the song is great - even if the name has been acquired about 70 years after it was stitched together.

Words follow ... then tune to "King of the Cannibal Islands":

All you on emigration bent,
With home and England discontent,
Come listen to my sad lament
About the bush of Australia.

Chorus:
Illawarra, Mittagong,
Parramatta, Wollongong,
If you wish to become an orang-outang
Well, go to the bush of Australia.

Once I possessed a thousand pounds,
Says I to meself how grand it sounds,
For a man to be farming his own grounds
In the promising land of Australia.

When coming out the ship got lost,
In a very sad plight we reached the coast,
And very nearly made a roast
For the savages of Australia.

Escaped from thence I lighted on
A fierce bushranger with his gun,
Who borrowed my garments, every one,
For himself in the bush of Australia.

Sydney town we reached at last,
Says I to meself, all danger's passed,
Now I'll make me fortune fast
In the promising land of Australia.

So off I went with cash in hand,
Upon the map I bought my land,
But found it naught but barren sand
When I got to the bush of Australia.

Of sheep I got a famous lot;
Some died of hunger, some of rot,
But the divil a lot of rain we got
In this promising land of Australia.

My convicts, they were always drunk,
And kept me in a mighty funk,
Says I to meself as to bed I sunk,
I wish I were out of Australia.

Of ills I've had enough, you'll own,
But something else my woes to crown,
One night my bark hut tumbled down
And settled me in Australia.

Of cash and homestead thus bereft,
The ruddy spot I gladly left,
Making it over by deed of gift
To the savages of Australia.

Now stones upon the road I break,
And earn my seven bob a week.
'Tis better surely than the freak
Of settling down in Australia.

MIDI file: CANBLISL.mid

Timebase: 240

TimeSig: 2/4 24 8
Tempo: 126 (476190 microsec/crotchet)
Tempo: 189 (317460 microsec/crotchet)
Start
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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:6/8
Q:1/4=189
K:C
G4e2|dc2Bc2|AG2EFE|FD2GEE|FG2GA2|Fc2AG2|Ec2cBc|
dGABc2|-cc2dee|eeede2|ee2d/2d/2ee|ef2ed2|
dd2B/2B/2c2|cccB/2B/2c2|cc2B/2B/2cc|Ad2cB2|
AG2Gc2|cBBGA2|Bc2G/2G/2c2|cB2G/2G/2AA|Bc2c/2c/2dd|
^cd2^cd2|^cd2e/2f/2g2|FFABc2|-cc2Ge2|dc2Bc2|
AG2EFD|FDDGDD|FG2GAA|Gc2AGG|EcccBc|dGABc2|
-cc13/8||

Regards,

Bob Bolton