Lyr Add: Island in the River (Dorothy Hewitt)

Subject: Lyr Add: ISLAND IN THE RIVER (Dorothy Hewitt)
From: Ezio
Date: 10 Sep 98 - 02:04 AM

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ISLAND IN THE RIVER

(Dorothy Hewitt)

There's an Island in the River, how that bitter river ran
Where I grew on scraps of charity in the best way that you can
On an Island in a River, where I grew to be a man

Chorus:
For dole bread is a bitter bread, bitter bread and sour
There's grief in the taste of it, there's weevils in the flour
There's weevils in the flour

And just beside that river stood the mighty B.H.P.
Poured pollution in the water, like the bread of misery
And its coat was black as Hades, rolling hungry to the sea

Chorus

In those humpies by the river where we lived on dole and stew(?)
While just across the river the mighty smoke-stacks grew
Where the hunger of the many filled the bellies of the few

Chorus

There's an Island in the River, how that bitter river ran
It broke the banks of charity and it baked a bread of man
On that Island in the River where I grew to be a man

Last chorus only:
For dole bread is a bitter bread, bitter bread and sour
But men grew hard as iron upon that bitter bread and sour
That bitter bread and sour

Background: the island referred to in this song was an island in the middle of a river in Newcastle in New South Wales in Australia. A few aborigines lived on this island in the condition of squalor and poverty. And this condition was made even more ironical by the fact that opposite the island on the bank of the river was a great steel-making factory of B.H.P. Ltd, the mightiest industrial giant of Australia. So while the Aborigines starved on their Island, they could see the white man's factory, built on their tribal lands, making money for those who already had enough, and polluting the environment more in one hour than their people had in all their ten thousand year of history. Eric Bogle.

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Sung by Eric Bogle on 'Down Under' (1981)

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Submitted by EB

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I've collected most of the lyrics I've posted here during the past months.
These lyrics, along with the .RA audioclips, are available at
http://geocities.com/Nashville/Opry/7424
Ezio

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Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 10 Sep 98 - 02:23 AM

G'day,
The last line of the second verse should read:-

And its smoke was black as hades.....

Other possible variations:-

First line: On an island in a river....
Last 2 lines of last chorus: that black bread and sour.
Third verse: dole and stew is correct.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Sep 98 - 02:43 AM

Nice Web site, Ezio. I take it Aetius is a different form of your name, right?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 10 Sep 98 - 11:08 AM

G'day,
I suppose I should mention that we usually call the song "Weevils in the Flour".

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 10 Sep 98 - 06:11 PM

G'day all,

We should also mention that the tune to 'Weevils in the Flour' is written by Mike Leyden.

It is interesting to see Wee Eric's renditions appearing under dubious (or at least, variant) names after the angst in recent threads on the multitude of substitute names for his 'No Man's Land'!

Enjoy it all anyway,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Ezio
Date: 12 Sep 98 - 02:46 AM

Joe,

you're right: the nickname Aetius is the latin translation of Ezio (megalomania!). He was a roman captain who in the IV century A.D. fought people which - in the history books - are called 'barbarians'. I suspect among these were also CELTIC people! (therefore I suspect sometimes history should be re-written!)

Thank you Joe, Alan, and Bob.

Ezio

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: rich-joy
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 09:05 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Stewie
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 10:44 PM

Here's the complete poem as it was written, with its original title and line structure:

WHERE I GREW TO BE A MAN
(Dorothy Hewett)

On an island in a river
How that bitter river ran!
I grew on scraps of charity
In the best way that you can
In that island in a river
Where I grew to be a man

For dole bread is bitter bread
Black bread and sour
There's grief in the taste of it
There's weevils in the flour

And just across the river
Stood the mighty BHP
Poured pollution on the waters
Poured the lead of misery
And its smoke was black as Hades
Rolling hungry to the sea

In those humpies by the river
We lived on dole and stew
And just across the river
Those greedy smokestacks grew
And the hunger of the many
Filled the bellies of the few

Oh! Winter on that river
Was a time of bitter cold
A time of hungry bellies
And children growing old
And men with nothing else to do
But watch the river roll

For dole bread is bitter bread
Black bread and sour
There's grief in the taste of it
There's weevils in the flour

Oh! Cats on the river
And men on the tide
They all became a commonplace
On our river side
And even mothers couldn't weep
When newborn babies died

Oh! Black was the steel town
And black was the smoke
Cold-black the river water
That can gag a man and choke
Till he dreams up a furnace fire
Of his own to stoke

We met beside the river
With the ghosts of good men drowned
We picketed the steel mill
And we bawled our hunger down
With words that stung and deeds that hung
Like live things on the town

For dole bread is bitter bread
Black bread and sour!
There's rage in the taste of it
There's weevils in the flour

On an island in a river
How that bitter river ran
It broke the banks of charity
It baked the bread of man
In that island in the river
Where I grew to be a man

For dole bread is bitter bread
There's weevils in the flour
But men grew strong as iron upon
That black bread and sour!

Source: Dorothy Hewett 'Collected Poems 1940-1955' Fremantle Arts Centre Press 1955.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Island in the River
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 27 Aug 02 - 11:44 PM

G'day all,

This coming Sunday, there will be a wake at Varuna, the Writers' House she supported, for Dorothy Hewett, who died last Sunday morning - aged 79.

I was talking to Chris Kempster, who wrote my favourite tune for Dorothy's Sailor Home from the Sea about some notes on Dorothy for local folk magazines and he told me of the wake, which I may briefly attend if I can band my planned trip past.

We have lost one of Australia's grand and wonderful 'ratbags' (Characters ... in the most loving sense)!

Regards,

Bob Bolton