Lyr Req: Bridal Train (The Waifs)

Subject: Lyr Req: Bridal Train
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 15 May 04 - 03:56 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics to a song called 'Bridal Train' It's about Australian girls who married US sailors during World War II and their passage was paid to go to their husbands in America after the war. It was recorded by an Australian group - don't know their name.

Cheers,
Ann

Subject: ADDPOP: Bridal Train (the Waifs)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 04 - 02:06 AM

Hi, Ann - I haven't heard the song, but apparently it's by an Australian group named The Waifs. The recording is available here (click), the source of the following quote.This beautiful song tells the story of Vikki and Donna's grandmother who married a 'Yankee Sailor' and at the US Navy's expense boarded the Bridal Train to Sydney and then by ship to San Francisco to be re-united with her husband. The single also includes 'Strings Of Steel' and a live version
This site (click) has lyrics:

Bridal Train
(The Waifs)

A telegram arrived today,
Well it's time to catch the Monterey
'Cause the man I wed, he waits for me
And a daughter that he's yet to see

US Navy beamed its message,
Will deliver brides on a one way passage
It made big news across the nation
The bridal train leaves from Perth station

All the girls around Australia
Married to a Yankee sailor
The fare is paid across the sea
To the home of the brave and the land of the free

From west to east the young girls came
All aboard the bridal train
It was a farewell crossing of her land
She's gone to meet her sailor man

No time for sad goodbyes,
Well she held her mother as she cried
And then waited there in the Freo Rain,
To climb aboard the bridal train

Well she was holding her future in her hand
Yeah the faded photo of her man
Catch a sailor if you can
The war bride leaves a southern land

All the girls around Australia
Married to a Yankee Sailor
The fare is paid across the sea
To the home of the brave and the land of the free

From west to east the young girls came
All aboard the bridal train
It was a farewell crossing of her land
She's gone to meet her sailor man

Now this is the story of those starry nights
Through desert plains and city lights
Through burning sun and driving rain
They wept aboard the bridal train

All the girls around Australia
Married to a Yankee sailor
The fare is paid across the sea
To the home of the brave and the land of the free

From west to east the young girls came
All aboard the bridal train
It was a farewell crossing of her land
She's gone to meet her sailor man
of 'Sweetness'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bridal Train - Oz girls marry WWII GIs
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 May 04 - 08:09 AM

Freo = Freemantle, where the America'c Cup races were held (in 1982??), the port of Perth.

sandra

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bridal Train - Oz girls marry WWII GIs
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 May 04 - 12:29 AM

G'day Sandra,

Actually: Fremantle ... pronounced Fr'uh'mantle ... named after the Pommy Admiral who, in 1829, took possession of the western end of Australia ... the half the Dutch thought was New Holland - and we now call Western Australia.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bridal Train - Oz girls marry WWII GIs
From: rich-joy
Date: 17 May 04 - 06:06 AM

's'funny - it was always pronounced "FREE-mantle" as I was growing up in Perth!! The "Fr-MANtle" pronunciation was only from the posh "Eastern Staters"!!!

But then, maybe I was just from the wrong side of the tracks ...

Cheers!
R-J

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bridal Train - Oz girls marry WWII GIs
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 17 May 04 - 09:11 AM

G'day R-J,

Well ... that probably was the way the dear old Admiral pronounced the family name ... and it was the way my Pommy grandfather (who was stationed just off there, with coastal artillery) at the start of WW II pronounced it ... but that doesn't necessarily mean the locals agreed!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bridal Train - Oz girls marry WWII GIs
From: GUEST
Date: 17 May 04 - 09:33 AM

Thanks for the words, ya'll. I am a folk musician from Virginia in the states, and my Mum was one of the War Brides. She was from Ballerat. My first visit to Oz was last year. Her ship was diverted for D Day and she got dropped off in New York instead of San Francisco. They were 6 weeks late arriving, and she knew no one in the states, but her in-laws in Virginia. About as far away as Ballerat and Sydney. Great Stories to tell. Thanks again. Heely

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bridal Train - Oz girls marry WWII GIs
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 May 04 - 09:51 AM

oops for the typo - I do know how to spell (some words, that is!!)

& my sister is one of those ring-ins - she migrated to Perth in 1976 & got to Freo a few years later.

sandra