Lyr Req: Jack's Song (Martin Curtis)

Subject: Lyr Add: JACK'S SONG (Martin Curtis)
From: AnneMC
Date: 10 Jul 04 - 11:35 PM

Martin very kindly corrected the errors in transcription I had made.
Full lyrics for anyone else interested:

JACK'S SONG (by Martin Curtis)

Long before sunrise, we're out of the sack
Throw tea and flour in your battered old pack
Hang all your traps round your trusty old hack,
Away to the brown hills of Pisa

We eat rabbit curry, we eat rabbit stew
We've tried rabbit roasted, and rabbit pie too
Without us there wouldn't be one single ewe,
Up in the brown hills of Pisa

CHORUS: And it's gut 'em and skin 'em, and five for a bob
Some people say it's not much of a job
But give me my freedom, just me and me cob
Up in the brown hills of Pisa

A rabbit has never done me any harm
His meat kept me fed and his fur kept me warm
He gave me my living, he earned me my farm,
Under the brown hills of Pisa

We catch 'em by trapping, we kill 'em with shot,
We'll send down a ferret and bring up the lot
But now it's 1080 and leave them to rot,
Up in the brown hills of Pisa

CHORUS

The rabbiter's life was the life that I knew
A horse and my traps and my old 22
But *myx is the next thing they're going to use,
Up in the brown hills of Pisa
* myxomatosis

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: AnneMC
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 04:20 PM

Thanks, Robin
Will email Martin.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: Little Robyn
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 04:11 PM

Martin's email address is
curtismr(at)xtra.co.nz
The unabbreviated @ is to stop junk mail!
Write and ask Martin himself. He's a very helpful guy, tho' he might be up a mountain enjoying the snow right now.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 03:31 AM

Sorry about the intrusive 's', Anne. I was having trouble getting through to Mudcat and rewrote it four times before it went. Sometimes happens.
Sorry about the missing song too. Not on any list I've accessed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: AnneMC
Date: 04 Jul 04 - 03:54 PM

Thanks for the reply, but that tune isn't on this NZ Folksong site.
Heaps of other very interesting stuff about New Zealand folk music, and some of Martin Curtis' songs there, but not "Jack's Song".

Anne

P.S.
Your link above didn't work - should be no 's' on folksong:
http://folksong.org.nz )

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jul 04 - 04:03 AM

Try    http://folksongs.org.nz


Haven't looked specifically.

Chris in Auckland.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 04 Jul 04 - 12:43 AM

G'day Anne,

Sorry I can't help with my old mate's words for Jack's Song. II all else fails, get in touch wirh the old codger himself. Contact details on the Martin Curtis Homepage. Hmmm.... must be time for my midwinter phone-call to him..;)

Cheers - Sam - Stewart Island (NZ)

Subject: Lyr Req: Jack's Song- by NZ's Martin Curtis
From: AnneMC
Date: 04 Jul 04 - 12:11 AM

Hi,
Can anyone help with the lyrics for New Zealander Martin Curtis'
tune called "Jack's Song", about a rabbiter.
Anne