Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)

Subject: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 10:43 AM

Some nautical singers on this forum are familiar with some of the fine songs composed by Bob Watson (UK) including "Shantyman," Mollymauk," and "Neptune's Daughter." Another song that Watson kindly mailed me recently was his "Tasman Buster" and I think its another keeper:

TASMAN BUSTER
(Words and music by Bob Watson © 1984 ROM Watson)

Now the Tasman Buster's got a fair old blow,
And he strikes so sudden that his teeth don't show,
And his home is on the Tasman Sea;
And it's no use waiting for the glass to fall,
'Cos you gets no warning when he comes to call.
It's crash, bang, wallop, you can do damn all
But batter down the Tasman Sea.

Chorus:

And it's blow, you Buster, blow! (and blow!)
And it's blow, you Buster, blow!
And it's rock on Tommy down the Tasman Sea,
When the Tasman Buster blows!

Mister Abel Tasman was a Dutchman bold,
And he sailed these waters in the days of old
And his name is on the Tasman Sea;
And somehow Abel must have riled Old Nick
'Cos he sent that Buster for to blow so quick,
So that Abel's ghost would really cop some stick
From Sailors on the Tasman Sea. (CHO)

Now the old-time sailors, how they carped and cursed
When the Buster hit 'em with his blunt end first,
Like a hammer on the Tasman Sea;
It was lee rail under as they shipped it green,
And the old sail-maker kept his needles keen,
'Cos a stitch in time can save nineteen
When the Buster's on the Tasman Sea. (CHO)

There was a German schooner on an eastbound trip,
Went to clear New Zealand round the southern tip;
She went sailing down the Tasman Sea;
And it's headfirst into Mr. Buster's blitz,
And the German skipper, and his name was Fritz,
Said, "Gott in Himmel! You get blown to bitz
Ven ze Buster's on ze Tasman Sea." (CHO)

There's a girl in Sydney known as Big Butch Flo,
And it ain't worth knowing what Flo don't know,
'Cos she's rougher than the Tasman Sea;
And she'll call you Cobber and she'll call you Blue,
And when that lady's got through with you
You'll think you've been a-ridin' on a kangaroo,
Or maybe on the Tasman Sea! (CHO)

Once I had a mucker, name of Harry Symes,
He was a dozy beggar at the best of times,
He could kip across the Tasman Sea;
And I saw him often on his bunk crashed out,
With a big fat grin all spread across his snout,
No way of telling what he dreamed about,
But it wasn't of the Tasman Sea. (CHO)

A "Tasman Buster" as explained in the song is a sudden squall prevalent in the Tasman Sea, between Tasmania and New Zealand.

The expression "cop some stick" is unfamiliar to me but I assume it's similar in meaning to "catch some shit."

At the present time I'm only singing the first three verses, and adding in one of the others as people grow more familiar with the song. Watson has a fine tune and thinks highly enough about my own MP3 recording that I sent him that he forwarded it to a shanty group in New Zealand whom I'm now swapping CD's with. Here's a link to my website where you can hear how this song sounds: Click here and search for lyrics!

I tried it out last night at our local coffeehouse and it went over quite well. We'll try it out today at the Press Room shanty sing in Portsmouth today.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 10:52 AM

Couldn't find "cop some stick" in Bob Bolton's OZ Glossery but one of its meanings is "To take some punishment or torment." I wonder if the derivation goes back to a reference to police practices or whether it is Cockney slang as I first thought, so help me Bob!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 10:04 AM

This song worked well as expected at the Press Room shanty sing last night, I'm happy to report.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 02:05 AM

G'day Charley,

Words look great - I'll look forward to hearing it with its tune attached!

Rather interestingly, "cop some stick" doesn't seem to get much mention in the standard works on Australian slang ... but I certainly grew up with the expression!

I've been interested to see that liguistic research, starting around Australia's Bicentenary (1988) and using paper-based questionnaires to define regional word-sets ... all taken on "neutral Territory" - Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, during Bicentenary exhibitions ... have shown that Sydney (plus a triangle bounded by Newcastle to the north, Wollongong to the south and Bathurst to the west) has its own distinctive word set ... while all other regions have a great amount in common.

I think we might claim this as a "Sydney Triangle" expression (which is why John from Brisbane didn't have it in his Aussie Glossary (to which I added some extra comments).

I think the expression suffers fron two distinct levels of understanding:
1 - the simple image of being beaten about with a stick ... fair enough and perfectly useful for the song ... and

2 - the totally different set of images that come up when you treat "stick" as 'rhyming slang' (briefly alluded to in my copy of The Australian National Dictionary ... Oxford University Press ... and 1988 ... thus compiled before the research I mention above) where the word "stick" can stand for "dick" - in its phallic sense ... and a whole new, different, set of images are evoked!

Anyway, I'll leave it for the moment ... and keep a close check on the progress of our northern end of your "Tasman Buster" ... our "Southerly Buster" ... the cool, blustery, southerly change that often sweeps away the 38ºC (100º F) heat of a high summer afternoon!

We didn't quite approach 38ºC today ... and the "Southerly Buster" has atarted to cool us down ... so I'll be off to my Monday Night Music Session fairly soon. I'll hope to hear all the song soon.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 07:57 AM

Bob-

Thanks for the resident interpretation of "cop some stick." As usual, the explanation only raises new questions. I believe it was Barbara Horvath (long-term Sydney resident), the wife of my former graduate advisor, who coordinated the linguistic studies that you refer to. Maybe I'll send her an e-mail and see what she can say about the phrase's evolution and dispersion.

It does sound like you're in a major heat wave, with bush fires encroaching on Sydney's northern suburbs in our worldwide news reports. Hopefully the beer is still cool!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Jan 07 - 10:04 PM

G'day Charley,

I doubt that the 1988 "word-set" survey (I'm not sure what its official title was ... ) would pick up a 'stray' new phrase. The aim was to find out the regional variations in day-to-day usage for a set of familiar objects. This could then be extrapolated to see how the distribution and interchange of such terms fitted into the Australian settlement pattern.

Why I mentioned it was to highlight its discovery of the distinctive "Sydney Triangle" region ... and to suggest this particular phrase / usage might be, more or less, confined to here. I didn't delve too deep ... I have a magazine issue looking just as late as it always does and I just put the theory down - as much as anything - to remind me to look more closely ... when some of the 'spare time' stuff happens!

I would be very interested to hear what Barbara Horvath has to say, from the 1988 project. It's not aimed at solving this query - but it was a good, valuable, project.

BTW: The bushfires that cut our north of Sydney road and rail links affect quite a few of my colleagues ... but I walk home, in the inner suburbs, so I just have to withstand the heat ... and envisage something cooling and tasty at the end of an hour's (hot) walk!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 12:17 AM

I love these kinds of threads!! Thanks, you two!

Over here we use the expressions to "cop a plea" meaning to plead guilty to a crime instead of stand trial or "plead out" and "to cop a feel" usually used when fellahs have one thing on their minds and their hands begin to wander to see just how far they can go in "feeling up" their girl.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 09:08 AM

Kat et Bob Bolton-

I suppose we could ask Bob Watson to consider modifying the Big Butch Flo verse to include "to cop a feel." Flo sounds like a gal that would welcome such attention, or provoke it.

I now wonder what it means when she calls you "Cobber" or "Blue."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Snuffy
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 02:49 PM

In England "cop" is a long-established semi-slang word meaning to catch, get hold of etc. At the end of a race meeting a bookmaker will work out whether he's copped or lost and how much; a train-spotter would be pleased to get a dozen cops (new numbers) on a journey; when the police catch a thief red-handed it is a cliché that the wrongdoer exclaims "It's a fair cop, Guv". A copper (policeman) is merely someone who cops, as a baker is someone who bakes.

As for some stick, from your mates it's likely to be sustained and merciless jeering and mockery, while from your boss it would be verbal roasting. GW Bush cops some stick from the media over his nukular linguistic infelicities.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Tasman Buster (Bob Watson)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 07:12 PM

Snuffy-

Thanks for the further clarification of "cop some stick." Bob Watson just sent me further clarification and speculation himself:

"Your translation of the phrase "Cop some stick" is accurate enough to be going on with. The word "copping" does also refer to being caught at and arrested for some misdemeanour, but in this context in tandem with "stick," it implies acquiring something unwelcome, such as blame and dislike from other parties. Stick means verbal punishment or abuse. Could be its roots lie in London East End (Cockney) rhyming slang, where the actual rhyming word is omitted from the equation and its spin off link-word left in situ. eg Butchers equals butcher's hook equals look. . . . or Brahms equals Brahms and Liszt equals had a drink or two too many . . . . ."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble