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18 Mar 08 - 12:25 PM (#2291671) Subject: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: Kathryn Hi, Friends, I have just heard Norman Brown and would appreciate it if someone out there has the lyrics. Thanks bunches |
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18 Mar 08 - 12:31 PM (#2291678) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: Peace Is it a song? |
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18 Mar 08 - 03:12 PM (#2291866) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown--Aussie song From: Kathryn Yes, it's from Australia.... It's a song about a miner who was killed. I heard it on "Larrikins, Louts and Layabouts" by Warren Fahey. |
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18 Mar 08 - 06:12 PM (#2292046) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: open mike I FOUND THIS HERE: http://flopearedmule.blogspot.com/2004/12/lying-back-and-thinking-of-lomax.html Norman Brown. I had forgotten I had recorded this stirring ballad from the Hunter Valley struggles. It was written by the late Dorothy Hewitt, in 1959, and also included on Man of the Earth. The struggle dates back to 1929 and was one of the fiercest confrontations between government and labour. Norman Brown, a twenty-eight year-old miner, died from wounds to the stomach after the police fired on the strikers by order of the government. Several other miners received serious injuries. YOU WILL FIND THE LYRICS HERE: http://unionsong.com/u407.html MORE ABOUT DOROTHY HEWETT--http://mike-servethepeople.blogspot.com/2007/12/78th-anniversary-murder-of-norman-brown.html |
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18 Mar 08 - 06:17 PM (#2292051) Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD OF NORMAN BROWN (Dorothy Hewett) From: Peace Thanks to Open Mike's post, here are the lyrics. Ballad of Norman Brown A song by Dorothy Hewett©Dorothy Hewett 1962 BALLAD OF NORMAN BROWN (Dorothy Hewett) There was a very simple man, Honest and quiet, yet he became The mate of every working man, And every miner knows his name. CHORUS Oh Norman Brown, oh Norman Brown The murderin' coppers they shot him down, They shot him down in Rothbury town, A working man called Norman Brown. "An honest man," the parson said, And dropped the clods upon his head, But honest man or not, he's dead And that's the end of Norman Brown. Coal bosses wiped their hands and sighed, "It is a pity that he died." It will inflame the countryside, And all because of Norman Brown. At pit-top meetings and on strike In every little mining town, When miners march for bread and rights There marches honest Norman Brown. He thunders at the pit-top strike, His voice is in the women's tears, With banner carried shoulder-high He's singing down the struggling years. A miner's pick is in his hand, His song is shouted through the and, A land that's free and broad and brown, The land that bred us Norman Brown. Last chorus Oh Norman Brown, oh Norman Brown, The murderin' coppers they shot him down. They shot him down in Rothbury town, To live forever ... Norman Brown. Notes Many thanks to Merv Lilley for permission to add this poem to the Union Songs collection. It was published in What About The People a collection of poems by Dorothy Hewett and Merv Lilley published by the National Council of the Realist Writers in 1963. When the depression hit at the end of the 1920s miners everywhere were in trouble. In February 1929 the coalowners of the Hunter Valley NSW demanded a 12.5% wage cut. When the workers refused, the bosses, supported by a conservative State Government, locked them out of the mines for 15 months. Towards the end of 1929 the coalowners tried to open some pits with scab labour. Miners decided to take them on. Around 4000 of them made there way to Rothbury on December 16th and the police opened fire killing the young miner Norman Brown and wounding many others. |
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18 Mar 08 - 06:30 PM (#2292058) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: Kathryn Thank you so much!!! |
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19 Mar 08 - 02:28 AM (#2292378) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: Anglo The tune, as I recall, is a variant of The Princess Royal, well known to morris dancers and sometimes attributed to O'Carolan. As stated above, it's on Men Of The Earth, a fine Australian recording I have on an old cassette tape somewhere, and would love to be able to acquire a CD. |
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20 Mar 08 - 06:51 AM (#2293392) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: mark gregory Norman Brown is one of maybe half a dozen songs about the police shooting of a young miner in 1929 in Rothbury NSW. The best known song (which began as a poem) is Dorothy Hewett's as uploaded above, but the Union Songs online collection also has 3 other songs one of which was written at the time and sung at Norman Brown's funeral see A Sad Day on the Coalfields at http://unionsong.com/u553.html Rothbury at http://unionsong.com/u031.html The Country Knows The Rest at http://unionsong.com/u031.html In 2007 a drama documentary was made about this attack on miners and this had another song written for the film. For more about the film Lockout see http://www.lockout.tv/ |
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25 Mar 08 - 04:52 AM (#2297069) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: JennieG Got back a few hours ago from the NFF in Canberra and a friend drew my attention to this thread. Norman Brown was my mother's cousin - his mother Laura and my maternal grandmother Edith were sisters. We (my brothers and I) grew up knowing the story of Norman's death. To us it was a sad family story; Norman had a younger sister who died tragically three years before he was killed, so his mother lost both her children in very sad circumstances. It was on the 50th anniversary of the killing that local miners marched to Norman's memorial and laid a wreath...and that's when I realised that the story of his death didn't just belong to my family, it was part of Australia's broader history. My choir is learning "The country knows the rest" by Graham Seal. I met him at the festival last week and he is pleased to hear that we are passing it on. Cheers JennieG |
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12 Oct 09 - 07:37 AM (#2744018) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Norman Brown From: GUEST,quokka I thought this forum could do with a bit of info on Dorothy Hewitt mentioned above Dorothy Hewitt |