Lyr Req: Ned Kelly

29 Jun 00 - 10:14 AM (#249138)
Subject: Ned Kelly
From: GUEST,MAC..aka..Bill

In 1955 I won a dozen bottles of Reisch's pilsener at a club in Woolongong in the New South Wales Illawarra area for my erendition of Ned Kelly ..I have since forgotten the words but would like to have them..it started off " Ned Kelly was born in a ramshackle hut ,battled since he was a kid ,brought up with outlaws and duffers and thieves he learnt all the tricks that they did..." the rest gets a little fuzzy in my old head and it would be a nice surprise to get the full words...the tune is no problem Many Thanks Bill McAllister ...W.Australia

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29 Jun 00 - 10:17 AM (#249140)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: alison

not sure.. but would it be

poor Ned you're better off dead
at lest you'd get some peace of mind

?????

slainte

alison

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29 Jun 00 - 10:31 AM (#249149)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: alison

If you put "Ned" in the search box.. you get a few

POOR NED

NED KELLY'S FAREWELL TO GRETA

LONNIGAN'S WIDOW

KELLYS, BYRNE AND HART

but I'm not sure they're what you're after

slainte

alison

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30 Jun 00 - 12:02 AM (#249599)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: Bob Bolton

G'day Bill (and Alison),

That Kelly song is none of those linked by Alison. I think it was popular with Australian Country singers just before WWII - and claimed by one of them, althogh collector John meredith has evidence it was written much earlier (up around Darwin, I think).

I will scan in the words when I get home tonight and post them (I nobody else does so in the interim).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

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30 Jun 00 - 12:52 AM (#249622)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: GUEST,Gene

I have Johnny Cash's Version----A terriffic rendition

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30 Jun 00 - 04:12 AM (#249676)
Subject: Lyr Add: NED KELLY WAS BORN IN A RAMSHACKLE HUT
From: Bob Bolton

G'day again Bill,

I am now home and have scanned in the words. I seem to remember that the song is usually attributed to "Tex" Morton, who certainly recorded a version. Meredith and Scott note, but do not cite, evidence that it is much older - as you will see from their notes, which I have retained.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

BTW: I am worried that you won with this song ... and can no longer remember it! Perhaps you hit the Resch's pilsener a bit hard at the time.

NED KELLY WAS BORN IN A RAMSHACKLE HUT (From Ked Kelly, After a Century of Acrimony, John Meredith and Bill Scott, Lansdowne Press, Sydney, 1980.

Ned Kelly was born in a ramshackle hut,
He battled since he was a kid,
He grew up with duffers and bad men and thieves
And learned all the things that they did.

Ned Kelly would ride from the back-country hills,
He'd ride into town like a lord,
He'd steal all the squatters' fine horses, and then
He would take them back for the reward.

At sixteen young Ned was a wild, reckless lad,
Helped hold up a coach without fear,
But he was arrested, remanded, and then,
They put him in gaol for a year.

When he came out, he was bitter and hard,
Far worse than he ever had been,
He robbed and he plundered, became a wild boy,
The wildest Australia had seen.

He shot down the troopers who came on his track,
And laughed at the price on his head,
Ten thousand pounds for the whole of the gang,
And two thousand pounds just for Ned.

The bank at Jerilderie next took his eye,
This job brought him lots of renown,
He wasn't contented to stick up the bank,
But he held up the whole flaming town.

Down at Glenrowan they held up the pub,
They were having a drink and a song,
The troopers rode up and surrounded the place,
The Kellys had waited too long.

Ned came out shooting, a gun in each hand,
And wearing his armour of steel,
He was fifteen times wounded before he fell down,
Never more would he plunder and steal.

They took him to Melbourne, and nursed him to health,
The Judge said, 'You're guilty!' to Ned,
A rope from a rafter, the sun in the east,
And the famous Ned Kelly was dead.

Some say he's a hero who gave to the poor,
While others 'A killer!' they say,
It just goes to show the old saying is true,
The saying that 'Crime does not pay.'

Yet when I look round at some people I know,
And the prices of things that I buy,
I say to myself, 'Well, perhaps after all,
Poor Ned wasn't such a bad guy.'

Compiled from the best verses of several variants collected from oral sources. More than one country-western singer has claimed authorship of this ballad, along with several other traditional songs such as 'Wild Rover', 'Bluey Brink', 'Wild Colonial Boy', etc., which were sung long before the claimants were born. However, its origin has been traced to the Darwin area, in the early part of this century.

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11 Jul 00 - 04:20 AM (#255590)
Subject: Ned Kelly Lyrics / Bob Bolton
From: GUEST,Bill McAllister

Many thanks Bob and I must remind you it was 45 years ago .However I cannot recall the last 2 verses although the rest have awakened my memory...I bow to your expertise and as I look at it I would say the last Verse is definitely NOT from the original it is too modern in its outlook and certainly a bit odd (in my estimation )....still I suppose we can keep on adding if we feel like it.....as there is no real proof....Could you tell me what CD Tape or Record recordings there are of it ???? Goodonyamate !!!! Regards Bill

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11 Jul 00 - 10:02 PM (#256111)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: Bob Bolton

G'day Bill,

This version is scanned in from John Meredith and Bill Scott's book, cited above. I have heard recorded versions from a number of bands and singers over the years. I know the Bushwackers did it on some recording and somewhere I have am EP put out for a Ned Kelly 'Festival' in the 70s or early 80s that also has this on it.

I must agree that the final two verses are probably later additions, but that is indeed the nature of folk songs!

Obviously, the earliest widely know recording would be 'Tex' Morton's and that is probably the one that you remembered the song from. At a guess, I would expect that to date from just before WWII. I am sure it is all on Roger Walter's (Just opened the Australian Folk Music Heritage Centre out at Mamre House, St Marys, NSW) data base, but that is currently in a strange old proprietary application (called Q & A?) that we are trying to persuade to disgorge data in some modern, usable format.

When we make it work, I can answer questions with much more certainty. Until then, you could look at Mark Gregory's Australian Folk Songs Site at http://www.chepd.mq.edu.au/boomerang/songnet/ (Sorry Catters, I still haven't got around to memorising how to turnthat into a "Blue Clicky Thing"!)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

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24 Sep 02 - 02:49 PM (#790477)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: GUEST,Taliesn

there was also a song with the constant refrain "Blame it on the Kelly's" that was part of the soundtrack of the poorly performed film "Ned Kelly" with Mick the Jagger played Ned amateurishly to perfection.

Great song though

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24 Sep 02 - 04:14 PM (#790506)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: McGrath of Harlow

"Blame it on the Kellys" was sung(and recorded) by that well known Australian sogster Waylon Jennings - but the words aren't on Cowpie. Wrong Country I suppose.

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25 Sep 02 - 12:29 PM (#791076)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: allanwill

I think I'm agreeing with Taliesn? I don't know why Jaggers portrayal of Ned Kelly is so widely criticised, when it is his "amateurism" that makes his performance (to me) believable. In fact, I think a lot of Australian films from that era were so good because they gave a feeling that they weren't scripted (well - maybe that's a bit far fetched) but at least they weren't being acted; you felt like you were watching normal people, not film stars.

And I still think Jagger's rendition of "The Wild Colonial Boy" ranks way up there with the best versions of that song ever recorded.

Allan

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08 Aug 08 - 12:55 AM (#2408163)
Subject: Lyr Add: OUR SUNSHINE (Paul Kelly/Mick Thomas)
From: quokka

While reading the thred about the folk radio streaming in Sydney, which has lyrics to a song about Ned Kelly, I thought I'd see if one of my favourites was in the DT, can't find any trace, or any mention of it in the numerous threads. The song is:

OUR SUNSHINE
by Paul Kelly/Mick Thomas

Well there came a man on a stolen horse
And he rode right onto the page
Burning bright, but not for long, lit up with a holy rage
No turning back for the child of grace
With the blood red on his hands
Never known to hurt a woman, he never robbed an honest man
His mother held in jail, his daddy dead
And daily rising, the price upon his head

CH: Our Sunshine................
    Our Sunshine................
    Through fire and flood
    Through dust and mud
    Through tears and blood still riding on

Forever trapped in a suit of steel
With the hotel burning behind
Betrayed by his companions with a train waiting down the line
Forever tall on a bareback horse
Getting through by the skin of his teeth
It's one more for the ladies, and one more for the police
Riding on out hungry tired and cold
Into the misty morning, never grow old


CHORUS

As you stood before the judge's chair
You said I'm free and easy...see you there

FINAL CHORUS (Rpt)

From SMOKE - Paul Kelly with Uncle Bill (1999)

Cheers,
Quokka

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08 Aug 08 - 11:18 AM (#2408441)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: Seamus Kennedy

I am a bold bush-ranger, Ned Kelly is my name;
My band is known and feared across the Great Australian Plain.
From Adelaide to Darwin, and from Perth to Port Brisbane.

All along the muddy Darwin River up to North Queensland,
I've robbed the bloody bossman with my armor-plated band;
And the evening whisper 'Kelly' 'cross the West Australian sand.

There's many a nosy trooper would like to see me swing;
But the bushmen sing my praises out along by Alice Springs;
Kangaroos will be my watchdogs where the kookaburra sings.

Now my days are numbered and the law is on my trail;
Fitzpatrick has his men a-buzzin' round my head like hail;
And I know I must be taken to be hanged in Melbourne Jail.



from the singing of The Corries.


Seamus

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18 Nov 11 - 12:09 AM (#3259107)
Subject: Blame it on the Kellys -Waylon Jennings - youtube
From: katlaughing

McGrath, I hope you were joking about Waylon Jennings being Australian? He is from Texas, no question about it.:-)

Found a neat recording of him singing Blame It On the Kellys HERE.

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18 Nov 11 - 04:24 AM (#3259161)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: Bruce D

Bob

I have a full licenced copy of Q&A (both the DOS and Windows versions) if it might help you.

From memory the orginal version of Access allowed file conversions.

Bruce D
Melbourne

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20 Nov 11 - 04:17 PM (#3260555)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: Bob Bolton

G'day Bruce,

Unfortunately, I lost track of Roger Walters and his comprehensive (and marvellously presented ...) collection / audio presentation of early Australian / 'Bush Music' recordings when he moved on from the Australian Folk Music Heritage Centre out at Mamre House, St Marys, NSW.

I last heard of him moving further up-country when I was trying to scout up sufficiently old (~ system) PCs to copy ... and possibly duplicate the program and the contents. I guess that I should try to update / make contact ... somehow!

Roger's collection ... and its innovative presentation ... were true national treasures ... and would transfer very effectively to vastly more capable medie now available.

Regards,

Bob

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24 Apr 12 - 02:35 AM (#3342415)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ned Kelly
From: GUEST,Jeanna Snell

My parents had it on a LP by the LaGrange(sp?)Twins when I was growing up. Agewise, please keep in mind the rest of their collection was the original LPs of Johnny Cash at Folsum Prison and Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads. And yes, it did have the last two stanzas list above.
PS: Album was great! Dreamtime for Jetta, Dying Stockman, Never no more, and of course Waltzing Matilda.

Jeanna
Forks, Washington, USA

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