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27 Dec 05 - 06:35 AM (#1635304) Subject: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: GUEST Bill Scott, eminent Australian folklorist, songwriter, poet, author, collector, etc. (he was involved in an immense range of activities) died on Christmas Eve. After naval service in the Second World War, Bill returned to work in several occupations, from which he drew much of the material for his stories, songs, and poems. He also became involved in collecting songs and folklore with Stan Arthur, John Callaghan, and Bob Michell (all of whom are now deceased). With others including Stan Arthur he was instrumental in starting the Folk Centre in Brisbane. He is probably best known for his song "Hey, Rain" and for his "Cmplete Book of Australian Folk Lore", but he wrote a number of books, autobiographical, fictional, and on folk music, lore, and tales. Without writing an immensely long article it is difficult to do him full justice. He had been in poor health for some time. He was 82. |
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27 Dec 05 - 06:37 AM (#1635305) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Hrothgar Om, that was me without cookie. |
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27 Dec 05 - 05:07 PM (#1635602) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Margret RoadKnight Sad, if not unexpected news, Great song, that "Hey, Rain" |
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27 Dec 05 - 05:21 PM (#1635614) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: GUEST,lamarca (cookieless) I'm so sorry to hear about Bill Scott's death, Hrothgar! My husband and I are a couple Americans in love with Australian song. Several years ago I ordered a copy of his big book of Australian folklore on abebooks.com and had it shipped all the way from an Australian used bookstore (I think the shipping cost more than the book...), and we've enjoyed rummaging through it and his Second Australian Book of Penguin Folksongs. Bill was a wonderfully descriptive song and poetry writer, with a wry sense of humor and a treasure trove of songs and stories. A friend gave us Roger Illott and Penny Davies' book of Bill's own songs, and I tracked down their "Opal Miner" CD on which they recorded many of them. We've been singing "Rain Comes to the Channel Country" lately, and Gordon Bok has been performing a wonderfully warm version of Bill's "Trochus Luggers" song, among others. He will be sadly missed, even over here in the USA. Here's a link to his obituary in his hometown paper: Warwick Daily News and a nice profile from The Folk Rag: http://users.tpg.com.au/folkrag/profiles/bscott.htm |
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28 Dec 05 - 03:14 AM (#1635859) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Sandra in Sydney I remember him calling Macca on the national radio program "Australia All Over" some years back to report there really was 'a bloody great tree on the Jubilee Bridge' tho he didn't say whether the river rose exactly thirty-five feet to get the tree there. Lamarca, we're having a singing session on Friday & if Len is back from overseas we'll get him to sing "Rain." Sometimes we wouldn't let him sing it if the weather was threatening, but no one will object this time. sandra |
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29 Dec 05 - 07:12 AM (#1636602) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: GUEST,Julanne Sweeney Bill Scott AM, who captured Innisfail's name in song (Hey Rain ,The Last of the Hand Cutters,The Garradunga Song) , in history ( Tough in the Old Days ) and in poems(North Queensland,The Flying Gang) died in Warwick on 24th December at the age of 82. In keeping with his vivid pictures of Innisfail in the 40s, and the love he expressed for the lushness of the tropics,for the eccentricities of steam locos and the comradeship of his cane cutting days, he has requested his ashes be returned to North Queensland . "Let my body die where it will; my spirit's gone north with the high far flight of wintering egrets white in the sunlight,north of Capricorn. " It would be fitting for the Johnstone Shire Council and our community to pay a farewell tribute to this powerful spirit who has recorded for posterity the town of Innisfail in the 1940s as " the potpourri of nationalities not to be encountered anywhere else in the country at that time. " Some of my friends (and I) have been thinking that Bill should be getting some of the accolades and spaceaccorded a certain other recently deceased man: if you measure success by the annals of art. Art is all that survives in the long run! Vita brevis. Bill Scott celebrates in his writing the names of Flying Fish Point , Daradgee, Goondi, Babinda, Eubenangee, Murdering Point, Bumpbucal Creek , Feluga , Sundown,Daru and Moresby. He brings to life the personalities of the Northern people he met and worked with on land and sea before he turned to fulltime writing in 1974. In the chapter "Men and Machinations" (p 147-185) in Tough in the Old Days , Scott writes of Innisfail as "a fermenting,knowing, happy-go-lucky, singing sort of town", where the "new vigour" of "so many nations intermarrying bred a race of beautiful young men and women." This chapter should be compulsory reading for all Australians following the recent Cronulla incidents. He describes Innisfail as "a fermenting,knowing, happy-go-lucky, singing sort of town", where the "new vigour" of "so many nations intermarrying bred a race of beautiful young men and women." "Here was a microcosm of what might have happened throughout Australia had attitudes been different,' Scott wrote of Innisfail in 1947. He described "a potpourri of nationalities where nobody ever looked at what a man looked like or what was the colour of his skin or his religion. Very simply, they looked at what he did." Bill was a foundation member of the Queensland Folk Federation, Australian Folklore Society and International Society for the study of Contemporary Legends,and for several years Queensland Vice - President of the Australian Society of Authors. He married Mavis Richards who is also a successful writer. The medal of the Order of Australia was awarded to Scott in 1992 for his work as a folklorist. He holds many awards for children's books and also compiled anthologies and wrote analytical works, such as " Focus on Judith Wright. " Scott frequently spoke with an admiring Macca on the ABC Sunday radio program He supported Bryan Nason's Grin and Tonic Theater Troupe and allowed them to use "Hey Rain" as a signature tune as they performed around Australia. Innisfail was honoured to entice the veteran poet /songwriter on stage at the Conservatorium Theatre in 1995 for a performance of his works with local artists,with proceeds going to the local Cancer Campaign. An amateur video was made of the event. After his Innisfail visit, Bill wrote to the Johnstone Shire Cultural Association organising committee : "the sound of so many people singing "Hey Rain" and enjoying it was rather an overwhelming experience.To know you made something out of words and notes that people like is about the nicest thing that can happen to a writer." The nicest thing that can happen to this dead writer is to be remembered for his contribution to our part of Australia, even though he was not the type to care and said, ' The song and not the singer should endure. ' From Julanne Sweeney Tropic Valley Mena Creek 4871 Dear Editor of Innisfail Advocate I have copied extracts from personal correspondence through the years relevant to Innisfail : And maybe you can encourage readers in your own columns to borrow Bill's Tough in the Old Days from the Library. It is hard to put down. In 1998 Bill wrote,following his latest CD" Railway Tracks" by Roger Ilott and Penny Davies: I know Goondi (Mill) doesn't exist any more,consequently the places named in the song are no longer pickup and drop points for a cane train; but they do give a picture of what the Daradgee run was like fifty years ago,with some of the landmarks. 1999 he wrote : The phone rang the other day.I picked it up.A voice said: "You don't know me.I'm ringing from Melbourne . Did you write a song about old Number Six loco at the Goondi Mill?" "Yeah," I said. "Well,I own Number Six(with enormous satisfaction). Saw her in a scrap metal yard at Echuca and so I went in and bought her! " I was delighted. Last time I saw the old girl she was sitting in the park in Innisfail with kids climbing all over her. I said, " How the hell did she get from Innisfail to Echuca?" So we are trying to find out. If they restore her, I will go to Melbourne and have a bit of a drive,I swear. Now that's the nicest thing that happened . And thanks so much for the photograph of the bloody great tree .[I had sent Bill the local press picture of a tree on the Jubilee Bridge in flood time--as in "Hey Rain"]. I shall get photocopies and send them to some of the people who have used the song on records but doubted my sincerity .Or veracity. In 2002,after I had shared with Bill the stunning/stunning reception a Year 11 English class at Innisfail High gave to his brilliant short story Black Peter, set in Flying Fish Point: So glad the kids enjoyed Black Peter. It was a difficult story to write,firstly because I liked him so much it would have been easy to get over- emotional; secondly,it had to appear to flow easily and naturally as the actual spoken narrative from such a man as Peter's friend was. Also in 2002: Another song about the old town and district is about to be included in the new CD Ian Macnamara is doing for the ABC. First verse runs: "I've wandered east,I've wandered west from the Hamersley Range to the Snowy crest from the Lachlan plains to the Broken Hill But my heart's at the Johnstone River still. For the time has come when I must return where the harvesters chug and the trash -fires burn" Hope you like that, too. If people love them (my writings)and want them,then that's why I tried to do it,and I'm quite happy about that. The End. Dear Editor: The Advocate printed a great photo of Bill on 30/08/95 if you can locate it. I'm not sure which of the two local papers printed the picture of "the bloody great tree on the Jubilee Bridge" in flood time in 1999. |
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29 Dec 05 - 08:42 PM (#1637009) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Bob Bolton G'day Hrothgar, Margret, lamarca, Sandra & Julanne, Thanks, Hrothgar, for the posting ... sad to see old Bill go - we needed him around for a lot longer! lamarca, another of Bill's songs that I love is another that Gordon Bok sings (on the TBM CD Harbors of Home) - that little gem: Old Man's Song. I haven't quite got to the "sit in the sun" stage - but I love Bill's concluding line: "What good is your life, if it isn't a song?" (I'm not sure if I ever posted that one. It's not in the DT ... but neither are scores of Australian songs I've posted over the eight years I've been coming here! I'll check against my 'traced' threads ... and, maybe post it here.) Regards, Bob |
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29 Dec 05 - 09:11 PM (#1637036) Subject: Lyr Add: Old Man's Song Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Bob Bolton G'day again, Hmmm ... I don't seem to have posted it ... until now. Here it is - as a quiet, laconic eulogy for a life that fulfilled the aims: Old Man's Song Words & Music: Bill Scott (Transcribed, by Bob Bolton, from Harbors of Home, Bok, Trickett & Muir) When I was a young man, I followed the gold, Down in a mineshaft all muddy and cold: Deep in the dark with a flickering light And nary a nugget to gladden me sight. Chorus: And it's way, hey! Now I am old … The mornings were silver, the sunsets were gold. (x 2) When I was a young man, I followed the sea, Cold wet and shivering, often I'd be; Rocked in the rigging or rolled down below Or sweating me soul out where the gulf traders go. Chorus: And it's way, hey! Now I am old … The oceans were sapphires, the beaches were gold. (x 2) Now I'm an old man, I sit in the sun, Thinking and dreaming of the things that I've done; Remembering laughter, forgetting the pain And I'd go out and do it all over again. Chorus: And it's way, hey! Lift it along - What good is your life if it isn't a song?. (x 2 … or 3!) Here's the tune … in Alan of Oz's now "No Longer Supported By Mudcat" MIDItext format. (At least the ABC fraternity can pick up the tune from the ABC segment at the bottom … and established 'Catters may still have MIDItext running on older [16-bit capable] OSs!)
This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here
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30 Dec 05 - 01:45 AM (#1637188) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Sandra in Sydney Obit article |
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30 Dec 05 - 02:33 AM (#1637200) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Hrothgar "Old Man's Song" was sung at his funeral yesterday - I am very pleased to say. |
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02 Jan 06 - 11:04 PM (#1640108) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: JennyO We talked about Bill's death when we were at Gulgong in the heat, and sang Hey Rain several times, in a vain attempt to get it to rain (it usually works), but I'm sorry to say there wasn't a drop during the festival. Maybe it needed Len to be singing it. Jenny |
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03 Jan 06 - 12:26 AM (#1640166) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: JennieG Bill did a wonderful workshop at the Bush Music Club Festival in 1986 or 87 on urban myths, it was hilarious and informative. I also have the Penguin Book of Australian Humorous Verse which Bill edited, published at about the same time. Jenny - when we were driving from Gulgong to Mudgee yesterday morning it rained! Cheers JennieG |
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03 Jan 06 - 08:54 AM (#1640311) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: JennyO Yes Jennie, that would be right. It rained at Gulgong for a short while too, some time after you left, but by that time the festival was over and I was packing up to go. It was a nice change, though. Jenny |
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04 Jan 06 - 10:27 PM (#1641611) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: rich-joy Just got back from Woodford - and as Margret said above, "sad, if not unexpected news". He recently said though, that he'd had a great life and had done all he wanted to do and had no regrets. What better way to leave the planet? Bill has also bequested his collection to the Queensland Folk Federation, Inc. for the Bill Scott Memorial Library of the Australian Folklore Institute, currently being built at Woodford Folk Festival site. Vale, Bill. R-J |
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05 Jan 06 - 12:29 AM (#1641717) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Hrothgar That's "bequeathed" r-j. These Sandgropers are ignorant ......... |
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05 Jan 06 - 12:33 AM (#1641721) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: The Fooles Troupe Didn't have much personal contact myself, but he will be missed. |
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05 Jan 06 - 06:51 AM (#1641831) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: rich-joy Aw, c'mom Hrothgar - take pity - I've got "festival-brain" !!!! :~)))) Cheers! R-J |
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06 Jan 06 - 05:01 AM (#1642724) Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Scott 24 Dec 05 From: Hrothgar Self inflicted wound. No sick pay. |