Warren Fahey -
'Larrikins, Louts and Layabouts'

CD from Australia - NSW

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Folk Songs and Ditties from the City
I am a city-slicker - through and through - despite my extensive outback travelling and lifelong fascination for bush traditions. My dad used to say: Sydney born and Sydney bred, strong in the arm and thick in the head. I always wondered if he had that last bit back the front? Whatever the case I grew up in Sydney and have lived here most of my life. I like the city's 'buzz' and, I suspect, it provides me with a unique opportunity to observe bush mythology.

Such a comparison is not born of rivalry between country and urban life for they are chalk and cheese. Both serve a purpose in our nation and both produce traditions and, in this instance, songs.

When I started to look at the songs stashed away in my archive, representing at least a part of my recording history, I realised I had more than enough songs about the city to fill a compact disc.

This collection of songs loosely reflects city life and more than a few oddities thrown in for good luck. A dog's breakfast if you like! For the purpose of the collection 'city life' does not necessarily mean the 'big smoke' of the capital cities. For a shearer contracted to a station for a season, a drover held responsible for a thousand head of cattle or a rabbiter trying to earn his quota, then any town looks like 'big smoke'. Of course many of the itinerant workers planned to hit Sydney or Brisbane or the likes but, in truth, often ended their journey at the first wayside shanty where they were 'lambed down' and sent back to the sheds with nothing to show other than a throbbing head. Others made it to the city and were awestruck by the size and unexpected brutality of the city only to retreat to the safety of the bush as fast as possible.

The city in folklore differs in the eye of the beholder. I love the yarn about the cow-cocky who brings his family to the city. They get off the steam train and a taxi takes them to the only place they had heard of – Myer's Department Store. They walk in open-eyed and full of amazement and proceeded to spend the next three days there – eating meals in the cafeteria, sleeping in the bedding department, listening to the radio in the electrical department and so on. They caught a taxi back to the train and when they arrived in Windybellyful they told the locals have fantastic their holiday was and how the city have everything for a great holiday. Another tells of a shearer staying at Sydney's grand Hotel Australia and asking the head waiter to “Bring me something very Sydney to eat.” The waiter returned with fresh harbour prawns on a bed of finely shredded lettuce. Returning to the table the waiter looked at the uneaten prawns and enquired: “Did you not enjoy the food?” to which the shearer responded: “Geez mate, the grass was alright but be blowed if I'm goin' to eat those bloomin' grasshoppers.” Of course there are thousands of yarns about city people going up the country so I guess all's fair on this count. Of course the classic bush yarns involved Dad and Dave and Mabel wherever they be in the city or at home in the bush. Sometimes these jokes serve both directions: (Dave comes strolling into the hut and says: “Hey Dad, there's one of those city blokes up in the dam.” “What's 'e doin' Dave?” “Drowning, Dad”

I've provided notes on all the songs so suffice to say they are a mixed mob with some dating back to the young colonies, some about sport and sporting heroes, songs from the Great Depression (Lord knows what was 'good' about it) of the nineteen-thirties when sustenance schemes forced many city people on to the bush roads and some from the hard times of the eighteen-eighties when many country people were forced to the cities. There are also songs about Green Bans, medibank and other political agitation including a series of songs about union struggles in the early mining industry. . Most of the selections qualify as traditional however, when we get to the last section, there are songs from several known writers who create songs that, in earlier days, would have found their songs being passed on down the line as 'traditional'. Their songs are non-the-less important and I am pleased to have played a role in their musical journey.

Of course I have always sung a mixed swag of songs be it as part of The Larrikins, recording for the ABC or performing at festivals. I have always held that contemporary songs are part of a continuing tradition. As a singer I am happy to sing a shearer's song about bad station conditions alongside a song about how 'Doctor's fees are ruining my health.' To me a song is a song no matter what its pedigree and often the mutts are the most interesting.

I know this collection is unique in Australian folklore – no one has ever assembled such a collection – and, I hope, it provides an insight into what makes us unique as Australians and, in tandem with the Bush CD, it helps a new generation of Australians appreciate where we have come from as a people. Without these keys to the past we have no entry to the future. Advance Australia Fair Dinkum.

Let me get one thing straight here. I became a singer by default rather than a natural journey. For years I described myself as 'Australia's best known shower singer' because that's how I saw myself. I started to learn songs because, as a product of the nineteen sixties folk revival, I realised that there were very few Australian songs being sung so I started learning them for my own amusement. A stint as host of the Elizabeth Folk Club, Sydney, provided a launch pad and I well remember that first night when my knees knocked like the bells of St Mary's. I was filling in for a singer who hadn't arrived and I've never stopped singing. Two years in Newcastle also helped since there were many nights when no other performer turned up. My main reason for singing was to perform the songs that I had collected off old time singers and, later on, unusual songs from other collectors. I have never been interested in singing the 'folk top 40' and would much prefer to give life to some variant or long asleep ditty. Looking back I have to admit to a repertoire unlike anyone else I have ever met. I like this aspect of being a singer and being able to give songs a new life. There is also the fact that I am a 'ham' and enjoy the opportunity of treading the boards – be it a stage, a radio microphone or across a dining room table.

1. The Pub With No Dike.
I came across this in an old Singabout Songster and it tickled my fancy so I started to sing it widely and freely. Folks love a parody and this one certainly tickled their fancy. It reminds me of that other country hotel special – the 'deadhouse' – which was an anonymous shed out the back of the pub where drunks were deposited until they sobered up after 'sleeping like the dead'.
Andrew de Teliga
2. Eighteen Pence
Ron Edwards collected this ditty off Tony Davis, in 1970, who said he had heard it in Townsville some years earlier. Ron also collected it again that same year from Harold Hill who had been born in 1893. My guess is that the song started life as a Music Hall item. It's fun to sing. I particularly love the last verse and the frontier-town reference to 'plenty of other men, but they're mostly in goal'.
Unaccompanied
3. The Pig Catcher's Love Song
Ron Edwards collected this from Jack Crossland and published it in his Overlander Songbook, 1969. It's a tribute to Cairn's Bitter Beer. I spent many years trawling through Ron's many books and actively added his collected songs to my repertoire. I have never been able to work out why other singers ignore such treasure troves.
Unaccompanied
4. Blast of the Trumpet.
Here's a ditty that praises our pioneer sportsmen and compares 'Australia to a dahlia'. Our nation had no roving knights, no major military heroes and no great myths so we had to create them out of sportsmen and super workers like Crooked Mick. We still appear to talk about our sporting heroes as icons. This little gem comes from the Asian Broadcasting Union special I scripted in 1979.
Dave de Hugard, Cleis Pearce
5. Heenan and Sayers.
This is a composite that I put together out of some verses recalled by Joe Watson and a few lines from Cyril Duncan. Both knew the story of this extraordinary boxing match, the last before the introduction of Queensbury Rules in the mid eighteen hundreds. There were several ballads written about this bloody match of champions and they all salute the endurance of the two fighters who fought 'till the claret it did flow'. Joe Watson also knew some of the lines from another great boxing ballad, 'Morrissey and The Russian'.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes, Andy Saunders
6. Les Darcy.
Australia's fighting boy and Maitland's pride and joy' – Les Darcy was collected from Cyril Duncan and I also got a version from Jack Pobar in Toowoomba. The original was most probably written and published (as a broadsheet) by 'Percy The Poet' (P.F.Collins). When Les Darcy died of pneumonia in America in 1917 he was at the height of his short career. Soon after his death a rumour spread that he had been poisoned and another that he had died of a broken heart
Unaccompanied
7. Tommy Corrigan
I recorded this song from Joe Watson who loved a horse race and was old enough to remember the legend that was Tommy Corrigan. Some say the Melbourne jockey was the greatest and this song was circulated as a broadside a week after his death in 1894, when he was trampled to death by a horse, as he rode in the Caulfield Cup. The Wearing of the Green carries the song.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
8. The Two-Up Song.
My father, George Fahey, was a shower singer and knew all manner of Irish songs and ditties. This one, to the tune of 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles' is about Australia's favourite gambling game and 'the fairest game in the world'.
Unaccompanied
9. I'm A Tolerant Man.
This song appeared as a poem in the Kalgoorlie Sun newspaper and I still smile at the irony expressed. I'm old enough to remember the Tamborine and drum thumping of the Salvation Army and other kerbside spruikers. As a young boy I regularly went to the Sydney Domain on a Sunday to hear the speakers be they political fanatics, bible-bashers or just some mug who mounted a soapbox.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
10. Rafferty and Cafferty.
Joe Watson of Caringbah sang me this song when he was ninety-two years old. It's actually two items I pieced together as I have joined Joe Watson's 'Stump Speech' in with Rafferty and Cafferty – a simple case of Rafferty's Rules! The stump speech is a folk creation to take the mickey out of politicians – the art of saying a lot without saying anything at all. I would date this around the nineteen hundred mark and it quite possibly came from the Music Hall.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
11. The Gumtree With Six Branches.
A singer never quite knows where a song will pop up and this one came to me from the Imperial Songster around the time of Federation. I fashioned the words to the tune of 'Australia's on the Wallaby' – a fitting tribute to Federation. The chorus is a mouthful comparing the gumtree to our flowering nation and the six branches were the then six States of the old Colony.
Unaccompanied with Larrikin chorus
12. Amalgamated Shearers Union
Another bit of Labour history and I got this one from the Shearer's and General Labourer's Record. I rounded up some of my fellow 'larrikins' to get this one down on tape for an ABC radio program. These rhyming acrostics were popular with early newspapers and magazines.
The Larrikin Chorus
13. Baa Baa Nerino Sheep
Proving political parody knows no master here is a piece from 1918 that uses one of the most popular nursery rhymes. In this case both the shearers and the station owner present their case however since it appeared in a Farmer's Magazine the station owners have the ruling hand. I found this as an old newspaper clipping during one of my regular digs in the Mitchell Library.
Bob McInnes
14. Unity Boys.
I have always been interested in the left side of the political spectrum and especially Labour history. It's hard to imagine that Australia had the worlds first fully elected Labor government. The song comes from the Great Shearer's Strike of the last decade of the eighteen hundreds. This was a bitter struggle that just about ruined the Amalgamated Shearer's Union but win they did and in doing so laid the foundation for the Australian Labor Party. The poem was a natural for the tune Tramp, Tramp, Tramp as used in the Wallaby Brigade. The song also acknowledges the Falkiner family who operated some of the larger South West New South Wales stations including Boonoke, near Deniliquin, which, during the nineteen seventies and eighties, was owned by Rupert Murdoch. I should also add that this is included as a historical item and I can't really imagine anyone else singing these tongue-twisting verses.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes, Andy Saunders
15. The Miner.
I collected this in 1973 from Mrs Frances McDonald in Broken Hill. Mrs McDonald actually started to sing 'Don't Go Down The Mine, Dad' and went into these verses in the middle of the song. Believe it or not this medley was popular in the Hill as a waltz tunes for local dancers.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster, Andy Saunders, Andrew de Teliga
16. Packer the Scab.
Another ditty from the same struggle in Broken Hill and this one is set to the tune' Only a Button Between You and Disgrace'. Fred Bartley of Broken Hill sang this one for my collection in 1973. One of the other scabs was a man named Bill Bailey and the unionists taunted him by simply singing the words of the popular song 'Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home?'
Unaccompanied
17. Lithgow Onwards Struggle.
This was formally titled 'Jingle on the Lithgow Ironworks Tunnel Struggle' and was printed as a one-penny broadsheet by the Lithgow-Hartley District 8-Hour Day Committee in August 1911. It was quite common to sell such sheets as a way of raising both awareness and funds during strikes. This one supported the Ironworks Relief Fund and was collected from Jack Mays, in Lithgow in 1973. I set the tune to the poem for an ABC documentary. Once again, it is included as an important historical document.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
18. When You Give That Tuppence back, Charlie Dear.
This is a union song with a noble history. It concerns the bitter 1911 strike where Charles Hoskins, the mine operator, responded to the union request for an additional tuppence a ton by reducing their rate by tuppence. This was an old style battle that went on for months and ended when the strikers attacked the scab labourers who were keeping the mine operational. Hoskings new T-Model Ford was burnt to the ground and the police thrown in the nearby water slush pond. The tune was designated as 'When the Sheep Are In The Fold, Jenny Dear'. I also got this one from Jack Mays and I recorded a version for the first larrikin album I ever released, Man of the Earth.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster, Andy Saunders
19. 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.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kemspter
20. Cockies of Bungaree
I'm not sure if I learnt this version from Simon McDonald or from Dave de Hugard or Bert Lloyd, the latter being two of my favourite revival singers. It's possibly a combination of all three. Bungaree is located in Victoria and is well known as a potato growing community. Spud chipping was one of the worst jobs a man could do. Most decided against it or avoided it like the plague. It reminds me of the old yarn where the farm hand is offered a job chipping potatoes. He thinks about it for a minute, looks at the farmer and says: “Nar, don't think so. I reckon you should bring back the cove who planted the spuds – he'll know where he put 'em”.
Andrew de Teliga
21. Four Little Johnny Cakes.
I wrote a book on the history of eating and drinking in Australia titled 'When Mabel laid The Table' (State Library of New South Wales Press) and attempted to explain where our food folklore and social history sat. Much of it saluted our pioneering past and simple delights such as the Johnnycake. I'm not sure where this idiosyncratic interpretation came from; David unearthed it whilst hunting down songs from my dark past.
Andy Saunders
22. The Two Professional Hums.
I recorded this gem from Harry Chaplin of Broken Hill, in 1975. The tune, 'Jolly Lads Are We', appears to be a re-working of a Harry 'Haywire Mack' McClintock song along a similar theme.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes, Andy Saunders, Andrew de Teliga
The Swagman's Curse
There ain't no work in Bourke
Damn all at Blackall
No lucre at Echuca
Things are crook in Tallarook
Might get a feed at the Tweed
No feedin' at Eden
Might get a berth in Perth
In goal at Innisfail
Got the arse at Bulli Pass
23. Soup.
One suspects this piece started life as a Wobbly song during the American Great Depression and was quickly seized by the locals after the introduction of our soup kitchens. There was obvious bitterness that our men were sent away to fight in WW1 and then found them selves on a soup-line. My parents managed through the Depression with occasional work and a tightening of the belt that no one should endure. I always remember my Mother urging me to eat my meals by saying they ate bread and dripping through the bad years. I'd laughed then but never now.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
24. We're On The Susso Now (And we can't afford a cow).
My father sang this ditty however I know it was extremely popular as a chant, especially when people were doing the Scullin government introduced sustenance work around the city.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes
Another popular ditty ran:
Although we've plenty of bees and cows
Our land's not milk and honey,
For the B's are all in parliament
And the cows have got all the money
25. On The Steps Of The Dole-Office Door.
My friend and fellow folklorist, Assoc Professor Graham Seal, once produced an album of 1930's Depression songs and poetry for Larrikin and I've been singing this ever since. Poor old Jack Lang copped it from all sides but that's what happens when you front the workers in battle. The tune is The Stone Outside Dan Murphy's Door.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
26. The Homeless Man.
I first met Harry Robertson in the nineteen seventies and we became firm friends through thick and thin. He and Rita were generous hosts and I loved nothing more than a night at their Balmain house eating traditional salted cod stew which Harry made in a giant boiler, smoking his stinking Rotterdam Shag cigarettes all the night. We'd sing and talk and argue and sing some more. He encouraged me to learn some of his songs and this was the first. This rendition was recorded at a Festival of Folklife concert at Sydney's Regent Theatre, in 1979, where we devoted a segment to the wonderful songs of Harry Robertson.
John Morris, Jacko Kevans, Cathie O'Sullivan
27. The Girl on Bondi Beach.
A quaint piece of Sydney beach history, which dates back to the prudish 1950s. It's odd to think that young women were ordered off the beach for wearing a bikini when nowadays they wear no tops at all. The Sydney Sun, like the bikini top, has also disappeared with time. The tune is Show Me The Way to Go Home. I have no idea how this song ended up in my repertoire.
Unaccompanied
28. Up and Down the Sydney Road.
A ditty from the Great Depression, which pokes fun at the reality of hard, times life. Mrs May Colley sang this for me when I recorded her songs at the Bathurst Old People's Home. Mrs Colley also played the concertina and had earlier been taped by Alan Scott.
Unaccompanied
29. Across the Western Suburbs.
This song is a good example of how contemporary songs represent the continuing tradition of folk song. Denis Kevans ands Seamus Gill wrote the song and it was published in Australian tradition in 1973. I started singing it around the same time as The Larrikins toured across Australia. I like to think it made people think about how the old-style Australian city was disappearing and being replaced with concrete and glass. I preferred the old look.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes
30. Take Your Bulldozers Away.
I first heard John Dengate in the late 1960s when he was an active member of The Bush Music Club and I was soaking up anything that had a strong Australian voice. I've been a fan of John's songs ever since and have learnt several of his witty creations and I was bold enough to release an album of his political songs when I worked for Rupert Murdoch! This song dates back to the seventies when, despite the Green Bans of the building unions, Sydney's guts were being ripped out by greedy developers. I recommend John Dengate's book 'My Shout' (1982) to anyone who enjoys good topical songs. Cutler, referred to in the first verse, was Minister for Planning in the early Neville Wran Labor Government.
Dave de Hugard, Bob McInnes, Chris Kempster
31. The Balls of Bob Menzies.
My father really hated Bob Menzies, or more specifically, what Ming represented. I dedicated my book, 'The Balls Of Bob Menzies' (1989) to Dad's memory and his determined rationalism. I am old enough to reflect on Menzies' pomposity and how John Howard has carried that mean-minded flame into the new century. I don't think either politician had any balls.
The Larrikin Choir
32. The F1.11
I can't imagine how many times I sang this song in the seventies and eighties when The Larrikins toured. It was always a favourite and, unfortunately, the darned things are still the dominant part of our air force. Lyell Sayer wrote the song and fashioned it to a traditional tune. Clem Parkinson, that other Melbourne rebel song-maker, also provided a final verse for the times.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes
33. On Top Of No Smoking.
This is a song, set to the tune of 'On Top Of Old Smoky', was published in 'Freedom Songs', the songbook of the eureka Youth League, Melbourne. Artie (Arthur) Fadden was Federal Treasurer in the Menzies Liberal Government.
Andrew de Teliga, Andy Saunders
34. Life Wasn't Meant to Be Easy.
I bet Malcolm Fraser regretted ever spruiking the words; “Life wasn't meant to be easy.” because they sure came back to bite him on the bum. The words are by Lyell Sayer, Melbourne. Whenever I sang this in the seventies I felt I was contributing to the well being of the nation. I have been fortunate to have Gough Whitlam as a friend for some years. We lunch every few months and share jokes and ditties like this one from the seventies.
Dave de Hugard, Chris Kempster, Bob McInnes
35. Bobby, I Hardly Knew You.
Folk parody knows no master and is just as likely to kick the left, as it is the Right. All politicians are fair game because, as my father always said: whoever you vote for a politician gets in. John McQuiggen wrote these clever words and set them to the familiar tune of the old Irish anti-war song 'Johnny I hardly Knew You' ... 'Bob Hawke went in red and he came out blue, and the Liberals didn't know what to do.” Mind you, I will always remember the good Hawke initiatives and especially the time he invited myself the Larrikins to play at the first State Dinner in the new Parliament House. We all stayed up until the wee hours singing rebel songs in the Speaker's Office (Leo McLean had the largest bar fridge!). I can't imagine John Howard singing anything other than a hymn or possibly 'Up There Cazaly'
Unaccompanied
36. Tie Me Reactor Down
This one, like the other contemporary political songs on this CD, was included in my ywo books 'The Balls of Bob Menzies' (Angus &a,p; Robertson) and the revised edition 'Ratbags and Rabblerousers' (Currency Press). I am still nervous about all that hidden uranium and I certainly don't trust any government. I think Rolf Harris would approve.
Larrikin Chorus
37. Thanks To The Yanks.
I am really disappointed how Australia has seemingly become a faux State of the USA. I have been accused of being a 'cultural protectionist' and I proudly accept that label. I don't hate America but I do object to our government, especially the Howard tenancy, opening the gates of free trade and swamping our culture in the process. John Dengate feels the same and this song is intended to make us all think hard about closing those gates.
Declan Affley, Jacko Kevans, Cathie O'Sullivan, John Morris

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