 sj |
||
|
||
Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs?
|
|
|
|||||||
|
Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? |
Share Thread
|
||||||
|
Subject: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 02 Jul 06 - 08:50 PM Robert Burke and John Wills---the first 2 whites to cross Australia. Are there any ballads and/or songs of their extraordinary adventures? Art Thieme |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Bob Bolton Date: 03 Jul 06 - 01:39 AM G'day Art, If they buried any, at the foot of the DIG tree ... the termites have eaten them by now! Seriously, I suspect there would have been verse published at the time... but I don't know of any of that taking up a tune and being passed on. I'll see what I can find from home. Regards, Bob |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: GUEST Date: 03 Jul 06 - 10:01 AM Hello Art, I don't know of any traditional songs but there have been a few good ones written about them that I know of. Neil Murray wrote a song called Menindee. It is on his Dust CD and also Macca on Air. Lazy Harry from Beechworth has one and Lyall Sayers of Melbourne has one on an early Larrikin label recording. My husband Jim Low has one that you can listen to online called The Further I Travel. http://jimlow.net/?p=63 This has the full song at the bottom of the article which explains why the song was written. Poetry that might interest you: The Fate of the Explorers by Henry Kendall AL Gordon's Gone Ken Barrett's Burke and Wills Lots of novels too eg. Alan Attwood's recent fascinating novel, Burke's Soldier, through Penguin. A comprehensive book that looks at the Burke and Wills saga is Burke and Wills, from Melbourne to Myth by Tim Bonyhardy If you want any further help on these just let me know. Happy to help regards, Valda valda@folkaustralia.com |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 04 Jul 06 - 08:10 PM I lost this thread and just found it again. Fascinating. Valda, I just sent a message to Jim through his site. That's a sad but a lovely song. Thanks for pointing me to it!! The whole episode was a tragedy of errors, was it not? And the backup not staying the course---that was surely the nail in their coffin. I will Google those poems and writers and see what I can find.----- This film I found---it must be made from the book!?!? Bob, good to hear from you for sure. Art Thieme |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Joybell Date: 05 Jul 06 - 09:28 AM Art, Just a little snippet about this expedition that relates to George Coppin - Actor, singer, fiddler, entrepeneur (often called "the father of Australian theater") Coppin brought camels to Australia, along with their handlers, and convinced the Burke and Wills promoters to buy and use them. The camels were a great asset - much better than the horses - but one night in the middle of the desert someone left them untied and they beat it back South to Adelaide. Perhaps the camels might have made the difference between life and death. Cheers, Joy |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Bob Bolton Date: 09 Jul 06 - 09:13 AM G'day Art, I'm glad Valda gave you those references, a few posts above ... I was really looking for the contemporary material that survived as "folk" songs, handed down from then. An upcoming gig, doing some songs on a railway theme for the centenary of Sydney's Central Railway Station, has us looking at both 'traditional folk songs' and more recent compositions. One fun song we've decided on is from my old mate John Dengate, whose songs, when not giving the lowdown on our politicians, deal with John's real-life encounters with harsh reality. This one (to the tune Garden Where the Praties Grow ... probably best known, these days, as the tune for Paddy's Sick Note ...) deals with John's foolish attempt to use our railway system to reach the suburb of Lidcombe - about 16 km / 10 miles west of Central. You'll note that he starts by comparing the efforts of a couple of our more successful explorers ... and, at the end, invokes doom with an image og Burke & Wills! Train to Lidcombe Words: John Dengate Tune: Garden Where the Praties Grow You can talk of Matthew Flinders, you can talk of Captain Sturt, You can rave about explorers till your throat begins to hurt. Yes, I know they crossed the oceans and they travelled tough terrain But there's none of them could face a trip to Lidcombe on the train. 'Twas a blazing day in January, Nineteen Eighty-two, They were praying for a Southerly from Lithgow to the 'Loo; I cooked from Glebe to Central like a lobster or a crab; Paid the sweating taxi driver and alighted from the cab. Platform Eighteen? Platform Nineteen? There's an element of doubt But you've always got the indicator there to help you out. And a fellow with a microphone dispensing wisdom free, But his information and the indicators don't agree. Well the train crawls out of Central to a soft ironic cheer, I'd sell my mother's wedding ring for half a glass of beer. I'm hot and in the horrors and my thirst is looming large And I fear that every pub we pass is only a mirage. Faces to the westward, we are sizzling on the grill We have to wait for half an hour at Summer bloody Hill, We stop and start like Murphy's cart - my temper's turning sour And near Flemington we have to wait another half an hour. I stagger out at Lidcombe contemplating suicide; My compass it has melted and my camels they have died. My fevered brain surrounds the train with breweries and stills, And bleaching on the platform are the bones of Burke and Wills. ABC format:
|
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Bob Bolton Date: 09 Jul 06 - 11:39 PM G'day again Art (et al), Hmmm ... I really should have put in at least a few South / North translations for John's Train to Lidcombe song. January: is, of course, the middle of our southern hemisphere summer ... and Sydney is always warm (currently we are in mid-winter ... and I'm in shirt sleeves.) Southerly: The Southerly (Buster) is a dramatic cool change - much appreciated around Sydney on a hot Summer's evening. Lithgow: A town on the other side of the Blue Mountains - west of Sydney ... somewhat cooler (at 600 m altitude) ... but hot enough in a heatwave. The Loo: Inner Sydney, formerly 'working class', Harbourside area behind some of the docks ... about as close as many inner-city people got to the beach, most of the time. Glebe: Inner-Sydney suburb (originally ... and still so, to some extent) a "Glebe" - a large grant of land to the "Established" (Anglican) Church, for money-raising purposes. The Church of England is landlord to many of the residents (if not John!). The other suburbs are just some of the railway stations along the blazing path of John's epic journey ... Regards, Bob |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: GUEST,Rowan Date: 10 Jul 06 - 12:24 AM Bob wrote "The Loo: Inner Sydney, formerly 'working class', Harbourside area behind some of the docks ... about as close as many inner-city people got to the beach, most of the time." For those familiar with UK/Australian slang for dunnies but unfamiliar with Sydney, the reference to The 'Loo is to Woolloomooloo, a suburb/part of Sydney celebrated in the song "Woollomooloo Lair", which appears in a different Mudcat thread. Thanks, Bob. Cheers, Rowan |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Nerd Date: 10 Jul 06 - 12:34 AM As an aside, Woolloomooloo's also the site of the University in the classic Monty Python sketch about all the Australian Philosophy professors named Bruce. Hey, my first post on the 'cat in over a year I think! |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Bob Bolton Date: 10 Jul 06 - 02:07 AM G'day yet again, Rowan: Thanks for that gentle correction ... tapping out extra details over my lunch, I forgot to spell out Woolloomooloo (probably so familiar - to me - in its shortened form that I didn't even think to drop in a note about our compulsive abbreviation of place names). Nerd: You may well be right ... the Monty Python mob did know that there's no profit in being too obscure for the target audience. Their original skit was based on an actual Bruce of their acquaintance at Cambridge ... and he came (as most Aussies would suspect, given the very Scots name Bruce) from our eastern neighbour - New Zealand. Apparently they decided that too few Brits (let alone any prospective American audience) really knew where New Zealand was ... so they picked up the locale of their skit and moved it to Sydney ... and set the mythical University where many of their emigrant relatives would have landed. Regards, Bob |
|
Subject: RE: Robt. Burke & John Wills-OZ-any songs? From: Hrothgar Date: 10 Jul 06 - 04:33 AM Other references: "Coopers Creek" by Alan Moorehead "Dig: by Frank Clune. Moorehead's is more readable and possibly more reliable. |
| Share Thread: |