long way to cocos island
long way to cocos island
oh the 'emden' was a-sailin on the ocean wide and blue when the 'sydney' came upon her, and cut her fair in two;
 rainin shells down on the deck, the germans had no chance;
 says captain glossop;
 'share, share that out amongst yourselves-' 
chorus
it's a long way to cocos island, it's a long way to go;
 it's a long way for the sydney, when she went to beat the foe;
 goodbye captain mueller, 'emden' fare thee well! it's a long, long way to cocos island, good-bye-- oh hell!! ---------------------------------------------------- chorus it's a long way to riverina, it's a long way to go;
 it's a ong way to riverina, and the sweetest girl I know.
 farewell wagga wagga, farewell dear old hay;
 it's a long, long way to riverina, but we' ll go back some day!.
------------------------------------- goodbye, general birdwod, general monash too! we didn't join the army to be fucked about by you! galipoli was a failure, and france it is afarce! you can shove the rest of the aif, right up your arse!
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the cocos island action described in the first parody occured on the 9th of november, 1914, and was the first and only allied victory for quite a while.
 I had approached colin mcjannett of canberra who I knew in the late 70's had presented workshops on soldier songs if he still 'had',
or remembered any.
 he didn't, and he had no scripts otr tapes of workshops he presented.
 my computer being 'down' for an up-grading, I was able to get back to tape transcriptions, and amongst recordings of brad tate singing songs he collected, werfe 2 tapes, one of a workshop of soldier songs he presented in 1971--and one of col mcjannetts workshop of soldier songs--this first parody is from that tape--he collected this song in the collector hotel, collector, nsw in about 1971-he didn't remember who he collected it from.
 the riverina parody is from john dengate, well known political satirist and son writer, who also doesn't remember where or when he first heard this version.
 brad tate collected the 'gen birdwood' parody from arch gray of scone in thelate 60's