Faces in the Street - The Bushwackers

This 1981 release from the most Australian of all Australian bands
is my favorite. But its the tile song that brings me to post this
album as part of a trilogy of albums that honor the great Australian
poet Henry Lawson. Hes the guy on our 10 dollar note, the greatest
poet this country had and he leaves Banjo Patterson in the dust.
His poem "Faces in the street" is an epic masterpiece, which the
Bushwackers transform into the Marxist anthem that would have
made Henry smile, the only poet given a state funeral,
a nation treasure and for those who don't believe a national
treasure could write a song like that, here's the poem,
well the Bushwackers version of it
but first a bit of context.

The poem was written in 1888. Lawson had come to Sydney from
the bush five years earlier and met his mother's friends,
many of them radical in their politics
It is easy to see how a young man would look for the Red flag to
impose a form of equality

Faces in the Street - Lawson/Ashley

They lie, the men who tell us in such load decisive tone
That want is here a stranger, and that misery's unknown;
For where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet
My window-sill is level with the faces in the street
Drifting past, drifting past,
To the beat of weary feet
While I sorrow for the owners of those faces in the street.

And cause I have to sorrow, in a land so young and fair,
To see upon those faces stamped the marks of Want and Care;
I look in vain for traces of the fresh and fair and sweet
In sallow, sunken faces that are drifting through the street
Drifting on, drifting on,
To the beat of restless feet;
I sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street.

I wonder would the apathy of wealthy men endure
Were all their windows level with the faces of the Poor?
Ah! Mammon's slaves, your knees shall knock, your hearts in terror beat,
When your God demands a reason for the sadness of the street,
The wrong things and the bad things
And the sad things that we meet
In the filthy lane and alley, and the cruel, heartless street.

I left the dreadful corner where the steps are never still,
And sought another window overlooking gorge and hill;
But when the night came dreary with the driving rain and sleet,
They haunted me the shadows of those faces in the street,
Flitting by, drifting by,
Flitting by with noiseless feet,
And cheeks but little paler than the real ones in the street.

I cried: 'Oh, God Almighty! if Thy might doth still endure,
Now show me in a vision for the wrongs of Earth a cure.'
And, lo! with shops all shuttered I beheld a city's street,
And in the warning distance heard the tramp of many feet,
Coming near, coming near,
To a drummers distant beat,
And soon I saw the army that was marching down the street.

Then, like a swollen river that has broken bank and wall,
The human flood came pouring with the red flags over all,
And kindled eyes all blazing bright with revolution's heat,
And flashing swords reflecting rigid faces in the street.
Pouring on, pouring on,
To a drummers threatening beat,
And the war-hymns and the cheering of the people in the street.

And so it must be while the world goes rolling round this course,
The warning pen shall write in vain, the warning voice grow hoarse,
But not until a city feels Revolution's feet
Shall its sad people miss awhile the terrors of the street
The dreadful everlasting strife
With scarce enough to eat
In that cruel hell of living death
The city's heartless street
So they're pouring on marching on
To the drummers threatening beat
and the war hymns and the cheering of the faces in the street

Now if you took the time to read that congratulations,
I have 2 more different recordings of this poem as a
song to come and a lot more Lawson poetry turned
into song. Its fantastic stuff, Australian but not in
that cheesy way. This poem had a lasting impact on
me, it taught me more about politics than 12 years of
school, it lead me to other parts of the world to see
for myself. What more could you expect from a song.
This album is full of fantastic songs like that.
"The Ballad of 1891" is adaptation of a song that
details the history that lead to the Labor party
in this country. It has to be heard to be believed.
We also have the sad depression era song
"Weevils in the flour",
Jan singing the very funny "Marijuana Australian"
And the epic tale of "Les Darcy" the champion boxer
who refused to go to the 1st world war.
This is the Bushwackers at their peak
with Dobe Newton, Roger Corbett and Jan Wositzky
all still together.

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