Monday, November 17, 2008

The Bushwackers - Bushfire

There's been a bit of interest in the Bushwackers round here lately,
so time for a wackers post. In my younger days this band was
almost as much of an influence on my developing folk interest
as Redgum. This was aided a lot by the fact they put out two
excellent songbooks which, like Redgum meant I could play
their songs. This is what folk is all about of course.

Lime Juice tub - Trad/Bushwackers

When shearing comes lay down your drums
Step on the board you brand new chums
With a ra-dum ra-dum rub-a-dub-dub
Send him home in a lime juice tub

Chorus
Here we are in New South Wales
Shearing the sheep as big as whales
With leather necks and daggy tails
And hides as tough as rusty nails

Now you have crossed the briny deep
You fancy you can shear a sheep
With a ra-dum ra-dum rub-a-dub-dub
We'll send you home in lime juice tub

There's brand new chums and cockies sons
They fancy that they are great guns
They fancy they can shear the wool
But the buggers can only tear and pull

They tar the sheep till they're nearly black
Roll up roll up and get the sack
Once more we're away on the Wallaby Track
Once more to look for the shearing oh

The very next job they undertake
Is to press the wool but they make a mistake
They press the wool without any bales
Shearing's hell in New South Wales

And when they meet upon the road
From off their backs throw down their load
And at the sun they'll take a look
Saying I reckon it's time to breast the cook

We camp in huts without any doors
Sleep upon the muddy floors
With a pannikin of flour and a sheet of bark
To wallop up a damper in the dark

Its home its home I'd like to be
Not humping my drum in this country
Its sixteen thousand mile I've come
To march along with the blanket drum


Tracklist
01 Stringybark Creek (The ballad Of Ned Kelly)
02 Annie
03 Van Diemans Land
04 Lime Juice Tub
05 The Flying Pieman
06 Bushfire
07 Past Carin'
08 Hard Luck Stories
09 Wild Horses
10 Fannie Bay

Download Here


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes! Another dodgy dub from vinyl avoided! Thanks Bob - this is up there with Faces on the Street, a true classic.

bob nebe said...

Hi Radhock,
I actually have a lot more bushwackers vinyl to rip, one day ill get round to it.
Faces was a vinyl rip of mine, I don't think it ever made it to cd.
Hope it wasnt too dodgy =:>)
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

There's a Bushwackers 3cd compilation out there that covers most of the essentials, only $12 -15 from memory. Really, it's the easiest way to grab a lot without ripping vinyl.

Anonymous said...

lol at the barcode

Anonymous said...

Awesome. My mate has this on a double CD with I think the one that has Murrimbidgee on it or is called Murrimbidgee. I saw them live so many times and they were so great to get drunk and dance to. The very first album (before And the band Played Waltz Sing Matilda) is the one that was never on CD. I'm lucky enough to have it on vinyl.

bob nebe said...

Hi Vikvoodoo,
Fantastic band live alright, any chance you have a digital copy of that 1st album you could upload
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

HI Bob, I haven't got the facilities to do a rip but I have a mate who does it. I'll see what I can do but it might take a few weeks.

Cheers

bob nebe said...

Fantastic Vikvoodoo.
ciao bob

Anonymous said...

Here's a link I found for 1st Bushwacker album
http://rapidshare.com/files/116801637/Bushwackers.zip. Found it on Midoztouch Forum

Anonymous said...

Ignore my previous post. I should have posted after I downloaded. Its not the first album, some people don't know what they're talking about. Arghhh lol

andy said...

nice to find this after so many years...."past caring" is possibly the saddest poem ever and this treatment really brings it home.

I sometimes wonder if Lawson penned this then crawled into a bottle to deal with the misery it evoked.

Thanks for making this gem available.

bob nebe said...

You welcome Andy, Im sure youll find loads of stuff on this blog that will be up your alley. Theres more bushwackers just do a blog search