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Tuesday, December 13, 2016

I fell in love with a girl from New South Wales







I fell in love with a girl from New South Wales



Caught a star in a Treichville bar, and danced a Yoruba
Watched my trust burnt into dust south of the Sahara
Traversed the Himalayas and the bosom of South Asia
Crossed the line in Indo-Chine: the girls there will amaze ya


Made a friend in London town and took her past Big Ben
That big old tower rang out the hour and then it rang again
Around the great Pacific, I've lain on every shore
From Europe to the Middle East and more and more and more


It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was wild and free
But I’ve shared my love declared this quarter century
I’ve no regrets I placed my bets, midst all of you females
I gave my heart to a work of art, a girl from New South Wales


If you want to see the world at large and live to tell some tales
Of how you fight to keep the light against which all else pales
If you want the Opera House, the harbour and the sails
Then doubt me not, get what I’ve got, a girl from New South Wales


There comes a time, I know it well, when things just don’t work out
My mind filled up with false ideas, my heart was filled with doubt
Soft fingers creep across the sheets to find me in the night
Her loving hands to turn my head again towards the light.


The moonlight plays upon her skin, her eyes are burning green
Her hair a flare she holds a pair the like you’ve never seen
Her poise erect I watch her work a passionate machine
And in her heart she keeps the spark of my elusive dream


My gaze is fixed my hand steady and this I’ll say to you
Get a girl from anywhere as long as she is true
But to answer distant calls and travel distant trails
With one who’ll be there boots and all get a girl from New South Wales


If bugalugs can’t fix the bugs and the whole system fails
You’re ready to abandon ship, go swimming with the whales
With life hung in the balance, just one thing will tip the scales
From bad to good you know you should get a girl from New South Wales


       - Ric Curnow 2016

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My first ever love song, these lyrics inspired by a young lady I meet some time ago. To turn it into 'loud poetry', I set it to a variant of a rollicking old Scottish dance tune, 'Musselburgh Fair'. 

The tune is familiar to the Australian folk tradition, most famously in 'Lachlan Tigers'.

For an idea of the way I've played it, see the Bushwackers' performance of 'Lachlan Tigers'. My melody has a more Eastern European feel, but the delivery, the tempo and the eight bar chord progression are similar to those of the Bushwackers' :


Cm  /  /  /  B  /  /  /  F  /  /  /  Cm  /  G  /  
Cm  / G  /  E  / G  /  Cm  G  Cm G  Cm  G  Cm  /         
♩ = 138





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1 comment:

  1. Nice work Rick. I'll have to pen a yarn about a girl from the Apple Isle.
    Van Diemans land was where's she from ......

    ReplyDelete