Palestrina and his Aus folk music period !!!! Wow!
P wowed
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Max Richards
Sent: 17 December 2014 00:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: a yarn from Fiordland - needs to be a ballad -
Ah, Andrew, I have long admired the work in Aus folk music of
Margaret Walters
and cannot now remember when I first heard
Ballad of Many Crows,
words by Andrew Burke.
I find it on her website sounding good:
http://www.margaretwalters.com/
Are there many more where that one comes from?
Max in Seattle
(listening to Palestrina!)
On Dec 17, 2014, at 11:11 AM, Andrew Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> No, but I have a Bush Balladeer friend who I shall show it to. (Have
> you heard my Ballad of Many Crows, Max? I'm pickled tink if you have )
>
> Andew
>
>>
>> Murray Gunn used to have a tourist camp ('Gunn's Camp') out at the
>> start of the Hollyford Track in Fiordland, and the conservation
>> department (DOC) hated this and tried to get him moved off for
>> several years. One reason was that he kept an elderly brown horse,
>> whose horse-shit contained oats which then infested the conservation
land.
>>
>> Gunn became worried that someone would shoot his old horse, so he
>> found some white paint and painted, in large capitals, HORSE on one
>> side of the beast; but then he found he was running short of white
>> paint, so on the other side, he painted COW with what remained. And
>> all went well for the old horse until one year it dropped dead - but
>> unfortunately right on the bank of the Hollyford River.
>>
>> The next flood took the HORSE/COW and floated it downstream until it
>> fetched up on a rock, directly under the one bridge over which
>> DOC-sponsored trampers crossed the river as they followed the track.
>> And in due course it rotted and became (said Ted) a seething mass of
>> maggots - which upset the trampers.
>>
>> The DOC people went to Gunn and said, You've got to shift your horse!
>> - to which Gunn said, It's not my horse. Yes it, is, look at what
>> it's got painted on it - that's your work! Oh no it's not, said he -
>> anybody could have painted that! And stood his ground.
>>
>> So the DOC people went to the Ministry of Works gang on the Milford
>> Road and offered $100 to anyone who would remove the carcase from the
>> rock; and a couple of likely lads took up the contract. They nicked a
>> quantity of Gelignite from the MWD store, placed it under the horse,
>> ran the wires a safe distance away to the plunger, checked there were
>> no trampers in the offing, and pressed the plunger. BOOM! - and
>> unfortunately, because the charge was under the horse and on top of
>> the rock, the explosion threw the horse straight through the bridge,
>> and destroyed it completely. And it cost DOC $100,000 to replace the
>> bridge.
>>
>> Don't you agree this cries out to be made over into a bush ballad?
>>
>> best from Max in yarn-less Seattle
>> =
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