FOLK
STYLES
Click on song titles for complete lyrics. All songs © Bruce McNicol
|
| Save
the Weather (with mp3) |
Fear
and flight. Fear of the unknown. We have to turn and face this one.
"Shoot
the weather. Bang bang bang. Shoot the weather. Boomerang. . . " |
Buckets:
(with mp3)
Humorous, children
or adults |
Inspired
by Permaculture.
"Buckets, buckets, buckets, I love buckets.
Little yellow plastic ones, tin ones short and tall . . ." |
Competition
Only Leads To Defeat
|
"Hello
I said. Heard you're in town / You don't need the stranger jive
with me.
I know you don't mean to put people down. Won't you come round to
tea?. . ." |
| The Coil (with mp3) |
Dedicated
to the memory of Mark "Blossom" Brown, of The Cobbers,
who coined the phrase "Moon tiger Princess".
"I once spent the night at a bush music
party, On someone's verandah from evening 'til dawn.
Where the Moon Tiger mozzie coils were all that saved us from a
skinfull of itches, from toenails to yawn. . ."
|
Genocide
(with
mp3)
"Redgum"
style |
"When I was a kid, the history books
told me, The blacks just faded away when the first fleet came.
But history is more than books and papers, It can turn around
and become Truth anyway . . ."
|
He
and I
|
v.1.
"I yelled at my kid again today, exploded in that highly wound
up way . . ."
v.2. "I hit my kid, my worst of
fears, and didn't notice 'til I saw his tears . . ." |
Life
Goes On
|
Every
time I caught the train to Sydney, the fabulous mixture of fellow
travellers would inspire another song.
"Hey! What 'dja do today? I travelled
on a train. I was talkin' to an Arab, and a Jew, it made me believe
again. . . "
|
Live
For Now
|
Unusual
tuning. A love song to life.
"Let's live for now, this moment is beautiful, Let's live for now. Seems essential . . ."
|
Munchie
Time
|
Silly
song therapy to counter an attack of the munchies. Low calorie count!
"Would you like a pancake? Would you
like a scone? Would you like some muesli toast? The chocolate is all gone! . .
"
|
The
Otway Reef
|
Verse 1:Come listen for a moment and a tale I’ll tell to thee,
All of the fearful trip I had, first time I went to sea. |
The
Ostrich Song
Subtitled:" It's all right mate"
|
In
a referendum, we said no to I.D. cards, so we got photo licences
instead. Very useful they've become, when you need to prove who
you are.
"They're watching us, I know they are,
I feel it in me bankcard, every time I slot it in the slot.
Computers watching everywhere will tell them all I know about what I've spent and where, with whom, on what. . ." |
| Please
Prime Minister
(with
mp3) |
"My
parents run a milk bar. Fourteen hours every day.
They can't afford much junior help, they can't afford to pay . .
./
Please Prime minister, have pity on the working class . . ."
|
| Quick
Death (with
mp3) |
For John and Yoko. A song about guns. 21/12/1980
"Suppose you're living in the country, and you want to eat a rabbit or two,
You've prob'ly got a rifle inside the door, or a fox will eat your chickens, or a dozen reasons more.
I can tell it's a sensible person I'm talking to . . ." |
Screenprint
|
Some
early training for the daily grind, as it's called.
"I have built a roseproof fence, and I've cut down all the
gumtrees, and I've spread the screenings all over the lawn
And I've trimmed the rhododendrum by the roots, poisoned the willow, and my concrete plastic soul is all in pawn.
But tomorrow is tomorrow . . ." |
| Susan's
Birthday Song (with
mp3) |
A
finger-picking
egalitarian love song.
Does that qualify as a folk song?
"I miss you tonight, but there's a consolation, you'll probably
miss me as well . ." |
Tanks
(with
mp3)
|
Even
though this is silly and Pythonesque, it's a protest about the
neutron bomb, which, rather disturbingly, we haven't heard of
for a while now. . . .
"Oh the tanks won't rumble in the streets, there'll be no-one
left to drive them,
There'll be no-one left alive then. As far as you can see! . ." |
Television
|
Television
arrived in my house two weeks before my first attempt at year
11(my dad had always said we were not going to get that rubbish,
but we did). I failed the exams. I haven't really liked television
much since . . .
"People's lives have stopped. They sit and watch that rubbish night after night.
Set the alarms before they turn off the sight . . ." |
There
Will Be Peace
View the first
page of this as a choral arrangement through the choir page |
A
simple unaccompanied song, written for the International Day of
Peace. Yes we had one. It was in August 2002. Bet it made you feel
better.
"There will be peace, if it can start
here within me, here within you . ."
Also works as a round. |
|
Thought
Juggling Song (with mp3)
|
From
the circus of words,
a folk song of the silly variety! I was
wide awake,
'cos I was on a train again, trying to sleep, and there was so
much going on.
Verse 2: "Do you mean if I can't define
it, it does not exist?
Gent in the digger's hat getting thoroughly pissed.
Never been sixteen, but always been kissed! This is my thought juggling song. . . " |
|
|
Goalposts
(with
mp3)
Tango style |
An
election song, which is a collection of figures of speech, some
of which I invented.
"Moving the Goalposts" was the
inspiration, with rhythm changes for the
moving goalposts!
"Not tonight Josephine. Not tonight
Picasso.
Not tonight Ernie Dingo, you'll all have to wait for morning.
We were sailing along. All that rattles is not jewelery,
There's something wrong with this song.
Have you noticed that the goalposts have moved ? . . ." |
|
How
Can I Believe you?
A pentatonic chant |
Inspired
by the strange wall of sound of a new language.
When you can
separate the words, how can you believe the reasons for killing
which the human race is so inventive about?
Remember Cambodia? Nothing's
changed, except the set!!
"How can I believe you, when I don't
understand your words,
When everything you say at me is one wall of sound? . . " |
Girls'
Night Out (with
mp3)
Piano ballad |
Several
of the 13 women at the next table had never been out without their
partner before. I still cry sometimes when I read the lyrics they
spoke. They gave me permission to write this. I dedicate it to
them.
"The food left over when Emily eats
could feed an African village
The mess all over the twins bedroom could fill St Vinnies . .
.
Anything he wants to do, he just goes out and does it.
This is the first time I've gone out and he's stayed home. . ." |
The
Gift
Piano ballad |
I
woke in the night with this song, thanking my predecessor for
the chance of a life with my wonderful wife, Lisa - for The Gift
of her!
Sounds a bit smug, and a bit sexist.
But a few weeks later my mother-in-law sent
me a birthday card, thanking me in turn for The Gift of myself
to her family.
I reckon that makes it allright. |
|
Options
(with mp3)
Tom Lehrer style
|
Someone
said the first sentence in a pub one night. How could I not write
a song?
"It's the options that drive you crazy.
A cynic is never wrong.
Pull out the formal. Call yourself normal? Sing a little gumboot
song . . ."
|
|
I
Love You
('Scuse Me While I Interrupt
My Tangent)
Tom
Waites influence |
A
love song/ballad. One of my friends and
colleagues asked, "When are you going to write a song about
me?" She has a habit of interrupting one thought
with another, so that's what the song does.
"Well I just thought, . . 'n' you know
what thought is,
How it drives you round the . . twist . . ing things around to
tell you clearly now,
I think I like you . . any . .time, d'you like me as a friend?
. . " |
Exodus
(with mp3)
Tom Lehrer style |
I
finally got out of the city - with nothing.
"If you're tired of the city, and you
want to breath in as well as out,
Pack up your shovel and gumboot, and sing with me without any doubt,
I like the country . . ." |
other LOVE SONGS and BALLADS
|
First
Time With You (with mp3)
Country folk-rock style |
I
was living in a train carriage which still had a Rules and Regulations
plaque on the wall. We two are 12 years on now.
"First time with you, I was feeling slightly
nervous,
Knew I had to get some more of this, or quickly walk away.
Next thing I knew, there were Rules and Regulations . . ."
|
Anniversary
(with
mp3)
piano ballad |
For
January 12, 2005, on the 8th anniversary of our wedding.
"If
anybody wants to see
the million miracles within you . . .
I'll show them more than this. . ." |
Lullaby
(with
mp3)
piano
ballad
|
The
first verse was written in 1991 for someone who used to lie awake
thinking that if she closed her eyes, I would be gone. Of course,
eventually, I was - pushed away. After Lisa had come into my life
I was able to turn it into a complete song in 1996.
"Please, don't you wait . . . all night long
for me to fall asleep.
I'll be here,
when you wake. don't dream me gone.
Now and then just suspend your dis-belief . . . |
|
|
Blame:
Jazz love song |
A
technique employed by many.
"I get breathless, whenever you're not
near me . . ."
|
|
Troubadour
Tom Waits jazz style
|
Voiced
by a late night club singer.
Verse3: "Come in late and never
got a seat, and had to stand.
wishing it was like that, not just playing for the band
and a couple of free selectors, too much make-up on their eyes
But if you strike up conversation you might get a nice surprise
. . ." |
|
|
If
I Met A Boy From Space
Childrens song (with
mp3) |
My
son was in grade three, and space was the topic. Don't let the
title fool you, 'cos girls get equal space in the song.
Chosen for UNESCO Childrens' songs sheet (Australian rep) 1979.
"If I met a boy from space, someone
quite unlike the human race,
Silver or red, I wouldn't be scared, if I met a boy from space.
. ." |
I
Just Want To Lie Here All The Time
Childrens song |
My
son and I couldn't get up one morning, but a song tumbled out instead.
You could make up a hundred verses if the morning was long enough!
"I just want to lie here all the time(x2),
Bring me fruit and bring me meusli, I could lie here very easily
. . ." |
|
The
Whole Song
Childrens song
Also arranged for choir
|
I
was teaching a third grade class a chorus at Barkers Vale, and one
girl said, "Can we sing a whole song?"
"What?"
I said, "You want a song about a hole? Let me see . ."
"There once was a hole that lived in
the ground, and the whole of the hole went round and round.
It was there all night and there all day, and the silly old hole wouldn't go away . . ." |
|
|
Dilemna
Country ballad |
My
friend told me she was pregnant again, to another unsupportive
male.The Hornies of a Dilemna?
Not a funny situation however,
or a funny song.
"I feel I've been tired since I was
seventeen. A feeling that never really ends
I feel I've had no space anywhere I've been, and I think I'm pregnant
again . . ."
|
Contact
Country
love song |
"I
tell you I'm always a visitor. Your houses are all my domain.
There's love in your pantries and care on your tables, and never a two are the same . . ." |
Nimbin
Street Song
Country rock |
An
infamous man once screamed loudly during this song, "I can't
stand it! This is not the dream."
He couldn't have been
more right. This was The Scene.
"Standing on the footpath, bored out
of my head,
All my friends are hanging 'round here too.
I see unemployment grinning at the crowd,
Cash in hand a dollar, maybe two. . ." |
Roll
Along
Country love song |
Finger-pickin'
good
"When I know the evening's over, and I know I should go home.
When politeness sits a-mocking, his last cup of coffee gone
Then the feeling comes upon me I would really like to stay,
But the evening's over, so I go away . . ." |
Toccata
Country /folk ballad |
In
musical terms, a Toccata is a touch piece;
"Touch me. Here I am again and holding
together.
Travelling through this icy-winded weather.
I've
been smiling to myself, just knowing we'd be near . . ." |
Nobody
Came
Country-Rock |
Three
protest songs in one; sexism, one night stands and mining uranium.
"Dr. Hook"style (so it needed the anti-sexist verse! )
"Nobody came, but everybody had a good
time
Nobody came, but everyone said they were there . . ." |
|
|
|
|
|
Virgin Rainforest (with
mp3)
Reggae
Protest Song |
Virgin
Forest 'til 1982. Sub-titled: Ballad of Mount Nardi
"Sixty four arrested, for being in the
forest,
for being in possession of a different point of view . . ."
|
Should (with mp3)
subtitled: Tertiary Language
Reggae style |
Gail
had to decide what to do now her kids were grown up.
Everyone
told her what she "should" do, according to what they
wanted. I was a room-renting witness.
"How can you sit, when your feet say
walk? How can you silent when your tongue say talk?
Keep your mind open if you want to live, and leave your heart open, it will live.
How often do we tell our friends what they should do, a constant flood of expectation . .." |
|
Got
Calypso style
|
For
any English teacher. Possess: to hold (as property), maintain,
occupy, dominate, exercise control. How many friends have you
got?
"Never use the word 'got' they told
me,
it was there in the rules they sold me,
on page forty three,
Don't you know "I've got to go now" should be "I
ought to go"? . . ." |
| |
Bigots
Rap |
"There's
bigots in radio, bigots in school, bigots on T.V. playing the fool.
Bigots who talk about the Golden Rule, then stab you in the back
and think they're cool . . ." |
War
Sanctions
Rap
|
Would suit one rapper or various voices.
"We sell the world our weapons of destruction/
Helps the economy, that is the deduction/
First we has the arms
race, then we had reduction/ Now we found a reason to increase the
induction . . ."
(Chorus from Frankie Goes To Hollywood 1971 -"War!
What is it good for? Absolutely Nothin'.") |