Sheepwasher, The

DESCRIPTION: "When first I took the Western track, 'twas many years ago, No master then stood up so high, no servant stood so low." The singer recalls how he used to have a much better life. He urges ordinary Queenslanders to unite against tyranny
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook)
KEYWORDS: Australia hardtimes poverty work
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, p. 138, "The Sheepwasher" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [98 words]: John S. Manifold, Who Wrote the Ballads? Notes on Australian Folksong, Australasian Book Society, 1964, says that "The vanished trade of sheepwashing has left us one ballad, 'The Sheepwasher's Lamen.' I am pretty certain that it was by reason of its unusually strong political feeling that this one stayed alive. The sheepwashing trade disappeared, but the shearers took up the ballad that suited the temper of the strikers of the '90s." But there seem to be two sheepwashing songs, "The Sheepwasher's Lament" and "The Sheepwasher" -- and the one Manifold prints is "The Sheepwasher." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: PASB138

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