Click Go the Shears
"Click Go the Shears"is a traditionalAustralianbush ballad.The song details a day's work for asheep shearerin the days beforemachine shearing.
Song
[edit]The enduring popularity of the song reflects the traditional role that thewoolindustry has played in Australian life. The song describes the various roles in theshearing shed,including the "ringer", the "Boss of the board", the "colonial experience man" and the "tar boy". After the day's shearing, the "old shearer" takes hischequeand heads to the localpubfor a drinking session.
The tune is from theAmerican Civil Warsong "Ring the Bell, Watchman",byHenry Clay Work,and the first verse follows closely, in parody, Work's lyrics as well. It was originally named "The Bare Bellied Ewe",[1]and only became popular in the 1950s, more than half a century later.
The second verse in the original 19th-century song is as follows:
Click goes his shears; click, click, click.
Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick,
The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow,
And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe.
The usual chorus of the song is as follows:
Click go the shears boys, click, click, click,
Wide is his blow and his hands move quick,
The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow,
And curses the old snagger with the bare-bellied yoe
In June 2013, folklorist Mark Gregory discovered that a version of the song was first published in 1891 in the regional Victorian newspaper theBacchus Marsh Expressunder the title "The Bare Belled Ewe" and the tune given as "Ring the Bell Watchman." That version was signed "C. C. Eynesbury, Nov. 20, 1891,"[1]Eynesburybeing a rural property in theBacchus Marsharea.[2]It is possible that "C.C." was the author of the song.
There was ashearers' strikein 1891 so the publication of the song in that year would have resonated with theAustraliancommunity.[3]
The song was next published in 1939 in two Australian newspapers and then, in 1946, as a traditional song "collected and arranged" bymusicologistthe Reverend Dr Percy Jones. The lyrics vary widely: "bare-bellied yoe" (yoe is a dialect word forewe) is often "bare-bellied joe" or even "blue-bellied ewe". The last line in the verse about the "colonial experience" man "smelling like a whore" is oftenbowdlerisedto "smelling like a sewer" or completely rewritten.[citation needed]
The song has been recorded by many artists, notably in 1958 by theAmericanfolk musicianBurl Ives,on his albumAustralian Folk Songs.Another version was recorded by theBritishfolkloristA. L. Lloyd.In January 2014,Chloe and Jason Rowethsang the 1891 version of the song for anABC TVstory.[3]
When Australia replaced thepoundwith thedollarin 1966, a jingle that accompanied the changover was written to the same tune:[4]
In come the dollars; in come the cents,
To replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence,
Be prepared folks, when the coins begin to mix,
On the fourteenth of February, nineteen-sixty-six.
In 1973, whenGough Whitlam,the then Australian Prime Minister, visited thePeople's Republic of China,a PLA (People's Liberation Army) military band played "Click Go the Shears" as Whitlam stepped off his aircraft atBeijing Airport.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ab"The Bare Belled Ewe".The Bacchus Marsh Express.5 December 1891. p. 7.Retrieved17 June2024– via Trove.
- ^"Eynesbury".The Bacchus Marsh Express.11 April 1896. p. 1.Retrieved17 June2024– via Trove.
- ^ab"Click Go The Shears dates from time of shearers strike in 1890s, newly unearthed lyrics reveal".ABC News.Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 31 January 2014.Retrieved17 June2024.
- ^"Dollar Bill Turns 50 Years Old".Reserve Bank of Australia.Retrieved17 June2024.
