We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

Complete poem written by Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922) .
Melody by jazz musician Ade Monsbourgh (1917 – 2006) as sung by Shirley Jacobs (1927 – 2015) on “A voice from the city: a tribute to Henry Lawson.” (1972)
Viola by Mikhail Bugaev.

lyrics

The Sliprails and the Spur (1899)
by Henry Lawson
(1867 – 1922)
----------------------------
[V.1]
The colours of the setting sun
Withdrew across the Western land —
He raised the sliprails, one by one,
And shot them home with trembling hand ;
Her brown hands clung — her face grew pale —
Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim ! —
One quick, fierce kiss across the rail,
And, ' Good-bye, Mary ! ' 'Good-bye, Jim ! '
------------------------------------
[ CHORUS 1 ]
Oh, he rides hard to race the pain
Who rides from love, who rides from home;
But he rides slowly home again,
Whose heart has learnt to love and roam.
------------------------------------
[V.2]
A hand upon the horse's mane,
And one foot in the stirrup set,
And, stooping back to kiss again,
With ' Good-bye, Mary ! Don't you fret !
When I come back' — he laughed for her —
' We do not know how soon 'twill be;
I'll whistle as I round the spur —
You let the sliprails down for me. '
------------------------------------
[V.3]
She gasped for sudden loss of hope,
As, with a backward wave to her,
He cantered down the grassy slope
And swiftly round the dark'ning spur.
Black-pencilled panels standing high,
And darkness fading into stars,
And blurring fast against the sky,
A faint white form beside the bars.
-----------------------------------------
[V.4]
And often at the set of sun,
In winter bleak and summer brown,
She'd steal across the little run,
And shyly let the sliprails down.
And listen there when darkness shut
The nearer spur in silence deep ;
And when they called her from the hut
Steal home and cry herself to sleep.
-------------------------------------
[V.5]
A great white gate where sliprails were,
A brick house 'neath the mountain brow,
The "mad girl" buried by the spur
So long ago, forgotten now.
------------------------------------------
[ CHORUS 2]
And he rides hard to dull the pain
Who rides from one that loves him best;
And he rides slowly back again,
Whose restless heart must rove for rest.
==========================

credits

from Henry Lawson (the poet in song) Vol​.​3, track released April 10, 2021
Tune by Ade Monsbourgh, viola by Mikhail Bugaev

license

tags

about

The Queensland Tiger image

The Queensland Tiger

The Queensland Tiger covers traditional Australian ballads mainly from 19C.: e.g. Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Breaker Morant, Charles Thatcher, etc…. true to the original works.
website : www.thequeenslandtiger.com or Youtube channel : The Queensland Tiger ... more

contact / help

Contact The Queensland Tiger

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like The Queensland Tiger, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring interviews with LA music scene pillar Kamasi Washington, and new London-based duo Mrcy.

listen now