An example of how studying folklore can throw light on contemporary issues in a guest post from folklorists, Warren Fahey...
There was a time in Australian history when we sang boisterously and often. Singalongs at theatres, local halls and home were a major part of our popular entertainment. The songs ranged from latest hits to evergreens plus tearjerkers, folk songs and comic songs. Television put an end to our singing and marked the line where we shifted from being a people who entertained each other to a people who got entertained, mostly by the electronic media. We’re all the worse for it as passive entertainment has proven a health risk in more ways than one. Part of our sung repertoire included bawdy or filthy songs and there’s a case that the St. Kevin’s boys, with their sexist chant, (I wouldn’t deign to call it a song) are part of that continuing tradition. In fact, when I heard those lines “I wish that all the ladies were waves in the ocean/and I was a surfer, I’d ride ‘em with my motion” I immediately recognised it as a version of a very old erotic folk song known as ‘Hares on the Mountain’ (otherwise titled ‘Blackbirds and Thrushes’) which offers verses like:
"If all those young men were as rushes a-growing,/Then all those pretty maidens will get scythes and go mowing’ and ‘If all you young men were hares on the mountain,/How many young girls would take guns and go hunting?’ The big surprise here is that the old song, and it probably dates back to the mid 1700s, comes at it from a female perspective. The first published version appeared in Samuel Lover’s 1838 novel Rory o’More. St Kevin’s version certainly lacks that sort of finesse and subtly.
The bawdy song tradition in Australia was always strong and no doubt reflects our male dominated colonial society and particularly our key pastoral itinerant workforce of shearing and droving which were male exclusive with communal living. The early Australian pub with ‘men only’ in the public bar, was also conducive to rowdy and bawdy singing. I have been collecting and documenting Australian bawdry for nearly fifty years and, although it hasn’t completely disappeared, it is definitely a rare find. Some are local versions of Anglo, Canadian and American songs, and others are covered in mud, dust and sweat from our past. Classics like ‘The Bastard From The Bush,' ‘The Shearer’s Lament,' ‘Pull Me Dungarees Down, Sport’ and ‘The Barmaid With Gonorrhoea’ are certainly uniquely Australian. The P.C. Police did most of them in but so too did having television sets blaring out in public bars. One of the last bastion of bawdy songs were sporting clubs and especially private school rugby, hockey, skiing and rowing clubs. Rugby had the closest link with bawdy sings. Oddly, the other football codes rarely sang except on the occasional coach trip. AFL, being an early adopter of ‘family football’ never used the songs.
Communal singing aided morale and we only have to look back to the development of bawdy song in both WW1 and WW2. One of our classic collections is from the troops in the New Guinea campaign: ‘Mess Hall Songs and Rhymes of the RAAF 1939-45’ has some shockers which would make St. Kevin’s song seem very mild.
It is possible our bawdy song tradition goes back to our convict birth. The majority of convicts and early emigrants were decidedly lower, working class, and unlikely to be puritanical. They were usually seen as inveterate gamblers, boozers and devoted to bawdy behaviour and extremely bad language. The average bushman of the nineteenth century swore like a trooper, peppered his speech with the most extraordinary expressions but clammed shut, tight as a drum, in the presence of women. They hardly spoke in front of women let alone swear or sing a bawdy song.
The real issue with the majority of bawdy songs is that they are demeaning to women, often violently. Women are generally seen as sex objects unwillingly or willingly participating in disgustingly gross behaviour. Once again this comes back to the fact that the songs have mostly been carried through the tradition by men, and mostly by men assembled together for a purpose such as war or competitive sport. Much of the justification has been put down to male bonding and camaraderie, especially in times of stress, and, of course, must be viewed from a historical perspective. Misogyny has no place in today’s society and it is clear the St Kevin’s boys crossed the line, especially by taking the song public.
In the twenty-first century our national larrikin stereotype is still seen as a gambler, boozer and swearer and this is possibly why international folklorists see us as one of the last bastions of bawdy song. This is no excuse for misogynistic songs which, like racist songs from our past, are best filed away as curios and reminders of roads we once travelled.
Warren Fahey is a cultural historian. ‘Sing Us Anothery Dirty As Buggery: Australian Bawdy Songs, Recitations, Graffiti, Lavatory Humour and Drinking Toasts’ is available as an 820 page ebook. $13