Friday, October 17, 2025

BALLADS AND POLITICS



Politics in ballad form – Stockwell and the 1975 Dismissal

Reviewed by Tony Smith


Whitlam speaking after the dissolution of parliament, 1975. National Archives of Australia A6180 13/11/75/34


Stephen Stockwell 1975: The Ballads of the Whitlam Dismissal (Tallebudgera Press 2025)

This book of some 160 pages includes 45 pages of ballads describing the key events of 11 November 1975. Media academic Stephen Stockwell has taken up the poet’s pen to explore politics. Previous publications include ‘The Voyage and the Vision’ and ‘The Phoenician Sonnets’.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government by Governor General John Kerr, all Australians will consider the strength of our democracy. Those of us who were appalled by the removal of the elected government by a representative of a foreign monarch will no doubt still worry that Australian democracy hangs by a thread. And given the possibility of involvement by the USA because of concerns for the security of its spy and military installations, we will no doubt wonder whether Canberra holds any power except with the permission of the UK and the USA. Stephen Stockwell explores these questions fearlessly.

Much of the content of the dozen or so ballads is explained in the essay which follows called ‘Spies, Lies and Sovereignty’. Stockwell focuses mainly on the foreign influence rather than domestic constitutional politics.

The ballads have titles for themes, such as ‘A Sovereign State’, ‘Smoking Gun’, ‘Loans Affair’, Bad Omens’ and ‘Aftermath’ or for people ‘Michael Hand’, ‘Gough Whitlam’, ‘John Kerr’, ‘Jim and Junie’ and ‘The Fall of Gough Whitlam’. ‘Prelude’ is also in ballad form and is echoed by an ‘Epilogue’. As well as both creative and academic style writing, Stockwell supplies illustrations in the form of original caricatures.

Introducing ‘The Penguin Book of Australian Ballads’ Russell (‘Australian Legend’) Ward explains that a ballad is ‘narrative folk-verse or narrative literary verse written in the style of folk ballads’. There is no point in opening old debates about what ‘folk’ might. John Manifold was sceptical about the utility of the term when he gave his influential book the title ‘Penguin Australian Songbook’. Importantly, Stockwell strives to make his ballads broadly accessible.

Most of the ballads are lengthy, but would be well received at the traditional Poets’ Breakfasts held at folk festivals. For me the shorter verse of ‘Prelude’ and ‘Epilogue’ are more succinct and appealing. The first opens with the question ‘Remember, remember November eleven/ That day of infamy/ When Gough Whitlam was sacked, democracy attacked/ We lost our sovereignty?’

The ‘Epilogue’ asks of the future ‘Will Eureka’s flag fly, o’er a nation that tried/ To live in liberty? Remember, remember November eleven/ As we yearn to be free/ We can’t escape the blame, while we’re pawns in their game/ And still a colony’. Stockwell does not let us off the hook.

In ‘Aftermath’ Stockwell notes that ‘Our scribes and artists are outraged,/ They rally to the cause: There’s Rodney Hall and Midnight Oil,/ The George Miller, of course/ My friend, that sleuth Jan Mkemmish/ Wrote “Gap in the Records’,/ Peter Carey penned “Tristan Smith”,/ Warned of “Amnesia’s” force’.

The irreverent Norman Gunston was there in 1975 on the steps of Parliament House with Whitlam and Kerr’s secretary. Musicians expressing disgust include Red Gum - ‘Tell Malcolm we’re serving, serving USA’ - and John Dengate with ‘Old King Kerr’. As recently as 2022 Bob Wilson and the Goodwills won the Alistair Hulett Songs for Social Justice Award with a song called ‘When Whitlam took his turn at the wheel’.

Other examples of satire appear in the work of John Clarke and cartoonist Michael Leunig, and in Warren Fahey’s ‘The Balls of Bob Menzies’ (1989). The Gillies Report in 1983 had a special called

‘Il Dismissale’. Most of these works were expressions of outrage at the political damage to the left and the shame heaped upon Australia.

Stockwell’s ballads focus on the broader question of the deleterious effects of foreign interference on our political culture. Stockwell is a musician, a member of ‘Brisbane’s Black Assassins’ an elusive punk band of the 1980s during the ‘Reich of Jackboot Joh’. A CD of the ballads would be a fine addition.

In concluding remarks Stockwell notes the unlikely reconciliation between Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser who took political advantage of the Whitlam government’s difficulties over supply and was known as ‘Kerr’s cur’. Stockwell sees a message of hope there for ‘our democracy, our nation and the sovereignty on which it rests: the Australian people – First nations, colonial settlers and multicultural migrants – we are all in this thing, Australia, together’.

 

Sunday, September 7, 2025

BUSH TRADITIONS WEB RESOURCES


 


 

The new Bush Traditions website is at https://www.bushtraditions.org/ with a link to Australian Social Dance and Music an organisation dedicated to ‘interest and participation in traditional and contemporary social dance and its music’ - https://ausdam.org
 
The Australian Traditional Music Archive (ATMA) is at  https://austradmusic.au/ . Tunes and relevant information have been enhanced and made more accessible and usable.

All invaluable resources for study or pleasure.

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

OLD DAD ADAMS, BERT LLOYD, TEX MORTON AND ALL… THE CURIOUS HISTORY OF BILL BRINK




Bluey Brink the shearer was '
A devil for work and a devil for drink', according to the well-known song/recitation. Turns out that this popular item of bush humour has a complicated history of transmission in Australia and America - and back again. Read all about it and' Old Dad' Adams in our articles section at  https://verandahmusic.blogspot.com/p/articles.html

AUNTY DAWN SMITH – VERANDAH MUSIC BOURKE STYLE


Here’s a taste of how they sing and play around Bourke, NSW.  Aunty Dawn plays guitar and sings in the Australian country style. One the first video she performs ‘Tall Dark Man in the Saddle’ and on the second, with the vocal contribution of Chris Woodland, ‘Annabelle’.

 

Aunty Dawn is a long-standing friend of Chris Woodland who many years ago worked on stations in the Bourke area and formed firm friendships with many of the local Indigenous people. He met Aunty Dawn in the early days and they have remained in touch ever since. Aunty taught Chris the song, Annabelle.

 

These field recordings were made by Rob Willis, John Harpley and Chris Woodland in October, 2017. Enjoy.

 

Tall Dark Man in the Saddle https://youtu.be/l_yyRUnK0N0

 

Annabelle https://youtu.be/_Ie4u2LVsMk 

Friday, May 2, 2025

TRACKING CROOKED MICK – THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A BUSH LEGEND

 


The occupational hero of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Australian shearers was the fabled 'Crooked Mick'. Mick was a superhuman character most often seen on the Speewah, an equally fabled sheep station where the board was so long it took all day to get from one end to the other - by horse.

We've published a short article that tracks the origins and development of the legend of Crooked Mick and the Speewah on the blog at

Read all about the over-sized superhero shearer who could shear three sheep with just two blows of his shears and needed eight ‘loppies’, or rousabouts, to carry the fleeces away - and even more lies!

Thursday, April 3, 2025

IMMORTAL - A Video Commemoration and Celebration



Bruce Watson has released his outstanding commemoration to those whose legacy is the basis of the Australian folk scene. Below is Bruce's introduction to the video and you can view it at
 https://sites.google.com/view/immortalfolk
 

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After 15 months and hundreds of hours of work, I am proud to announce that the ‘Immortal’ video is now completed and available to view!


‘Immortal’ remembers and celebrates the extraordinarily talented people who have made a significant contribution to Australia’s folk scene over the decades – but who are no longer with us. People who have played a key role in expressing, and defining Australia’s changing cultural identity, and who have left a lasting legacy through their music, inspiration, knowledge and passion; performers, songwriters, collectors and inspirers.


Photos, video and audio capture their lives and their creative cultural contribution, providing an opportunity for remembering, and giving inspiration to the next generation.


Some early reactions:

  • BRILLIANT! A cultural treasure of incalculable value.  I am moved almost beyond words.  (Phyl Lobl)
  • Wow! What a wonderful video!   Brilliant photos, brought back some great memories.  (Martyn Wyndham-Read)
  • An amazing project!  What an emotional journey! How lucky are the present generation to have this wonderful tribute.  (Kate Delaney)
Some of you may have seen earlier drafts of the video, which I have screened at three folk festivals in recent months, accompanied by a panel exploring issues of change and continuity within the folk scene and Australian culture, and by feedback which has been incorporated into the final version.
Thanks to the Troubadour Foundation for supporting this project with a grant.


I’d love you to have a look, click Like, and comment on the video. And please share it with anyone you know who might be interested in it.

To watch the video, go to this website: https://sites.google.com/view/immortalfolk

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

DANCING WITH A CONCERTINA (as well as a person)


 

Tony Smith as written a piece on music making as portrayed in Eve Langley's classic novel, The Pea-Pickers (1942). The focus is on the intriguing custom of playing a concertina while whirling your partner around the dance floor. What fun!

You can read Tony's article here https://verandahmusic.blogspot.com/p/articles.html

Thursday, March 13, 2025

FOLKSONG BANNED 1949!




On 11 February 1949 Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper reported that:

'The Foggy, Foggy, Dew' has been banned by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the Federation of Commercial Broadcasting Stations. The song was featured in the film 'Smoky.' Brisbane radio stations have recordings which have been played on the air. They are by the American singer Burl Ives.

The A.B.C. director of variety (Mr. H. Pringle) said in Sydney that although the song was good technically, it had suggestive implications. The president of the Australian Federation of Commercial Broadcasting Stations (Mr. J. E. Ridley) said that although the song was melodious, the words were 'a bit over the fence.'

Burl Ives was in the early years of his long career in show business, with a special emphasis on ‘folk songs’. His ‘Foggy Dew’ was not the well-known setting of the Charles O’Neill chronicle of the 1916 Easter rising in Ireland, but the traditional song with faintly risqué lyrics in which a bachelor weaver ‘woos’ a young woman ‘in the wintertime and in the summer, too’. Going by Burl’s rendition on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1953 he was not averse to spruiking the song’s double meaning. So, although Australian broadcasters considered the song  'a bit over the fence’, it doesn’t seem to have bothered American audiences.

Sing Out magazine (source of the image above) has an article on Burl at https://singout.org/remembering-burl-ives-on-the-100th-anniversary-of-his-birth/


(See previous posts on Burl downunder)


Thursday, January 30, 2025

AUSTRALIAN BUSH MUSIC RESOURCE


Shearing the Rams, Tom Roberts

Large collection of Sheet Music and Publications Information about Collectors and Informants of bush music at https://australianfolkmusic.com.au/home/about/