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Andy's Gone with Cattle

from Drovers, Stockmen and Bullockies by The Queensland Tiger

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about

One of Henry Lawson’s (ref #1) earliest and most popular poems, “Andy’s Gone with Cattle” (ref #2) tells of the hardships and separation caused by life on the land, and of cattle droving. This poem tells the story from the point of view of the family, left behind on a selection in The Outback, while Andy goes droving. He’s away for months at a time.
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This poem has a sequel, called “Andy’s Return”, written in the same year.
After its original publication (ref #3) in 1888, the poem was subsequently published in “In the Days When the World was Wide and other verses” (ref #4) (1896, but 2nd ed., revised 1900) .
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However, in 1918, for a volume of Lawson’s “Selected Poems” (ref #5) , revisions were made to this poem by David McKee Wright, (ref #6) to make it sound more English .

The original opening lines were :

Our Andy’s gone to battle now
’Gainst Drought, the red marauder;
Our Andy’s gone with cattle now
Across the Queensland border.

These were rewritten as follows :

Our Andy’s gone with cattle now—
Our hearts are out of order—
With Drought he’s gone to battle now
Across the Queensland border.

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In some other revisions, the line “Our hearts with him are roving” is replaced by “Our thoughts with him are roving” . “Out of order” is an expression taken from a later verse, which starts : “The gates are out of order now”, so when some of the revised versions are performed, verse 3 , as seen here, is omitted. Here (ref #7) is a discussion about different people who have sung the song, with some different versions
The tune used on this album is by the late Hugh McDonald, (ref #8) one of his best, with violin by John-Joe Murray.
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Ref #1 : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lawson
Ref #2 : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy%27s_Gone_with_Cattle
Ref #3 : trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71103340
Ref #4 : www.gutenberg.org/files/214/214-h/214-h.htm
Ref #5 : gutenberg.net.au/ebooks20/2001121h.html
Ref #6 : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_McKee_Wright
Ref #7 : mainlynorfolk.info/wyndham-read/songs/andysgonewithcattle
Ref #8 : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_McDonald_(Australian_musician)
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lyrics

Andy’s Gone with Cattle (1888)
by Henry Lawson (1867 – 1922)
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1896 version
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[V.1]
Our Andy’s gone to battle now
’Gainst Drought, the red marauder;
Our Andy’s gone with cattle now
Across the Queensland border.

He’s left us in dejection now ;
Our hearts with him are roving.
It’s dull on this selection now,
Since Andy went a-droving.
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[V.2]
Who now shall wear the cheerful face
In times when things are slackest ?
And who shall whistle round the place
When Fortune frowns her blackest ?

Oh, who shall cheek the squatter now
When he comes round us snarling ?
His tongue is growing hotter now
Since Andy cross’d the Darling.

[V.3]
The gates are out of order now,
In storms the ‘riders’ rattle ;
For far across the border now
Our Andy’s gone with cattle.

Poor Aunty’s looking thin and white ;
And Uncle’s cross with worry ;
And poor old Blucher howls all night
Since Andy left Macquarie.
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[V.4]
Oh may the showers in torrents fall,
And all the tanks run over ;
And may the grass grow green and tall
In pathways of the drover ;

And may good angels send the rain
On desert stretches sandy ;
And when the summer comes again
God grant ’twill bring us Andy.
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credits

from Drovers, Stockmen and Bullockies, track released November 7, 2023
Words : Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922)
Tune : Hugh McDonald ( 1954 – 2016 )
Violin : John-Joe Murray

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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

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