Buddy & Slim

(album: Butcherbird - 2018)

Thinking about Buddy and Slim
And Stan Costa too
And all those pioneers, before the tide came through
Before rock and roll
Before the hip hooray
Thinking about the trail they blazed and the songs they made

Stan was short of a quid
And the pub had no beer
The rain tumbled down in July, and we had a good year
We had a drink with Shorty
At Three Rivers Hotel
There was Smoky and Tex and Chad, and Rick and Phil

There was Banjo and Henry
And all their peers
They wondered what an Aussie would be in a hundred years
Well, we keep our romance
With the bush, out there
And I must admit, I wonder, will we still care?

It's all about how
The world can change
But maybe not so much, the other side of the range
There will always be battlers
That feel right at home
Out there where the white-faced cattle roam

I fire and pitch and coals
To keep us warm
It'll rain on the Diamond Tina and the birds will swarm
We'll boil a billy
And admire the stars
Sing about droughts and floods, and hate the cuts in jars

The songs will live
And I'll tell you why
The spirit of the bush will never die