Dalby Ram As I was going to Dalby all on a market day I met the biggest ram my boys that ever was fed on hay And indeed my lads it's true my lads I never was known to lie And if you'd been in Dalby you'd seen him the same as I The wool on this ram's belly well it grew into the ground Cut off and sent to the Sydney sales it fetched a thousand pound The wool on this ram's back my boys grew so very high The eagles came and built their nests and I heard the young 'uns cry The horns on this ram's head they reached up to the moon A little boy went up in January and he didn't get back till June And indeed my lads it's true my lads I never was known to lie And if you'd been in Dalby you'd seen him the same as I The man that fed this ram my boys he fed him twice a day And every time he opened his mouth he swallowed a bale of lucerne hay The man that watered this ram my boys watered him twice a day And every time he opened his mouth he drunk the river dry Now this old ram he had a tail that reached right down to hell And every time he waggled it he rung the fireman's bell And indeed my lads it's true my lads I never was known to lie And if you'd been in Dalby you'd seen him the same as I The butcher that stuck this ram my boys was up to knees in blood And the little boy who held the bowl was carried away by the flood Took all the boys in Dalby to roll away his bones Took all the girls in Dalby to roll away his stone the crows Now the man that fattened this ram my boys he must have been very rich And the man who sung this song must be a lying son of a .... so he is Well now my song is ended I've got no more to say So give us another pint of beer and we'll all of us go away --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- A number of versions of this song have been collected in Australia, 'Albury Ram', 'Derby Ram', 'Dalby Ram', 'Derby Shed Ram'. This version from the singing of A.L.Lloyd, who writes in his Folk Song in England : "Survivals of agricultural magic-making abound in our folk song even today though as the old meaning becomes unclear what was once ritualistic is likely to change into broad comedy, as with the randy animal-guiser song of the 'Derby Ram', concerning a beast of gigantic, not to say cosmic, attributes, a song that is the lyrical equivalent of those phallophoric dances that survive in farming ceremonies in Europe, intended to celebrate and stimulate the powers of reproduction in plants, animals and men, a song that nowadays survives mainly as a bawdy anthem for beery students or soldiers coming home on leave". MG apr97
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!