Lonnigan's Widow
(Sheil Silverstein)
Now four jolly troopers from Mansfield town
Set out to hunt the Kelly boys down
They searched through the wombat for most of the week
And they camped on the banks of the Stringybark Creek
cho: But Lonnigan's widow, she's singin' no songs
She walks these red hills and cries all night long
They say that Ned Kelly ain't never done wrong
But tell that to Lonnigan's widow
Early that mornin' 'midst laughter and shoutin'
Kennedy and Scanlon they rode off a scoutin'
Left McIntyre to cook up the grub
While Lonnigan sang at the old washin' tub
They were cleanin' the camp and brewin' up tea
When up jumped Ned Kelly with his comrades three
A shout and a cry and a crack of a gun
Lonnigan staggers and Lonnigan's done
He's crawlin' he's cryin' he's clawin' the ground
His voice makes a pleading and pitiful sound
Of the way that he's dyin' nobody will speak
When thy tell of the glories of Stringybark Creek
So sing of Ned Kelly that lad of renown
The pride of Australia the scourge of the Crown
Sing of his bravery and God bless his head
And bury the truth as you bury the dead
Note:This is the only song that I know of which paints Kelly
in a bad light.He (like Jesse James and some other folk
heroes) was in reality a bad ass horse thieving, robbing,
murdering bastard. But in the way of these things he became
a peoples' hero.
From the record produced as a marketing exercise to go with
the movie NED KELLY which starred Mick Jagger as Ned. Jagger
only sang one song, Wild Colonial Boy(badly) and played
tin whistle on the album. All the other songs were written
by Silverstein and Christofferson and sung by Christofferson
and Waylon Jennings (A bit weird considering the musical
talent available at the time in Australia but the use of
Jagger, Christofferson and Jennings probably sold more albums
in the USA) TFA
TFA
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!