Full album including word and PDF version of album notes and three bonus videos
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about
I first heard this song not by Alistair, but by Nancy Kerr and James Fagan! I learned the song for a tribute to Alistair Hulett at the Auckland Folk Festival in 2012, that I did with a group of my folkie mates. We also turned this gig into a fundraiser for the Alistair Hulett Memorial Fund and the Auckland Wharfies who were out on strike.
aucklandfolkfestival.co.nz www.alistairhulett.com/alistair-hulett-memorial-fund/
I love this song because while it could be a sad song about work-related lung disease, Alistair – as usual – turns it into a song of defiance and fightback.
Alistair wrote this song and He Fades Away for a play by Ben Hills called Blue Murder on the horrors of the asbestos mines in Western Australia. The play never reached completion due to circumstances around the free Tim Anderson campaign.
roaringjack.com/forrester.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Anderson_(political_economist)
Many of those who worked the asbestos mines in West Australia came from very remote parts of Europe on assisted passages. They had sign up at the mines for two years, and of course they didn’t know it was a toxic hellhole: if they absconded they were forcibly returned by the Western Australia police: it was pretty much a system of indentured labour!
We did the tribute gig to Alistair again at the Bunker – www.devonportfolkmusic.co.nz – and this time collected for locked-out meat workers. I reckon Ally would have been so chuffed that in a cast of seven for of us were either vegetarian or vegan, but were collecting for locked-out meat workers.
lyrics
They say it's easy money
A full page ad in the local rag,
Always nice and sunny.
Come on lad, and pack your bag.
Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.
It's off to West Australia.
Leave the old hometown behind.
Be a winner, not a failure.
There's money to be made in the Wittenoom Mine.
Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.
They took me to my quarters,
A stinking bed in an old tin shed.
Got my working orders,
With a lamp, and tin hat on my head.
Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.
My girl she's a cook and a cleaner.
Works all day in the canteen hall.
Six days since I've seen her.
Some don't have no girl at all.
Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.
Sweeps the fine blue dust up.
Tips it into an old wool pack.
Never had a check-up.
If she did she'd get the sack
Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.
I feel my health is failing
Working down in the thick blue dust.
The kids play in the tailings.
The boss says work, and work I must.
Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.
credits
from Bring out the Banners,
released March 11, 2019
Copyright – Alistair Hulett | Arranged – Paul Brown and Ian Bartlett | Vocals – Paul Brown, Jenny Kilpatrick, Tony Ricketts, Ian Bartlett, Noel Armstrong, and Jean Reid
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