NEW  ZEALAND
FOLK * SONG
Farewell to the gold
Paul Metsers, 1969

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Many people have recorded this song, some with variations.

Here is Paul Metsers himself singing the original version.

Shotover River, your gold it is waning
It's weeks since the color I've seen.
But it's no use just sitting and Lady Luck blaming
I'll pack up and make the break clean.

chorus:
       Farewell to the gold that never I found,
       Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound;
       For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming
             Down in the dark deep underground.

It's nearly two years since I left my old mother
For adventure and gold by the pound.
With Jimmy the prospector, he was another,
For the hills of Otago was bound.

Well we worked the Cardrona's dry valley all over
Old Jimmy Williams and me.
They were panning good dirt on the winding Shotover
So we drifted down there just to see.

We sluiced and we cradled for day after day
Barely making enough to get by;
'Til a terrible flood swept poor Jimmy away
During six stormy days in July

Music score, 6K

Origins of the Lyrics

Paul Metsers writes
"I'm afraid there is no mystery source for the song, no distant broadside or doggerel from which it gained its inspiration. It's all out of my head as it happens.

Even back then, when I wrote it in 1969, I think it was, I had been writing songs for at least 5 years. It's what we do, we songwriters - put ourselves into the subject and imagine we're in the story

I was teaching the Form 2 Music Class at Hutt Intermediate school at the time and had taken them all on a trip down the West Coast of the South Island. We'd been over Arthurs Pass and Cardrona and down to the Shotover River and visited some old gold workings down that way. The kids had panned some gold and the whole thing had fired everyone's imagination.

I went home to my folk's place in Gisborne for the Xmas holidays with this really strong melodic idea and the basis of a chorus buzzing round in my head.

Then, I don't know where from, I got hold of a pictorial history of gold mining, a small but fascinating book called "The Goldfields of Central Otago", I think. When I read of the tragic flash flood of July in 1863, I knew I had the basis of a story.

So I invented a young man who teams up with an equally imaginary experienced old prospector whom I called Jimmy Williams with dreams of riches to come. Jimmy is lost to the sudden waters while the younster survives to tell the tale. That's it!

As far as cover versions go, Nic Jones' version on his "Penguin Eggs" album is by far the best known and the only one to have earned me anything. I've never received any royalties from Mary Black.

Well, I hope that's answered all your queries - I'd be interested in your reaction to it all. All the best, Paul Metsers."

Origins of the Tune

Johann Pachelbel wrote Canon in D in about 1680 with this chord sequence.
D A Bm F#m G D G A

D A Bm F#m G D G A

After a chamber music quartet recorded the piece in 1968, a dozen or more  popular song writers have used this sequence, often in the key of C, whose minor chords are easier to play on the guitar.
C G Am Em F C F G
C G Am Em F C F G

Ralph McTell wrote Streets of Paris after busking on them, and 1969 published it as Streets of London.
4/4 timing
C G Am Em F C D7 G
C G Am Em F C G7 C

Paul Metsers wrote Farewell to the Gold in January 1970.
3/4 timing.
C G Am Em F G C G
C G Am Em F - G7 C


The Ballad Writers' Toolbox

Melodic Ideas
"As far as songwriting goes," wrote Paul in 1998, "My process seems to have been fairly consistent over the years. I usually have some melodic idea and a topic associated with it and write the first part of the lyrics to that basic initial pattern.

Then I finish off the rest of the lyrics and finally work out the arrangement on whatever instrument I've decided to use- guitar, dulcimer, or mandocello."

What do you reckon was Paul's first melodic idea in this song ?

Mail me.

Farewell to the gold on Record

In New Zealand

Paul Metsers 1978
Martin Curtis 1983,
Chris Penman 1988.
But not yet recorded by Phil Garland!
Phil and Paul are old mates and Phil was a judge for a songwriting competition in which Paul's entry was this song. The song had only recently been written at the time and naturally won the competition. Paul then gave the song to Phil saying 'I wrote it for you mate - good luck with it'.

For a while after many thought it was Phil's song as Paul used to introduce it in his concerts as a Phil Garland song. In the meantime Phil was introducing it as a Paul Metsers song !

Incidentally the one version that Paul would like to hear recorded is Phil's who has never recorded it altho' singing it since 1976.
(Thanks to Mike Garland for this)

Overseas

Paul Metsers 1984,
and at least 20 others...
...including Bob Dylan (bootleg 1991 CD "Himself") who sung it as 'The Miners Song' at Youngstown Ohio, in Nov 1992. This is the only song written by a New Zealander that Dylan has done, and that single concert the only known public performance by Dylan of this song, probably because he mangled the song when he did it, starting

Shot river rover, the gold i-is waiting

Nic Jones made it well known when he included it on his very sucessful album Pengin Eggs although he also made a hash of the lyrics, singing

Shotover river, your gold it's waiting
And it's years since the colour I've seen

...And with Jimmy the prospector, he was another
And to the hills of Attargo we were bound

...Well we worked the card-rollers, dry valley all over
Oh, Jimmy Williams and me

Sandwitch

October 2002. Buddy Freebury has e-mailed to say his Anglo-German band Sandwitch recorded it on their debut CD Hourglass last year, and that they performed it in front of Paul Metsers himself at the 2001 Cropredy Festival in Oxfordshire. Apparently it is done in the Steeleye Span style. Review of Hourglass - Purchasing Hourglass


Variations

Paul's original line is 'No use just sitting and Lady Luck blaming' was changed by Phil Garland to 'No use complaining or Lady Luck blaming'.


Tia's Lament
Words by Roger Burton-West 1994

Farewell to the ships that I never will fly / Farewell to the stars and Farewell to the sky
For the virus has spoken, my body lies broken / But when I'm alone I can cry.



Hungover Liver
Words by Marcus Turner

Hungover liver. My head it is aching / It's weeks since the daylight I've seen
I'm sitting here thinking "This sh-t I've been drinking / Is rotting a hole in my spleen."

All the verses of Hungover Liver.


Australian mining song ?

Several American albums featuring this song say
"Shotover River is an Australian mining song."
Otago is not in Australia.

The American folksingers may just consider NZ to be a part of Australia.

Or the the Americans may have confused the Otago goldfields with the Bendigo goldfields in Australia. But the song mentions Otago's hills, and there are no hills in Bendigo.

Or they may have been confused by the fact that one of Otago's richest goldmines was named the Bendigo by its Aussie discoverers after the town where they had formerly worked. Thanks to Lloyd Carpenter for this information.

 

However there is a Western Australian version, written by Bob Emery.


Pilbara desert, your gold it is waiting,
It's weeks since the colour I've seen,
But it's no use complaining or lady luck blaming,
I'll pack up and make the break clean.

Chorus:-
Farewell to the gold that never was found,
Farewell to the nuggets that somewhere abound,
For it's only when dreaming that I see you gleaming,
Down in the dark deep underground.

It's nearly two years since I left me old mother,
For riches and gold by the pound.
But Jimmy the prospector he was another,
For the plains around Roebourne was bound.

We searched at Mt Welcome to the north and the south,
Dry blowing with no water around.
But in the furnace like heat we knew we were beat,
Not an ounce in six months had we found.

From Swan River to Cossack we sailed away,
We were five boring weeks on that boat.
We'd sold our belongings our fares for to pay,
There was gold in our sights and our hopes.

Well it's years now since Jimmy and I were out digging,
Roebourne gold dried up like the rest,
The hardship, the dying, those memories are gone,
I remember those years as the best.

"Here's the background," writes Phil Garland. "I toured right round Australia in 1981 after guesting at the National Festival in Brisbane. One place I played was Cossack about 1000 miles north of Perth in WA. I sang Paul's song "Farewell To The gold."

When I returned to Aust and went to live in Perth 1988 I met up with a local musician Bob Emery, who led a local bush band "Fiddlers Green." Bob had been in Cossack when I performed there earlier in 1981.

Bob then asked if If I minded him having rewritten the song Farewell To The gold for use in a West Australian gold mining workshop at a festival a few years ago. I told him I didn't mind but he would have to contact Paul for full permission.

Bob was then quite surprised to learn that I hadn't written it....which I found even more surprising because I always credit Paul Metsers with authorship. Obviously he wasn't listening too closely on the night or just recorded the song without the intro.


Paul Metsers

(JA) I first heard Paul singing in Eeyore Wilson's garden at Bunnythorpe near Palmerston North one warm summer evening in February 1983. The modally-chorded harmonies on his dulcimer and his guitar, and the tightly interwoven rhyming and rhythms of his songs were fascinating.

For years we have sung along to such New Zealand folk standards as Farewell To The gold, People I Want To Be, The Seal Children, The Swag and the Shiner, and Peace Must Come , without perhaps realizing they were all Paul's work.

Paul has always highlighted the green political message, from the time he wrote The Kauri Bushman for a NZ National Film Unit documentary in 1979, throughout the 1980s singing fulltime on the English folk circuit, and even now, making his finely crafted wooden board-games at Mint Cottage in the Lakes District in England.

Paul Metsers On Record
-Original Songs (cassette). 1978.
-A Song for You (cassette). 1979.
-In the Hurricane's Eye (LP). 1984.
-Momentum (LP). 1982.
-Caution to the Wind (LP). 1984 )
-Pacific Pilgrim (LP). 1986.
-Fifth Quarter 1988

The Metsers Songbook
Melodies, lyrics, chords, illustrations and photographs, contains about 50 of his songs, published 1987. For those who revel in DADGAD or CGCGCD and such guitar tunings, and finely crafted songs, this should be a goldmine.

But it is finely crafted board games that he is now making, and selling on the net.

For copies of the songbook, cassette copies of the (all sold out) LPs, or to send Paul and his partner, Pauline Brocklehurst, cheery NZ greetings, contact
Mint Cottage
Gilthwaiterigg lane
Kendal, Cumbria (Lakes District)
LA9 6NT
United Kingdom
Phone
+44 (0) 1539 724707
E-mail
[email protected]

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NEW  ZEALAND
FOLK*SONG
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Hungover Liver

words Marcus Turner    music Paul Metsers

Parody of Farewell to the gold by Paul Metsers


Marcus Turner is an international folk musician of the highest calibre. His concerts include songs of high intelligence and sensitivity, performed with great artistic skill. He did Hungover Liver for comic relief in his early concerts in much the same way as Eric Bogle did Somebody's Moggy after a heart-wrencher like Leaving Nancy.
Contact him at [email protected]



Hungover liver. my head it is aching; 
It's weeks since the daylight I've seen
I'm sitting here thinking "This shit I've been drinking
Is rotting a hole in my spleen."

  Farewell to the gold that never I've seen.
  Goodbye to the acres of New Zealand green.
  I'm feeling quite plastered; my brain is half-masted.
  Put me down, you don't know where I've been.

It's nearly two weeks since I left my old lady 
To have a quiet beer with the boys
With Acid Head Jimmy and crazy Marie 
And Zelda with her rubber toys.

  Farewell to my house, my family and wife.
  I knew I was heading for all kinds of strife.
  We really were raving, I knew I was having 
  The best bloody  time of my life.

We spent the next fortnight in acts of perversion,
Old Jimmy Williams and me
'Til we heard of a party where no one had clothes on
So we headed down there just to see.

We drank and we chundered for night after night.
Jug after jug we threw down
'Til two great big p'licemen took Jimmy away
In a bust in the east end of town.

  Farewell lovely Zelda wherever you are.
  Your knickers are still in the back of my car,
  And thanks for the games with Marie and with James
  And I hope the rash doesn't spread far.

Put on web, Feb 1999, modified May 2000

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