NZ FOLK SONG * We Don't Know How Lucky We Are

NEW ZEALAND FOLK * SONG	We Don't Know Lucky We Are John Clarke a.k.a. Fred Dagg, 1970s

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In the Tv persona of Fred Dagg, John Clarke showed us all what the Real Kiwi Bloke really was. This song doesn't have much of a tune to it, and since it is generally sung when everybody is drunk, the tune doesn't really matter. The attitude and accent are more important. The Kiwis at the bar will all know the chorus line. Verses have been added and changed over the years.

E
I was speaking to a
A
mate of mine just the other day
E
A guy called Bruce Bayliss actually who
A
lives up our way
Fm F E
He's been living in
A
Europe for the year, more or less
Fm
I said "How was Europe, Bruce?"
B₇
He says "Fred, it's a mess"

     E^#                D            A             A 
We don't-know   how-lucky     we are           mate
We don't-know   how-lucky     we are           mate

I was down the Plough and Chequebook,
the night before last
There's a guy down there on the floor
with his brain at half-mast
I said "You're looking really bad mate
your eyes look like strings"
He says "Get me an eight will you please
I can't see a thing"

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are,

Me stock agent's got a beach place
where he spends most of his days
His wife bit the dust down there last year
got eaten by a couple of crays
And his two littlest daughters
got killed by a whale
I said "Are you going down there this year mate?"
He says "Fred, right on the nail"

"We don't know how fortunate we are to have that place
We don't know how propitious are the circumstances Frederick"

So if things are looking really bad
you're thinking of givin' it away
Remember New Zealand's a cracker
and I reckon come what may
If things get appallingly bad
and we all get atrociously poor
If we stand in the queue with our hats on
we can borrow a few million more.

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are.

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are.

Source, "Fred Dagg Live"(LP), performed at the Christchurch town hall, about 1975.

Extra Verses

Me father-in-law's been feeling
pretty pleased with himself:
He's been living in Greece
for the good of his health.
I said, "How was the climate?
And how was your year?"
He says, "The climate's too hot,
you can't get a beer,
The sheilas look like blokes, and of course
the blokes are all queer,
and if you want a really good time,
you might as well live here."

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are.

Collected by Neil & Sandra Copeland.

At the dawn of the day, in the great Southern Ocean
Where the world's greatest fish was being landed
And the boat they were pulling it into was sinking
And the sea was quite lumpy, and the weather was foul
And the bloke with the map was as pissed as an owl
And the boys called out "Maui, ya clown, let it go"
In the noise he reached down for his grandmother's jawbone
and he winked at his mates and he said
"Boys, we don't know how lucky we are"
"I have a feeling I have stumbled on something substantial."

We don't know how lucky we are
We don't know how lucky we are
We don't know how lucky we are
We don't know how lucky we are

I was speaking to a mate of mine,
just the other day
A bloke called Bruce Bayliss,
who lives up our way
He's been round the world on an 8th army do
for a year, more or less
I said "Describe the global position, Bruce"
He said "Fred, it's a mess.
We don't know how lucky we are in this country.
We don't know how lucky we are
To live in this joint mate"

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are,

There's a guy I know who lives in town
I see him about once a year I suppose
He's had a coronary since Easter
He's got a haemorrhage in his ear
He went bankrupt a couple of weeks back
And now his wife's left him too
I said "You're looking hot mate,
You're looking clear, what are ya gonna do?"
He said "We don't know how lucky we are
To live in this joint mate"

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are,

So when things are looking really bad
And you're thinking of giving it a way
Remember, New Zealand's a cracker
And I reckon come what may
If things get appallingly bad
And we're all under constant attack
Remember, we want to see good clean ball
And for god's sakes, feed your backs
We don't how fortunate we are to have this place
We don't know how propitious are the circumstances.

We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are,

We don't know how lucky we are, get it right
We just don't realise how fortunate we are
We have no idea, the luck, we possess, collectively
We just don't know how lucky we all are. Full stop.

Source, Fred Dagg (Anthology) CD 2000

John Clarke

Fred Dagg is the enduring name of a comic character created in NZ by the Palmerston North-born (1948) entertainer John Morrison Clarke who has established himself as a top scriptwriter and comedian in Australia since he went there to live in the late 1970s.

Clarke first appeared in the Victoria University revue of 1969 and followed with a revue at Downstage Theatre in Wellington before working briefly in London in the early 1970s.

He first appeared on television in a satirical sequence on a current affairs programme, Gallery, in 1973. Over the following five years, Fred Dagg - a farmer-figure in black working singlet, tattered shorts and gumboots - became the best-known character in NZ comedy. He appeared regularly on television, toured the country with a stage show, appeared in a movie, Dagg Day Afternoon, and made records, including Fred Dagg's Greatest Hits (1975).

Clarke's prolific talent was also used on radio, a medium on which he was particularly successful when he first moved to Australia. Since then, he has discarded the Fred Dagg image and become a leading script writer for film and television as well as a television performer. Fred Dagg Discography

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Published on web 1999, updated March 2006