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
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
"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 ?
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)
...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. 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.
(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]
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.
