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THE McKENZIE SONG

Kath Tait, 1973

"My father was an engineer on the Benmore Dam," says Kath, "and I had learnt about James McKenzie at school. I was reluctantly dragged away from the McKenzie Country to Auckland at the age of 14, and lived in Auckland for the next 20 years.

The McKenzie Song was the first song I ever wrote at the age of 17, after reading James McNeish's book The McKenzie Affair.


Am    C             G                               Am        
I've mustered from Southland, through Central and North,
         C            G                      Am 
In that rough barren country of tussock and gorse.
          C           G                          Am 
And I've listened to songs that the old shearers tell,
     C           G                         Am
And passed them along with me own tales as well.

Chorus
      C         G                      Am
    McKenzie, McKenzie was that you I saw,
     C            G                      Am 
    Roaming them backhills just up from Benmore,
         C       G                          Am
    With 50 odd sheep and a good shepherd's dog.
     C           D             Am 
    Was it your ghost in the morning fog?

They tell of McKenzie, sheep stealer they say, 
He stole squatter's sheep and he drove them away,
With one strong eyed dog who could hypnotise sheep, 
To a far distant land where no white man had been.

Some say you were criminal, some say a good man, 
Put down by the law and your dog it was damned.
They took you to prison but you set yourself free, 
Then they took you again, your dog hung from a tree.

Them high country gales that blow through the night, 
Where the musterers camp in the fire's dim light,
They often bring sounds way off in the dark, 
Like a lone shepherd's whistle and a lone shepherd's bark.
McKenzie Tune

The McKenzie Song on Record


1981 Kath Tait, 'Paths' (compilation LP )
1985 Martin Curtis, 'Back From the Hills' (LP)
1987 The Pog Band, 'Pogonorythms' (LP)
1992 The Pog Band, 'Sesqui' (CD )
1996 Kath Tait, 'Bastard' (CD)
1997? The Pog Band, 'Southern Bred' (video)
2001 Phil Garland, Swag o' Dreams, CD (titled McKenzie's Ghost)

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