[Editor: This song by “R.G.S.” — a pseudonym of John Neilson (1844-1922) — was published in The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 23 November 1878. The song was published elsewhere, under several titles, including “Another Fall of Rain”, “Shearer’s Song”, and “The Song of the Shearer”. John Neilson (senior) revealed that he was the creator of this song in a letter published in The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), on 19 January 1887.]
Waiting for the Rain.
The weather has been warm for a fortnight now or more,
And the shearers have been driving might and main,
For some have got the century who never got it before;
But now all hands are wishing for the rain.
Chorus —
For the boss is getting rusty and the ringer’s caving in,
And his bandaged wrist is aching with the pain,
And the second man, I fear, will make it hot for him
Unless we have another fall of rain.
A few were taking quarters and coiling in the bunks,
While we shore the six-tooth wethers from the plain,
And should the sheep get harder there is more of us will funk
Unless we have another fall of rain.
The cockies hear that shearing will talk like a little book
About this sad dry weather for the grain;
But here the lunch a-coming, so make way for Dick the cook —
Old Dick is nigh as welcome as the rain.
But the sky is overcast, and the thunder’s muttering loud,
And the clouds are drifting westward o’er the plain,
For I see the red fire breaking from the edge of yon black cloud,
And hear the gentle patter of the rain.
So lads put on your stoppers, and let us to the hut,
Where we’ll gather round and have a friendly game;
While some are playing music, and some play ante-up,
And some are looking outwards at the rain.
And when the rain is over let the pressers spin the screw,
Let the waggoners once more back in their teams;
We’ll block the classers up, by the way, we’ll put them through,
For everything goes merry since the rain.
Let the boss bring out the bottle, let him moisten the last flock,
For the shearers here can ne’er all meet again
Until the next year’s shearing, or perhaps not even then,
For soon we all will vanish like the rain.
R.G.S.
Penola.
Source:
The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 23 November 1878, p. 4
Also published in:
(Some have various differences in the text.)
The Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW), 25 December 1878, p. 4 (entitled “Waiting for the Rain”) [reprinted from The Border Watch]
The Adelaide Observer (Adelaide, SA), 6 November 1886, p. 43 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”) [submitted by Cecil W. P. Poole]
The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld.), 4 December 1886, p. 8 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”) [submitted by Cecil W. P. Poole]
The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), 8 December 1886, p. 3 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”) [submitted by Cecil W. P. Poole]
The Port Augusta Dispatch, Newcastle and Flinders Chronicle (Port Augusta, SA), 14 December 1886, p. 4 (entitled “Shearer’s Song”) [attributed to “Anon.” (anonymous)]
The Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA), 8 January 1887, p. 3 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”) [submitted by Cecil W. P. Poole]
The South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA), 13 January 1887, p. 3, column 4 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”) [submitted by Cecil W. P. Poole]
The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), 19 January 1887, p. 6 (entitled “Waiting for the Rain”) [accompanied by a letter from John Neilson (senior), stating that he was the creator of the song]
The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld.), 22 January 1887, p. 5 (entitled “Waiting for the Rain”) [accompanied by a letter from John Neilson (senior), stating that he was the creator of the song]
The National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW), 13 November 1889, p. 4 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”) [part of an article, three stanzas only]
The Kapunda Herald (Kapunda, SA), 1 September 1891, p. 3 (entitled “The Song of the Shearer”)
The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), 22 October 1898, p. 813 (mentioned in the “Notices to Correspondents” section, where the song is referred to as “The Shearer”) [two lines only, beginning “The boss is getting rusty”]
A. B. Paterson (editor), The Old Bush Songs, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1905, pp. 28-29 (entitled “Another Fall of Rain”) [book]
The World’s News (Sydney, NSW), 21 February 1925, p. 8 (entitled “Another Fall of Rain”)
The Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld.), 5 December 1925, p. 2 [part of an article, no song title, two stanzas only, beginning “The weather had been sultry”]
Your Songbook: Sing with Burwood Teachers’ College Burwood: Burwood Teachers’ College, [1954], p. 13 (entitled “Another Fall of Rain”) [book]
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 27 April 1955, p. 13 (entitled “Another Fall of Rain”) [includes music, “Tune collected by John Meredith from Leo Dixon, Balmain, Sydney”]
Editor’s notes:
This song originally appeared in The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), on 23 November 1878, signed by “R.G.S.” of Penola (SA). However, John Neilson (senior), in a letter published in The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), on 19 January 1887, and in The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld.), on 22 January 1887, revealed that he was the composer of these verses. This information therefore showed that the true identity of “R.G.S.” (from Penola) was John Neilson (senior). Neilson also wrote that the song was to be sung to the tune of “Little old Log Cabin in the Lane”.
See: John Neilson, “The Song of the Shearer” (letter), The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.), 19 January 1887, p. 6
John Neilson, “The Song of the Shearer”, The Capricornian (Rockhampton, Qld.), 22 January 1887, p. 5
John Neilson’s song appeared under several titles, including “Another Fall of Rain”, “Shearer’s Song”, and “The Song of the Shearer”. It was published in a number of newspapers — and it was also printed in Banjo Paterson’s collection of Australian folk songs, The Old Bush Songs (1905), under the title of “Another Fall of Rain”.
See: “Waiting for the Rain [by R.G.S., pen-name of John Neilson (1844-1922)]”, InstituteOfAustralianCulture [list on Trove]
There are quite a few significant differences between this (original) version (1878), and that published in The Old Bush Songs (1905), with various words being changed. However, there are also some major differences:
1) The 4th stanza in the 1878 version (beginning “The cockies hear that shearing”) does not appear in the 1905 version.
2) The 8th stanza (the last stanza) in the 1878 version (beginning “Let the boss bring out the bottle”) does not appear in the 1905 version.
3) The 8th stanza (the last stanza) in the 1905 version is a new composition, which has been added to the poem to replace the original last stanza.
century = (in the context of shearing) one hundred sheep shorn by one shearer
classer = a wool classer (someone who classes or grades wool, sorting the wool according to its quality and type)
cockie = (also spelt “cocky”) a farmer (the term was used to refer to poor bush farmers, from having land so poor that they were jokingly said to only be able to farm cockies, i.e. cockatoos, a type of bird; however, it was later used to refer to farmers in general)
ne’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “never”
nigh = near, close, especially regarding time or place (e.g. “the time was nigh”); approaching, nearly; almost
o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
presser = a wool presser (someone who puts wool into wool packs, in a wool press, to produce a bale of wool)
quarters = a rest period taken (for each quarter of the working day)
See: “The Song of the Shearer”, The Adelaide Observer (Adelaide, SA), 6 November 1886, p. 43 (see footnote of song)
ringer = the fastest shearer in a shearing shed
waggoner = wagon driver (“waggon” is an archaic spelling of “wagon”)
wether = a castrated ram
yon = an abbreviation of “yonder”: at a distance; far away
[Editor: Changed “caveing in” to “caving in”; “We we’ll block” to “We’ll block”.]
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