Redgum - Ted lyrics

On a backblock down Salisbury Plains Ted was born in 1895 Thrust from the loins on to rusty soil And the cord was cut with a scythe He said "People there are city folk today And they couldn't tell sh** from clay A ripening crop of stobie poles - there's no regrets when the memory roams That earth is in me bones" Did his bit in the First World War Took the shilling to fight the Hun Mud up to his crotch in Flanders fields And the gas eating at his lungs He said "Me best mate died hanging on the barbed wire And when the attack was through We took some prisoners to HQ And shared a f*g and a yarn or two They were the same as me and you" And I asked old Ted what history meant As he sharpened his hedging shears "What a bloody fool question that is my boy I lived it for 83 years" See him every year on Anzac Day Swilling beers down at the Rex Hotel He'd laugh with his mates and go deep in thought Where he went even he couldn't tell... He said "King and country, co*k'n'bull We fought just to survive The anger might have faded, still this feeling grabs me deep inside I guess you could call it pride" As a navvy on the line in the Nullabor The Depression left its scars Heaving cold steel rails in the burning sun And freezing beneath the stars He said "If you escaped the susso queues You had a hell of a price to pay And when time flowed like an open wound I'd blow me dough on a Saturday And drink the pain away" On Sunday arvo he'd sit and talk Over a dozen cold West End Of what was gained and what was lost And would never come again He said "Money you know it comes and goes On booze and rent and f*gs You can make a fortune on overtime And lose it all on the nags But years of toil with a bunch of mates You know it leaves you satisfied Though we never moved a mountain We sure gave it a try" Pick the wheat from the chaff And the steel from the scurf And the honest man from a liar If wisdom came by other names Ted was earth and fire On the day that old Ted died No-one would have known Buried in a pauper's grave He lived and died alone And the 727's soared over head With drone of the angry roads There seemed a pause for just a while And the silence was heard around for miles And the silence was heard for miles