1. |
The Good Girl
03:46
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I’ve lived in London for most of my life
Too plain and too poor to be any man’s wife
Abandoned by mother who died in her bed
Carried by father who’s sinking in debt
I work 12 hours a day in a frame knitter’s team
Two shillings a week for the gloves that I seam
Won’t keep me out of the workhouse
I’m a stitch and a plea from its door
I’m a good girl
A quiet girl
Who would sail for six months to the end of the world
Work for a lady, tend her fine home
Marry a stranger, run a house of my own
Now the government says there’s a ship that will sail
From Gravesend in Spring to New South Wales
They’re looking for girls the same age as me
If father says go, I’ll be happy to leave
I hear the church ladies can raise the 6 pound
For the boat trip to Sydney plus a trunk full of gowns
On Thursday they’ll answer this supplicant’s prayers
Provide a bonnet for winter and a letter that says
I’m a good girl
A quiet girl
Who would sail for six months to the end of the world
Work for a lady, tend her fine home
Marry a stranger, run a house of my own
Each day on the deck, I’d stare out to sea,
And dream of the life that is waiting for me
An employer’s kind face, a husband’s embrace
Good wages, good work. a most fortunate place for
A good girl
A quiet girl
Who would sail for six months to the end of the world
Work for a lady, tend her fine home
Marry a stranger, run a house of my own
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2. |
Elizabeth Wade
02:05
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GG: (Committee Member - Spoken):
It says here that
They found you drunk on sailor’s rum
You’d fallen out of bed
You were sucking on a sorry thumb
Can you defend what’s just been said?
Elizabeth Wade:
“I've been in several situations
Some better than the worst
But in my last position
This silly lass was seduced
By the masters son
A spoilt rogue
Deserted on the streets
I took to drink and ended up
In the house of correction
for dissolute wenches
and fallen young women like me.
I spent 7 days hard labour
Pickin oakum well apart
There's the devil to pay and no pitch out
To plug the leaks and caulk this boat
No soul left that cares for me
My poor mother is dead
My father's since remarried
I've not seen him since he wed
Drink maybe my affliction
Poverty my distress
But now I ask paid passage
In Sydney's direction
where dissolute wenches
and fallen young women forget.
Instrumental.
Instrumental over spoken verse
Spoken verse:
When I met with the committee
They asked, “Elizabeth Wade, Do you still drink?”
I shook my head and answered, “No!”
Then threw me lord a wink.
She throws the audience a wink
We'll put you in The Refuge
To wait upon you berth
It is on a ship called Strathfieldsaye
An emigrant boat that has promised to float
Each fallen young woman away
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3. |
Father Oh Father
04:36
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Father oh father
My ticket to leave
A list of fine blessings
Provisions I’ll need
I must have a box
Stowed in the hold
A bagful of articles
I’ll use while aboard
Packed in each trunk
Two gowns made of stuff
Aprons and soap
A three quarter length coat
Stockings and handkerchiefs
Ribbons and braids
Father my father
I sail in ten days
I’ll be bound
For New South Wales
You’ll be bound to stay
Father my father
Slipping farther and farther
Away
Father oh father
Can the workhouse assist
With a pint metal pot
And the clothes on my list?
Perhaps the fine ladies
Are willing to give
12 yards of calico
And some pretty blue print
4 yards of flannel
2 pair of shoes
A bonnet, a shawl
A knife, spoon and fork
A new pewter plate
One pair of stays
Father my father
We still have ten days
I'll be bound
For New South Wales
I’ll be bound to stay
Father my father
Slipping farther and farther
Away
I’ll be bound
For New South Wales
You’ll be bound to stay
Father my father
Father my father
Father my father
Slipping farther and farther
Away
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4. |
The Leaving Tune
00:41
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5. |
April 1833
03:20
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April 1833
Old England slips away from me
Old England slips away away
Away from me
April 1833
Wind sounds like a mother’s wail
Keening through the hoisted sail
Mother, Mother keening through
The hoisted sail
Wind sounds like a mother’s wail
Tonight I sleep below the deck
An English daughter you’ll forget
English daughter sleep tonight
You’ll forget
Tonight I sleep below the deck
My final mark on England’s soil
Footprints left on Gravesend’s shore
Footprints left on shore on shore
On Gravesend’s shore
My final mark on England’s soil
April 1833
Old England slips away from me
Old England slips away, away
Away from me
April 1833
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6. |
Oh, The Sea
05:16
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O the jolly boat lies on the starboard deck
The ship groans against open skies
If I could raise my head from this sour bed
I would row back to shore this night
I would row back to shore this night
Row Row Row
Row Row Row
If I could raise my head from this sour bed
I would row back to shore this night
I would row back to shore this night
Oh our ship sailed out on a listless sea
A departure as mild as the breeze
But as land slipped away with the lengthening day
The ocean swelled to my mouth from my feet
The ocean swelled to my mouth from my feet
Row Row Row
Row Row Row
But as land slipped away with the lengthening day
The ocean swelled to my mouth from my feet
The Ocean swelled to my mouth from my feet
If I had been content and refused to go
Not to lie in this unhappy stench below
With the other poor daughters who can’t hold their waters
Oh the sea’s made us sick for our home
Oh, the sea’s made us sick for our home
Row Row Row
Row Row Row
With the other poor daughters who can’t hold their waters
Oh the sea’s made us sick for our home
Oh the sea’s made us sick for our home
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7. |
Lifeboat
04:53
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The dreadful sea was calm that day
Still and dark as one man’s heart
He paced the deck with a villain’s stride
Played the ship’s superintendent’s part
With stipend paid to tend poor girls
Deal out each day’s supplies
At night he showed his villain’s hand
Beneath his Superintendent’s guise
When he slapped Lizzy’s face and accused her of boldness
Said, “There’s more where they came if you don’t do as you told”
Lizzy swallowed her tears and resolved her own fate
If he did it again she would row back to shore in the lifeboat, The Lifeboat
As so began the tyrant’s reign
With a fist for each new day
He would punch a woman’s fine proud nose
Let it bleed until she’d faint
He’d complain about conditions
The tiresome duties to perform
He’d say, “It’s my misfortune to be on this vessel”
It was ours to be aboard
We’d beg the ship’s surgeon, “admonish this man”
But he’s just patch up the girl’s with his soft, useless hands
Some sought protection from a willing ship’s crew
Branded, “Dissolute wenches” for choosing to lie in their lifeboats,
Their Lifeboat
The rest of us wrote out our supplicant’s pleas
Placed them in bottle’s threw them into the sea
If the devil won’t take us and Jesus won’t come to our rescue
We fear we will die here so send us a lifeboat
A lifeboat
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8. |
Poor Girl's Dream
02:42
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Sail this ship across the sea
Of shipwrecked souls and poor girls dreams
Steer a course for Love’s Fair Game
And take us all to Botany Bay
(Female flirts with the sailor)
Lizzy’s caught a sailor’s heart
Cooked it up in a Briny Tart
Threw a wink to come what may
She says, “I’ll marry him before I get to Botany Bay
Constance sews fine ladies gowns
She says, “I’ll flog them all when I get to town”
Set up shop with the money I take
My fortune’s made when I get to Botany Bay
Sail this ship across the sea
Of shipwrecked souls and poor girls dreams
Steer a course for Love’s Fair Game
And take us all to Botany Bay
Hanna wants to be a farmer’s wife
Katie wants to lead a ladies life
Millinery will help dear Annie bloom
Fanny wants to teach the governor’s brood
I have harboured my desire
To tend fine rooms and stoke bright fires
For I will be a parlour maid
When I get to Botany Bay
Sail this ship across the sea
Of shipwrecked souls and poor girls dreams
Steer a course for Love’s Fair Game
And take us all to Botany Bay
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9. |
Sailor's Song
01:48
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To all you pretty eyed lasses
Have you never seen such blue
As the sky above the ocean
That glints at me
As I sail away from you
In every port there are women
Trying to catch this sailor’s eye
But there never was one lassie
That held a gaze
To rival this open sky
To all you pretty eyed lasses
My love she’s on the sea
I sail beneath her vast blue eye
That holds my gaze
For my love has captured me
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10. |
Johnny Boyles
00:35
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11. |
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Tess is in the crew’s mess
With Captain Charlie Cumms
He promised her five shillings
If he could play her kettle drums
She placed two beauties in his hand
Then blew his hornpipe on command
Tess is in the crew’s mess
With Captain Charlie Cumms
Kate Smithen went a fishin’
With Colonel Davy Sackfull
He promised her 5 shillings
If she would hold his tackle
She cast his rod into her waters
Slipped it under her hindquarters
Kate has gone a fishin’
With Davy Sackfull's rod
Sally's in the galley
With Major Johnny Slow
He promised her five shillings
If he could see her down below
They're eating bread and butter
One on top the other
Sally's in the galley
Eating Johnny Slow
Instrumental
Sally’s in the galley
Kate Smithen went a fishin’
Tess is in the crew’s mess
They all earned their five shillings
By blowing horns and beating drums
And buttering bread with Charlie Cumms
Salley’s in the galley
With a sailor down below
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12. |
Overboard
04:06
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Now I’ve fallen overboard
I lie here on the ocean floor
Hear women wailing from the shore
Calling me into Sydney
I’ll navigate the tattooed skin
Of sailor boys and captain’s men
Who drowned before we sailed into Sydney
Blow me down, I’m all at sea
The taste of salt, unravels me
Now I’m drunk, on harbour brine
Throw me down a tawdry line
And pull me into Sydney
Now I’m aboard this sinking ship
I can’t escape the fleshless grip
That holds my breath and swings my hips into Sydney
Loved ones bones sway to and fro
There’s skeletons in the undertow
Clutch at my skin as they waltz me into Sydney
Blow me down, I’m all at sea
The taste of salt, unravels me
Now I’m drunk, on harbour brine
Throw me down a tawdry line
And pull me into Sydney
Now I’ve fallen overboard
I lie here on the ocean floor
Hear women wailing from the shore
Calling me into Sydney
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13. |
The Good Girl Reprise
02:09
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I’m a Good Girl
A quiet girl
Who’s been sailing for months to the end of the world
To work for a lady, tend her fine home
Marry a stranger, run house of my own
Male continues to laugh at her distress. She rises. The soundscape fades as the song music and the female character become more focused:
I’m a good girl
A quiet girl
Survived this long voyage to the end of the world
Now there’s two thousand men waiting here on the pier
And I want to go home
I can’t show my face
Cos they might see my tears
As they pour out their filth
Into my delicate ears
Blackguards screaming at us from the rough ready shore
MALE:
“Look fellas, there’s another bloody boatload of whores”
FEMALE:
I’m a good girl
A quiet girl
Survived a long voyage to the end of the world
Now I wish I had never stepped onto the pier
Oh, I want to go home
I want to go home
I want to go home
Spotlight on female character. Male retreats into black
Now that I’m here.
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