My young wife started something when our partnership
was new,
She wrote "Dear Slim from your loving wife, June 13th,
1952
The 'Poetical Works of Lawson', just a plain red bound
book,
But this since 'fifty-two, I've worked right through,
My bible of the bush..
It's battered now and faded and it's travelled o'er the
years,
An' I patched it up so many times, an' mended the pages
with care,
Oh, there's pencil marks on the pages
Abbreviations where a verse is long
But the ole red book, my bible of the bush,
Always has just one more song.
Whenever I'm down an' angry, an' the world is closing
in
Hey, I grab my guitar and the old red book
An' I find another song to sing,
Once again on the track with Andy,
Gone with cattle down the Castlereagh,
Well I'm lecturing old Sweeney on that pub verandah
again.
Oh, there's truth there's hurt, there's pity,
For the battler, the lonely, the old,
There is laughter, humour and kindness
In the stories of life Lawson told,
I hope that you take my meaning
I'm not being irreverent an' smart,
But when I call this book my bible of the bush,
I speak from the depths of my heart.
It's battered now and faded from, it's travelled o'er
the years,
An' I patched it so many times, an' mended the pages
with care,
I suppose I should get a new but I feel that it would
be wrong,
For this ole red book, my bible of the bush,
Been my track mate too darn long.
Hey this ole red book, my bible of the bush,
Been my track mate too darn long.
