The songs in this section are a mixed bunch. Some are satirical or serious social commentary, some are about personal relationships, often at second hand, rather than from my own experience, and some are written for special occasions. Many are influenced by my favourite performers of the time.

I will put the lyrics to all of these songs here eventually, and also links to recordings when available.

Advertisement Calypso

I wrote this song in the 1960s so it is very much out of date. The products referred to were all well-known at the time, and some may still be advertising. I'm not sure as I haven't watched commercial television for many years. In case they and their slogans have faded into the distant past, I have provided the following notes.

Camel: A brand of cigarettes. Obviously before cigarette advertising was banned from our TV screens.

Dawn: A popular brand of toilet tissue.

Luv: A brand of pet food.

Colgate: An advertisement of the time asked whether romance was "fade-fade-fading away" due to bad breath. The solution was the "Colgate ring of confidence".

Singer: A sewing machine.

Mr Ed: A talking horse, and not even advertising anything!

Mr Sheen: A brand of polish, represented by a little bald-headed cartoon character.

Rice Bubbles: They made the sound "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" when milk is poured on them - or so we were told.

The song can be heard here. The lyrics are here.

Apartheid Love Song

This song, based on Black is the Colour, a traditional song as sung by John Jacob Niles, was written during the Apartheid era, when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa. Even in some American states interracial marriage was against the law until the late sixties.

Here is a video of the song. And here are the lyrics.

Baby, Come Stand By Me

Inspired by Dylan's songs.

Here is me singing it, and here are the lyrics.

Bacon

I wrote this as a poem many years ago when I was in my teens, and only put it to music much later. It was obviously inspired by the traditional song,Three Little Pigs, as it uses the same first line. At first glance it may appear to be a children's song, though I hardly think cannibalism is a suitable topic for children.

Here is me singing it. Some people have found it amusing to play around with this video. Here is a scary version and here is an attempt to improve on the original in Bacon Remade.

And here are the lyrics.

Candy

This rather silly song was originally called Mandy. When I actually met Mandy, and married her, I thought I'd better change the title.

Here is my performance and here are the lyrics.

Coral (School Song)

This is getting a bit late too be called an early song. For some time I did little writing except for special purposes (e.g. my son's 21st and the song for the school campaign.)

When I was teaching in Singapore, at Chestnut Drive SS, my principal, whom I had the pleasure of working with for five years, was appointed to be the first principal of a new school, by the name of Coral Secondary School. She invited me to write the school song for her, providing me with a few notes on the possible symbolism of the colours and growth patterns of coral. I added some of my own ideas, particularly the emphasis on cooperation in this very competitive society. The result was something rather different from the songs I usually write, and, I hope, a bit different from the usual school songs about striving for excellence, etc.

You can hear me singing the song, and here are the lyrics.

Deaf and Dumb and Blind

This anti-war song was written at the time of the Vietnam war, but it is equally applicable to the USA's invasion of Iraq.


This song is on my fourth CD, Pigs Might Fly and Other Politically Incorrect Songs.

My performance is here, and the lyrics are here.

Dragging Me Down the Stairs

A song about a rather strange relationship.

Here is the video of the song and here are the lyrics.

Dylan - A Song For his Twenty-first Birthday

When my son, Dylan, asked for a song instead of a speech at his twenty-first birthday party, this was the result. The tune is Villikins and his Dinah for the first half of each verse. The rest seems to be based on Buffy-Sainte Marie's Now that the Buffalo's Gone, though I may not have realised that at the time.


I decided to recycle this song for Dylan's and Rachael's engagement party, by making a few alterations. After all what's the use of writing a song to sing only once? The lyrics (for the second version) are here.

Every Time I Look at Your Face

A song about the consequences of an over-protected childhood.

This song is on my fourth CD, Pigs Might Fly and Other Politically Incorrect Songs.

You can hear it here. And here are the lyrics.

The Falling Words

This song is on my first CD, Axis of Evil and Other True Stories. You can hear the track on imeem above. It can also be heard on YouTube.

Here are the lyrics.

Give Me Tomorrow

Another early song, which comments on a mixture of issues: abortion, education, war and old age.

This song is on my fourth CD, Pigs Might Fly and Other Politically Incorrect Songs. It can be heard here. Here are the lyrics.

Groundwork Blues

As English Coordinator at Sunshine West, I tried to improve the students' basic grammar skills by implementing a program using a text called Groundwork in Plain English. This was not only a lot of work for students, who had to repeat all exercises they did not succeed in initially, but also involved the staff in very time-consuming marking and completing progress sheets for all students. Although the faculty supported the program initially, it was eventually voted out as being too regimented and too much work. I wrote this song to express the feelings of some of the teachers involved. The cryptic fourth and fifth verses would only make sense to people familiar with the text. There are a few other local references, such as to "Table Number One". I recorded this song with Chris Wilson on harmonica. He has become quite a well known musician since his days as a teacher at Sunshine West.

Here are the lyrics.

Handsome Sam's Gang

I wrote this bit of adolescent nonsense when I was 15, no doubt inspired by some pop song of the time. It doesn't really count as a song, as it doesn't have a tune.

Here is my rendition and here are the lyrics.

I Don't Know Why

I don't know why I wrote this song.

I also don't know why I made this video.

The lyrics are here.

I'm Down

A song about depression.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

I Need to be Free

A song about the need to end a relationship.

You can hear the song here. And here are the lyrics.

In Lonely Melbourne

Even in the richest cities, there are people who do not share in the wealth. Many of them are addicted to drugs or alcohol and can no longer take part in normal society. They often have nowhere to live and sleep out in the open at night.

In Melbourne, as in many other cities, the Salvation Army has a shelter where “down and out” people can get a bed and a simple meal. In the 1960s I sometimes visited this shelter with a church group and met some of these people, which inspired me to write a song about one of them.

This song is on my second CD, Laws of Chance, and you can see it here. Here are the lyrics.

John Jenkins

This anti-war song is the shortest song I have ever written.

My performance is here and the lyrics are here.

And here is a cover by my YouTube friend, Matthew Thomas.

The Little Red Schoolhouse

This was one of my earliest songs, probably written even before I started teaching, as I know I sang it on the radio during my first year as a teacher. It was written at a time when teachers (in Victoria at least) felt that the government tended to neglect education. So I wrote it partly as a bit of a protest song - but mainly just for fun. As a first year teacher I had my share of students like the one in this song.



This song is on my second CD, Laws of Chance, and you can hear the audio track on imeem above. I have performed it on YouTube (at the top). Here are the lyrics.

Night of Madness

I'm not sure what I was on when I wrote this song about forty years ago, but I know it was a time when I was listening to a lot of The Incredible String Band and The Doors. I never thought I'd actually record this one, but I decided to give it a try. Here it is and here are the lyrics.

Please Pass the Garlic

Another song that started life as a poem. I wrote this in 1964, when I was 16 years old and an avid reader of horror stories. I had learned from Bram Stoker's Dracula, and other such tales, the correct prodedure for dealing with vampires.

The poem was published in my school's annual magazine, but I was a bit annoyed when, without consulting me, my teacher edited the line "Cursed and blasphemed - and then swore" to "Cursed and blasphemed - and once even swore." I could see his logic, but I felt the extra beat spoiled the metre of the poem which was otherwise consistently regular. In it's present form, I have accepted a compromise - "Cursed and blasphemed - even swore!"

It's only recently that I dug up this old piece of schoolboy nonsense and put a tune to it. Hope you enjoy it.

Here is my video of the song and here are the words.

The Rain Can Keep on Pouring

I think this song was influenced by The Doors. And maybe William Blake. How about Dylan's Hard Rain? Hard to say really. Anyway, here is my performance of the song.

And here are the lyrics.

Seven Days

Six of the Best

Another comment on schools. I wrote this many years ago in the days when corporal punishment was still considered an acceptable part of educating children.

The song got an extraordinary response when I put it on YouTube. Many people with a perverted interest in corporal punishment seemed to find it, making this fairly minor song my biggest hit on YouTube. It was apparently linked from a popular blog on the subject.

A number of people made personal attacks on me, assuming that I was stating my own views in favour of physical violence rather than playing the role of a character in order to attack the point of view he represents. I tried to spell out my purpose to those who failed to understand the satire, and the nasty comments do seem to have subsided. I did also get some comments from victims of abuse who understood that I was on their side.

This song is on my fourth CD, Pigs Might Fly and Other Politically Incorrect Songs. The lyrics can be found here.

Something That I've Lost

Another one of my earlier songs. I think it was probably inspired by one or two of Simon and Garfunkel's songs that were popular at the time.

This song is on my second CD, Laws of Chance Here is a video of my performance and here are the lyrics.

Song of the Ghost

This was the first song I ever wrote. When I was 16 - many many years ago - our French class studied a poem called "Chanson du Spectre", by Victor Hugo. I liked it so much that I wrote an English translation and set a tune to it.

This song is on my first CD, Axis of Evil and Other True Stories. You can hear the Audio track from the CD on imeem above, and you can also hear the song on YouTube.

Here are the lyrics.

Song of the Land

I wrote this song at a time when there was a lot of discussion in Australia about Aboriginal land rights. Although written with the Australian situation in mind, the theme of displaced native inhabitants is a universal one.

Here is my video of the song and here is a live performance at a session of the Hong Kong Folk Society at The Canny Man.

This song is on my first CD, Axis of Evil and Other True Stories.

Here are the lyrics.

A Song About Being Eaten Alive By Little Green Creatures

Just as the title says.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

Stress Song

Not really an early song, though it seems to fit with the current group. The song was written as part of a unit on stress that I taught with a Form 7 class. It began with a brainstorming session with the class and the ideas were put together in the form of a song.

Here is my performance of the song and here are the lyrics.

Sunny West Blues

This song was written as part of a campaign for a new school to be established in the Sunshine West area. The person who asked me to write it forgot he had done so, and so the song was never heard. I, of course, was too shy to remind him.

Here are the lyrics.

The Sun's Revenge

And here's an even earlier one. Once again, originally I wrote this children's song as a poem, in my early teens.

Anyway here is me singing it. The tune is pretty similar to the tunes of Journey and Petey and Jaydee. Don't know why that melody keeps coming up.

Here are the lyrics.

Too Late Now

About control and escape.

Here is my performance of the song and here are the lyrics.

The Turtle Man

A scary song.

Here is my performance of the song and here are the lyrics.

Twilight Blues

We have to face up to the fact of old age and death.

Here is my video of the song and here are the lyrics.

Two Little Children

A short song about growing up and finding things have changed.

Here is my video of it and here are the lyrics.

When I'm Feeling Lonely

A song about lost love.

Here is my video, and here are the lyrics.

Why I Love You

I wrote this little love song as a poem when I was 15, and it was published in the Ashwood High School magazine of that year.

Here I am inflicting it on YouTube viewers. And here are the words.