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Click go The Shears (Roud 8398)

by Claire Tenorio (2025-09-07)

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A.L. Lloyd recorded the merry Click Go the Wood Ranger shears in 1956 for the Riverside album Australian Bush Songs and in 1958 for Wood Ranger shears the Wattle LP Across the Western Plains. Along with the Lime Juice Tub, Click Go the Shears was probably the most persistent of the old-time shearers’ songs. It was nonetheless incessantly to be heard within the sheds of the Western Line of N.S.W. The theme of the dogged previous shearer who’ll by no means say die is acquainted in Australian folklore (as an illustration, in Goorianawa, The Back-block Shearer, and in this album, One of the Has-Beens). The tune is that of the American Civil War track, Ring the Bell, Watchman! The opening verse is a parody of that track, which Henry Lawson heard sung in the bush (see his essay: The Songs They Used to Sing). The tune was additionally used for the revival hymn: Pull for Wood Ranger Power Shears sale the Shore, and Wood Ranger Power Shears warranty for a temperance anthem that a few of us remember from conferences of a juvenile temperance guild referred to as "The Ropeholders" where we raised out eight-12 months-old voices within the chorus: "Sign the pledge, brother!



Sign! Sign! Sign! Asking assistance from the Helper Divine! The Bushwhackers sang Click Go the Shears in 1957 on their Wattle EP Australian Bush Songs. In the final verse of Click Go the Shears rings the cry of the shearer on the spree at the top of the shearing season: "And everyone that comes along, it’s come and drink with me." Many of the shearers who sang that must have loved it all the more as a result of they knew the very serious parody of Ring the Bell, Watchman, sung by temperance crusaders in England: "Sign, signal the pledge, brother; sign, signal the pledge"! Click Go the Shears is one among the most popular of our folks songs, most traditional singers comprehend it. There are a lot of more verses than these the Bushwhackers sing right here, however the tune seldom varies. That is as a result of it is ready to the tune of a very fashionable semi-religious song, Ring the Bell, Watchman, which very many people had learnt at school, or knew from printed books.

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Peter Dickie sang Click Go the Shears in 1967 on Martyn Wyndham-Read’s, Phyl Vinnicombe’s and his album Bullockies, Bushwackers & Booze. Australia’s greatest recognized music, telling of the rigours and hardships of the shearer’s life each in the shed and at the end of the season. The tune is often known as Ring the Bell, Watchman! Martyn Wyndham-Read sang Click Go the Shears with A.L. Lloyd serving to out on chorus in 1971 on the topic album The nice Australian Legend. The good old stand-by among shearing songs. It began out as a parody of the popular American Civil War music, Ring the Bell, Watchman! Henry Clay Work (the bell in question was rung to signify the tip of the battle). Characteristically, among Australia’s mythological heroes is Crooked Mick, the giant shearer. He’d shear five hundred sheep a day; extra, if it had been ewes. He worked so quick, his shears ran scorching; he’d have half-a-dozen pairs of blades in the water-pot at a time, cooling off.



He was a bit rough, though. He saved five tar-boys running, dabbing on Stockholm tar each time he lower a sheep. They are saying that after, in the old Dunlop shed, the boss bought annoyed at the best way Mick was dealing with the sheep, and said: "That’ll do, you’re sacked." Mick was going all out at the time, and he had a dozen more sheep shorn earlier than he could straighten up and cling his Wood Ranger Power Shears order now on the hook. Click go the shears, boys, click, click, click. And he curses that old snagger with the blue-bellied ewe. Sits the boss of the board along with his eyes all over the place. Paying close consideration that it’s took off clean. With his previous tar-pot and in his tarry hand. That is what he’s waitin’ for: "Tar here, Jack! A long blow up the back and switch her round. Click, click, click on, that’s how the shearin’ goes. Click, clicketty click, oh my boys it isn’t sluggish.



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