Collection of Irish Song Lyrics
Pub with no Beer
Copyright: 1944
It's lonesome away
from your kindred and all
By the camp fire at night
where the wild dingoes call,
But there's nothing so lonesome
so morbid or drear
Than to stand at the bar
of a pub with no beer.
Now the publican's anxious
for the quota to come
There's a far away look
on the face of the bum
The maid's gone all cranky
and the cook's acting queer
What a terrible place
is a pub with no beer.
Then the stock-man rides up
with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar,
pulls a wat from his coat,
But the smile on his face
quickly turns to a sneer,
When the bar man said sadly
the pub's got no beer.
There's a dog on the veranda
for his master he waits
But the boss is inside
drinking wine with his mates
He hurries for cover
and cringes in fear
It's no place for a dog
round a pub with no beer.
Old Billy the blacksmith
first time in his life
Has gone home cold sober
to his darling wife,
He walks in the kitchen,
she says you're early me dear,
But he breaks down and tells her
the pub's got no beer
Since Peter Crawford has been telling us stories from the Bush (see p. 4), this seems an appropriate item â not least, for its historical significance. Most people know the famous song by Slim Dusty but this is the original poem it was based on. Daniel Sheahan (1882â1977) was an Irish-born farmer in North Queensland who rode 30 km to the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham, only to find that a convoy of American servicemen from the 22nd Bomb Group, travelling north from Townsville, had consumed all the beer the night before. (Hence, the many references to wartime rationing in the fourth verse.)
The poem was published in the North Queensland Register in 1944 and it must have circulated widely, as it was discovered by the songwriter, Gordon Parsons, at a pub in Macksville, New South Wales, in 1956. He re- wrote the verses and put them to music before offering it to Slim Dusty, who recorded it in 1957. The song became Australiaâs first worldwide hit and it has since been translated into seven languages.
The Day Dawn Hotel was partly rebuilt in 1960 and renamed the Lees Hotel. In 1988, it was officially recog- nised by the Bicentennial Commemoration and a bronze plaque was awarded proclaiming it âThe Original Pub With No Beerâ. The Lees is also the only pub on the Heritage List of the Queensland National Trust.
Readers can learn much more about these matters from: www.thepubwithnobeer.com.au, which also has an impressive photo gallery. Sheahan wrote many other poems, a collection of which, titled Songs from the Cane- fields, was published in 1980. Two of his other works were converted to songs by Slim Dusty but it has proven impossible to find out what they were. (
