Slim Dusty - The Drover's Cook lyrics

rate me

Now the drover's cook weighed fifteen stone and he had one blood shot eye

He had no laces in his boots and no buttons on his fly

His pants hung loosely 'round his hips, hitched by a piece of wire

And they concertinaed 'round his boots in a way that you'd admire

Well he stuck the billy on the boil and then emptied out his pipe

And with his greezy shirt sleeve, he gave his nose a wipe

And with pipe in mouth he mixed a sod and a drip hung from his chin

And as he mixed the damper up the drip kept dripping in

I walked quietly over to him and I said toss that mixture out

And in future when you're working keep your pipe out of your mouth

Oh-oh he stood erect and eyed me with such a dirty look

And he said in choice Australian, get another bloody cook

A cook, I said, you call yourself, you greezy slop made lout

Well you should be jailed for taking work that you cannot carry out

He then uncorked some language and I felt a thrill of fear

As he swung his hairy balls about and said trott your frame out here

In outback brawls there are no rules nor limits to the weight

So I had to swivel meet him with my meek and nine-stone-eight

And we both bounced into action and fell into a clinch,

I put a headlock on him but I couldn't make him flinch.

Aroused we fought in deathly grip, swung upper cuts and crosses,

We staggered and floundered in distress like broken winded horses.

Then gaspingly he muttered, Though I fought all through the north,

Youre the gamest thing I've ever struck, give me a hand old sport.

Well, I can't explain my feelings, with joy I nearly cried,

As we staggered to a shade close by where he sank down and died.

Now you talk about that salt bush scrap, why it was only play,

Compared to that gruelling battle we fought that fatal day.

And now above his resting place where the grass has grown to seed,

On stone is carved his epitaph for travellers to read

"Here lies the son of Donald Gun, none gamer ever stood,

And he died in dinkum battle with Jimmy Underwood."

[From his album: "Songs From the Land I Love"

Contributed: Marten Busstra 2009]