Bill Songtext
von Leonard Teale
Bill Songtext
He shall live to the end of this mad old world
As he′s lived since the world began
He never has done any good for himself
But was good to every man
He never has done any good for himself
And I'm sure that he never will
He drinks and he swears and he fights at times
And his name is mostly Bill
He carried a freezing mate to his cave
And nursed him, for all I know
When Europe was mainly a sheet of ice
Thousands of years ago
He has stuck to many a mate since then
He is with us everywhere still
He loves and gambles when he is young
And the girls stick up for Bill
He has rowed to a wreck when the lifeboat failed
With Jim in a crazy boat
He has given his lifebelt many a time
And sunk that another might float
He has stood ′em off while others escaped
When the natives rushed from the hill
And rescue parties that came too late
Have found what was left of Bill
He has thirsted on deserts that others might drink
He has given lest others should lack
He has staggered half-blinded through fire or drought
With a sick man on his back
He is first to the rescue in tunnel or shaft
From bull-eye to Broken Hill
When the water breaks in or the fire breaks out
A leader of men is Bill
He wears no humane society's badge
For the fearful deaths he braved
He seems ashamed of the good he did
And ashamed of the lives he saved
If you chance to know of a noble deed
He has done, you had best keep still
If you chance to know of a kindly act
You mustn't let on to Bill
He is fierce at a wrong, he is firm in right
He is kind to the weak and mild
He will slave all day and sit up all night
By the side of a neighbour′s child
For a woman in trouble he′d lay down his life
Nor think as another man will
He's a man all through, and no other man′s wife
Has ever been worse for Bill
He is good for the noblest sacrifice
He can do what few men can
He will break his heart that the girl he loves
May marry a better man
There's many a mother and wife tonight
Whose heart and eyes will fill
When she thinks of the days of the long ago
When she well might have stuck to Bill
Maybe he′s in trouble or hard up now
And travelling far for work
Or fighting a dead pass down tonight
In a lone camp west of Bourke
When he's happy and flush, take your sorrow to him
And borrow as much as you will
But when he′s in trouble or stony broke
You never will hear from Bill
And when, because of its million sins
This earth is cracked like a shell
He will stand by a mate at the judgement seat
And comfort him down in - Well!
I haven't much sentiment left to waste
But let cynics sneer as they will
Perhaps God will fix up the world again
For the sake of the likes of Bill
As he′s lived since the world began
He never has done any good for himself
But was good to every man
He never has done any good for himself
And I'm sure that he never will
He drinks and he swears and he fights at times
And his name is mostly Bill
He carried a freezing mate to his cave
And nursed him, for all I know
When Europe was mainly a sheet of ice
Thousands of years ago
He has stuck to many a mate since then
He is with us everywhere still
He loves and gambles when he is young
And the girls stick up for Bill
He has rowed to a wreck when the lifeboat failed
With Jim in a crazy boat
He has given his lifebelt many a time
And sunk that another might float
He has stood ′em off while others escaped
When the natives rushed from the hill
And rescue parties that came too late
Have found what was left of Bill
He has thirsted on deserts that others might drink
He has given lest others should lack
He has staggered half-blinded through fire or drought
With a sick man on his back
He is first to the rescue in tunnel or shaft
From bull-eye to Broken Hill
When the water breaks in or the fire breaks out
A leader of men is Bill
He wears no humane society's badge
For the fearful deaths he braved
He seems ashamed of the good he did
And ashamed of the lives he saved
If you chance to know of a noble deed
He has done, you had best keep still
If you chance to know of a kindly act
You mustn't let on to Bill
He is fierce at a wrong, he is firm in right
He is kind to the weak and mild
He will slave all day and sit up all night
By the side of a neighbour′s child
For a woman in trouble he′d lay down his life
Nor think as another man will
He's a man all through, and no other man′s wife
Has ever been worse for Bill
He is good for the noblest sacrifice
He can do what few men can
He will break his heart that the girl he loves
May marry a better man
There's many a mother and wife tonight
Whose heart and eyes will fill
When she thinks of the days of the long ago
When she well might have stuck to Bill
Maybe he′s in trouble or hard up now
And travelling far for work
Or fighting a dead pass down tonight
In a lone camp west of Bourke
When he's happy and flush, take your sorrow to him
And borrow as much as you will
But when he′s in trouble or stony broke
You never will hear from Bill
And when, because of its million sins
This earth is cracked like a shell
He will stand by a mate at the judgement seat
And comfort him down in - Well!
I haven't much sentiment left to waste
But let cynics sneer as they will
Perhaps God will fix up the world again
For the sake of the likes of Bill
Writer(s): David Gordon Kirkpatrick, Henry Archibald Lawson Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com
