The Spoken Word in Bush Poetry

[Gary Harding]

While on the subject of the literary journal "Overland", there is an article by John Manifold about Banjo Paterson in the first edition.

John picks up on some threads that he argues run through Paterson's poems. For example, his dislike for lawyers (even although he was one himself for a while). Some readers who are special fans of The Banjo might find it of interest so I will post it here.

John Manifold, the author of this article and folk music legend, is a subject in himself.

Paul Bailey was a later member of The Shearer's Tally Bush Band where I was a founding member. Paul was a guitar player and I well remember, a bit of a character too.

He kindly supplied me with this story about his early musical connection with John Manifold (Mr. Manifold)..

"This brings back memories. As a young boy I was taught by John Stewart Manifold To make 'tin' whistles and recorders out of bamboo. I think it was a Friday - once a week we would gather at his house near Nazareth house in Wynnum North and John (Mr. Manifold) would teach us to play. The manhole into the ceiling of his house was in his music room, and next to the manhole in the roof he had dusted the imprint of four child-sized footprints. Every one of us enjoyed playing music with Mr Manifold. It was almost always riotously funny while deeply immersing us all in learning the art of music at an early age.

Whenever things got a bit loud and out of hand, John would point to the dirty footprints on the roof and say, "If you kids don't quieten down I'm going to lock you in the roof with that poor child." We would join his laughter and quieten down. I don't think any one of us thought to ask how he got the dusty footprints to defy gravity and stick to the ceiling.

I first saw John when I was about 10 sitting halfway down the aisle of a small local bus while a bright and rollicking strange man was sitting in the centre of the long backseat, cello between his knees, playing and singing to anybody and everybody on the bus. I witnessed this captivating cameo several times before I was introduced to him, and each bus trip divided into a third of the people clapping, another third sitting quietly, and the remainder in sporadic complaint - to no avail - about "all that noise." I was already a distracted student of the piano, but it was those bus rides that made me fall in love with music and public performance. Thank you John." (Paul Bailey)