| NEW ZEALAND FOLK*SONG |
|---|
| 1. Spend it in the winter
Or die in the cold. One a pecker, Tuapeka Bright fine gold Chorus. Bright fine gold, Bright fine gold. One a pecker, Tuapeka, Bright red gold. |
2. Some are sons of fortune,
And my man came to see
That the riches in the river
Are not for such as he.
3. I'm weary of Otago
I'm weary of the snow,
Let my man strike it rich
And then we'll go. |
However at least 4 more verses of this version of the song are in existence. And many variants of "Bright Fine Gold" have also been used as skipping chants. Most seem to have been derived from the "Hot Cross Buns" song.
350 A.D. 1733
1842 Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! If ye have
no daughters,
1862. Soon New Zealand Nurses will sing their babies
to sleep with the lullaby
Gold, gold , fine bright gold 1874. 1880 1909 In March 2000, she wrote,
"I remember chanting it, I think as a skipping rhyme, in the early 1950s, definitely before 1956, so pre-dating
the publication of Ruth Park's book - and what we chanted was the chorus used later by Neil Colquhoun . . .
. . . Bright fine gold, bright fine gold. Near the start of the novel, Park writes ...three or four children played a game of hopscotch
in a backwater beside a shop. Currency (the heroine) bent down low to hear
what they were chanting, and she learned for the first time this rhyme:
One-a-pecker, two-a-pecker, bright fine gold About 170 pages and 2 years later in the story, a young miner with yellow fluff
all round his chin, and some others, are caught by a snow-storm whilst
tending to a sick miner. To amuse themselves they start singing Then (the young miner) sang that other Otago song,
since attributed to Jimmy the Blow, but sounding too serious for him
One-a-pecker, two-a-pecker, bright fine gold We joined in the chorus,singing soft and low...
"The snow's over" said my mother, "...and we'll be on our way" ...The voices drew
further ahead
One-a-pecker, two-a-pecker,
send me home How far they were ahead. I could just hear the
voices and that was all.
One-a-pecker, two-a-pecker,
years go by,
Chorus.
1. Some are sons of fortune,
3.
I'm weary of Otago 1967
...and hundreds of others ...who
willingly assisted us...
Their version differs significantly from the version collected by Frederick Young in 1874, but it is almost identical to what children were chanting in the 1950s
5. I came to make my fortune
Bright, fine gold. Bright, fine gold And Richard Mills also sings this verse he composed.
1991
Here are the chords they use. "What I actually
do," says Bill, "Is play only the chorus over and over, while Kath fits the verses over
the top."
Hot cross buns
2500 B.C.
Hot cross buns had their origin in cakes with 'horns' which the ancient Greeks offered to the Moon and other
deities, Such a cake was called a bous, and (it is said)
never grew mouldy. The 'cross' symbolized the four seasons and four elements
[fire, earth, air, water] of ongoing life at the holiday of renewal [Ostara].
For Christians, hot cross buns were sold during Lent in the 6 weeks
before Easter as a reminder of the life-renewing power of Christ's crucifixion.
Hence the 18th century London street cry (Tuer 1885)
Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
With an additional verse added in the 19th century, this cry became a nursery song, often accompanying a game.(Opie 1952) And in the 1840s, English migrants took this chant to New Zealand,
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!
Gold rush chant
1853.
In 1972, Fyfe reported an Australian goldfields rhyme in Victoria dating back to the early 1850s. (Garland 2000)
"Tit for tat, Ballarat, bright fine gold"
As the Australian rushes waned, the miners moved on to try their luck in New Zealand.And they would have brought this jingle with them.
In New Zealand, in 1861, gold rushes broke out almost simultaneously
at Wangapeka, near Nelson, and in the Tuapeka River in Otago. This prompted newspaperman
and political parodist Crosbie Ward to write next year, in 1862, (Reeves 1883) that
Tuapeka,
Wangapeka, bright red gold.
And indeed, 22 years later, Frederick Young published this
variation (Young 1874), with the remark that it was the refrain of a New Zealand lullaby. (If this was the refrain of a lullaby, then we can infer that the lullaby had verses too .)
Gold, gold,
gold - bright fine gold
Wangapeka,
Tuapeka - gold, gold, gold.
Robert Fulton was born and raised at Ravensbourne near Tuapeka. In his 1922 autobiography (Fulton 1922, page 90 ), he wrote:-
"as a youngster, the writer well remembers the nurse's lullabies to the smaller children:-
When Fulton wrote about the children using the digger's cry of "Joe" for anything unusual, he mentioned it was "nigh on 40 years ago," thus giving the period in time when he heard the nurse's lullaby.
Bright
fine gold, bright fine gold,
One-a-pecker,
Tuapeka, bright fine gold."
During Fyfe and Garland's nationwide quest for Bright Fine Gold songs, one elderly informant reported learning this in 1909. It is identical to that recorded by Young 35 years earlier.
Gold, gold,
gold - bright fine gold
1952.
Wangapeka,
Tuapeka - gold, gold, gold.
Eight decades later, schoolgirl Sharyn Staley and her friends were chanting a similar verse in 1950s Wellington.
One a pecker, two-a -pecker, bright fine gold."
Park's novel
1957.
And in 1957, Ruth
Park, a New Zealand-born novelist living in Australia, published a historical novel One-a-pecker, Two-a-pecker (Ref. 5)
about the Otago gold rush of 1861. Park's husband D'Arcy Niland was a poet and may have written some of the verses in this novel.
Spend it in the summer and you
die in the cold.
Spend it in the summer and you
die in the cold.
It cannot light a lantern, or
ever ease a pain
And yet we go
on searching tho' we search in
vain
To my sweetheart waiting far across the foam,
I'm weary of Otago, I'm weary
of the snow,
But let
me make one lucky strike, before I go
All the gold I'll ever find is in the sky
Some are sons of fortune, but
I have come to see
There's riches
in the river, but they're not
for me.
Color Code
Hot + Buns
Crosby Wd
Ruth Park
Colquhoun's song
1965.
Seven years after Park's novel, folksong collector Neil Colquhoun rearranged those
verses, giving them a woman's voice and added a tune developed from the tunes
of Hot Cross Buns and "Single
Girl. He published this song in his book New Zealand Folksongs, Songs
of a Young Country (Ref. 6) .
Colquhoun gives Alistair Swan (?) as his source, and Ruth Park's book as the earliest known published version.
1. Spend it in the winter
Or die in the cold.
One a pecker, Tuapeka
Bright fine gold
Bright fine gold,
Bright fine gold.
One a pecker, Tuapeka,
Bright red gold.
And my man came to see
That the riches
in the river
Are not
for such as he.
I'm weary of the snow,
Let my man strike it rich
And then we'll go.
Color Code
Hot + Buns
Crosby Wd
Ruth Park
Colquhoun
Two years later, Rona Bailey and Herbert Roth published Shanties
by the Way (Ref. 7) , a songbook which contained some 20 ballads from pioneer
days, all with extensive references as to their sources. Their book also
contained this rhyme
Bright fine gold,
accompanied only by this brief comment
Bright fine gold.
One a pecker, Tuapeka,
Bright fine gold.
Otago goldfields nursery rhyme
for which no source was given, or indeed any other details, although
they thank co-workers, librarians
Extra verses
1986
Phil Garland reverted to the original
"Wangapeka," and borrowed more verses from Ruth Park's novel in the version of
the song he recorded on Songs of Old New Zealand (Ref.
8).
4. It cannot light a lantern
It cannot cure a pain
But still I'll go on searching
Although it's all in vain.
From far across the sea
But the riches in the river
Were not for such as me
Wangapeka, Tuapeka, bright, red gold.
6. I've watched my children starving
I've seen my woman die -
Tuapeka you can keep your gold
Its price is much too high.
Kath and Bill Worsfold (Colonial Two-Step) got back to the original spirit of the song by doing it as child's play. They have recorded it with a children's choir singing the chorus smulaneously with the verses as a sort of round.
1999 D G D D G D
Spend it in the winter Or die in the cold.
D G D G D
One a pecker, Tuapeka Bright fine gold
D G D D G D
Bright fine gold, Bright fine gold.
D G D G D
One a pecker, Tuapeka, Bright red gold
In 1999, the noted traditional singer from
Maine USA, Gordon Bok, recorded a version of
Bright Fine Gold (Ref. 9). containing this
verse.
7. Two little children
When first heard, this seems to come from the Southern slave song, Shortnin Bread,
Lying in bed -
Both of them hungry Lord
They can't raise up their head.
However this verse is not Bok's addition. He says he learnt this version of Bright Fine Gold many years ago from Sydney folksinger-songwriter Phyl Lobl when she toured through Maine in 1981.
Phyl writes, "I certainly had Bright Fine Gold in my repertoire at that time. I am also prone to 'folk-processing' and joining bits to suit the occasion, and I do know those lines Two little children. etc...... but whether I sang it in that form I'm not absolutely certain, but if that's how Gordon remembers it it is likely to be so."
The verse comes from "When I Was Single," which Peggy Seeger recorded in 1955. (It was re-released in 1992 as a CD "The Folkways Years". A study of this song shows us how Colquhoun's tune originated.
You can do this on the next web page... 2. Origins of its Music
1968 The Song-spinners, Songs of the Gold Diggers (Kiwi)1960s Gary & Everill Muir, Folk Songs-2 EP S/EA 162 (Kiwi )
1960s Don Fulton, son of Robert V Fulton 45 (in possession of Phil Garland)
1971 Phil Garland, Down a Country Road (Kiwi)
1972 Phil Garland, Song of a Young Country compilation LP (Kiwi Pacific)
1970s Kevin Scully, Alone in the Hills 45 (Robbins)
1980 Graham Wilson, Paydirt (LP)
1983 Gerry Hallom, A Run a Minute (Fellside 36, England )
1985 Arthur Toms, Trypots, Cradles and Gutboards (Radio NZ)
1987 Pioneer Pog 'n' Scroggin Bush Band, Pognorhythyms (LP)
1986 Phil Garland, Songs of Old New Zealand (Kiwi-Pacific )
1991 Colonial Two-Step, Colonial Heritage Songs cass. (Gumdiggers)
1991 When the Cat's Been Spayed, Down the Hall... CD (Kiwi-Pacific)
1999 Gordon Bok, In the Kind Land CD (Timberhead Camden, Maine USA,)
Ref 1.
Andrew Tuer, Old London Street Cries, London 1885 (1978): 97
says "The cry 'One-a-penny, two-a-penny, hot cross BUNS!' - now. . . never heard from the sellers on Good Friday - is still part of a children's game.Ref 2.
Iona & Peter Opie, Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Oxford 1952: 107Ref 3.
Quoted by W. Pember Reeves (ed.). Canterbury Rhymes Christchurch [1862] 1883: 129Reeves wrote that... "In 1862, when gold was the staple of speculation, Mr Crosbie Ward declared that soon New Zealand Nurses would sing their babies to sleep with the lullaby 'Gold, gold'..."
Crosbie Ward was, in 1862, the part-owner of The Lyttleton Times, and parodist of Nursery Rhymes for Political Babies.
Ref 4.
Frederick Curling Young, New Zealand, Past, Present and Future, London 1874: 14, a paper presented to the Royal Colonial Institute.Ref 5.
Ruth Park was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1922. After moving to Australia in 1942 she married the writer D'Arcy Niland. After their marriage the Nilands travelled through the outback of Australia for a time before settling in Surry Hills in Sydney where they earned a living writing full-time. After Niland died in 1967, Ruth Park visited London before moving to Norfolk Island from 1973 to 1985.Her most famous books are the trilogy of Missus, The Harp in the South and Poor Man's Orange, along with Swords and Crowns and Rings which won the Miles Franklin Award in 1977.
One-a-Pecker, Two-a-Pecker (1957), was also published in the USA as The Frost and the Fire (1958)
Ref 6.
Neil Colquhoun, Song of a Young Country, New Zealand Folksongs, AH & AW Reed Ltd 1972 :29. The song can be heard on a recording of the same name which was released at about the same time.Ref 7.
Shanties by the Way a selection of New Zealand Popular Songs collected and edited by Rona Bailey and Herbert Roth with musical arrangements by Neil Colquhoun. Whitcombe and Tombs Limited 1967 (I borrowed my copy on library interloan. JA)Garland 1986
Phil Garland, Songs of Old New Zealand/Hunger in the Air (different titles printed on cover and cassette sticker) Kiwi Pacific (TC LRF-191) 1986.Bok 1999
Gordon Bok, In the Kind Land CD (Timberhead Camden, Maine USA, 1999)Fulton 1922
Robert V. Fulton, MD Medical Practice in Otago & Southland in The Early Days published in Dunedin, 1922
Top - Home Information collected by John Archer
and first published on the web, Mar 8, 2000
Revised May 25, 2000