> Martyn Wyndham-Read > Songs > The Call of the North
The Call of the North
[ Roud - ; AFS 181 ; Mudcat 165421 ; Jack Sorensen]
The Call of the North is a poem by Jack Sorensen (1906-1947) which describes the northwards movement of the shearers following the work. Jack Sorenson was a Western Australian poet who spent his time around the gold fields, shearing sheds and pubs reciting his poetry. Three verses of his poem were published in the Western Australian newspaper The Bunbury Herald and Blackwood Express on Friday 14 June 1929.
Martyn Wyndham-Read sang The Call of the North to his own tune in 2013 on his album Starlit Skies. He noted:
A poem by Jack Sorensen from the book The Shearers by Patsy Adam-Smith. The tune had been playing in my mind and waiting for some words to fit it, and these are they. The lure of the shearing would take the men from their homes and families for long stretches of time, and the shearing comradely spirit was a hard one to break. In the old days travel was by mobile foot or by foot powered bicycle.
Quote from an old bushman: “All madmen travel north and once there cannot get away from the place.”
Lyrics
The Call of the North in the Bunbury Herald | Martyn Wyndham-Read sings The Call of the North |
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Oh! the western wind is blowing— |
Now the western wind is blowing— |
Oh! the steam is in the boiler |
Oh, the steam is in the engine |
From the Southward to the Northward, | |
What's the news I have been hearing, | |
And so Northward I am going, |
And so Northward I am going, |