Back of the Milky Way (Humping the Drum)

BACK OF THE MILKY WAY (Humping the Drum)

W&m adapted by Graham Seal from an anonymous poem, copyright this version 1977

A song with a complicated recording history (see below), first recorded by Steamshuttle in 1977.

I've humped my drum from Kingdom Come

To the back of the Milky Way

Boiled my quart on the Cape of York

And starved last Christmas Day.

I crossed the Murray and drank in Cloncurry

Where they charged a bob a nip

I worked on the Gulf where the cattle are duffed

And the squatters let them rip.

I've worked from morn in the fields of corn

Till the sun was out of sight

I've cause to know the great byno 

And the Great Australian Bight

I danced with Kit when the lamps were lit

And with Doll when the dance broke up

I flung my hat on the Myall track 

When Bowman won the Cup

I laughed aloud with the merry crowd

In the City of the Plains

I sweated too on Onderoo 

While bogged in those big bore drains

I wheeled my bike from the Shearer's Strike

Not wanting a funeral shroud

And I made the weight for the Flying Stakes

But I dodged the lynching crowd.

I carried a gun through World War One

Then went on the track again

From Omeo to Bendigo

To Bourke and back again

I shed some tears in the hungry years

When jobs were short and few

Then I packed up a swag and an old tucker bag

There was nothing else to do.

Yes, I've humped my drum from Kingdom Come

To the back of the Milky Way.

Recorded  by Steamshuttle, The Larrikins, Joe Paolacci, Trevor Shearston, Shane Howard, Graham Seal, Graham Dodsworth, Shane Howard and Michelle Burton, Danny Spooner