From: tom@cs.adelaide.edu.au (Tom Caton)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Bradman Song (long)
Date: 26 Aug 92 09:18:10 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Comp. Sci., University of Adelaide

I've been listening to a Paul Kelly album, recently.
At the end of the second side it contains a nice ballad about Bradman.
I thought RSC readers might be interested in the lyrics, ...so I've been
practicing my typing ...
Anyone else know any songs about cricket?

--Tom

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		"BRADMAN"

Sydney, 1926.

This is the story of a man 
Just a kid in from the sticks
Just a kid with a plan

St. George took a gamble
Played him in first grade
Pretty soon that young man showed them how to flash the blade

And at the age of 19
he was playing for the state
From Adelaide to Brisbane the runs did not abate

He hit 'em high ... he hit 'em straight

	He was more than just a batsman
	He was something like a tide
	More than just one man
	He could take on any side
	They always came for Bradman
	'coz fortune used to hide
	in the palm of his hands.

A team came out from England.

Wally Hammond wore his felt hat like a chief
All through the summer of 28-29
They gave the greencaps no relief
Some reputations came to grief

They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn
And in the hour of greatest slaughter
The great avenger is being born

But who then could have seen the shape of things to come
In Bradmans first Test he went for 18 and for one.
They dropped him like a gun.

Now big Maurice Tate was the trickiest of them all
And a man with a wisecracking habit
But there's one crack that won't stop ringing in his ears -
"Hey Whitey, that's my rabbit"

Bradman never forgot it.

	He was more than just a batsman
	He was something like a tide
	More than just one man
	He was a match for any side
	Fathers took their sons
	'coz fortune used to hide
	in the palm of his hands.

England, 1930.

And the seed burst into flower
All of Jacksons grace failed him
It was Bradman was the power

He murdered them in Yorkshire
He danced for them in Kent
He laughed at them in Leicestershire
Leeds was an event -

Three hundred runs he took
and rewrote all the books
That really knocked those gents

The critics could not comprehend this nonchalent phenomenon
"What, why this man is a machine", they said
Even his friends say he isn't human

Even friends have to cut something

	He was more than just a batsman
	He was something like a tide
	More than just one man
	He was half the side
	Fathers took their sons
	'coz fortune used to hide
	in the palm of his hands.

Summer, 1932.

And captain Douglas had a plan
When Larwood bowled to Bradman
it was more than man to man

And staid Adelaide nearly boiled over, as rage ruled over sense
When Bert Oldfield hit the ground
They nearly jumped the fence!

Now Bill Woodfull was as finer man as ever went to wicket
And the bruises on his body that day showed that he could stick it
But to this day he's still quoted, and only he could wear it -

"There's two sides out there today,
 and only one of them's playing cricket"

	It was longer than a memory
	and bigger than a town
	His feet they used to sparkle
	And he always kept them on the ground
	Fathers took their sons
	Who never lost the sound
	of the roar of the grandstand

Now shadows grow longer,

And there's so much more yet to be told
But we're not getting any younger
So let the part tell the whole

Now the players all wear colours, the circus is in town
And I no longer can go down there,
Down to that sacred ground

	He was more than just a batsman
	He was something like a tide
	More than just one man
	He was half the bloody side!
	Fathers took their sons
	'coz fortune used to hide
	in the palm of his hands.

--Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, "Under The Sun".

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PS: Bali for the PBeM Cup!