Garth Dutton

Cold Wind From The South – A Song

Now that you’ve read my short story “Cold Wind From The South” here are the lyrics to the song that goes with it. I did a “David Bowie” and ‘became’ the character Roland Smyth in the song and wrote of his personal love experience as if it was my own.

Cold Wind From The South
© Garth Dutton, 2006

She was quite pretty, sometimes rather quiet,
a warm bright smile and long dark hair.
There had been hard times.
She tried not to show it.
It was merely by chance that I met her.

I remember a beach and an autumn day.
A cold wind from the south kept most people away.
I sought the shelter and warmth of the town.
Tourist season was over, few people around.

I bought a drink in the hotel.
She came and sat down beside me.
There seemed no point in each being there alone.
We talked of ourselves and our circumstances,
the state of the world and the way things were going.

It seemed we both needed some kind of fresh start,
and quickly I found that she had won my heart.
Looking back, all I can say is,
“I thank the south wind for that cold autumn day.
I thank the south wind for that cold autumn day.”

Tags: david bowie, garth dutton, lyricist, Music, song

Goyder’s Line – A Song

George Goyder was Surveyor General in the S.A. Government in the late nineteenth century. He drew his ‘line’ at a natural boundary where mallee scrub ended and saltbush plains began.

Until the fiasco of the advance beyond Goyder’s Line the population of South Australia’s coutryside had been steadily increasing. The retreat from it started a process of movement from the countryside to Adelaide that continues today.

About “Goyder’s Line” as a song. I don’t think anyone has ever worked out by ear how to play an accompaniment to the song version of ‘Goyder’s Line’. This is not surprising as it is ‘atonal’. The main verse riff of the verses goes from F to A. F has a Bflat in its key signature, and A has three sharps, so that effectively cancels out key signature altogether.

Anyway, enjoy…

Goyder’s Line
© Garth Dutton 2000

They had no gold like the Eastern States,
but the layout of land and sea
meant ships could sail up into the heart
of good land for growing wheat.
But a rush further north was on in earnest
in the Eighteen-seventies.
They said that rain would follow the plough
and went onwards without heed.

Goyder had warned, and drawn his Line.
He’d seen the north in normal years.
But when the rains came early
and the rains came well,
the whole desert was in bloom.
It was said the growth of desert flowers
was a sign of fertility,
so they followed the vision of a golden north
full of fields of wheat.

Some held on, though all hope had gone,
through winters with little rain.
With ground bone dry and frosts that were hard,
they cursed the saltbush plains.
And one by one they were forced back south,
somehow to start again…
In the north leaving only heartbreak,
not golden fields of grain.

Now across South Australia’s northern plains
the lonely ruins stand.
Reminders that men once came
to plough and sow this land.

Tags: adelaide, garth dutton, george goyder, lyricist, Lyrics, Music, south australia

The Non-Green Blues – A Song

Here is a song I wrote a few years ago called “The Non-Green Blues”.

It sums up my feeling on development and the urban sprawl that’s happening in Adelaide at the moment perfectly.

Tags: adelaide, garth dutton, lyricist, Lyrics, Music, poet