Click Go the Shears

[[File:Tom Roberts - Shearing the rams - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Tom Roberts]]: ''[[Shearing the Rams]]'' (1890)]]

"'''Click Go the Shears'''" is a traditional [[Australian country music|Australian country]] song. The song details a day's work for a [[sheep shearer]] in the days before [[The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company|machine shearing]].

==Song== The enduring popularity of the song reflects the traditional role that the [[wool]] industry has played in Australian life. The song describes the various roles in the [[shearing shed]], including the "ringer", the "boss of the board", the "colonial experience man" and the "tar boy". After the day's shearing, the "old shearer" takes his [[cheque]] and heads to the local [[pub]] for a drinking session.

The tune is from the [[American Civil War]] song "Ring the Bell, Watchman", by [[Henry Clay Work]], and the first verse follows closely, in parody, Work's lyrics as well. It was originally named "The Bare Bellied Ewe",<ref name=marsh>{{cite news |title=The Bare Belled Ewe |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article89280995 |access-date=2024-06-17 |work=The Bacchus Marsh Express |date=1891-12-05 |page=7 |via=Trove}}</ref> and only became popular in the 1950s, more than half a century later.

[[File:BladeShears.jpg|thumb|A pair of blade shears]]

The second verse in the original 19th-century song is as follows: {{poemquote|1= Click goes his shears; click, click, click. Wide are the blows, and his hand is moving quick, The ringer looks round, for he lost it by a blow, And he curses that old shearer with the bare belled ewe.}}

The usual chorus of the song is as follows:

{{poemquote|1= Click go the shears boys, click, click, click, Wide is his blow and his hands move quick, The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow, And curses the old snagger with the bare-bellied yoe}}

In June 2013, folklorist Mark Gregory discovered that a version of the song was first published in 1891 in the regional Victorian newspaper the ''[[Bacchus Marsh Express]]'' under the title "The Bare Belled Ewe" and the tune given as "Ring the Bell Watchman." That version was signed "C. C. Eynesbury, Nov. 20, 1891,"<ref name=marsh/> ''Eynesbury'' being a rural property in the [[Bacchus Marsh]] area.<ref>{{cite news |title=Eynesbury |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88346409 |access-date=2024-06-17 |work=The Bacchus Marsh Express |date=1896-04-11 |page=1 |via=Trove}}</ref> It is possible that "C.C." was the author of the song.

There was a [[1891 Australian shearers' strike|shearers' strike]] in 1891 so the publication of the song in that year would have resonated with the [[Australians|Australian]] community.<ref name="roweth">{{cite web |title=Click Go The Shears dates from time of shearers strike in 1890s, newly unearthed lyrics reveal |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-31/unearthed-lyrics-reveal-early-version-of-click-go-the-shears/5230018 |website=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=2024-06-17 |date=2014-01-31}}</ref>

The song was next published in 1939 in two Australian newspapers and then, in 1946, as a traditional song "collected and arranged" by [[musicology|musicologist]] the Reverend Dr Percy Jones. The lyrics vary widely: "bare-bellied yoe" (yoe is a dialect word for [[domestic sheep|ewe]]) is often "bare-bellied joe" or even "blue-bellied ewe". The last line in the verse about the "colonial experience" man "smelling like a whore" is often [[bowdlerised]] to "smelling like a sewer" or completely rewritten.{{Fact|date=August 2024}}

The song has been recorded by many artists, notably in 1952 by the [[United States of America|American]] [[folk music]]ian [[Burl Ives]], for his album ''[[Australian Folk Songs]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 November 1952 |title=Still Another LP Group - New Records |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/987920404/?match=1&terms=%22Click%20Go%20The%20Shears%22%20%22Burl%20Ives%22 |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=The Sunday Herald (Sydney) |pages=14}}</ref> Other versions were recorded by the [[Great Britain|British]] [[folklorist]] [[A. L. Lloyd]] in 1956<ref>{{Cite web |title=A. L. Lloyd - Australian Bush Songs |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/6045467-A-L-Lloyd-Australian-Bush-Songs |access-date=2 March 2025 |website=Discogs}}</ref> and American singer William Clauson in 1958.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 June 1958 |title=This Week's Reviews - What's new on records |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/122703240/?match=1&terms=%22Click%20Go%20The%20Shears%22%20%22Lloyd%22 |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |pages=97}}</ref> In January 2014, [[Chloe and Jason Roweth]] sang the 1891 version of the song for an [[ABC Television (Australian TV network)|ABC TV]] story.<ref name="roweth" />

[[File:Dollar Bill - The Decimal Currency Jingle.webm|thumb|1966 government advertisement jingle on the change to decimal currency to the tune of Click Go the Shears. The full song is at 3:30.]] When Australia replaced the [[Australian pound|pound]] with the [[Australian dollar|dollar]] in 1966, a jingle that accompanied the changeover was written to the same tune:<ref>{{cite web |title=Dollar Bill Turns 50 Years Old |url=https://museum.rba.gov.au/exhibitions/the-decimal-revolution/dollar-bill/ |publisher=Reserve Bank of Australia |access-date=2024-06-17}}</ref>

{{poemquote|1= In come the dollars; in come the cents, To replace the [[£sd|pounds and the shillings and the pence]], Be prepared folks, when the coins begin to mix, On the fourteenth of February, nineteen-sixty-six.}}

In 1973, when [[Gough Whitlam]], the then Australian Prime Minister, visited the [[People's Republic of China]], "Click Go the Shears" was played through loudspeakers along the route of the Prime Minister's motorcade from Peking International Airport to his hotel.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Allan |date=1 November 1973 |title=Whitlam gets a gay China welcome |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/828406181/?match=1&terms=%22Click%20Go%20The%20Shears%22%20China%20Whitlam |access-date=2 March 2025 |work=The Age |pages=1}}</ref>

In 1988, Australian-British singer [[Olivia Newton-John]] included the song in her [[Olivia Down Under]] television special.

==See also== *[[Tom Roberts]] *[[Sheep shearer]] *[[Rolf Harris]] *[[Reedy River (musical)|Reedy River]]

==References== <references/>

[[Category:Australian folk songs]] [[Category:Slim Dusty songs]] [[Category:Australian country music songs]] [[Category:Year of song unknown]] [[Category:Australian sheep industry]] [[Category:Sheep shearing]] [[Category:Works subject to expurgation]]