Recorded live at the Caravan Club, Melbourne, 27th July 2012.
lyrics
Harry was a Bad Bugger
Like a shark at a funeral
Harry always moved in smalltown circles
And no-one ever knew
Till later, who'd been taken
And who'd been left alive undamaged
Until the next time he came through
He was rumoured to be the one
With the franchise for running heroin
Up the north and northwest as far as Bourke
They said he ran an immigration ring
Bringing Thai girls in
To stock the western suburbs brothels
All sanctioned by the coppers
We all know how that works
There ain't much more I need to say
Harry was a bad bugger
A bad bugger all the way
Now I used to have this friend at school
And like so many country girls
She was way ahead of all the boys her age
But she married one of us anyway
And she loved her kids
Until the day she met Harry
At a barbeque
What went wrong I never knew
But they were gone up to the Gold Coast for a while
Then he set her up
In the next town down the highway
With a hair and beauty shop
A couple of teenage girls to help her out
To work back late
And help her entertain Harry
And his business associates
I don't need to paint the picture
There ain't much more I need to say
Harry was a bad bugger
A bad bugger all the way
For ten or fifteen years
We'd see Harry come and go
Like an ugly piece of weather
These days no-one seems to know
Why half a lifetime later
He hasn't been to town for quite a while
And the rumours
They come, and go around
That he was dumped out off Coffs Harbour
Shackled to a fridge
That he's buried in a pylon
Of the new Glebe Island Bridge
All kinds of speculation
Some say he's been seen
Looking after business interests
In the southern Philippines
Now the last time I saw Harry
Just before he disappeared
He was filling out a little bit
He'd even grown himself a beard
I found him in a bottleshop
Not too far from Warwick Farm
He looked at me, and I could see
No sign of alarm
There's a saying up round our way
I remember being told
How revenge is a meal
Most delicious eaten cold
You can hang round here till you lay down and die
I got no more to say
Harry was a bad bugger
A bad bugger all the way.
credits
from Don Walker Live at the Caravan,
released October 22, 2014
Roy Payne – baritone guitar
Garrett Costigan – pedal steel
Michael Vidale – bass
Hamish Stuart - drums
supported by 9 fans who also own “Harry was a Bad Bugger”
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