A great find at a Townsville church fete was this unusual book of poetry with an insert marking the 1977 death of Dan Sheahan , 95 , an Irishman responsible for penning a poem which was converted into one of Australia's best known songs , The Pub With No Beer, sung by the late Slim Dusty.
Called Songs from the Canefields , the worn 1973 reprint , signed by Sheahan , contains a religious , fold out thank you card from his family for condolences expressed on Dan's death and includes the poem entitled The Pub Without Beer .
It is said County Cork born cane farmer Sheahan went to the Day Dawn Hotel , Ingham, North Queensland, in 1943, but the pub had run out of beer because American servicemen had drunk it dry the night before. The story goes that Dan sat down with a glass of wine and penned A Pub Without Beer , run in the North Queensland Register in early 1944. It had six line verses , unlike the subsequent popular song of four line verses.
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As part of the 1988 Australian Bicentennial , this plaque was unveiled by Sheahan's eldest son, Shaun, to commemorate his father , "the poet from the pocket" and the long gone Day Dawn Hotel , now Lee's Hotel Motel, were the poem was written.
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The poems in the collection form a kind of autobiography spanning 95 years, tracing his time in Ireland before coming to Australia , serving in World War l, the fall of Singapore, the death of a Digger, cane cutting , a beer strike in Tully, Bulimba beer and Bundy Rum , politicians , even baking a bun. A great , refreshing read .
Also bought at the blessed fete, possibly from the collection of the person who owned the Sheahan book, was the Slim Dusty and Joy McKean book , Another Day, Another Town SLIM DUSTY , in which Dan Sheahan and the story behind the eventual 1957 recording of The Pub With No Beer , which became a big seller overseas as well as Australia , is covered.
Knock about country music performer Gordon Parsons first picked up a few verses about a pub with no beer when he was a sleeper cutter in the NSW north coast. It appealed to his sense of humour and occasionally he sang bits and pieces about a dry pub while touring in Queensland, without making much impression on the audiences.
After an evening on whisky with toothy singer Chad Morgan in 1956, he told Slim he had finished that sung , the words of which Chad , who is still performing today, had written down . What song ? The one about the pub with no beer. Slim heard it for the first time and asked if he could record it . The rest is history.
Later , while touring North Queensland , Slim Dusty arrived in Ingham and was surprised when he was told that the family of the man who wrote the pub with no foaming fluid -not Gordon Parsons - was outside...
The book covers that meeting with the family; Slim wrote the North Queensland Register was read widely in rural Queensland and down as far as the NSW border. At the time , many bush workers learned poetry by heart and recited it at gatherings.
Gordon could have seen the first two verses of Sheahan's poem , or heard them recited like folklore. There was little or no similarity after the first two verses of each version . It made Slim " mad " for anyone to insinuate that Gordon had pinched the pub from Dan Sheahan .
Dan , who spoke in a rich Irish brogue, did not want money, but said he would like the credit for the song. Slim set to music and recorded other verses of Dan's such as When You're Short of a Smoke and The Last of the Valley Mail .
* The cover illustration on the book of poems shows Dan relaxed, sinking a cold one , holding the North Queensland Register in which his pub poem had been run. It is the same paper in which journalist, historian and publisher Glenville Pike wrote a column for many years . With financial backing from Darwin journalist and author Jessie Litchfield, Pike also launched and edited the North Australian Monthly in the l950s , printed in Townsville , which included poetry, some by his mother .
