Dance at Bigges Camp 
By Paul Cracker-Jack Smith

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As kids we would sit on the veranda 
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Listening to the Dance at Bigges Camp  
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We'd hear the songs and the laughter
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And talk neath the street lamp
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Nanna and mum told wives tales
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About their prime, the good times, and the hard
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The swaggies & their tricks that never failed 
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And the Drovers steering cattle to the railway yards

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But we always had fun on the veranda
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As we sang each and every old song 
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And our old couch swayed as the music played 
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As the Dance at Bigges Camp, waltzed along
        
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We'd watch as the ladies in their fine dresses
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Carry supper up the halls splintered steps
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And through the cracked and battered windows
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We would see their dancing silhouettes 


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In the moonlight you would see men gathered
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Around the boots of their old family car
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And the weather was the only thing that mattered
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As they passed  beer around their bar

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But we always had fun on the veranda
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As we sang each and every old song 
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And our old couch swayed as the music played 
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As the Dance at Bigges Camp, waltzed along


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The windmill in the paddock near the ghost gum
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Seemed to glid with the old Gypsy tap  
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As the accordion, piano & bass drum 
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Kept the beat, for the feet just pat

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And just as the music seemed to settle
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The Westlander would whistle down the track
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And as the ladies emptied every tea kettle
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The beat of the dance band would come back

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But we always had fun on the veranda
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As we sang each and every old song 
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And our old couch swayed as the music played 
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As the Dance at Bigges Camp, waltzed along

INSTRUMENTAL

CHANG TO KEY OF D

(THESE TWO VERSES ARE SPOKEN)

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But my mother never went to the dances
 	  	  	  	  	  	  	 
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She would stay home with Nanna and us kids
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For our father had one too many romances
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And we never really knew where he lived 

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You see men aren't like railway stations
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Some don't like to stay in the one place                                                  D          BM
And some men send out the wrong signals
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And their responsibilities they can not face





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But we always had fun on the veranda
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As we sang each and every old song 
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And our old couch swayed as the music played 
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As the Dance at Bigges Camp, waltzed along


REPEAT CHORUS