My young wife started something
When our partnership was new
She wrote dear Slim from your loving wife
June thirteenth nineteen fifty two
The Poetical Works of Lawson
Just a plain red bound book
But this since fifty two I've worked right through
My bible of the bush
It's battered now and faded
And it's travelled o'er the years
An I patched it up so many times
An mended the pages with care
Oh there's pencil marks on the pages
Abbreviations where a verse is long
But the ole red book my bible of the bush
Always has just one more song
Whenever I'm down an angry an the world is closing in
Hey I grab my guitar and the old red book
An I find another song to sing
Once again on the track with Andy
Gone with cattle down the Castlereagh
Well I'm lecturing old Sweeney on that pub verandah again
Oh there's truth there's hurt there's pity
For the battler the lonely the old
There is laughter humour and kindness
In the stories of life Lawson told
I hope that you take my meaning
I'm not being irreverent an smart
But when I call this book my bible of the bush
I speak from the depths of my heart
It's battered now and faded
From it's travelled o'er the years
An I patched it so many times
An mended the pages with care
I suppose I should get a new
But I feel that it would be wrong
For this ole red book my bible of the bush
Been my track mate too darn long
Hey this ole red book my bible of the bush
Been my track mate too darn long
Yeah