VAL McGINNIS
MUSIC NOTES
SONGS
Darwin Town is in the Boom (Didn't Know What To Do)
Val adapted this song from an old music hall song called �Didn't Know What to Do�, which he first heard sung by a fellow named Billy Williams, on an early gramophone record at Lucy Mine, around 1915, when he was five years old. Val adapted the song to suit local Darwin circumstances and it became a family favourite over many years. At parties, Val would change the names of the characters to match the guests present. I was a hapless victim on several occasions!Adelaide River
Val wrote this song, about the beautiful Adelaide River, south-east of Darwin, in his later years. He recalls having it in mind for several years. The tune evokes memories of several old-time melodies, but as far as I am aware the tunes was also composed by Val. Again, it is a family favourite, which he was always asked to sing at get-togethers.Darwin Town Beside the Arafura Sea
More simply known to the family as �Old Darwin�, Val composed this simple, yet poignant little song in later years, in tribute to what he referred to as �old Darwin�.Val's (Creole) Waltzing Matilda
Val composed his now famous Creole version of Waltzing Matilda many years ago, when still playing with the family band in Darwin. Val sings it in 4/4 time, to the usual tune of Waltzing Matilda. As Val tells it, they had a special routine for introducing it to audiences.�We (Johnny and I) would start off singing ' Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong' and the rest of the band would play with us. When we'd finish that first verse, I'd come in and say 'hey you fella, you sing'em that song the wrong way!' (and they'd say) 'yeh, which the right way you sing'em?' and I'd say 'you blow that bamboo (that didgeridoo) and I'll sing'em proper way for you' � and Johnny would get the guitar and he'd go dung dung a dung - make a noise like a didgeridoo, and I'd sing it see!�
Once, when the band was invited back to Atherton to play at an Aboriginal festival, the local radio station 4 AM recorded and broadcast Val's Creole Waltzing Matilda. Of course, the song was also very much a family and community favourite over many years. As former champion footballer Bill Dempsey says in the film Buffalo Legends
�Val McGinness's version of Waltzing Matilda is a bloody good example of language that came straight out of the compound system. Making fun of hardships is our tradition � it's the way we survive.� (Dempsey, 1997)
Whilst some felt such Creole ditties were patronising and others felt �shamed� by them, Bill Dempsey and others feel they represent an important part of Aboriginal and mixed race heritage and as such should be sung, without guilt. Val's grand nieces, Darwin's own Mills Sisters agree, and have taken Val's Waltzing Matilda to the world, recording it on a recently released CD