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from a story told to Andrew London by Ozzie comedian Greg Hayes in the crew bar on a cruise ship in 2016.

lyrics

When I was just a young man in my prime, I plied the butcher’s trade
in a town called Nookumburra, with a guy called Ronnie Ray
But everyone who knew him called him Sting.
Stingray’d been a butcher 30 years or more by then
and accumulated nothing much, ‘least nothin’ that might pin
him down, but to hear him laugh, you’d think he was born a king

He said he’d never settled down, never had a spouse
he lived all alone in a little flat, at the back of a lady’s house
and once a week they’d share a matinee

He said that with a sideways wink and then went on to say
how the Nookumburra pub was only a hundred yards away
as if they’d built it down there just for him… he’d say

I’m laughin’, I’m bloody laughing
six white shirts and a set of knives
in me little flat, and as far as lives
go Buddy I reckon, I hold all the bids
I’m tellin’ ya boys, I wouldn’t be dead for quids

He’d work a longer shift than me, so he’d only do four days
out of a week where the rest of us’d do five to earn our pay
I’m a gentleman of leisure, he would say.
and you know we got no favours, as butchers in those days
offcuts for our dogs, the only perks that came our way
I’ll show you boys a trick, says old Stingray

Takes his bag of dogchops, when the boss is not in sight
Hides the biggest rumpsteak in between & seals it tight
Filet Mignon at Stingray’s flat that night.

I’m laughing. Etc…

Well I moved along to other things as young men have to do
and I never saw old Sting again, but I’m sure he made it through
at the butcher’s shop down Nookumburra way
Now there’s lots of blokes with sailing boats and stock portfolios
and its safe to say that old Stingray’d never end up one of those
and I reckon that’d be just fine with him, cos he’d say

‘I’m laughin’’ etc…

credits

from A Live Concert, released September 3, 2019
Andrew London: guitar & vocal
Kirsten London: bass & vocal
Nils Olsen: clarinet & vocal

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Andrew London New Zealand

New Zealand singer/songwriter of mainly (but not exclusively) satirical original songs in a mainly (but not exclusively) 1940s swing genre.

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