Now I'm Easy

Eric Bogle is said to have said (sounds like the Internet, eh?) that he got talking with a cocky in a bar one night, who sketched out this working-life's story over the course of a few hours. And what a beautiful job Eric did of sketching it for us. A cocky (or cockie) is usually a poor, small farmer.

Gordon – Spanish guitar

It's nearly sixty years I've been a Cocky

Of drought and fire and flood I've lived through plenty

This country's dust and mud have seen my tears and blood

But it's nearly over now, and I'm easy

I married a fine girl when I was twenty

She died in giving birth when she was thirty

No flying doctor then, just a gentle old black gin

But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

She left me with two sons and a daughter

And a bone-dry farm whose soil cried out for water

So my care was rough and ready, but they grew up fine and steady

It's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

My daughter married young and went her own way

My sons lie buried by the Burma Railway

So on this land I've made my own, I've carried on alone

But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

City folk these days despise the Cocky

They say with subsidies and all we've had it easy

But there's no drought or dying stock on a sewered suburban lot

But it's nearly over now, and now I'm easy

Now I'm Easy is recorded on the album Dear To Our Island