"Click Go the Shears" is a traditional Australian folk song. The song details a day's work for a sheep shearer

Sheep shearer

A sheep shearer is a worker who uses -blade or machine shears to remove wool from domestic sheep during crutching or shearing.-History:...

 in the days before machine shears. The enduring popularity of this song reflects the traditional role that the wool industry has played in Australian life. The song describes the various roles in the shearing shed

Shearing shed

Shearing sheds are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities.In countries where large numbers of sheep are kept for wool, sometimes many thousands in a flock, shearing sheds are vital to house the necessary shearing equipment, and to ensure that the...

, including the "ringer", the "boss of the board", the "colonial experience man" and the "tar boy". After the day's shearing, the "old shearer" takes his cheque

Cheque

A cheque is a document/instrument See the negotiable cow—itself a fictional story—for discussions of cheques written on unusual surfaces. that orders a payment of money from a bank account...

 and heads to the local pub for a drinking session.

The tune is an adaptation of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 song "Ring the Bell, Watchman" by Henry Clay Work

Henry Clay Work

Henry Clay Work was an American composer and songwriter.-Biography:He was born in Middletown, Connecticut, to Alanson and Amelia Work. His father opposed slavery, and Work was himself an active abolitionist and Union supporter...

 and the first verse follows closely, in parody, Work's lyrics as well.

The chorus of the song is as follows:

Click go the shears boys, click, click, click,

Wide is his blow and his hands move quick,

The ringer looks around and is beaten by a blow,

And curses the old snagger with the bare-bellied yoe

As a traditional song "collected and arranged" by Reverend Dr. Percy Jones a professor of music, the lyrics vary widely; "bare-bellied yoe" (yoe is a dialect word for ewe

Domestic sheep

Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...

) is often "bare-bellied joe" or even "blue-bellied ewe". The last line in the verse about the "colonial experience" man "smelling like a whore" is often bowdlerised to "smelling like a sewer" or completely rewritten.

The song has been recorded by many artists, most notably by the American folk musician Burl Ives

Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....

 in 1958 on his album Australian Folk Songs

Australian Folk Songs

__notoc__Australian Folk Songs is an album by Burl Ives, one of the byproducts of his visit to Australia in 1952. Invited there by the Australia Broadcasting Commission, Ives met Reverend Dr. Percy Jones, a professor of music from Geelong...

. Another version was recorded by the British folklorist A. L. Lloyd

A. L. Lloyd

Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....

.

External links

• A version of the lyrics, including some explanation of some of the shearing terms