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"Tenterfield Saddler" is a poignant song written by Peter Allen in 1970 and tells the moving story of his life, from his much-loved grandfather, George Woolnough, his troubled relationship with his father and moving to New York to marry Liza Minnelli, "a girl with an interesting face".
The lyric "been all 'round the world and lives no special place", is compared to a lyric of another of his songs, "no matter how far or how wide I roam, I still call
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Links:
1977, live in Sydney:
1981, live from Radio City Music Hall NYC, with a commentary by Peter Allen:
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Lyrics:
The late George Woolnough
Worked on High Street
And lived on Manners
52 years he sat on his veranda
And made his saddles
And if you had questions
About sheep or flowers or dogs
you just ask the saddler
He lived without sin
They're building a library for him
Time is a traveller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead
The son of George Woolnough
Went off and got married
And had a war baby
But something was wrong
And it's easier to drink then go crazy
And if there were questions about why
The end was so sad
Well George had no answers about why a son
Ever has need of a gun
Time is a traveller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think i see kangaroo up ahead
The grandson of George
Has been all around the world
And lives no special place
Changed his last name
And he married a girl with an interesting face
He'd almost forgotten them both
Because in the life that he leads
There's nowhere for George
And his library
Or the son with his gun
to belong except in this song
Time is a traveller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead
Time is a medler
Tenterfield saddler make your bed
Fly away cookatoo
Down on the ground emu up ahead
Time is a tale teller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
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Comments:
Peter Allen was born Peter Richard Woolnough (1944 – 1992) and was an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, and entertainer, known for his flamboyant stage persona, energetic performances, and lavish costumes.
Allen's songs were made popular by many recording artists, including Elkie Brooks, Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, including Newton-John's first chart-topping hit "I Honestly Love You", and the chart-topping and Academy Award-winning "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross.
In addition to recording many albums, Allen enjoyed a cabaret and concert career, including appearances at the Radio City Music Hall riding a camel. His patriotic song "I Still Call Australia Home", has been used extensively in advertising campaigns, and was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.
Allen was the first husband of Liza Minnelli. Allen had a long-term partner, model Gregory Connell (1949–84). They met in 1973 and were together until Connell's death in 1984. Allen and Connell died from AIDS-related cancer eight years apart, with Allen becoming one of the first well-known Australians to die from AIDS.
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Lyrics with cmments:
The late George Woolnough
Worked on High Street
And lived on Manners
52 years he sat on his veranda
And made his saddles
And if you had questions
About sheep or flowers or dogs
you just ask the saddler
He lived without sin
They're building a library for him
George Woolnough (1884 – 1963) was a saddler in Tenterfield, New South Wales, from 1908 until his retirement in 1960.
Woolnough's son, Dick Woolnough, became a violent alcoholic upon returning from World War II, eventually shooting and killing himself. Woolnough never understood, nor got over this devastating event.
Manners is another street name.
George Woolnough
Built in 1860 of quarried blue granite, the Tenterfield Saddlery at which Woolnough worked is National Trust of Australia listed. On 26 November 2005 an extension of the Tenterfield library was opened and named the "George Woolnough Wing".
Time is a traveller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead
The son of George Woolnough
Went off and got married
And had a war baby
But something was wrong
And it's easier to drink then go crazy
And if there were questions about why
The end was so sad
Well George had no answers about why a son
Ever has need of a gun
Peter Allen had one sibling, a younger sister named Lynne. Allen grew up in nearby Armidale and lived there from about six weeks of age until the age of 14. This is also where he first learned piano and dance. Allen's performing career began when he was 11, playing the piano in the ladies' lounge of the New England Hotel in Armidale. His father became a violent alcoholic after returning from World War II. In November 1958, he committed suicide by gunshot when Allen was 14. Soon after his father's suicide, Allen left school with an Intermediate Certificate and moved to Lismore with his mother and sister to live with relatives. His grandfather, George Woolnough, never understood or got over this devastating event.
Time is a traveller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think i see kangaroo up ahead
The grandson of George
Has been all around the world
And lives no special place
Changed his last name
And he married a girl with an interesting face
He'd almost forgotten them both
Because in the life that he leads
There's nowhere for George
And his library
Or the son with his gun
to belong except in this song
Peter Allen did go all around the world during his career. Nonetheless he also wrote and sang “no matter how far or how wide I roam, I still call Australia home.”
Allen, born Peter Richard Woolnough, changed his last name when he and Chris Bell formed a duo called the Allen Brothers.
Allen was at one time married to Liza Minelli, the girl with the interesting face.
Time is a traveller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead
Time is a medler
Tenterfield saddler make your bed
Fly away cookatoo
Down on the ground emu up ahead
Time is a tale teller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
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Additional commentary:
From:
As for the references in the chorus: a jackaroo is a very Australian term for a male training to be a stockman and kangaroos, cockatoos, and emus are all distinctly Australian animals. I would assume that these references are supposed to portray George as a very Australian bloke.
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The following commentary is excellent and is also from:
It is reprinted by me in full:
At a less individual level, the song, I believe, has great human resonance by its description of time as an unstoppable, inexorable force that eventually lays the truth out for all to see, pretty or otherwise. "Time is a traveler" is the most frequently repeated chorus line in the song, which for me evokes both the human image of horsemen moving forward, but also the universal hand of time conquering all. Time is also a "tale teller" and a "meddler".It is a meddler in that it doesn't always cooperate to help our lives turn out the way we had planned, which Peter would have known applied to his father who killed himself. It is also arguable that time likewise "meddled" in Peter's own life, when he subsequently died prematurely of AIDS after contracting HIV from a homosexual partner.Time is also a "tale teller" - it ultimately mocks our fronts, masks and pretences, and eventually lays open the hard truth to judgment. Time has told the tale of George Woolnough's decency and success, just as it has told the tale of the uncontrolled, unreliable and failed life of Peter's father. Peter would have also known that it would tell the tale of his life, and indeed details of his sexuality - and of obviously his premature death - only emerged after the song was written.Time has also been a "tale teller" by showing that being the son of a good, stable man is no guarantee that a child ("son with a gun") will not go along the wrong track, and by showing that a life of personal tragedy (Peter's lifestyle and prematurely dying of AIDS) is a very common outcome of being raised in a house with a mentally ill, alcoholic, suicidal father.In the end, Peter is right in saying that given the power of time, as humans with our lives all we can do is "make a bet". We can make the wisest possible decision at any point in time to provide ourselves the best chances - but the reality is that we are still only "making a bet" in that even the decision we foresaw as the wisest could nonetheless end in complete disaster when the hand of time moves and reveals the final outcome.
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Gallery:
This is not the actual Tenterfield Saddlery which is located in Tenterfield but rather it is a prop that was created for the television mini series Not The Boy Next Door which tells the story of George Woolnough's grandson, Australian entertainer, Peter Allen.
Peter would immortalise his grandfather in his song, Tenterfield Saddler.
The mini series was filmed in and around the small New South Wales township of Carcoar.
Peter Allen and Gregory Connell, Sydney 1975
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