Down the Line (Mana’s Song)

[Verse 1: Solo]
And I can't tell this story from the start
Its origins have been lost, forgotten to the halls of the past
But let's begin on the golden plains of Halls Creek
With a boy named Ross living on a farm
The second of five kids, who shared a surname that dated back
Two generations to a migrant who'd changed it to Smith
Nice and plain, he wanted to fit in
At a time when people might not take too kindly to the likes of him
Now they spent their days herding cattle on the station
Tough times, depression era, rural isolation
A simple life, they'd gather by the piano at night
With poems by Banjo for entertainment
But that all changed in '39
With his slouch hat, he shipped off for the front line
Fought in trenches and saw men slain
From the jungles of Borneo to the desert of El Alamein
On his way home, he met a lovely nurse
Decided he would make her the offer that she deserved
Got down on one knee and asked her to take his hand
And it wasn't too long before they were making plans

[Chorus: Sarah Corry]
Gave me my voice
To sing refrain
You've felt it all
Hunger to a war of pain
You gave me fire
To build my path
Each stepping stone
A lesson from your winding past
And as I stand
My outstretched hand
Reaches for you
To show my gratitude
A presence from
Before my time
Traces that I'm
Bound to carry down the line

[Verse 2: Solo]
Fast forward, now the boy's a man with children of his own
Colts roaming on the farmstead that they call home
Days turned to years
As the steam rose from the puffing billy and weathered hands worked the shears
Through flood and drought he kept food in the family's mouths
His four kids getting taller now
Each climbed to the top of that old pine tree
Just to make believe they could see all the way to Sydney
The second son watched the setting sun through his window
With dreams of making his home in the big smoke
So he finished school and headed to university
Determined he would be the one to get the family's first degree
One of the lucky ones, his birthday missed the draft
As his friends headed off to Vietnam
Horror on the evening news on the TV set
Made him join the march in the streets in protest
Between studying and going to home to work every summer
He met a pretty girl and fell in love
Put a ring on the finger of his beauty, they had two sons
The youngest was none other than yours truly

[Verse 3: Solo]
So here I stand, the grandson of a drover
A strong man who sang songs watching over his land
So I know where I get the damn nerve from
To step up on the stage and make the people throw their hands
Flipping through these old photographs
All the poems he'd recite and the notes he sang
Flashed before my eyes as he lay
With the family gathered round his bed on that ANZAC day
And the last post played on the TV
In the hallway as he passed away
And I said to myself that I wasn't gonna cry
As the tears rolled down my face, I stood by and watched
It unwind following the bloodline
As the life flowed out his veins
But he remains, every time that I speak my rhyme
He lives on in what I leave behind, another down the line
It's that beautiful but tragic fate, that awaits us all
Sure as the seed grows to the tree its leaves will fall
We free fall into blackness
Till we're nothing more than just a memory to be recalled
What we wouldn't give for a minute just to sit and chat
But nothing we can wish is ever gonna bring 'em back
Though we can't press rewind
They live on in what we leave behind, another down the line

[Chorus: Sarah Corry]
Gave me my voice
To sing refrain
You've felt it all
Hunger to a war of pain
You gave me fire
To build my path
Each stepping stone
A lesson from your winding past
And as I stand
My outstretched hand
Reaches for you
To show my gratitude
A presence from
Before my time
Traces that I'm
Bound to carry down the line

[Post-Chorus: Solo]
And another one falls and another one's born
It's another one down the line
And another's gone and another lives on
It's another one down the line
And another one falls and another one's born
It's another one down the line
Though we can't press rewind
They live on in what we leave behind, another down the line

[Outro: Solo's Grandmother]
[?] I just felt that he had something that was just strong, a strong person, and whether he was right or wrong [?] strong [?] ideas [?] we'd get along