(M.Callaghan)



Up in the cross you could see them

Bathed in the food lights of the hot takeaways

The MC was an old soldier,

Yeah you would laugh but you couldn't understand a word that he said

They had a legless harmonica player

With his pillow and his bottle and his saucepan in hand

He would grin at the confident preacher

And they would wait for his word to strike up the band



Crowds would gather round

Some would take the high ground

To see the show

They would stop them in their tracks

Big coins and little notes

Would they throw



This was the start of the rise of the Reverend Bobby's Buskers

And boy that band could really play

They had the rhythm of the street

The way the Charlie tapped his foot

Was guaranteed to make the venture pay



Betty bomb was screamer

She learned to sing to keep her daddy at bay

She saw The Buskers on a hot summer night

And followed them to St. Kilda in the rain

Well now, Betty knew all the old songs

And she would get up and sing with them now and again

Then, one night at a party for a millionaires son

A naked man said that he would manage them



Well he gave them all he had

Pretty soon they were glad

He came along

Yes he took them to the top

Strumming pop and blues and rock

And their own songs



This was the rise and the rise

Of the Reverend Bobby's Buskers

And boy that band could really play

They were unique, they had the beat

To make old ladies tap their feet

And Bernie's tricks could just amaze

It seemed to them that the world was theirs to take

They worked for seven years without a break

Fortunes were made and lost and made again

And the chatter on the city street echoed their fame



Well now, some say it never changed them

The fact that they became a world phenomenon

Bernie still laughed at the unknown

And Bobby's sermon's seemed to go on and on

Well now, Betty soon got her own show

She was the toast of the town

And the late night TV set

And while the boys still laughed to remember

Oh poor Betty, She still laughed to forget



Well Charlie took a wife

Soon three became five

Then one again

And fame had its price

But none of the bills

Were paid by them



This was the rise and the rise

Of the Reverend Bobby's Buskers

And boy that band could really play

They were unique, they had the beat

To make old ladies tap their feet

And Bernie's tricks could just amaze

This was the rise and the rise

Of the Reverend Bobby's Buskers

And boy that band could really play

They were unique, they had the beat

To make old ladies tap their feet

And Bernie's tricks could just amaze

This was the rise and the rise

Of the Reverend Bobby's Buskers