Dark-Eyed Daughter

Words & Music: Phyl Lobl

My first recorded song, almost my first song, was sparked by media coverage of the student bus ride led by Charles Perkins and University students in 1965.
An old traditional rhyme gave a frame for the song.

'Mother may I go out to swim?'
'Yes my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a Hickory limb,
But don’t go near the water.'

The last verse of the song was born not from a belief, but from realisation and dismay that many of those who did profess to believe could also hold racist views.