I used to be in Singapore.

When I met Australians, we´d sing "Waltzing Matilda".

Would you have sung along?

What does this song mean to you?

Settembrini, 1st Ltnt.

No, I would not have sung along because I am a terrible singer.

The song means nothing to me in any positive sense. Those Australians who know the words and like the song tend to feel that it represents some kind of individualism and defiance of authority. The "jolly swagman" is, after all, a person who wanders about with no home, lives by theft, and would rather die than be imprisoned - ie, given a home.

When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again

Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying
For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Excuse me while I curl up in the corner and die. GOD what a depressing song...

It was a particularly depressing war -- the technology of death had far outstripped the tactics and strategy of the time.  Just this morning I was reading a commentary on Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est".  Ain't pretty.

!i!

Quote from: WerekoalaExcuse me while I curl up in the corner and die. GOD what a depressing song...

I remember watching some Australian themed cartoon when I was a little kid and thinking the same thing.  They would play Waltzing Matilda at the end and the cartoon kangaroo would turn into footage of a real kangaroo and hop off.  If I remember correctly there was some sort of relationship between a kangaroo and a little girl.

Note that OG's song isn't the Waltzing Matilda, but some other song (from the 70's, it seems, by Eric Bogle) that references Waltzing Matilda.

Eric Bogle - 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda' (covered by the Pogues on Rum, Sodomy and the Lash).


The best-known lyrics to 'Waltzing Matilda', more or less:

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolabah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

(refrain)
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped a swagman and grabbed him in glee
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me".

Up rode the squatter, riding his thoroughbred
Up rode the troopers - one, two, three
"Whose that jolly jumbuck you've got there in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me".

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong,
"You'll never take me alive," says he.
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"


There's some dispute as to who wrote the song and which tune is the oldest, I believe.

Okay, that's marginally less depressing. It is actually quite jaunty when I hear it being sung by South Park's version of Russell Crowe.

I had to listen to it tonight. It fucking brasses me off.

I find it rather interesting that you react so strongly to it, Kyle.

I find it interesting that you find it interesting that I react strongly to it.

On the other hand, I also got to hear the second half of Advance Australia Fair, whose lyrics are not bad compared to the first half. I don't think I've heard the second half before in my life.

Quote from: Kyle AaronI find it interesting that you find it interesting that I react strongly to it.

Why do you react so strongly?

Note that in the original version (according to wikipedia) the last stanza explicitly has the swagman drowning himself.

Overall it reminds me of various American westerns whose theme is the closing of the frontier, e.g. The Wild Bunch or Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Except that those basically lack the theme of economic injustice in the swagman/squatter opposition.

Quote from: Elliot WilenExcept that those basically lack the theme of economic injustice in the swagman/squatter opposition.

Injustice? The troopers just wanted to bring the swaggie in from the cold and give him a home, according to Kyle.