And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Annotation

Eric Bogle composed the track "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" in 1972. Born in Scotland, he moved permanently to Australia in 1969. The title of the song was of course a play on the well-known Australian bush ballad "Waltzing Matilda", composed in 1895, published in 1903, and probably first recorded in 1926. (1) The title was slang for traveling on foot, with belongings in a bag slung over the back. (2) Primarily written to remember the 50,000 Australian troops, under ANZUS, who died fighting with the British at Gallipoli in the First World War, many interpreted it at the time as a parallel story to Vietnam. It protested the romanticism of war, and argued that the new generation, faced with Vietnam, viewed it from a new perspective. It began with a man carrying his pack in the bush when in "1915, my country...gave me a gun", and "we sailed off for Gallipoli". It then described the combat zone in brutal detail: "our blood stained the sand and water", as Australians were "butchered like lambs". The "crippled, the wounded, the maimed" were then shipped back home. The narrator then observed that every April, on ANZAC Day, the "old comrades... proudly... march", with "old dreams…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Australian & New Zealand Songs

Eric Bogle composed the track "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" in 1972. Born in Scotland, he moved permanently to Australia in 1969. The title of the song was of course a play on the well-known Australian bush ballad "Waltzing Matilda", composed in 1895, published in 1903, and probably first recorded in 1926. (1) The title was slang for traveling on foot, with belongings in a bag slung over the back. (2) Bogle's "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" centred around the 50,000 Australian troops, under ANZUS, who died fighting with the British at Gallipoli in the First World War. Many interpreted this as a parallel story to Vietnam. It protested the romanticism of war, and argued that the new generation, faced with Vietnam, viewed it from a new perspective. It began with a man carrying his pack in the bush when in "1915, my country...gave me a gun", and "we sailed off for Gallipoli". It then described the combat zone in brutal detail: "our blood stained the sand and water", as Australians were "butchered like lambs". The "crippled, the wounded, the maimed" were then shipped back home. The narrator then observed that every April, on ANZAC Day, the "old comrades... proudly...…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

Eric Bogle, a contemporary folk artist born in Scotland, who then moved permanently to Australia in 1969

Themes

ANZUS

In collections

Australian & New Zealand Songs · European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs