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 of past glory". However the young, faced with the Vietnam War, ask "what are they marching for?". Note: Bogle also wrote and released the Vietnam song "The War Correspondent" on the 1980 album Now I'm Easy.Sources1aso.gov.au: Waltzing matilda↩2Wikipedia: Waltzing Matilda↩

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... march", with "old dreams of past glory". However the young, faced with the Vietnam War, "ask" "what are they marching for?". Note: Bogle also wrote and released the Vietnam song "The War Correspondent" on the 1980 album Now I'm Easy, discussed below. Sources1aso.gov.au: Waltzing matilda↩2Wikipedia: Waltzing Matilda↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack / And I lived the free life of the rover / From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback / Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over / Then in 1915, my country said "son / It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done" / So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun / And they marched me away to the war / And the band played Waltzing Matilda / As the ship pulled away from the quay / And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears / We sailed off for Gallipoli And how well I remember that terrible day / How our blood stained the sand and the water / And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay / We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter / Johnny Turk, he was waiting, he'd primed himself well / He showered us with bullets and he rained us with shell / 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 / When we stopped to bury our slain / We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs / Then we started all over again And those that were left, well we tried to survive / In that mad world of blood, death and fire / And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive / Though around me the corpses piled higher / Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head / And when I woke up in me hospital bed / And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead / Never knew there was worse things than dyin' / For I'll go no more…

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