I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old

Annotation

Don Henderson, a highly-regarded contemporary folk singer, born on 17 January 1937 in Melbourne, Australia. He died in Brisbane, Australia, on 20 August 1991.1 He was particularly known for his political and social songs, with a focus on workers rights. He also composed several Vietnam War titles, although not all were recorded or released on record. The songs are: "Boonaroo", "The Won’t-Leave-This-Lander", "Bill White", "Draft Card Burner’s Song", "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old", "Peace is Union Business", "Ting-A-Ling", "Somone Up There", and "Was War For Those Who Want It".2 Thanks to Warren Fahey, Mark Gregory, and Raymond Crooke for identifying titles and providing lyrics.. This 1968 album featured the song "Boonaroo", the title of which was a reference to the HMAS Boonaroo, an Australian National Line cargo vessel used to support Australian forces in Vietnam. In 1966, members of the Seamen's Union of Australia refused to sail the vessel in protest against the Vietnam War.3 In the lyrics, the narrator wondered "who will man the Boonaroo", and then questioned the purpose of the ship, was there "medicine to heal...material to build", or was there "grief and death untold". The lyrics of this song also featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969, and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (founders of Paredon Records) - containing 100+ Vietnam War protest songs, 9 of which came from Australia & New Zealand. The song "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old" also featured in The Vietnam Songbook, dated 1968, although no recording from the time has been found yet. The song took a comedic approach to a 21 year old caught-up in major court case for resisting the draft. It started out with the man going down to the barracks, lighting a cigarette, and his "call-up papers accidently caught on fire". Misinterpreted as a deliberate act, the "C.N.D. embraced me" - a reference to the protest group the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, while the other side "called me a traitor". Soon he was all over the press, on the front page: "I read it in the papers so it must be true". He ended-up in court, where the judge noted that the man would not "fight for queen and country". The narrator noted that the "army wants to send me to jail", while his girlfriend's father called him a "dirty communist". A spokesman for the Returned Serviceman's League (R.S.L., similar to the American Legion), wanted him to be "horsewhipped and castrated, hanging is no good". After all this, the man concluded that "Vietnam sounds like a good place to leave to Vietcong", and that "three million bloody Frenchmen can't be all that wrong". Sources1Australian Dictionary of Biography: Donald James (Don) Henderson (1937–1991)↩2Union Song↩3navy.gov.au: Hmas boonaroo (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Australian & New Zealand Songs

Don Henderson, a highly-regarded contemporary folk singer, born on 17 January 1937 in Melbourne, Australia. He died in Brisbane, Australia, on 20 August 1991.1 He was particularly known for his political and social songs, with a focus on workers rights. He also composed several Vietnam War titles, although not all were recorded or released on record. The songs are: "Boonaroo", "The Won’t-Leave-This-Lander", "Bill White", "Draft Card Burner’s Song", "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old", "Peace is Union Business", "Ting-A-Ling", "Somone Up There", "Was War For Those Who Want It", and "It's On".2 Thanks to Warren Fahey, Mark Gregory, and Raymond Crooke for identifying titles and providing lyrics. This 1968 album featured the song "Boonaroo", the title of which was a reference to the HMAS Boonaroo, an Australian National Line cargo vessel used to support Australian forces in Vietnam. In 1966, members of the Seamen's Union of Australia refused to sail the vessel in protest against the Vietnam War.3 In the lyrics, the narrator wondered "who will man the Boonaroo", and then questioned the purpose of the ship, was there "medicine to heal...material to build", or was there "grief and death untold". The lyrics of this song also featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969, and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (founders of Paredon Records) - containing 100+ Vietnam War protest songs, 9 of which came from Australia & New Zealand.4 The song "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old" also featured in The Vietnam Songbook, although no recording from the time has been found yet. The song took a comedic approach to a 21 year old caught-up in major court case for resisting the draft. It started out with the man going down to the barracks, lighting a cigarette, and his "call-up papers accidently caught on fire". Misinterpreted as a deliberate act, the "C.N.D. embraced me" - a reference to the protest group the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, while the other side "called me a traitor". Soon he was all over the press, on the front page: "I read it in the papers so it must be true". He ended-up in court, where the judge noted that the man would not "fight for queen and country". The narrator noted that the "army wants to send me to jail", while his girlfriend's father called him a "dirty communist". A spokesman for the Returned Serviceman's League (R.S.L., similar to the American Legion), wanted him to be "horsewhipped and castrated, hanging is no good". After all this, the man concluded that "Vietnam sounds like a good place to leave to Vietcong", and that "three million bloody Frenchmen can't be all that wrong". Sources1Australian Dictionary of Biography: Donald James (Don) Henderson (1937–1991)↩2Union Song↩3navy.gov.au: Hmas boonaroo (archived copy)↩4Union Song↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Draft Songs

Don Henderson, a highly-regarded contemporary folk singer, born on 17 January 1937 in Melbourne, Australia. He died in Brisbane, Australia, on 20 August 1991.1 He was particularly known for his political and social songs, with a focus on workers rights. He also composed several Vietnam War titles, although not all were recorded or released on record. The songs are: "Boonaroo", "The Won’t-Leave-This-Lander", "Bill White", "Draft Card Burner’s Song", "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old", "Peace is Union Business", "Ting-A-Ling", "Somone Up There", and "Was War For Those Who Want It".2 Thanks to Warren Fahey, Mark Gregory, and Raymond Crooke for identifying titles and providing lyrics.. The song "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old" featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969, and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (founders of Paredon Records) - containing 100+ Vietnam War protest songs, 9 of which came from Australia & New Zealand. The song is dated 1968, although no recording from the time has been found yet. The song took a comedic approach to a 21 year old caught-up in major court case for resisting the draft. It started out with the man going down to the barracks, lighting a cigarette, and his "call-up papers accidently caught on fire". Misinterpreted as a deliberate act, the "C.N.D. embraced me" - a reference to the protest group the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, while the other side "called me a traitor". Soon he was all over the press, on the front page: "I read it in the papers so it must be true". He ended-up in court, where the judge noted that the man would not "fight for queen and country". The narrator noted that the "army wants to send me to jail", while his girlfriend's father called him a "dirty communist". A spokesman for the Returned Serviceman's League (R.S.L., similar to the American Legion), wanted him to be "horsewhipped and castrated, hanging is no good". After all this, the man concluded that "Vietnam sounds like a good place to leave to Vietcong", and that "three million bloody Frenchmen can't be all that wrong". Sources1Australian Dictionary of Biography: Donald James (Don) Henderson (1937–1991)↩2Union Song↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs

Don Henderson, a highly-regarded contemporary folk singer, born on 17 January 1937 in Melbourne, Australia. He died in Brisbane, Australia, on 20 August 1991.1 He was particularly known for his political and social songs, with a focus on workers rights. He also composed several Vietnam War titles, although not all were recorded or released on record. The songs are: "Boonaroo", "The Won’t-Leave-This-Lander", "Bill White", "Draft Card Burner’s Song", "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old", "Peace is Union Business", "Ting-A-Ling", "Somone Up There", and "Was War For Those Who Want It".2 Thanks to Warren Fahey, Mark Gregory, and Raymond Crooke for identifying titles and providing lyrics.. This 1968 album featured the song "Boonaroo", the title of which was a reference to the HMAS Boonaroo, an Australian National Line cargo vessel used to support Australian forces in Vietnam. In 1966, members of the Seamen's Union of Australia refused to sail the vessel in protest against the Vietnam War.3 In the lyrics, the narrator wondered "who will man the Boonaroo", and then questioned the purpose of the ship, was there "medicine to heal...material to build", or was there "grief and death untold". The lyrics of this song also featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969, and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (founders of Paredon Records) - containing 100+ Vietnam War protest songs, 9 of which came from Australia & New Zealand. The song "I'm an Australian – 20 Years Old" also featured in The Vietnam Songbook, although no recording from the time has been found yet. The song took a comedic approach to a 21 year old caught-up in major court case for resisting the draft. It started out with the man going down to the barracks, lighting a cigarette, and his "call-up papers accidently caught on fire". Misinterpreted as a deliberate act, the "C.N.D. embraced me" - a reference to the protest group the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament, while the other side "called me a traitor". Soon he was all over the press, on the front page: "I read it in the papers so it must be true". He ended-up in court, where the judge noted that the man would not "fight for queen and country". The narrator noted that the "army wants to send me to jail", while his girlfriend's father called him a "dirty communist". A spokesman for the Returned Serviceman's League (R.S.L., similar to the American Legion), wanted him to be "horsewhipped and castrated, hanging is no good". After all this, the man concluded that "Vietnam sounds like a good place to leave to Vietcong", and that "three million bloody Frenchmen can't be all that wrong". Sources1Australian Dictionary of Biography: Donald James (Don) Henderson (1937–1991)↩2Union Song↩3navy.gov.au: Hmas boonaroo (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Then the press took my picture and my name was spread / All across the front page with an article that said / I was one more of a number who emphatically stood for / Australia withdrawing from what was a civil war / Our influence was mounting, as our number grew / I read it in the papers so it must be true. / In court the army said 'this man', and pointed straight at me / 'Won't fight for queen and country, church or B.H.P. / The magistrate swore sagely, and turning to me said / What if a Vietcong attacked your mother in her bed? / I said 'well, they ain't here yet, but if perchance they come / I'll run down the T.A.B. and put a spin on mum. / Now the army wants to send me to jail / Old women send me white feathers in the mail / I went down to my girl friend's place, met with her father's fist / Says 'stay 'way from my daughter, you dirty communist' / A spokesman for the R.S.L. said my type should / Be horsewhipped and castrated, hanging is no good. / Now if at first I would have gone, now I will not go / But since I have found out lots of things I didn't know / And Vietnam sounds like a good place to leave to Vietcong / Three million bloody Frenchmen can't be all that wrong / Well, I said to my mate Charlie 'we'll stick around out here / We won't hurt nobody' / And he said 'no fear

About the artist

born on 17 January 1937 in Melbourne, Australia. He died in Brisbane, Australia, on 20 August 1991.

Themes

Anti-War · ANZUS · Draft · VC · Draft Card Burning · First Indo-China War

In collections

Draft Songs · Australian & New Zealand Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]