Credited on the record as Dennis Kevans.
The Great Prawn War
1982 · Larrikin LRF2053 · Canberra, Australia
- Artist
- Denis Kevans
- Credited on the record as
- Dennis Kevans
- Title
- The Great Prawn War
- Release
- Rebel Chorus: A Concert of Contemporary Political Song
- Year
- 1982
- Label
- Larrikin # LRF2053
- Format
- LP · Compilation
- Language
- English
- Country
- Canberra, Australia
- Songwriter
- Denis Kevans
- Genre
- Spoken Word · Spoken Word · Poetry
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation
Double-LP of political songs and poetry, released in 1982 by the Amalgamated Metal Workers & Shipwrights Union , on Larrikin Records (# LRF2053), the record label founded by folk collector and performer Warren Fahey . This contained three anti-war tracks related to Vietnam. This included the song "F111" , performed by the The Larrikins, and composed by Lyell Sayer , who recorded his own version, discussed immediately below. The other two tracks are poems, by Denis Kevans (15 January 1939–2005), from Canberra, Australia. The first was "The Great Prawn War" . The second title was the "Slouch of Vietnam" , said to have been published and set to music in 1962, before Australia's major troop commitment in 1965, according to Kevans. The poem was recited at anti-war demonstrations in the 1960s/70s. Both poems mentioned featured in his 1982 book The Great Prawn War and Other Poems . A slouch hat, also known as Aussie bush hat is a distinctive Australian hat that has one side of the brim turned up or pinned to the side of the hat, often used in the military. The poem recalled previous wars: "far-off fields of Flanders... brave Gallipoli" . However, these were different from the Vietnam…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Poem; last part of the medley on side C, track 1. Published in The Great Prawn War and Other Poems (1982).
About the artist
Denis Kevans (15 January 1939 - 2005) - poet from Canberra, ACT, active in the 1960s-70s protest movement.