And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Information about And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

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George Lambert's Anzac, the landing 1915, depicting the landing at Anzac Cove.
"And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a song, written by Eric Bogle in 1972, describing the futility, gruesome reality and the destruction of war, while criticising those who seek to glorify it. This is exemplified in the song by the account of a young Australian soldier on his maiming during the Battle of Gallipoli during the First World War. The song is a vivid account of the memories of a young Australian man who, in 1915, had been sent to Gallipoli -- who "for seven long weeks" kept himself alive as "around me the corpses piled higher". He recalls "that terrible day" ... "in the hell that they called Suvla Bay we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter" ... "in that mad world of blood, death and fire". In its clear and stark retelling of the events of the battle and its aftermath, it is a passionate indictment of war in general.

The song incorporates the melody and a few lines of "Waltzing Matilda's" lyrics at its conclusion. Cover versions of the song have been performed and recorded by Joan Baez, Priscilla Herdman, The Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners, Slim Dusty, The Fenians, Mike Harding, Jolie Holland, John McDermott, Midnight Oil, Christy Moore, The Pogues, The Skids, June Tabor, John Williamson and the bluegrass band, The Kruger Brothers. The Pogues cover is perhaps the best-known version; critic Robert Christgau wrote that vocalist Shane MacGowan "never lets go of it for a second: he tests the flavor of each word before spitting it out." [1]

The song is often praised for its haunting imagery of the devastation at Gallipoli. The protagonist, a rover before the war, in the story loses his legs in the battle, and later notes the passing of other veterans with time, as younger generations become apathetic to the veterans and their cause.

The song, written in 1972, has also been interpreted as paralleling the Vietnam War. The song rails against the romanticising of war. As the old man sits on his porch, and watches the veterans march past every ANZAC Day: "The young people ask what are they marching for, and I ask myself the same question".

The song was originally eight verses long but Eric Bogle pared it down to five verses without reducing its meaning. The song may have been forgotten, but at the 1974 National Folk Festival in Brisbane, Eric entered another song in a songwriting competition. The first person who performed sang two songs rather than just the one, so everyone who followed did the same and so Eric also sang "Matilda" to great acclaim and consternation by some when it did not win the competition. Jane Herivel from the Channel Islands heard the song and got Eric to send her a recording. She sang it at a festival in the south of England where June Tabor heard it and later recorded it. Unbeknownst to Bogle, the song had became famous in the UK and North America and when Bogle was in the UK in 1976 he was surprised to be asked to perform at a local folk club on the strength of the song.

American Vietnam veteran and Medal of Honor winner Senator Bob Kerrey sang the song to his supporters at the end of his Presidential campaign in 1992, and borrowed the first line for the title of his autobiography, .

Larrikin Publishing is the copyright holder of the song.

Factual Inaccuracies

  • The second verse of the song describes an amphibious assault by Australian troops at Suvla Bay. The landing at Suvla was actually carried out entirely by British soldiers and was only lightly opposed. Bogle has said that he included the reference to Suvla partly because most Australians connect it with Gallipoli, and partly because it made for an easier rhyme. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/19/1019020705613.html
  • The reference to "tin hats" is anachronistic - they were in fact not issued until 1916 (a year after the Gallipoli campaign).
  • The narrator of the song is commonly assumed to be a conscript; however as Australia did not employ conscription in World War I, he must have been a volunteer (if reluctant).
  • The narrator claims to have joined the AIF in 1915. However, it is strongly implied that he is present at the landing on 25 April 1915. In this case he would have already left Australia by the end of September 1914.
  • The AIF never "...sailed off to Gallipoli." In fact, they didn't know where they were going. They were initially sent to Egypt for training, and presumed they would be serving in France. However, Churchill's plan to invade Turkey intervened.

See also

External links

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Battle of Gallipoli took place at Gallipoli from April 1915 to December 1915 during the First World War. A joint Imperial British and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and provide a secure sea route for military and agricultural trade with the
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Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1880s  1890s  1900s  - 1910s -  1920s  1930s  1940s
1912 1913 1914 - 1915 - 1916 1917 1918

Year 1915 (MCMXV
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Battle of Gallipoli took place at Gallipoli from April 1915 to December 1915 during the First World War. A joint Imperial British and French operation was mounted to capture the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and provide a secure sea route for military and agricultural trade with the
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landing at Suvla Bay was an amphibious landing made at Suvla on the Aegean coast of Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey as part of the August Offensive, the final British attempt to break the deadlock of the Battle of Gallipoli.
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"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known folk song, and one that has been popularly suggested as a potential national anthem.

The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker making a crude cup of tea at a bush camp and stealing a sheep to eat.
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In popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition (performance or recording) of a previously recorded song. In its current use, it can sometime have a pejorative meaning - implying that the original recording should be regarded as the definitive version,
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Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941) is an American folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style. She is a soprano with a three-octave vocal range[1] and a distinctively rapid vibrato.
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Priscilla Herdman is an American folk singer. Although she has written songs, she is notable chiefly for her interpretations of other artists' work.

Born in Eastchester, New York in 1948, she attended the University of Iowa, finishing her studies at the Fashion Institute of
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The Clancy Brothers were an Irish folk music singing group, most popular in the 1960s, who are often credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. The brothers were Patrick Clancy, Tom Clancy, Bobby Clancy and Liam Clancy.
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For the book by James Joyce, see Dubliners.


The Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962 (see 1962 in music), making them one of the oldest bands that are still performing music presently.

Formation

The Dubliners formed in 1962.
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David Gordon "Slim Dusty" Kirkpatrick, AO, OBE (June 13, 1927—September 19, 2003) was an iconic Australian country music singer-songwriter. He has sold more than five million albums and singles in Australia.
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Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944) is a British singer and comedian.

Harding was born in Crumpsall, a suburb of the English city of Manchester. His father, who came from Devon, was an RAF pilot who was killed during World War 2. Mike is of Irish descent on his mother's side.
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Jolie Holland is a Texas-born singer and performer who combines elements of folk, traditional country, jazz, and blues. She is one of the founding members of The Be Good Tanyas. Labelmates Tom Waits and Sage Francis are both outspoken fans of Holland's.
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John McDermott may refer to:
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  • John McDermott, the American golfer
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Christopher Andrew 'Christy' Moore (born on May 7, 1945, in Newbridge, County Kildare, in the Republic of Ireland) is a very popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty.
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The Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish folk with influences from the punk rock movement. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s before breaking up in 1996.
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The Skids were an art-punk/punk rock and new wave band from Dunfermline, Scotland, founded in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (1958 - 2001, guitars / vocals / keyboards / percussion), Richard Jobson (vocals / guitar / keyboards), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and William Simpson (bass
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June Tabor (born December 31 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer.

Early years

June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965.
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John Robert Williamson AM (born 1 November 1945 in Quambatook, Victoria) is an Australian country music singer-songwriter.

Williamson was raised in the Mallee district of northwestern Victoria.
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The Kruger Brothers are Uwe Krüger (lead vocals/guitar), Jens Krüger (banjo) and Joel Landsberg (bass guitar), originally from Switzerland. They are a well-loved bluegrass band and have been performing together since the early 1970s (with the exception of Landsberg, who hails from
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Robert Christgau (born April 18, 1942), is an American essayist, music journalist, and the self-declared "Dean of American Rock Critics".[1] In print, his name is sometimes abbreviated as Xgau.
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Shane Patrick MacGowan (born December 25, 1957) in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK, is best known as the original singer and songwriter with The Pogues, and is considered one of the most important and poetic Irish songwriters of the last thirty years, often echoing his influences such as
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A swagman is an old Australian term describing an underclass of transient temporary workers, who traveled by foot from farm to farm carrying the traditional swag. Also characteristic of swagman attire was a hat strung with corks to ward off flies.
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veteran (from Latin vetus, meaning "old") is a person who is experienced in a particular area, and is particularly used in Russia and the United States to refer to people in the armed forces. It often refers to retired armed services personnel.
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Total wounded: ~1,490,000 North Vietnam and NLF
dead and missing: ~1,100,000 [1] [2] [3] [4]
wounded: ~600,000+ [5]
People's Republic of China
dead: 1,446
wounded: 4,200

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ANZAC Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to remember members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who in the Battle of Gallipoli landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.
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