If you go to Australia you will probably hear Walzing Matilda or hear about it as you travel to the area where it was written.
Like most people I had known it for years. Long before I heard it, in the land of Australia. I went to one of those Australian food and music evenings in Sydney. We were given a copy of the words.
I went to see the area where the events described happened, but it's a bit remote and nothing to see there. Just a pool of water, where a man, a swagman, died. The song commemorating him and romanticizing his life and death was written by Bo Jangles, a man who once had two girlfriends who were rivals, a fiancee, and her rival who gave him the tune.
Local events provided the words.Despite the sad words, the song has an element of jollity. 'He sang ... with glee'
Bo Jangles is on Australian banknotes, so no trouble seeing the face of the man who wrote the famous song. The songwriter also wrote another famous Australian classic, The Man From Snowy River.
The upbeat end is the ghost of the swagman continuing to sing, immortalised by the words. Anything about immortality is reassuring.
The Daily Mail has an Australia section.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/auhome/index.html
Useful websites
I love the version of Walzing Mathilda by Slim Dusty on YouTube. A soloist with a guitar is right for this song, but so is the jollity of joining in the chorus at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwvazMc5EfE.
God bless Australia (the land of the free) sung to the music of Walzing Matilda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb67Y638rHI
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment