And The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda

[Driscoles]

Found this one on you tube.

Some probably know this song. This one is not a video but mixed with lots of historical pictures.

Sad one




Björn

[dodge]

A lot of good stuff there. The pictures are sad but the track makes the whole thing very sad 

[Trencher]

I know this one, too. It was waaay back in the 1980s (wasn't it the last song of the "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" album by "The Pogues"?), when I heard it for the first time. It moved me even then when I was an angry young lad. 
Thanks for sharing!

[Poliorketes]

I have a version from the chieftains somewhere on tape, on of my favourite sad songs though I haven't heard it for years.

[Arlequín]

I know this one, too. It was waaay back in the 1980s (wasn't it the last song of the "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" album by "The Pogues"?), when I heard it for the first time. It moved me even then when I was an angry young lad. 
Thanks for sharing!

Mike Harding did it on acoustic on one of his concert shows in the 80's too. Both versions could bring me to watery eyes stage, sad emotional fool that I am.

[Driscoles]

Guys, sorry for spoiling your sunday.
I found it when I googled for WW1 vets after I read the topic here on the forum.

[Poliorketes]

Too late. Now it's your fault I'm sitting here listening to Springsteens Nebraska.

[Driscoles]

And in 20 days Iam standing right infront of Springsteens stage in Hamburg !

[Gallowglass]

Thanks for posting that 

[Poliorketes]

And in 20 days Iam standing right infront of Springsteens stage in Hamburg !

Congratulations, but I'm still p***ed of the last Hamburg Concert when I got fourth row first block and they changed the seat plan and put in another block in front of us 

[JollyBob]

Great tune, not one to listen to after a couple of beers. 




Not to cheapen the mood, but I'm sure I read somewhere that "Waltzing Matilda" was a euphemism for a certain unsavoury tinker's practice carried out with a bedroll. Is that true, or have I been grossly misinformed? 

[Will Bailie]

Thanks, Driscoles, that's a good one.  I've heard many artists perform "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", and it moves me every time.  Another great Eric Bogle tune is "No Man's Land", aka "The Green Fields of France":



And more up tempo, but just as depressing, "The Recruiting Sergeant"as performed by Great Big Sea:

[Arlequín]

Thanks, Driscoles, that's a good one.  I've heard many artists perform "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", and it moves me every time.  Another great Eric Bogle tune is "No Man's Land", aka "The Green Fields of France":

My personal favourite.

I recall a lengthy debate somewhere criticising Eric Bogle for over-sentimentalism and pointing out only one soldier named McBride, W. served in WW1 and he survived... which kinda missed the point of the song to me.

[Will Bailie]

Well, according to Wikipedia, that unassailable font of knowledge, there was a William McBride who was only 19 when he joined the great fallen in 1916 (along with many others who died at other ages and in other years):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Man%27s_Land_%28Eric_Bogle_song%29

But I agree that the point is not whether there was such a person, but that so many young lives were needlessly cut short, regardless of whether they were called Wiilie, Guillaume, Wilhelm or any other name.

[Red Ed]

As a sometimes songwriter myself it makes total sense to me that if you want to really bring home to the listener something as abstract as the human cost of warfare generally or of the "Great War" in particular one effective strategy is to start by describing the individual tragedy of one man cut down in his prime.  Describe the individual, let the listener identify with his bereaved loved ones and feel that loss deeply.  Then lead the listener into performing the inductive act of multiplying that singular sadness by the millions of other "Willy McBrides" who also died on the "green fields of France" and on the countless other battlefields of all the wars that have happened "again and again and again and again" since then.  Personally, I think it is a masterful piece of song writing.  It chokes me up whenever I hear it or sing it (but then I'm a bit of a softy).

Ed