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- Category: It's About Time Backstories and Lyrics
If you ever want to get a true sense of the waste of life that wars bring, watch the old movie Gallipoli, about a young Australian runner who is scheduled to run in the Olympics but goes off to war (1st). The movie uses Waltzing Matilda (Australia’s populist National Anthem..like Louie, Louie in Washington state) as a dirge. Anyway, I was going through my parents Readers’ Digest Childrens’ Song book and came across Waltzing Matilda. I started playing in a slower, rock style and realized it was pretty soulfull. I quickly went and threw a MIDI arrangement into the computer. It has stuck around long enough to be the only cover on the CDs. I hope Australians especially like it. I like that the spirit of the song is about not giving in to the powers-that-be.
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
& he sang as he sat and waited
‘til his billy boiled
You’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong
Up jumped the swagman
and grabbed him with glee
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck
in his tucker bag
Singing, you’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Waltzin’ Matilda, Waltzin’ Matilda
You’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
And he sang as he sat and waited
‘til his billy boiled
You’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Up rode the squatter mounted
on his thoroughbred
Down came the Troopers count ‘em one, two,
one, two, three
Who’se that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your
tuckerbag ha, ha, ha
You’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Waltzin’ Matilda, Waltzin’Matilda
You’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Who’se that jolly jumbuck you’ve got in your tuckerbag
I say you’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Up jumped the swagman,
sprang into the billabong
Saying, “you’ll never catch me alive!”
And his ghost may be heard
if you pass by that billabong
Singing you’ll come a’Waltzin’, you’ll come
a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
Waltzin’ Matilda, Waltzin’ Matilda
You’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
And his ghost may be heard
if you pass by that billabong
Singing, you’ll come a’Waltzin’ Matilda with me
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- Category: It's About Time Backstories and Lyrics
This song is just plain nasty - An older song written as I was planning to leave Trooper, it just goes to show that one can be in the #1 (at the time) band in the country and still be truly miserable. Musically it was inspired by Warren Zevon who could be so deliciously bitter. I think at one time or another we’ve all dreamed about telling our bosses or compatriots how we feel in our moments of despair or frustration. At the time, our Producer Howard Steele seemed more interested in having the band watch old war movies than actually get the album (Flying Colors) finished. We ended up way over budget, were away from home, and bickering over who would get their songs on the album. I was able to go into the studio and write this song between the sinking of the Bismark and the Normandy Invasion. (or was it the attack on Pearl Harbour? After-all, I wasn’t in the war theatre, but was in the studio). I’ve harboured the resentment (kept the song around) ever since. It’s cathartic to record your feelings.
Surprised to see me? You thought I was dead!
Once more your nemesis
has reared its ugly head
You don’t deceive me with all of your lies.
The wrong you’ve done me has always survived.
You were always so critical of me,
Trumped up and puffed up in what you believed
Now you’re falling down
for the whole world to see
Don’t come crawling, crying to me
Don’t come crying
What has happened is supposed to be
Don’t, don’t come crying
You were always a loser to me
Knocked me around
but you never knocked me out
Try to submerge me, I’ll only scream and shout
My star is rising, yours fell from the sky
You wrote my epitaph, but are the first to
You were always so critical of me….
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