Liam Clancy - Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Mitch Sheehy
When I was a boy I loved the song Waltzing Matilda. I liked the Australian words, billabong, billy can, coolibah tree, jumbuck, and learned that Matilda was a word for a backpack frame. The song allowed me to travel to an exotic place. When I saw Eric Bogle's song, And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, I thought I knew what I was going to hear. Instead hearing it I was gutted.
There are many great renditions of the song. Eric Bogle in an interview remarked:
A lot of people now think the song is traditional. And a lot of people think that I died in the war, and penned it in blood as I expired in the bottom of a trench. I never thought the song would outlast me, but I have decided now there's no doubt it will. For how long, I have no idea. Nothing lasts forever. Hopefully it'll be sung for quite a few years down the track, especially in this country. And hopefully it will get to the stage where everyone forgets who wrote it.[1]
We need this song.
















