[Gay State Conservative]

I had actually never heard of “The Band Played Waltzing Matilday” until I heard McDermott’s version. It is a long song maybe 5 or 6 minutes.

For years and years I stupidly though that "Waltzing Matilda" was just a love song a guy wrote to his wife.But a few years ago I stumbled,quite by accident,on info suggesting that it was,in fact,the beloved "national anthem" of Australia.So I listened carefully to the lyrics (for the first time),found out what a "swagman" was,what a "jumbuck" was,what a "billy" was and came to understand the song better than I had.It was during that research that I also stumbled on "And The Band Played...."

Powerful stuff...

[yarddog]

My parents bought a Burl Ives album around 1960. One of the songs was “Waltzing Matilda”. The album explained some of the expressions.

A good thing it did as I would have had no idea what it was about otherwise.