skippy the bush kangaroo: And The Band...

Monday, May 30, 2011

And The Band...

Played Waltzing Matilda...

I've never been able to look at Memorial Day as a holiday. A holiday is an occasion for celebration. The Fourth of July is a holiday. Labor Day is a holiday. Memorial Day is a time for humility and sober reflection -- the parades we have on this day don't make any sense to me. "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is not about or associated with Memorial Day, but their spirits are very similar...

Labels: memorial day, music

posted by Jim Yeager at 2:34 AM |

9 Comments:

Great anti war song by Tommy Makem. My granduncle was at the Gallipolis landings as a young sailor. It was hard to get him to talk about it but the slaughter was such that they had to use poles to push the bodies away from the propellers.
Pat

commented by

Anonymous, 3:26 AM PDT

Damn. I wouldn't want to talk about that either if I'd been there...

commented by

Jim Yeager, 4:57 AM PDT

This is my favorite anti-war song, if "favorite" is the appropriate word for such a thing...

Combine that with periodic reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and I do not know how anyone could be a proponent of war. Of any kind. None of the reasons for it is ever what it is purported to be.

commented by

lea-p, 7:38 AM PDT

"Jonny I Hardly Knew Ye" is the one I first heard a a young boy and it stuck with me.
http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/dropkick_murphys/johnny_i_hardly_knew_ya.html

commented by

Anonymous, 7:51 AM PDT

I love your anonymous fan club. :)

commented by

mahakal, 12:00 PM PDT

Whatever, Mike.

commented by

Jim Yeager, 1:02 PM PDT

TJ and I heard the Clancy brothers and Tommy Makem sing this song along with MANY others at Killarneys Pub at the Holiday Inn in Nashua N.H. about 25 years ago. Their singing this song brings tears to your eyes. M

commented by

Anonymous, 8:17 AM PDT

Hey Mikey, GROW UP!!

commented by

Anonymous, 8:18 AM PDT

Holiday originally was "holy day." Current meaning as "occasion for a sale" came later.

commented by

D., 12:12 PM PDT

Add a comment