Re: Resurfacing from the void with a petty question
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Thu, 10 Jun 1999 15:49:40 +1000
The Tom Waits song is not only of the same name but is the same song (: And
it beats me exactly why he did a version (although I'm very glad he did).
I've also heard Harry Belafonte of all people sing a version. To form a
cultural equivalent, this song is roughly to us what Yankee Doodle Dandy is
to America. And if you want I can tell you what a tucker bag, a billy, a
jumbuck, and a Coolabah tree is, too (: Anyway, the basic storyline is that
this swagman (kind of like a drifter) steals these sheep (`Jumbuck') and
gets caught and taken `waltzing matilda'. So now you know. Now you gotta
tell *me* exactly why Yankee Doodle Dandy stuck a feather in his cap and
called it macaroni (:
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> So what was happening in the Tom Waits song of the same name? (And of
course
> I admit I never knew it meant to take someone to jail.)
> Thank you Camille.
>
> I'm assuming you heard it in Waltzing Matilda (`Once a jolly
> >swagman camped by a billabong') And, as any good Aussie school kid (and
> >practically no one else) knows - to `waltz matilda' meant `to take
someone
> >to jail'. It's a real shame these distinctly Australian words are
beginning
> >to fade out under all the cools and awesomes and suchlike.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest