"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad. A folk song, the song has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia".
The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of tea at a bush camp and capturing a sheep to eat. When the sheep's owner arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker for the theft, the worker commits suicide by drowning himself in the nearby watering hole, after which his ghost haunts the site.
The original lyrics were written in 1895 by poet and nationalist Banjo Paterson. It was first published as sheet music in 1903. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that the song has its own museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton, Queensland. In 2012, to remind Australians of the song's significance, Winton organised the inaugural Waltzing Matilda Day to be held on 6 April, the anniversary of its first performance.
The song was first recorded in 1926 as performed by John Collinson and Russell Callow. In 2008, this recording of "Waltzing Matilda" was added to the Sounds of Australia registry in the National Film and Sound Archive which says that there are more recordings of "Waltzing Matilda" than any other Australian song.
Glossary:
The lyrics contain many distinctively Australian English words, some now rarely used outside of the song. These include:
waltzing
Waltzing Matilda from the above terms, "to waltz Matilda" is to travel with a swag, that is, with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. The exact origins of the term "Matilda" are disputed; one fanciful derivation states that when swagmen met each other at their gatherings, there were rarely women to dance with. Nonetheless, they enjoyed a dance and so danced with their swags, which was given a woman's name. However, this appears to be influenced by the word "waltz", hence the introduction of dancing. It seems more likely that, as a swagman's only companion, the swag came to be personified as a woman.
swagman a man who travelled the country looking for work. The swagman's "swag" was a bed roll that bundled his belongings. billabong an oxbow lake (a cut-off river bend) found alongside a meandering river. coolibah tree a kind of eucalyptus tree which grows near billabongs. jumbuck a sheep. billy a can for boiling water in, usually 2–3 pints. tucker bag a bag for carrying food ("tucker"). troopers policemen. squatter Australian squatters started as early farmers who raised livestock on land which they did not legally have the right to use; in many cases they later gained legal use of the land even though they did not have full possession, and became wealthy thanks to these large land holdings. The squatter's claim to the land may be as uncertain as the swagman's claim to the jumbuck.
Love this song. There's another version where some dude is explaining what some of the words mean and he slips up saying. " A tucker-bag is a bag for carrying tucker." The audience laughs "Tucker-ba-..Food, tucker is food.". I enjoyed that version of the song best, but Slim's will always be great.
Anorak Concealed Always
Posts : 14167 RPG Tokens : 19150 Join date : 2013-08-17 Age : 24
I mean, in a class I took that taught us how to peak in public, and give speeches, the teachers showed us a whole lot of her favorite lecturers and artists messing up, and made us watch how they recovered from their mistakes. One of those artists happened to be a man in his mid 30's that explained some of the terms used in Waltzing Matilda before singing it.
Cyrus Galactic Boss
Posts : 890 RPG Tokens : 5265 Join date : 2013-08-21 Age : 27 Location : USA
I mean, in a class I took that taught us how to peak in public, and give speeches, the teachers showed us a whole lot of her favorite lecturers and artists messing up, and made us watch how they recovered from their mistakes. One of those artists happened to be a man in his mid 30's that explained some of the terms used in Waltzing Matilda before singing it.
What Clubs said was directed towards Nemo.
Anorak Concealed Always
Posts : 14167 RPG Tokens : 19150 Join date : 2013-08-17 Age : 24
I mean, in a class I took that taught us how to peak in public, and give speeches, the teachers showed us a whole lot of her favorite lecturers and artists messing up, and made us watch how they recovered from their mistakes. One of those artists happened to be a man in his mid 30's that explained some of the terms used in Waltzing Matilda before singing it.
What Clubs said was directed towards Nemo.
Yeah. Sorry, should have quoted Nemo's post to avoid confusion.
Subject: 
Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:37 am
