Title

Waltzing Matilda

Performed (complete with feedback) on a Taylor Big Baby and vocals through a Crate acoustical amp, Shure microphone. Recorded on a Sonim XP 10, emailed to laptop and finally embedded here, for your enjoyment.

First the disclaimer: Waltzing Matilda is a song in the public domain and is easily researched. This account is based on my research years ago and expresses my interpretation; expect misspelling and variation in other interpretations. The characters are fictitious, and no animals have been harmed.

America and Australia have been close allies for a while now. The boys fought together in the Great Wars in the trenches and jungles around the World. They fought together, bled together and died together seeing themselves as defenders against tyranny. Both of these cultures have had long relationships with tyranny, and their drums and music speak a definite language.

So close was our allegiance that every school child in America during the 1960’s knew of and even sang Waltzing Matilda, as though it were a nursery rhyme.

Waltzing Matilda is much more than a song; it is a waltz and a march and remains (if not in sedition) the unofficial national anthem of Australia. At one time (based on my research) every cadet was required to sing unaccompanied for his regiment upon graduating, this waltz.

Few here in America can recite any of Waltzing Matilda beyond its title line. Australians speak their own form of English, quite foreign to a school age child here and it is doubtful whether even the teachers could interpret at the time. It was simply in the curriculum.

So, without further delay, here is a phonetic interpretation of…

Waltzing Matilda

waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you’ll go a waltzing Matilda with me…

Waltzing, in Australia is to walk, stroll, trek, lollygag (waltz). Matilda is his bedroll, and she keeps him warm each night. Waltzing Matilda. Here you’ll go with me.

And he sang as he sat, and waited till his billy boiled, you’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me…

His billy is his cup, tin or whatever contains his tea, and there are more reasons than one to boil his water, so he sings as he waits. What’s he singing? Repeat waltzing Matilda.

First verse:

Once there was a swagman, camped by a billabong, under the shade of a coolabah tree, and he sang as he sat, and waited till his billy boiled, you’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me…

A swagman is an itinerant worker going place to place in search of work, a billabong is a pond or small lake, and the coolabah is likely a tree native to Australia. Hard times mean desperate measures and history repeats itself. A refugee with nothing but his “swag” doing for the sake of sustenance.

Repeat title verse.

Second verse:

Up walked a jumbuck, to drink at the billabong, up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee, then he stuffed that jolly jumbuck down in his tuckerbag, you’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me

A jumbuck is a worthless ram, old and beyond his breeding years.

Tucker is food and his tucker bag holds his food.

Repeat waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda, you’ll…

Third verse:

Then up strode a squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred, up strode the troopers one-two-three… What’s that jolly jumbuck, down in your tucker bag, you’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me

A squatter is a rancher (sheep) and a trooper is, of course, a trooper. It seems important to mention here that at this time, sheep rustling was a hanging offense. Strangely this fact has fallen out of history even though it represents the true intention of the song (which is maybe why it’s fallen out of history). Bad things were happening during this period, things maybe best forgot…

Well up jumped the swagman, down in the billabong, you’ll never take me alive says he… and his voice can be heard in the wind through the coolabah, you’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me

Waltzing Matilda is a protest song. It protests tyranny and the ghost of this swagman is a reminder that tyranny is only a song away.