A Pogues song is making me cry...

[quispquake]

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"...this song SO sums up the stupidity of war, and the suffering of all that get involved with it...this one always hit me hard, but today it's too much...

"And the young people ask me what I'm marching for, and I ask myself the same question".

[Fenris]

1. Yep. About the Gallipoli invasion. ANZAC and all that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. isn't that the unofficial national anthem of Australia?

I like everything the Pogues have done (well, until Shane McGowan split). I've always heard Waltzing Matilda as a reference to the Australian soldiers in the Great War, which, if I am not mistakes, is when the song was written.

Bob Kerrey sung it when he withdrew from his presidential bid in 96 (I think it was 96), especially poignant coming from him.

[Fenris]

4. Well, the song "Waltzing Matilda" is

But the song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" was written by Australian folk singer Eric Bogle and is something of a skewering of the nationalism and patriotic fervor that is implied by "Waltzing Matilda".

[quispquake]

6. Thanks for the info...I always thought that was a "Pogues" original...

Seriously powerful...my office mate & I have been bummed out ever since listening to the song...

[XNASA]

5. Two different songs...

"Waltzing Matilda" & "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" are separate songs, though I believe that parts of the former are included in the latter.

The Pogues song is about Gallipoli.

That song makes me cry too.

[WildClarySage]

3. "A Pair of Brown Eyes"

does that for me. And Lorca's Lament, come to think of it. *sigh*

[HuckleB]

7. YES!

It do the job don' it?

[noonwitch]

8. Who the hell are the Pogues?

Man, I'm getting old.

[HuckleB]

9. Dude, you must be frickin' seriously old.

No offense, but The Pogues have been broken up for years, and had their heyday in the mid '80s.

[dbt]

10. The Pogues were the most WONDERFUL band!

They grafted a Punk approach onto Irish traditional roots. Front man Shane MacGowan was (and is) a Tortured Poet of the first order. Hard drinkin,' in-your-face and just a Wizard with words!

The musicians were first-rate, too, on accordian, whistle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and drums. The closest description I could give you would be an Irish version of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

First time I heard The Pogues, the Earth moved. They were the Crossroads of Irish and American folk music with a THUMP. Get "The Essential Pogues" CD.

www.furious.com/perfect/pogues.html

www.jerspoguespub.com

http://tigger.uic.edu/~skovar1/decade.html

The Pogues Forever!
:bounce:
dbt

(On edit: Here's to the great Gaels of Ireland, the men the gods made mad. For all their wars are merry and all their songs are sad.)