The ballad entitled And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda was written in 1971 by Eric Bogle, a Scotsman who had emigrated to Australia in 1969. I heard it soon after, and often used to sing it, late of an evening, accompanying myself on the guitar, at Le Petit Gavroche in the Marais district of Paris. The Joan Baez version dates from 2008.The haunting female voice is surprising in the case of a soldier's song, like certain illustrations in the video, but the overall result is impressive.
It's a wonderful song. I took my youngest daughter to see Eric and John Derum and many more at an Anzac memorial concert at the Sydney Town Hall in the early 70s. Given the background of the Scots it's not surprising that Eric wrote some of our best songs of the 70s and 80s.
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