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Annotation — Australian & New Zealand Songs

Eric Bogle, a contemporary folk artist born in Scotland, who then moved permanently to Australia in 1969. He is especially well-known as the composer of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", an anti-war track, which looked back at the Australian war experience in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 (World War One), while making a contemporary note about the younger generation, in reference to the Vietnam War. He also wrote and released the Vietnam War song "The War Correspondent", which featured on the 1980 album Now I'm Easy. On this album featured the song "Welcome Home" (Larrikin Records # LRF 282), which paid tribute to Vietnam War veterans, considered to have been neglected in Australian society and culture - the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial was only dedicated on 3 October 1992, commemorating the 60,000+ Australians who served in Vietnam, located on Anzac Parade, in Canberra. Bogle's other Vietnam songs are strongly anti-war, but this one is focused on the impact of war on soldiers and the home front, arguing that "when a nation goes to war, everyone's a casualty". He also returned to the theme of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", referencing an ANZAC parade: "on a sunny Sydney morning I... watched the boys come marching". Previously, in the 1971 song, he remarked "what are they marching for?". But in this song, he was focused on the welfare of the veterans, hoping that "the day helped to heal some wounds", and "for them the war was over, at last".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — European Songs

Eric Bogle, a contemporary folk artist born in Scotland, who then moved permanently to Australia in 1969. He is especially well-known as the composer of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", an anti-war track, which looked back at the Australian war experience in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 (World War One), while making a contemporary note about the younger generation, in reference to the Vietnam War. He also wrote and released the Vietnam War song "The War Correspondent", which featured on the 1980 album Now I'm Easy.. On this album featured the song "Welcome Home" (Larrikin Records # LRF 282), which paid tribute to Vietnam War veterans, considered to have been neglected in Australian society and culture - the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial was only dedicated on 3 October 1992, commemorating the 60,000+ Australians who served in Vietnam, located on Anzac Parade, in Canberra. Bogle's other Vietnam songs are strongly anti-war, but this one is focused on the impact of war on soldiers and the home front, arguing that "when a nation goes to war, everyone's a casualty". He also returned to the theme of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", referencing an ANZAC parade: "on a sunny Sydney morning I... watched the boys come marching". Previously, in the 1971 song, he remarked "what are they marching for?". But in this song, he was focused on the welfare of the veterans, hoping that "the day helped to heal some wounds", and "for them the war was over, at last".

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Now when the boys came home, Annie cried and Annie cheered / She'd been on her own for a long and lonely year / Living for his letters from far away Vietnam / And dreading the official telegram / So she was waiting at the station when his train came rolling in / She ached with anticipation of holding him again / And suddenly he was standing there in his crumpled uniform / In a heartbeat she was in his arms. Welcome home, boys, welcome home / Don't you know, you've been gone too long / Did you wonder, over there / When you were tired, when you were scared / If your country really cared, welcome home / When a nation goes to war, everyone's a casualty / Some are maimed and scarred, most have wounds you cannot see / So in place of the man that she had known / Annie found instead, a sick and troubled stranger in her bed / But she was stubborn, she was lovin', so she stayed all through the years / The hard times and the drinking, the nightmares and the tears / For where hate is muddy quicksand, love is tempered steel / Annie waited for his wounds to heal. Welcome home, boys, welcome home.... / So on a sunny Sydney morning, I heard old war drums beat / And watched the boys come marching, down the city street / To claim their place in the nation's heart / That their blood and pain had earned / A nation that rejoiced in their return / And if the day helped to heal some wounds is a matter of debate / For some it had come none too soon, for others far too late / But I found…

Notes

Written around the 1992 dedication of the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial, Canberra.

About the artist

Eric Bogle - contemporary folk singer-songwriter born 23 September 1944 in Peebles, Scotland; settled in Australia in 1969; writer of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda".

Themes

Vet · Home Front Perspective · Mistreatment of Vet · Welcome Home Parade · ANZUS

In collections

Australian & New Zealand Songs · European Songs