The Ballad of Gunner Holt
Not On Label · Melbourne, Australia
- Artist
- Clem Parkinson
- Title
- The Ballad of Gunner Holt
- Release
- Unreleased
- Label
- Not On Label
- Format
- Unreleased · Unreleased
- Language
- English
- Country
- Melbourne, Australia
- Songwriter
- Clem Parkinson
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Lyrics
English: If you'll gather round me people a story I will tell / About a brave young gunner you should all remember well / It's a legend of our country that mustn't fade away / And a source of inspiration to the young men of today / It was back in 1940 and the War had just begun / Young Harold Holt decided: 'I had better take a gun / I must fight for King and country and the old red, white and blue' / So he put away his speargun and he bid his friends adieu / To the army camp at Pucka young Harold Holt did go / Just itching for the chance to come in contact with the foe / But he felt a proper narna in his khaki pants and shirt / And he even found that once or twice his hands were caked with dirt / So he served at Puckapunyal for five weeks and a day / Then sailed back home to Canberra when his unit sailed away / For it seems that he had developed an allergy to war / As Andrew Peacock has today and Menzies years before / So remember well the story of this five week gunner bloke / And when you get your draft card send the damn thing up in smoke!
Notes
To the tune of "The Wearing of the Green"; on Harold Holt's five weeks at Puckapunyal in 1940. Printed in Ratbags & Rabblerousers.
About the artist
Clem Parkinson - Melbourne songwriter of political and union songs, a member of the New Theatre Drama Group in the 1960s.
Themes
Anti-War · Draft · Satire · Harold Holt · Robert Menzies · Draft Card Burning
From the release Unreleased
In collections
Australian & New Zealand Songs · Draft Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]