My neighbor was from America but he moved to Australia for work. I went to work for him when he moved back, and I remember him playing this song. I never really had time to listen to it but I always remembered it. So I finally said I am going to listen to it, and it has now become one of my favorite songs. Like anybody cares but I thought I would share that.
I suppose it makes some people cry because it's simply a beautifully unpretentious piece of music. It is played throughout the film "On the Beach" about the futility of nuclear war and is so compelling.
Who can forget this song being sung at Cardiff Arms Park when the Wallabies toured in 1967 to defeat Wales for the first time and defeated the Barbarians.
if what i read is correct the Australian Army Men sang a version of this song while recruitment and Marching to war.. Matilda also refered to their sleeping bags they carried on their backs to war. waltzing the matilda meant as they marched the bag (aka matilda) moved like it were waltzing. it's a very fond song for the Aussies and i love it too. it's a song of brotherhood and comradery.
First visited Oz in '91 and a little bit of me stayed behind. Along with North West Passage, the only other song that brings a tear to the eye. A real beaut!
Este es el himno más universal que conozco. Hay otros que hablan de guerras y héroes, y de un pueblo que apoya a estas y estos; pero Waltzing Matilda revindica al espíritu libre. Es un auténtico himno de la gente.
i love this song. i'm a japanese, but every time i hear this song, i always want to come back to Australia. i miss the meat pies. i still call Australia home.
Im a Timorese and i love this song very much. This song made me thinking about my teachers from Xavier college Melbourne. I miss them. Love from East Timor.
I love everything about Australia. You guys are the nicest bunch of people I've ever talked to no matter where I've met you. Can't hold anywhere else with such high regard. And both the anthems (Advance Australia Fair and this) are very beautiful. I'd love to move to Australia at somepoint down the line for sure.
Ahh, you'd say bland but mind being British our anthem is God Save the Queen which is very uninteresting and very outdated aha. Waltzing Matilda is the better one of the two though :-P
Cyclopgamingfreaks It's awkward for me, I'm Scottish so GSTQ is our official anthem with the much better (in my opinion) Flower of Scotland adopted as our unofficial anthem. I guess I dislike GSTQ for some of the anti-Scottish parts in it. The Welsh anthem is amazing if you've never heard that you 100% should give that a listen, I like the German one as well.
THANK YOU roosevelnut = As I TOO think that Waltzing Matilda is definitely "one of the moving anthems ever written"..... as we sang it in unison = 19 Aussies = to mi dying Da on his 92 birthday in the hospital..... where he passed just days later..... takin his ooooold outback "tucker bag" with him!!
The last bit of this track comes from the night JW sang "Waltzing Matilda" at the Rugby World Cup in 2003, when the ARU tried to ban everyone from singing it. But they couldn't shut JW up ... neither could they stop the crowd!! Awesome version and awesome pics. Well done.
As a foreigner....this ought to be the official national anthem. It is infinitely more memorable and well known than Advance Austraiia Fair. This is a really great version also.
I dont know about the others but I pride myself in our heritage and history. Im proud to say the success and continued success of this country was born and bred from a British age. 1 000 000 Australian soldiers and nurses have died for the anthem and flag we proudly display today and I think it would be insulting and unnecessary to change it when we have so much to be proud of. The British didnt oppress us like they did the Americans, we had no reason to distance ourselves from our heritage.
AMAZING!! I love the story, I love the music, I love the voices. Sometimes, it makes me cry. If I were a country, this would be my anthem. For sure!! Regards from Spain.
I've got tears on my eyes for this beautifull song and pictures.. Tks. to you Australian beautiful people you are the best and you live in the best country. Regards from Italy Stefanino
That's right. On The Beach, thank you! That's the first time I remember hearing this song. It was in the 50's..... I saw it when it first came out. Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. Anyway, it made me cry then and it still does....especially this rendition. This slower version is so beautiful. I think it's one of the most moving anthems ever written.
As an American I admire the rebellliousness of this song and the refusal to submit to authority. I think we have alot in common with the Austrailians, wide open spaces, and being immigrants to a foreign, and unsettled frontier land. I think we're people of the same ilk, willing to leave everything in Europe behind to better our selves in lands of opportunity, and that spirit is something that I don't think anyone left in Europe has, and that's why we're better than them in everyway.
This is such a beautiful song! I love rugby!My dad got me into it!I wonder why I ever thought it was boring! Walting Matilda! Im not from Australia but I've got relatives there!I love the accent!
I love it, heard the aussies singing it before a rugby match long ago and I thought it was a joke song, as I got older I have deep respect for that song and the history of it and its much better than the USA copy which they sing now.
I dated an Aussie and I lived in an Antipeodian house, when I worked and lived in London in my 20s. I also worked with lots of Aussies, and for some reason the accent is easy for a Swede to adopt, people thought I was an Aussie lol
most itunes versions of this are cheesy little kids songs. I believe this version has a true power behind it. Especially with the authentic Australian voice and the folk feel sung in a slow yet powerful tone. The best part is at the end where the crowd passionately joins in. I believe it symbolizes that all Aussies can join together to be part of something greater than themselves. As an American who studied abroad there I want to say I have the deepest respect for Australia and its people.
Abraham Morrison late to the party but the Desert Rats were the British 7th Armoured Division who held Tobruk. The Aussies were integral to the defence of Tobruk however
all the while he is still singing about life as a drifter. Whilst he's singing away, the land owner happens upon him, followed by some lawmen, wanting to know about the freshly slaughtered sheep which happens to be his property. The vagabond, rather than be arrested and hanged as a thief, jumps into the water and drowns himself and it is said that his ghost may be heard singing about life as drifter when you pass by that billabong.
i went on rugby tour with school last summer to aus, of course we won every game being english. we stayed with host families of the fella's we played and i dont think we have ever had such a warm reception or great 3 weeks. it was just one big social event with the odd rugby match. we stayed with both ends of the socio-economic spectrum and everyone we met were warm and had that classic aussie wit. brilliant country brilliant people and thats from a pom
The song was written by Banjo Patterson in 1895 in outback Queensland, it was based on an old Celtic folk tune called "The Craigeelee", which itself may have been based on a number of earlier tunes from the late 1700's.
This song, even though it's about a theif, is a definate Australian anthem. No matter where you go in the world you know someone is an Aussie when they sing that song. And the best part of this rendition of the song is when the whole crowd is singing the chorus, that's how us Australian's do it. Nobody will ever match that!
When I was 21 I thought, in Boston as a student, that I would try rugby football. Well, I am 55 now, and I am still beguiled, enthralled, enraged, and delighted by the game. I have visited two world cups. It is, it seems that maybe I am overstating it, simply, the greatest team sport on the planet earth.
I love Australia. I lived in Mt. Isa, Queensland and Thirroul, NSW way back in 1971-1973. "Waltzing Matilda" is, probably, my third or fourth all-time favorite song. However, I do feel sorry for the sheep. The poor guy went down to get a drink of water and wound up in the swaggie's tucker bag and in the middle of a riot! LOL - Mike
