Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Eric Bogle
Eric Bogle (born 1944) is a Scottish-born Australian singer and songwriter. He was born in Peebles, Scotland, and emigrated to Australia in 1969. He currently resides near Adelaide, South Australia. Perhaps his best-known song, written in 1972, is "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", a haunting evocation of the ANZAC experience fighting in the Battle of Gallipoli; it has also been interpreted as a reaction to the Vietnam war.
His songs cover a wide range, including bright comic songs, satires ("I Hate Wogs"), protest songs and other serious considerations of the human condition. Some idea of the breadth of his work can be gained from the fact that another of his well-known songs is "The Aussie Bar-B-Q", a cheerful ditty about a completely different Australian institution.
In a similar vein to "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", his song "No Man's Land" refers to the old Scots song "Flowers of the Forest" being played over the grave of a World War I soldier. (Bogle is also on record as calling the song "The Green Fields of France", and it has sometimes been covered as "Flowers of the Forest".)
On the lighter end of the scale, other well-known songs include two homages to departed pets, "Little Gomez" and "Nobody's Moggy Now", and his homage/diatribe to his folk music fans, "Do You Know Any Dylan?".
Many of his songs have been extensively covered by other artists; "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and "No Man's Land" both gained fame in versions by June Tabor.
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