The parody above of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is also in the Digital Tradition, as "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (2)", with no attribution above or in the DT. It was written by Tony Miles, of Queensland, and he called it "And the Band Played 'And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda'".

Graham Dodsworth, who has posted to Mudcat a few times, has quite a bit to say about the parody in his Master's thesis, The Nature of Folk Song in Australia. I'm going to quote at length from that thesis:

Parodies of 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda':

Parodies are a form of extension of a song that don't necessarily require retention of the essence of the song it feeds off. Some parodists draw pleasure from shadowing the original lyrics as closely as they can, as can be seen in this first example of parodies resulting from 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'. Tony Miles, who wrote the parody in 1979, the year following Bogle's recording of the song, is an accomplished and recognised songwriter in his own right.

Most interestingly, even from the parody, we may see which of the versions was used as a model for the work and again by examining the 6th line of the verse which we number as the 5th in the original (3rd here), we see the Miles version is taken from one that never left Australia.

(Version 13) AND THE BAND PLAYED 'AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA' (Parody by Tony Miles of Brisbane).

Tune: "And The Band Played 'Waltzing Matilda'" by Eric Bogle

I solicited this version of Tony's parody directly from Tony via phone, and received this set of words with accompanying notes via e-mail. The accompanying notes were basically the patter Miles used to introduce the song during the 1980s which are recorded on his 'Australia Through and Through' tape.

Just so you have the right background to this parody. When Eric wrote the original I thought it was a great song and I still do. The trouble was that when I began to tour and imagined I was on the brink of great fame and fabulous wealth, 'The Band' had become a bit of a block-buster and Eric a star. At every gig I played someone would sing it without fail. Added to this was the fact that Eric was living in Brisbane (where Miles also resided) at the time and the first question I was always asked was "do you know Eric Bogle?" When I responded that he was a mate of mine (he was, after all, only Eric), I was suspected of being a name dropper. A few just refused to believe me. And so for a while I began to feel that I was doomed to live in the shadow of Eric and that's why I wrote the song (parody). As it has happened, history confirmed my fears. When people talk about me these days it's usually -"What ever happened to .....um......what was his name?' As I said at the beginning, great to hear from you. Keep in touch.             Yours in obscurity,
Tony Miles. 5 February, 2000.
(Miles, 2000)

1st.   
When I was a young man and played a guitar
I lived the free life of a rover.
From Brisbane's green river to dusty folk clubs
I waltzed my old Martin all over.
And at each club I played, the people said 'Son,
We do like your songs', but when I was done
They'd leap on the stage saying "Now I'll sing one"
And this is the song that they'd sing.

1st Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda',
Then the audience soon forgot me
And amidst all the tears, flag waving and cheers,
I'd slip to the loo for a pee.

2nd.   
How well I remembered that terrible day,
How my blood boiled much hotter than water.
For up to that time I'd been well on the way
To winning the publican's daughter.
Johnny Turk, he was singing and sang the song well,
I showered him with insults and truth is to tell,
I wished Eric Bogle had gone straight to hell
And never had come to Australia.

2nd Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'
was such a well loved refrain
that when Johnny Turk had finished the berk
Started all over again.

3rd.   
And now every April I sit on my porch
And watch my past life pass before me.
And I wished I had written that rambling song
That brought Eric Bogle such glory.
And the songs what I wrote, I don't sing them no more
They're tired old songs from a tired old bore
And the young people ask 'What did he write them for?'
And I ask myself the same question.

3rd Chorus:
'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' -
How the singers respond to that call,
And as year passes year all my hopes disappear
That no one will sing it at all

(Miles, 2000).


In the light of the above message which accompanied the e-mail that contained the parody, If I were to perform the parody in the future, I would add the following chorus, so that the song would follow the original form where the actual chorus of 'Waltzing Matilda' is sung at the end and thus we have an example of the process of altering a song to suit one's tastes.

(Final chorus is sung to the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda')
And these words may be heard as you pass by your local pub,
'What ever happened to old what's his name?'
Graham H. Dodsworth. 7 February, 2000.

(Version 13.2) AND THE BAND PLAYED 'AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA' (Parody by Tony Miles of Brisbane).


This version of Miles' parody was found during a web-search for 'And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' and although there can be no doubt that this parody has been taken directly from Tony Miles parody, Miles is not acknowledged anywhere and the initials RG have been placed at the bottom of the text. There have been some interesting although minor alterations to the Miles original. 'Dusty folk bar' in this version rhymes better than 'dusty folk club' in the version supplied my Miles himself. Despite this, the last line of the 1st verse in the subsequent version is clumsy and misses the obvious rhyme where 'sung' would have been more logical to rhyme with 'done' than 'sang me' or Miles' 'sing'? More interesting is the alteration in the final verse where once again the most interesting line is the original 6th line of the 5th verse. Where Miles was executing a close parody of the version with which he was most familiar 'tired old men from a tired old war' by writing 'tired old songs from a tired old bore' the version below seems unaware of the Australian version of this line, and therefore the significance of Miles' cleverness with parodying the line, and possibly hasn't noticed or cared that they have altered the line to 'tiring old songs from a tiring old bore'.

1st.   
When I was a young man I played the guitar
And I lived the free life of the rover
From Brisbane's green river to each dusty folk bar
I waltzed my old Martin all over
But in each club I played in the people said, 'Son
We do like your singing'
But when I was done
They would leap on the stage saying now I'll sing you one"
And this is the song that they sang me:

1st Chorus:
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
And the audience forgot about me
So amidst all the tears, flag waving and cheers
I went to the loo for a pee.

2nd.   
How well I remember that terrible day
How my blood boiled much hotter than water
For up to that time I'd been well on me way
To wooing the publican's daughter.
Johnny Turk he was there and he sang the song well
I rained him with insults and truth is to tell
I wished Eric Bogle had gone straight to hell
And never had come to Australia.

2nd Chorus:
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
It was such a well-loved refrain
And when Johnny Turk was finished, the berk
Went and sang it all over again.

3rd.   
So now every April I sits on me porch
And I watch my past life go before me
And I wish I had written that rambling song
That brought Eric Bogle such glory
The songs that I wrote, I don't sing 'em no more
They're tiring old songs from a tiring old bore
And when young people ask 'What did he write them for?'
I ask myself the same question.

3rd Chorus:
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
And the singers respond to the call
As year after year all my hopes disappear
That no one will sing it at all

RG   
Digital Tradition Mirror
http://back.numachi.com/cgi-bin/rickheit/dtrad/lookup?ti=BANDPLY2&tt=BANDPLAY