Lyr Req: Now I'm Easy (Eric Bogle)

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Barry Finn
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 11:27 PM

Thanks for the more in depth backround, very enlighting to hear more of the realities than to see the painted picture. Barry

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 11:07 PM

I never really thought about it before, but I also sing NML occasionally, but never 'sing' TBPWM..though I think I know every word of it.The first time I heard TBPWM I was transfixed...it is NOT an easy song to listen to, and we may differ forever in our respective reactions to it...but it sure is hard NOT to react! As Alan says, 'an important song...'

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 12:29 PM

G'day,
For a previous discussion of "Now I'm Easy" click here.

Regarding TBPWM vs No Man's Land, I sing NML but never have any desire to sing TBPWM, nor do I particularly enjoy hearing it, but I do think it's a very important song and one everybody should hear and think about.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 09 Jul 98 - 12:40 AM

G'day Barry,

Thanks for the story. I can just see Eric as a daft young Scots git, fresh out from Peebles - trying to down a cold (!!!) beer in the RSL (Returned Servicemen's League) at sundown when the lights all went out - except the globe in the yellow glass flame high on the wall - and just before the PA intoned "... they will not grow old as other grow old ...at the going down of the sun ... we will remember them".

The RSL is not only an established social centre for the wartime generation(s) but a well-established political force in Australia. The celebration of Anzac Day (from Australia New Zealand Army Corps) is the holiest day of the year to them. This was (until recently)the only secular holiday which was not allowed to be shifted to the nearest Monday or Friday to give one of the long weekends beloved of Aussies.

As you noted, it does commemorate the first engagement of Australasian troops under their own commenders. It was also the first for Australians as a nation (the Sudan and the Boer War were in our colonial period, before Federation in 1901). My mail of 8 July refers to the powerful effect of the Government's promotion of an heroic image of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli (which was in fact a defeat - and one at which the British authorities shamelessly used troops they still considered "colonial" as cannon fodder to make life easier for their own men).

Many veterans simply could not talk about their experiences unless they followed the accepted, heroic line. Anything else got them branded as cowards or slackers - until the Vietnam War educated us all (not just those in the thick of it) to the real horrors of war.

Eric's song was very controversial and its realism was not welcomed by those who wanted to keep their noble notions of dying for your country. I think that those who did know - the real soldiers - quickly realised the truth of the song ... certainly it was an incredible success (and flogged to death). I just find 'No Man's Land' more comfortable because it comes from an observer, not a victim.

Thanks again,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Barry Finn
Date: 08 Jul 98 - 03:41 PM

Hi Bob, Hi Mick, I'm not really fond of any of Eric's stuff, mostly because he's good at what he does & it gets overdone & then his songs get the life beaten out of them. After hearing them eveytime I go out to a pub, I much prefer the parodies ("I wished I had written that rambling old song that brought Eric Bogle such glory"). Anyway, Eric's story to TBPWM. From his explanation, I gather there's some sort of rememberance for the Aussie soldiers lost the battle of Gallapolie (sp? sorry), where it had been the first time the soldiers were commanded by their own countrymen (national pride developing here). Maybe the others here can give a better insight than me. In some kind of social clubs or the sort, at a specified time the lights go off & everything go quite for a few moments in respect, well Eric claims he made a complete ass of himself by hooting & hollaring about who turned the goddam lights off & so on, after getting an explanation, he felt mortifed & would have to redeem himself by finding out more & hence the song that forgives him being an ass. I do hope I've got the facts right, it's been a number of years, & I would be greatful to any who'd fix up the facts if I've gone astray. Barry

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: jehill
Date: 08 Jul 98 - 01:17 PM

As I said in another thread only today, Eric Bogle's song is called "No man's Land. Not "The green fields of France"
Also I don't think that many will agree that "The band played Waltzing Matilda" is the worst song ever heard.

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 08 Jul 98 - 12:27 AM

G'day Barry Finn,

Yes I would like to hear your story of Eric's writing TBPWM. There is a tale extant in Australia to the effect that Eric entered TBPWM in a song competition and it came second ... to a song, the name of which, nobody can remember.

G'day to Mick Lowe;

I did not like TBPWM when I first heard it (early 1970s) because I felt no wounded soldier could carry all that angst and stay sane. I have since been disproved - there have been soldiers - one virtually rendered dumb by the experience of the Gallipoli landing - who never found the voice to get rid of their bitter feelings until the Vietnam war, with its televised and syndicated graphic views of suffering and carnage, gave the public the understanding to hear them.

I do love 'No Man's Land' (which the Irish misname 'Green Fields ...'. I recite a Henry Lawson poem from c. 1916 'Scots of the Riverina', changing only to avoid a clash of family names and segue into 'No Man's Land' ... slow and unaccompanied. This can bring tears to the most hardened crowd!

Love to hear from you,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 09:24 PM

I don't know about you but "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is probably the worst song I've ever heard. Not a patch on the "Green Fields of France" (another Bogle song), as an anti war composition. Mind you I've only ever heard one version, i.e. by Ronnie Drew who I must admit has killed many a good tune. If anyone knows of a good rendition on this tune I would be interested to know. I notice however re a previous link about "The Green Fields Of France" ( which in my opinion when sung correctly is probably the best anti war song along with Billy Connoly's "Sergeant Where's Mine"), "The Band Played etc", doesn't come in for some much stick, because nobody bothers to play it, mainly because it's so dire..... Prove me wrong. Ready to listen... Mick

p.s. If you want the words and tadppoles, try my site at the following [e-mail]

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Barry Finn
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 12:24 PM

Hi Bob, I meant there was another story about how he came to write TBPWM that I found interesting, I'll give that story up if you're wanting it. Barry

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 02:41 AM

G'day Barry,

Actually, the last time I heard Wee Eric the Bogle (look it up in a good English Dictionary) holding forth on story lines that was his explanation of how he came to write "Now I'm Easy" - not TBPWM.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Barry Finn
Date: 06 Jul 98 - 08:12 PM

Jet, I heard Eric do this some yrs back, (he's a great story teller, at least about his songs, he tells a great one about how he came to write The Band Played Waltzing Matilda), he's says (this is the short of it) that while sitting in a bar an old gent started to relate his life's story to Eric, he sat, listened & when the man left, he ran outside, got something to write on or with & scribbled it down, the song literally fell into his lap, of course he has a knack for changing words into song. Barry

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: jets
Date: 06 Jul 98 - 08:06 PM

Thak you Grubby Found the lyrics right were you said JET

Subject: RE: lyrics aussie song A few words to get going
From: Grubby
Date: 06 Jul 98 - 07:47 PM

Jet, The song you are after is called Now I'M Easy written by Eric Bogle You can find it in the Digital Tradition data base.

regards Grubby

Subject: lyrics aussie song
From: jet
Date: 06 Jul 98 - 07:31 PM

Opens with : for nearly 60 yrs I' ve been a Corking?? Another line: they buried my sons beside the Burma Railroad A very touching song about a mans life