Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home

Subject: Still Call Australia Home
From: GUEST,MarciaP
Date: 19 Mar 00 - 07:10 PM

A couple of Australian friends of mine sang a song that had "I still call Australia home" in the chorus. Unfortunately I've lost touch with them, but would like the words to the song. Additional lyrics may have been "wherever I wander, wherever I roam, I still call Australia home."

Does it sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks, MarciaP

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Callie
Date: 19 Mar 00 - 08:34 PM

It's a very familiar song to Australians. It was written by Peter Allen who DIDN'T call Australia home!!! (Just like Barry Manilow didn't write "I Write the Songs")

I can't help with all the lyrics, but I'm sure Bob Bolton or some other Aussies will have them.

Subject: Lyr Add: I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME (Peter Allen)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 19 Mar 00 - 09:43 PM

G'day,
Here you go (yuk!)

I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME

Peter Allen

I've been to cities that never close down
From New York to Rio and old London Town
But no matter how far or how wide I roam
I still call Australia home.

I'm always trav'lin' I love being free
And so I keep leaving the sun and the sea
But my heart lies waiting over the foam
I still call Australia home.

Middle eight
All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world
Away from their family and friends
But as the world gets older and colder
It's good to know where your journey ends.

But someday we'll all be together once more
When all of the ships come back to the shore
I realize something I've always known
I still call Australia home.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Callie
Date: 19 Mar 00 - 11:13 PM

Phew! I'm glad you said "yuk". I thought it was just me being weird.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 20 Mar 00 - 02:42 AM

I would normally volunteer to provide just about any tune, but even I have standards. On the other hand his TENTERFIELD SADDLER isn't such a bad one. Regards, John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Bugsy
Date: 20 Mar 00 - 02:44 AM

I rather like it

Cheers

bugsy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Callie
Date: 20 Mar 00 - 08:15 PM

Yes, tenterfield Saddler is a good one. And it has really put Tenterfield on the map!!

Callie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: phil jl
Date: 20 Mar 00 - 10:25 PM

I also have a problem with this song. I can't say I don't like it, but it is too sentimental and seems somewhat unreal.

However there is no doubt it is a popular song and can unleash considerable patriotic sentiment. I've heard grown men sing it with a quavering voice and watched them hug each other as if the song imparted some special meaning or reinforced a special bond. For a while I seemed to hear the song everywhere I went and was always amazed at its popularity.

I recall once proposing (somewhat tongue in cheek) that it would be interesting to debate the question: Has the song I Still Call Australia Home become a folk song or an anthem ?

Maybe my experiences are unique - I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has witnessed these reactions. (Probably the topic for another thread)

Phil (who after thinking about it again, must concur. Yuk!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Callie
Date: 20 Mar 00 - 10:49 PM

I played at a 50th birthday party the other week, and the song requested in advance was "Still Call Australia ..." so we performed it (in accordance with our host's wishes, not by choice) and people stood up & had their hands over their hearts etc etc. The party-goers were also all Qantas empoloyees, and the song has been used in the past on tv ads for the airline, so that had a lot to do with it. But they didn't cringe - they loved it!!

I've never heard the song sung in folk contexts. That's no reason it SHOULDN'T be considered a folk song, but to my ears it just doesn't sound very real. It's like the difference between the cheery "Road to Gundagai" and John Dengate's song about his mother, who was born the year "Road to Gundagai" was written. John's song is "Bare Legged Kate" to the tune of "Bare Legged Joe" and it has a very profound effect on me - about what it was really like in Gundagai at the time.

To each their own - my mother was not born in Australia but absolutely loves the song.

--Callie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 21 Mar 00 - 08:05 PM

G'day MarciaP,

I must admit that I saw the thread and sidestepped it! I'm afraid most Australians have heard one too many renditions of I Still Call Australia Home. It isn't such a bad song on its own merits, but it is flogged to death by some Peformers.

On the other side of the coin, I went off The Tenterfield Saddler for some time after I was in Tenterfield and needed a small leatherwork repair .. and the present Tenterfield Saddler only sells leather things - and does not make them. (Not fair to Peter Allen, really, since we are not talking about his grandfather - just the bloke who bought the shop!)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Mar 00 - 04:27 PM

G'day again;

OOPS! I'm going to have to check my typing more carefully. I seem to have set out to italicise a title ... and had it completely vanish!

The last paragraph of my previous post should begin: "On the other side of the coin, I went off The Tenterfield Saddler for some time after I was in Tenterfield and needed a small leatherwork repair ...".

Maybe I shouldn't expect to get anything correct until I shake of the this bout of labyrinthitis - If I look down at the keyboard, I get dizzy.

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: MarciaP
Date: 27 Mar 00 - 02:31 PM

Whew, opened the floodgates with that one!

I guess I'm just a sentimental sap at heart. I've only heard the song once, but I guess others have heard it far too much!!

Thanks anyway for your help everyone!

Marcia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: GUEST,Toni Davies
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 12:26 AM

I've read all the comments from people like Callie, Bob Bolton, Phil, etc. and I think it's really a pretty damn good song! We've been asked for it so many times that we've decided to learn it and add it to our repertoire, along with We Are Australian. We even sang part of the song in a 1994 production of SANDY HOLLER! when I was singing with the Newcastle People's Chorus. Toni of Lost'n'Found.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Oct 03 - 09:03 AM

Hello, Toni

No doubt your version will be a lot different to the usual one, as Bob said "It isn't such a bad song on its own merits, but it is flogged to death by some Peformers".

Sandra (Loaded Dog)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 04:41 AM

G'day Sandra,

Yes ... I did type: "... flogged to death by some Peformers ..." - but I was suffering from the unsteadying effects of labrynthitis!

Toni Davies: The point I made was not that The song is inherently bad ... just that the locals have heard it several times too many. (Maybe the the full choral treatment went over a treat ... a real change from overexposure tp pop versions!)

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Still Call Australia Home
From: Joybell
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 04:52 AM

I always thought it strange that audiences should want the song when they knew I had never been away from Australia, except for 2 brief holidays AND they lived here too! Maybe if we were all somewhere else. Funny, I've never thought of calling it anything else actually.
Maybe Gert who lives by Sea. Yes! that's it's alternate name!!