Lyr Req: Dedication Day (Eric Bogle)

Subject: Eric Bogle's Dedication Day
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 04:22 AM

I have friend who used to do alot of political work with Vets, and I recently heard the song Dedication Day by Eric Bogle. I was kinda wanting to send her the lyrics to it...I think it would really make her day....Does anyone here have them? Thank you.

Amergin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eric Bogle's Dedication Day
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 Oct 00 - 02:59 AM

G'day Amergin,

Unfortunately it's not in any of the three Eric Bogle Songbooks that I have ... nor on any of my LPs or CDs. His website is not much use for lyrics - it only tells you that they are all out of print!

It about time for someone to publish The Big Book of Wee Eric, but I don't know who would do it now. Larrikin Records, his original publisher has been sold up to Festival - and Warren Fahey, after a spell as divisional CEO for the new owners, has vanished off the scene - working on a massive anthology of folk recordings from the Australian Folk Revival.

Best of luck with your search,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eric Bogle's Dedication Day
From: Amergin
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 09:17 PM

Well, Thanks for trying, Bob.....I just decided to give this one more try.....

Subject: Lyr Add: DEDICATION DAY (Eric Bogle)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 01:07 AM

Copied from http://iwvpa.net/f-boglee/dedica.htm (The International War Veterans' Poetry Archives)

DEDICATION DAY
(©Eric Bogle, June 1996)

August in Mildura, and winter's on the run.
There's an early taste of springtime in the warm mid-morning sun.
As the men march past, from first to last, the crowds cheer every one,
And war seems somehow very far away
On this sunny Dedication Day.

They march to a Memorial, built by and for their own,
A simple Wall of Remembrance, of brick and steel and stone,
With the names inscribed of those who'd died while those who had made it home
With a debt of love and honour to repay
Had all gathered there on Dedication Day.

REFRAIN:
It's Dedication Day.
It's Dedication Day.

There was a concert held that evening. me and others sang our songs
While the boys drank beer and reminisced, laughed and clapped and sang along.
As I was standing there with my guitar just waiting to go on
A man grabbed my arm and said, "Please, would you play
A song for my mate Hans this Dedication Day."

He asked me to sing "Welcome Home," and I saw tears in his eyes.
I knew there was a story there, but I did not want to pry.
And then he said to me, "I want that song, you see, for this morning my mate died."
Faced with his grief, there was nothing I could say,
So I sang for Hans on Dedication Day.

They say that Hans took his own life, but I don't know if that's true.
But if it is, that's no surprise. too many Vietnam Veterans do.
Only those who were there can know the despair and the pain that he went through.
For who can understand it more than they?
Those who knew the cost of Dedication Day.

Though that Asian war's long over, they're still burying their dead.
Yet somehow their bond grows stronger with each broken thread.
What poison stole into Hans' soul to taint the years ahead?
In that war so long ago and far away,
Until he died of wounds on Dedication Day.

[Sung by Eric Bogle on "Small Miracles," Greentrax CD #130, 1998.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Eric Bogle's Dedication Day
From: Amergin
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 11:32 AM

Thank you! Wow! This place never ceases to amaze me!