Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 29 Mar 08 - 11:51 AM

I used to sing a Matilda parody "Waltzing a Bulldog" in South Australia in early 1960s and don't recall any one else singing it.
I don't claim sole authorship - the original Matilda spawned a lot of parodies, and WALKING A BULLDOG sung by one Tom Lewis (1989) is possibly mere coincidence (after all the song is dead easy to parody). It would be nice to think, however, that my version did get passed on. I sang it in various coffee bars in Adelaide, and won a talent competition with it in Bega, NSW, in 1963. I sang it in a very posh English accent, which Aussies (especially in rural areas) always found very amusing. I first heard it sung again at the Faversham (Kent)Folk Club c1978 - the singer was uncertain where he had first heard it.

Thanks to Albert and Dr.Price for nice words about Pigfoot. Our Pontardawe gig went very well.
Good to see Leadfingers still hanging on in there.

                                     Dave Illingworth

Subject: ADD Parody: Waltzing a Bulldog (Dave Illingworth)
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 29 Mar 08 - 02:27 PM

Further to my previous message of today (and after reading the very interesting "Matilda" correspondenc - I am new to Mudcat),
I print (for what they are worth) the words of parody I was singing
in Aussie c1963 (South Australia and on hitch-hiking travels through Victoria and NSW). I called it "WALTZING a bulldog", as opposed to "WALKING a bulldog".

Waltzing a Bulldog
(Dave Illingworth)

Once a jolly business man sat beside a lily pond
Under the shade of an old oak tree
And he sang as he watched and waited while his kettle boiled
You'll come a waltzing a bulldog with me

Waltzing a bulldog etc

Up came a bulldog to drink down by the lily pond
Up jumped the business man and grabbed him with glee
And he sang as he stuffed that bulldog in his briefcase
You'll etc

Up came the sergeant mounted on his bicycle
Up rode the constables one, two, three
Where's that jolly bulldog you've got in your briefcase
You'll etc

Up jumped the business man and jumped into the lily pond
You'll never catch me alive said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the lily pond
You'll etc

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Mar 08 - 07:15 AM

Another parody is one I came across when studying philosophy in New Zealand in the early 1970s. It was a detailed synopsis of St Anselm's two Ontological Arguments for the existence of God. I don't know where I've put the purple-roneo copy I had and I can only remember the beginning and (sort of) the chorus:

Once a jolly friar found himself an argument,
And he couldn't get it out of his mind,
He thought that he could prove the existence of the Deity
Just from the way that the words are defined.

Thus spake Saint Anselm, thus spake Saint Anselm,
Thus spake Saint Anselm with weighty intent,
That's what he said in his proof so ontological,
If only we could understand what the hell he meant.

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: Dave Illingworth
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 05:23 AM

Inspired my much of the above, my old mate Dusty Miller (see also
"Canal Catters" thread) has just written a new Matilda parody called
"Firing up the Bolinder". Many Canal Catters will know what a Bolinder is.
Dusty is no stranger to adapting Australian songs to suit a canal theme. On the DPN+1 CD "The Unknown Boatman", Dusty successfully adapted two songs from the repertoire of the late great Slim Dusty.
The title song is adapted from "Paddy William" amd "There lies a workhorse" became "There lies an old motor". We are proud that Slim kindly gave his blessing to the two rewrites a year before he died.

Subject: Yahoo! execs! stick! it! to! the! man!
From: GUEST,grotroreigmat
Date: 18 Jun 08 - 11:13 AM

More by this author Jerry Yang celebrates his first year as CEO of Yahoo! today, but with so many execs choosing to exit stage left, it's not exactly an anniversary he'll want to shout about.

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: Rowan
Date: 28 Jun 08 - 11:15 PM

Those interested in early recordings and this song in particular may be interested to learn that the National Film and Sound Archive in Australia has been conducting a survey of recorded "Sounds of Australia" and the ealiest known recording of Waltzing Matilda, sung in this case by John Collinson in 1927, has been added to the list at #8

The ordering of the numbers at the link is by chronological precedence (the first 10 starts with The Hen Convention of 1896 and includes Percy Grainger's 1919 setting of Country Gardens and Peter Dawson singing The Road to Gundagai) but the list can be sorted by vartious filters.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: GUEST,Danny Rylance in the U.K.
Date: 07 Sep 09 - 09:09 AM

I am a fan of Noel Watson and i have a disc of him singing waltzing matilda, would be happy bto send a copy to you or e-mail you the song.let me know if you want it, my email address is [e-mail]
noel did sing this at the afl cup final and for my money its the best version ever
cheers

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 07 Sep 09 - 12:00 PM

To add to a bit of thread-drift from way way back. B Greenhaus remarked that you could sing Jabberwocky to Ode To Joy. Also, I find, to tune of any ballad: have just tried it out: to both the Young Laboo & the Matty Groves variants of Little Musgrave; to both the Bert Lloyd & the Matthew Hodgart versions of Bitter Withy; to Queen Eleanor's Confession; & to Young Johnston & the Young Colonel which I sing on my own Brewhouse record Butter&Cheese&All [BH 8904] — & it goes fine to all. Indeed, as we all know, any ballad tune will do for any ballad: the association of particular tunes to particular ballads always seems a bit arbitrary to me. But anyhow, it was ballad-metre that Carroll used for Jabberwocky: so there you go...

Subject: RE: Craigielee/Waltzing Matilda
From: Rain Dog
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 07:56 AM

Article from the BBC site about John Collinson who was the first person to record Waltzing Matilda

The British soldier who first recorded Waltzing Matilda

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