Waltzing Matilda

title=”Thumbs Up” [ Explore 27.1.2013 #341 ] photo by ralphb58., click on the picture to enter his galleries on Flickr [sent to my group BLOG IT!]
Waltzing Matilda, first lyrics were written 1895 in Australia, the title is not related to a dance and not related to a woman. Matilda was the name for a bag on the back of wandering shepherds. The lyrics are related to a sheep-shearer, who was a protester vs bad working conditions. During the protest a barn was burned, some sheep were killed. The protester Samuel Hoffmeister was accused, but he said he was not guilty and made suicide beneath his favorite water hole – where he usually ate some stolen sheep.

Maybe you have an interest to read more at wikipedia. The song became a kind of second national anthem in Australia, was used for the opening of Olympic games 1976, was the soundtrack for a female soccer team (the Matildas) or was used supporting the out-sending of Australian troops vs Iraq etc. In Australia the whole audience knows the lyrics by heart. Otherwise, the composition was performed with often changed lyrics by Joan Baez or Tom Waits, by Rod Stewart or Johnny Cash, by Tommy Emmanuel or the Dire Straits etc.