Eric Bogle has written several of these, mostly his anti-war songs.
- You're probably here because of the current Music page quote, from "My Youngest Son Came Home Today."My youngest son came home today,His friends marched with him all the way,The fife and drums beat out the time,While in his box of polished pine,Like dead meat on a butcher's tray,My youngest son came home today.
- 'The Band played Waltzing Matilda'
, often played on ANZAC Day (remembrance for all Australian soldiers who fought and died in all wars), is about a soldier in World War 1 who lost his legs. There probably isn't an Aussie alive anywhere who didn't tear up listening to that song the first time.But the band played Waltzing Matilda, as they carried us down the gangway.
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared, then they turned all their faces away
And so now every April, I sit on me porch, and I watch the parades pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march, reviving old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question. - "No Man's Land" (often covered as "The Green Fields of France") is another WWI themed song, about the futile death of young Private Willie McBride.Did you really believe, when you answered the call,
Did you really believe that this war would end war?
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dying were all done in vain,
For Willie Mac Bride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again. - "Romeo And Juliet In Sarajevo" is yet another song about the senselessness of war - this time about a pair of young lovers caught in the crossfire.Romeo, has your star set?
Where are you, Romeo?
Lying with your Juliet
In a field near Sarajevo.
Did you think love would be your shield?
Foolish Romeo!
Now love lies rotting in a field
Near Sarajevo.\\
