Green Fields of France...

[Jon Skagfeld]

Greetings to all down under...Keith, Bob, Max,Lynn,Tim, Rick, Howard et al.

The tune "Green Fields of France" has been buzzing around in my head lately so I Googled "Eric Bogle".

Listening to his fairly current recordings, I was struck by how his Scottish burr has almost disappeared. Compared to recordings that I have of him some 30(!) years ago, his tenor voice sounds, to my North American ear, like a middle of the road balladeer. (His inflection certainly hasn't adopted "strine).

Of course he's been down around Adelaide way since 1969.

One of his renditions has a German group, Wachol, singing to the "Green Fields of France" tune, with highly evocative background images. Sort of a reverse Lili Marlene.

Anyhow, both Green Fields....and The Band Played....are tunes that are so haunting and rich in imagery. They remind me so much of how Australian troops were so callously used for Imperial purposes. (Don't even mention Breaker Morant!).

Anyhow, from one Colonial to a bunch of others....We all have to hang together....or surely we'll hang separately!

[Lynn Eades]

I had to educate myself, by googling Bogle. I then listened to John Mcdermott singing "the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" You should have a listen. That guy knows how to grab your heart.
Not to get swallowed up by the Australians, Heres a bit from a book I have about the N.Z. army in WW1.
On Armistice day N.Z. had 58,129 troops in the field.(more in training) In total the troops provided for foreign service(WW1) represented 10 percent of the 1914 population of the country, and 41 percent of the males between the ages of 20 to 45.
100,444 troops left N.Z. with the expeditionary forces of these 16,697 lost their lives and 41,317 were wounded, a 58 percent casualty rate.