Ceolskog - Waltzing Matilda (Cowan and Queensland Versions)

Ceolskog is the folk metal project of Adam Helliwell from Hamilton, New Zealand. Ceol is an Irish word meaning music, and skog means forest in Norwegian and Swedish.

This one goes out to my Australian brothers and sister across the Tasman Sea! Waltzing Matilda is Australia's best-known bush ballad, and has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem". The title was Australian slang for travelling on foot with one's belongings in a "matilda" (swag) slung over one's back. The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker, or "swagman", making a drink of billy tea at a lush camp and capturing a jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the jumbuck's owner, a squatter (wealthy landowner), and three mounted policemen pursue the swagman for theft, he commits suicide by drowning himself in a billabong (watering hole), after which his ghost haunts the site.

The original lyrics were written in 1895 by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, and were first published as sheet music in 1903. There are at least two existing versions of this song with a different melody and lyrics. The original version is known as the "Queensland" version, while the more famous version is the "Cowan" version. I incorporated both versions in this recording. That's my sister helping me with singing the Queensland version sections!

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Lyrics:

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree
He sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling?
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
He sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
you'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
you'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me

Down came the squatter a riding on a thoroughbred
Down came the troopers one two and three
Whose is that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag
You'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me

Up jumped the swagman, sprang into the billabong
Drowning himself by the coolibah tree
And his ghost may be heard as it sings by the billabong
You'll come a-waltzing, Matilda, with me

Видео Ceolskog - Waltzing Matilda (Cowan and Queensland Versions) канала Ceolskog