Music of Australia

Before I begin this post- did you know that emu eggs are GREEN?  Totally random, I know, but Coop and I discovered this tidbit today and were so amazed.  Cheap thrills, I know.... Hey, thrills have to be cheap down here considering how damn expensive everything else is!  Ha, ha. I crack myself up.  Just kidding.

Anyway, on to the real post.



Before we left of AU, I gathered a bunch of children's books about Australia, the people here and the animals. I hung pictures of the sites we would see here around the house, purchased videos and posted a map of AU on the walls.  We read the books, looked at the maps, watched the videos and talked about the photos, but the one thing I didn't do was play the music.  For some reason that slipped my mind completely. Fortunately, a lot of the folk music is music we are exposed to in the States- Waltzing Matilda, Kookaburra Song etc.  So my latest quest has been to gather music to play for the kids.  I bought a children's cd online called, Australian Songs for Kids (not so good) and pulled together all the songs I had in my itunes collection.  I bought a copy of the book, Waltzing Matilda (with cd) and have been searching high and low for a copy of the Kookaburra Song in book form.  So hard to find. I think I will make my own.  

Tucker absolutely loves the Kookaburra Song.  We have seen a few of them at wildlife parks and at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Whenever he sees a photo or drawing of a Kookaburra he sings, "bub bub" and he sways back and forth.  We found a postcard with a Kookaburra on it today and he had to have it. He has been carrying it around all day. He even "fed" it at lunch and dinner time. I think I have sung the song at least a dozen times today.  Cooper loves to sing the song too.  Tucker gets a big kick out of the fact that Coop can sing the whole thing. Here is Coop's version of the song:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Merry, merry kingdom of the bush is he

Laugh Kookaburra! Laugh Kookaburra!

Aye your life must be.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Eating all the gum nuts he can see

Stop Kookaburra! Stop Kookaburra!

Aye your life must be.

(note: "aye" rhymes with "gay")

Interestingly enough, we stumbled upon a few new verses that we didn't know. Some are fine and others are really meant for the slightly older child.  This is the third verse some of you may or may not know about:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Counting all the monkeys he can see

Stop, Kookaburra! Stop, Kookaburra!

That's not a monkey, that's me!

This is one of the verses we found that is, shall we say, interesting, at best. Use at your own discretion. 

Coop loved it of course....

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail

Gets a boo-boo on his tail

Cry Kookaburra! Cry Kookaburra!

Oh how life can be.

Waltzing Matilda is another Australian classic or "bush ballad." I think we all know the tune, but did 

you know that it is the unofficial national anthem of Australia? Yup, it is. I always thought that matilda was a lady. Come on, fess up, you did too. Actually, the word matilda is a swag or bedroll that is carriedon one’s back. It is also slang for something that has been stolen. So basically the song tells the story of a swagman (a man who travels the countryside with his swag and survives by doing odd jobs or 

begging), making tea at a bush camp and capturing a jumbuck (sheep) to eat. When the sheep's owner 

arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker for the theft, the worker commits suicide by 

drowning himself in the nearby watering hole, and then goes on to haunt the site. Nice uplifting song, 

huh? 

Ah, once again the teacher in me comes out. I prepared my kids for this adventure the way I would 

prepare to teach my class. Now on to the next lesson!

PS Something funky is going on with my formatting- sorry about that....