Advaaaaaaaance Aaaaaaaustralia Faaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiir

[samvara]

Was all set on Friday night to go to bed at my usually early time when cricketk called to discuss driving arrangements with ascetic_hedony and it turned out we were going out visiting instead. Fear the car that contains T1 and the rest of us - we arrived at sarren's singing extracts from Cats having come to this via Les Mis, Buffy and our much maligned (for good reasons) National Anthem.

Why couldn't we have a decent national song? Something enthusiastic and, well, martial because I want to be French right now and sing La Marseillaise instead of Advance Australia Fair which is a) Awful and b) Embarrassing. Worse, the extremely unPC version I happen to know that I thought of as the dodgy 3rd verse turns out to be the 2nd verse of the 1942 version. It was re-written in 2002 to remove references to all sorts of unsavory things like Men! Sons! Britain! and Thumping People!

Advance Australia Fair 2002

Australian all let us rejoice.
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross.
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make our youthful Commonwealth
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share;
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.


Advance Australia Fair 1942

Australian sons, let us rejoice.
For we are young and free.
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea.
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In hist'ry's page, let ev'ry stage
Advance Australia Fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair.

When gallant Cook from Albion sailed.
To trace wide oceans o'er.
True British courage bore him on.
Til he landed on our shore
Then here he raised Old England's flag.
The standard of the brave.
"With all her faults we love her still."
"Britannia rules the wave."
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross.
We'll toil with hearts and hands,
To make our youthful Commonwealth
Renowned of all the lands.
For loyal sons beyond the seas
We've boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair.

Should foreign foe e'er sight our coast.
Or dare a foot to land,
We'll rouse to arms like sires of yore
To guard our native strand.
Britannia then shall surely know,
Beyond wide oceans roll
Her sons in fair Australia's land
Still keep a British soul.
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia Fair. 

Pining for Waltzing Matilda

Comments

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

Eerk!

[ironed_orchid]

egads, the old version makes the new one postively acceptable.

There's something wrong when the song from a telstra ad is a better anthem than the national one.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I saw the latest Qantas add last night - lots of attractive shiny faced children singing in soaring sopranos - was almost uplifting.

So Waltzing Matilda is about sheep theft - it's still a damn sight better than Advance Australia Fair AND it has all those cool words like "Jumbuck" and "Billabong".

*snigger* failed to spell Soprano there for a moment and spell checker came up with Sporran. I hate spell checkers, they always look at my last name and propose to rename me "Bubonic".

[special-trille.livejournal.com]

Eeek!

If ever I was undecided about changing our national anthem, I'm not any more. We need a new anthem. Pronto!

The Boo.