Issue #37
February 28, 2005
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Arts Eric Bogle by David Katz Every few years, Eric Bogle, Australia's best poet and songwriter, tours the US. If you can catch him this year, do; if not, keep a sharp eye out for his 2004 tour and don't miss him.
Unlike most of today's singer-songwriters, who have no sense of poetry in their lyrics, no concept of melody in their music, and worst of all, nothing to say, Bogle writes deeply affecting (and sometimes extremely funny) songs with haunting, lively melodies. Every song tells a story, and most of the stories have something important to show us or teach us.
NY Stringer correspondants saw three of his shows: one in Cleveland and two in the New York area. While the core of each show was the same, featuring his best-known songs, each show was uniquely tailored to the audience and venue.
Of all the really powerful sungs he has created, the ones pertaining to war (using the extreme stupidity and waste of WWI as the anchor) are his most famous. These include "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", a tribute to the ANZAC troops slaughtered at Gallipoli, "No Man's Land", inspired by the gravestone of a 19 year old soldier killed in Flanders, and a new song about the Australian Light Cavalry in Palestine at the end of the war shooting their mounts rather than giving them to the Arabs as work horses.
The show is not all downers, though. Bogle can be extremely funny in his comments and song introductions, and his comic songs “Gomez” (the sad tale of a Chihuahua who tried to mate with a Saint Bernard named Blodwin), “He's Nobody's Moggy Now” (about a cat who had a run-in with a truck), and “Can You Sing Any Dylan” (which ends with the funniest Bob Dylan immitation ever) are hysterical.
Bogle is also the master of small poignant songs of the human condition. “Leaving the Land” and “Now I'm Easy” celebrate the Australian small farmer. “Leaving Nancy” pictures his mother as Bogle is about to leave Scotland to emigrate to Australia. “Elizabeth's Song” was written for friends whose infant daughter had died of crib death. Never mawkish or maudlin, these songs tell intimate stories.
This tour, Eric Bogle was accompanied by a splendid guitarist, singer and mandolin player, John Campbell Monroe.
Buy Bogle CDs; attend his concerts. You will be richly rewarded.
Eric Bogle’s tour schedule and available CD’s can be found on his website: http://www.windbourne.com/ebogle/index.html
New York Stringer is published by NYStringer.com. For all communications, contact David Katz, Editor and Publisher, at david@nystringer.com
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