Woof Guide to Popular Music: And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

“And nobody cheered, they just stood and stared, and they turned their faces away.”

In 1915, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the “Anzacs”, were sent to Gallipoli in Turkey to fight the Turks. It was one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war, and that’s going some. Eric Bogle wrote a song about it from the point of view of one of the men whose body was shattered by the experience; and the Pogues recorded. Here’s Shane McGowan at his best and most plaintive. It’s a sad song, and sometimes hard to listen to, but well worth your time.

In Canberra, the Australian War Memorial looks down the length of a broad avenue called Anzac Parade, across the lake, and straight at the capitol buildings.