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March-ing and Eric Bogle
Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.
– Thomas Carlyle, 1795 – 1881
Don’t ever become a pessimist … A pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun – and neither can stop the march of events.
– Robert A. Heinlein, 1907 – 1988
This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.
– Hubert H. Humphrey, 1911 – 1978
Those three quotations came from six quotes in an e-mailing I received recently with the theme of “march.” (I get it most days — if you’d like to sign up for it, visit Quotes of the Day here).
The first and last ones quoted above, particularly, remind me of two songs by Eric Bogle, an Australian folk singer whom I think of as being part of the “Celtic diaspora”…those folkies whose sound reminds me of Celtic music. The first song is Singing the Spirit home, written during the apartheid years in South Africa, about a black man being led from his cell to the gallows. This link takes you to an Amazon page which is for a 5-CD compilation of his best songs including the title song (same album title as my original tape, but a different batch of songs). The chorus goes:
“Courage, Brother, you do not walk alone. We shall walk with you and sing your spirit home.”
This line reminds me of a phenomenally powerful novel called “Remember Ruben” by Mongo Beti, about life in apartheid South Africa. The quality of the writing in Remember Ruben is good but not great, but the imagery is unforgettable. Apparently in the Zulu tradition, when someone dies, the spirits of the ancestors come from beyond the hills, an army of ancestors walking over the hill to welcome you to the beyond. I have this picture in my head and know that some day I will have to make it into a quilt. Thanks to Prof. Donald Herdeck and his classes at Georgetown (back in 1978-79) for putting that book on the reading list! And I just googled, and Herdeck’s 3CP, Three Continents Press, and found this article about the company and this article about his death in 2005. Herdeck published Naguib Mahfouz’s works into English and published them long before Mahfouz won the Nobel for literature, among other things.
The other song is a wonderful march and protest song: Twenty Years Ago, on the album Singing the Spirit Home (and comes right after the title track on side one–I’m lucky this one is on tape, my older Bogle recordings are vinyl!!!!). Here are some of the lyrics (which are, of course, copyright Eric Bogle):
Twenty years ago in a country far away
I marched for the same cause I’m marchin’ today
For a world without shadows and a future without fear
Twenty years ago and a long way from here
Chorus:
I shall not fail I shall not stumble
I shall never give up the struggle
Till morning comes and the shadows pass
And we all walk in the light at last
I’m sorely tempted to quote the entire song, but that would probably be pushing it, so visit his website (click on his name above) and you can read the lyrics by going to that part of his website.
The most amazing thing happened after I wrote the above. I e-mailed Bogle via his website, asking if this song was available on CD, as my cassette tape is old and I’d like it on CD, but couldn’t find it anywhere despite a lengthy Google search. I expected an answer (if at all) maybe from someone who works for him, a publicist or something. Well he wrote back personally! And the CD is “long out of print” so he asked me to send him my snail mail address and said he’d burn me a copy of the CD! ISN’T THAT COOL?!!!! Can’t wait! This may be just the excuse I needed to save up for an iPod so I can burn the songs to my own iPod! Hmmm…wonder if he’ll autograph the disc? Or realizes I’m in America and not Oz……..
March 31st, 2007 at 1:43 am
Eric Bogle is also a hero of mine. One of his songs has become almost the default anthem of Anzac Day (April 25 – the day we remember all those who have served or are serving in any war) – “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” . I can’t even THINK about that song without choking up.
And Billy Bragg’s version of “My Youngest Son Came Home Today” is another that has immense power.
I think I last saw him live when I was living in Albury, and the tour was called something along the lines of the “The Wife Wants To Renovate The Bathroom Tour”.
I’m so excited for you that he’s answered your request! Whatta guy! And he’s played with some of my other heroes, too, including Utah Phillips…
And if you’re ever chasing other Bogle or Australian stuff, think of me, ok?
March 31st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I met Eric Bogle at the 2000 Stan Rogers Festival in Canso, NS. I’d been a fan of his music since I first heard it. It was incredible hearing him sing those powerful songs in person……..very few dry eyes in the tent. He is also very funny as well………he and the Arrogant Worms (a Canadian satire group) were exchanging songs in another workshop…… it was hilarious.
He is very approachable and personable and certainly has strongly held opinions he is NOT afraid to express. He was in North America touring because he was so “ticked” about the the Olympics going on in Australia at the time