January 23, 2008
G'day, mate!
If I ever find the right box of photos in the rafters, I'll scan a photo from 1983 of me and some shipmates ready to hit the town in Bremerton, Washington, where we were about to win the local lip-synch, air guitar battle of the bands.
We'd decided to "perform" Men At Work's "Down Under," and if memory serves, I was the drummer. Based on the audience reaction, I was superb, a warmer-than-room-temperature version of Keith Moon, but with a military haircut and an -- ahem -- distinctly Jewish profile.
For those of you of a certain age, you'll remember the tune, which charted at No. 1 in the U.K., Australia and the U.S. that year.
Mark Steyn, who somehow knows something about everything, has penned a column on the song to mark the upcoming Australia Day observations.
"Down Under" has become a kind of musical shorthand for contemporary Australia - you'll recall it was used on the Kangaroo Jack soundtrack, the trailer for Finding Nemo, etc - in part because of its most famous couplet:
I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich- which is a truly atrocious rhyme but, at least for a while, did wonders for Vegemite sales in the northern hemisphere. I can't speak for Aussies but I think what the rest of the world likes about the song is that it captures Australians as most of us first encounter them - the backpacking globetrotter in a bar in Earl's Court, or Dublin, or Hong Kong, or Vancouver or Delhi or a thousand other spots. I did my share of traveling in my youth and, like a lot of folks, I was always glad to find myself on a barstool next to an Australian: wherever you're from, they never seem that foreign to you, if you know what I mean. And, if you don't, well, see for yourself. They're out there, all over the map:
Traveling in a fried-out combie
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
And she said:Do you come from a land Down Under?
Where women glow and men plunder?
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover...
Steyn points out that when it comes to sophisticated lyrics and unexpected rhymes, Cole Porter faces some pretty tough competition from the Aussies.
Colin Hay pulled off something similar in the chorus of "Down Under". What does the title rhyme with? Well, "thunder" you'd expect, but I love this:
Do you come from a land Down Under
Where women glow and men plunder?That's such a great word for a pop song, and it captures all the buccaneering swagger of Oz. But then the guys manage to better it in the second chorus:
I come from a land Down Under
Where beer does flow and men chunder..."Chunder"? That's Australian for what men do when the beer flows too readily: vomit. There's all kinds of stories about the origin of the word. It's First World War rhyming slang based on a boot-polish advertising character called Chunder Loo of Akim Foo - ie, "chunder loo"="spew". Alternatively, it's what queasy emigrants to Oz in rough seas used to shout to the chaps on the deck below before they let fly: "Watch under", or "'chunder". That sounds a bit too neat to me, though Barry Humphries, who helped popularize the expression, still subscribes to it. Still, how many Number One songs mention vomiting? And how many manage to rhyme the sentiment? It's that kind of attention to detail that gives "Down Under" its distinctive flavor, so to speak.
And it's just one reason why, after twenty-five years, that darn song still lingers in my memory, the words so familiar that I can still sing along with a stupid grin -- and an oilcan of Foster's in my hand.
Happy Australia Day!
Posted by Mike Lief at January 23, 2008 12:02 PM
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Comments
Except Australians don't drink Fosters, mate (with any luck).
Posted by: SCW at January 23, 2008 01:46 PM
If memory serves, the fine lads of HMAS Onslow, the diesel sub we hosted at Point Loma, drank vast quantities of Foster's -- perhaps not their beer of choice, but one that'd do in a pinch.
I suspect you may have some insight into the top brew down under. What beer do Aussies prefer -- and is it available in the U.S.?
Posted by: Mike Lief at January 23, 2008 02:00 PM
Have you ever tasted Vegemite? I'd rather eat axel grease! It is filth and foul. Aussies love it. Americans hate it. Aussie beer of choice - Crown Lager or Four X. Odd that I would know that, being a Mormon and all. I've been Down Under three times and my brother-in-law is Aussie. Aussie's think Foster's is piss. But they'd rather drink piss than not drink. So there you have it.
Posted by: julia at January 23, 2008 04:16 PM
Thank you for putting this ridiculous song in my head all day...UGGGGH
Posted by: RW at January 23, 2008 06:30 PM
After law school or was it college some friends told the story that they were on some ferry in the Greek Isles and the crew apologized that they had not a drop of alcohol on board - seems they had an Aussie group on the last passage and they had drunk the shop dry.
Posted by: andrewdb at January 23, 2008 08:42 PM