From Eric Bogle to Ziggy Ramo: the Australian music challenging the Anzac legacy
(1916) served an explicit role as propaganda and recruitment tools, often glorifying the sacrifice, mateship and heroism of the young men who enlisted. Some, like the Boer war-era Sons of Australia , predate the commonwealth, with a call to patriotism that came firmly couched in the language of empire: (“Sons of Australia / Are your pulses thrilling? / Thrilling at the chance to thrash / Your empire’s foes”) . But not all wartime songwriters viewed Australia’s role in a contest of European imperial powers so sunnily. Mark Erickson and P. Clay-Bealer’s Only One of the Toys (1914) spe...
Source: theguardian.com