Say what you will about our national anthem, it’s the only occasion that a lot of us have to bust out the word “girt“.
For a lot of us, it’s a song that has been drilled so deeply into our skulls by school that the words themselves have lost all meaning (in a similar fashion to how the words “boundless plains to share” seem to have slipped out of the minds of the Liberal Party) and, sure, it’s not exactly a thrilling tune, but the thought of it being changed is a weird one.
Liberal MP Andrew Laming reckons it’s time to update the song to something a little more concise and to the point:
“I think that the only way national anthems can distinguish themselves is through their values, and I do feel our current second verse has pretty much the same message as the first verse.”
He also reckons that we need something that more accurately represents our multiculturalism, our relative youth as a nation, and our larrikin sensibilities.
While this seems like a nonsense suggestion that won’t actually go anywhere, it did cause one particularly wonderful thing to happen: Australia‘s truest, bluest songsmith, John Williamson, whipped out a fresh new take on the anthem that might even bring a tear to your eye if you’re feeling a bit vulnerable right now.
The rendition uses lyrics from his song ‘Island of Oceans‘ and is just pleasant as all hell. You can have a watch below (the first part is just chatter with Laming so skip to around the 5-minute mark for the goods):
The Australian National Anthem: Should we change it up? Laming goes to town on Advance Australia Fair on #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/5KjRHE0fjO
— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) April 26, 2017
Source and photo: Channel 10.
