David Kilpatrick - Fly to Australia
I've altered the tune a little, with a gentler harmony and a diversion into minor. This is a song for anyone whose roots lie a long way from home, or whose children and their families are on the other side of the world.
We all met on mp3.com, we are still here although MP3.com is not.
Story behind the song
I was walking down a passageway in the house late at night when the words 'Fly to Australia' to the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda' just came into my head. I hadn't walked another two paces before the whole concept of this song dropped into place. I sang the first three verses without even writing them, picking up a guitar which happened to be tuned in open D. The song was finished less than 30 minutes later without touching a piece of paper, and stayed that way until I recorded it (after I found that I tended to change the words a little every time I sang it). One of the first people to hear it was my friend Roger, who had just returned from visiting his two daughters in Australia - but I didn't know that. All I can say about the song is that it may be corny, it may be obvious, but people love it and I'm amazed it has never been written before. Although the tune is similar to Waltzing Matilda, it is not identical, and the chords are not the same (it is more modal in approach).
The guitar is my new Lowden O-12, recorded just with a mike (this is a one-take recording, using two AKG C1000S mikes, for vocal and guitar). Reverb is added to the vocal only. The tuning is DADF#AD and the basic chord shapes used are: 00000, 020120, 002102, 020020 (minor) plus 004004 in the intro instrumental.
Lyrics
Fly to Australia
© David Kilpatrick 2002
Once there was a young man working in a factory
Living with his old folks, saving all his pay
And he dreamed as he worked from Monday through til Saturday
I'm going to fly to Australia one day
Fly to Australia, fly to Australia
I'm going to fly Australia one day
And he dreamed (etc, after the pattern of 'Waltzing Matilda')
Then he met a young girl, courted her and married her
Took her to the church on a sunny summer day
And he told her as they left for Blackpool on their honeymoon
We're going to fly to Australia one day
(Ch)
Along came the first child, then he had a brother
And pretty soon they found there was another on the way
And as he rocked the cradle, he sang to them a lullaby
You're going to fly to Australia one day
(Ch)
But time it goes swiftly, and children grow quickly
Before you even count the years they're off and on their way
One by one they left the nest, and did as he had promised them
They flew to Australia, Australia to stay
Now there sits an old man in the pub beside the factory
Sipping at his pension to while away the day
And every night he goes back home, and this is what he tells his wife
We’re going to fly to Australia one day
(Ch)
We've got three sons we haven't seen for a quarter of a century
Three bonny wives they met and they married on the way
We've got seven grandkids, just photos on the mantelpiece,
And we're going to fly to Australia some day!
One day an envelope will drop down through the letterbox
One day the tickets will come, so they say;
And we'll do a grand tour - Darwin, Sydney, Adelaide -
For we're going to fly to Australia one day!
Fly to Australia, fly to Australia
We're going to fly to Australia some day
And we'll hold them all, and hug them all, and tell them that we love them all
Before we fly home from Australia some day!
(Repeat)
