Rolf Harris
![[Deleted User]](https://wa.vanillicon.com/v2/a269e71e9779ba4e1da38bf6dfebf9f8.svg)
[Deleted User]
Posts: 14,589 Forum Member
✭✭
Did Rolf Harris ever have a song in the charts called " My boomerang won't come back"?
0
[Deleted User]
Posts: 14,589 [Deleted User]
Posts: 14,589 [Deleted User]
Posts: 14,589
Comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoBXAUNU1HE&feature=related
No he didnt
What CD is it available on?
Can you give me a link to the lyrics please?
No was the correct answer it was Charlie Drake who had the song and Rolf Harris hated it as he felt it was racist.
http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/m/myboomerangwontcomeback.shtml
I had that song on a compilation LP of children's songs called "All Aboard" which I think was released in the late 70s. It was released on CD a few years ago but its now out of print and hard to find.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Original-All-Time-Childrens-Favourites/dp/B000026GLX
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hello-My-Darlings-Charlie-Drake/dp/B0002VBMR2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1218794351&sr=1-1
6 new & used copies available.
However, Rolf did use some questionable words in his own songs. Carra Barra Wirra Canna refers to aboriginal children as "picaninnies"
Also, he originally used to include the following verse in "Tie Me Kangaroo Down":
"Let me Abos go loose, Lou,
let me Abos go loose.
They're of no further use, Lou,
so let me Abos go loose."
Though, to his credit, he removed it in later years.
I think Rolf is a top bloke.
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
.. On his Aus-tra-lian run
Nobody else I know has ever heard of it but I remeber it from my childhood.
"This trip is an extra trip, Santa's special flight!"
Yep I do. A good Aussie Christmas carol that's more in tune with what's going on in Australia in December.
I've definitely not seen him since the show was cancelled. :eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_M5geUtb2Y
One was of the Queen - it was well publicised.
G
I was listening to a Rolf Harris song that I have called "Someone's Pinched Me Winkles" the other day, and then it occurred to me that this was a retaliation to Charlie Drake's "Boomerang" song.
I can find no reference to this online, but I can only infer that Rolf disliked the Charlie Drake song, not because it was racist, but for a number of other reasons:
a) it was a Cockney doing an Australian theme
b) here was Charlie Drake muscling in on his territory
c) it was done in an inauthentic manner that sounded more like Red Indians than indigenous Australians
d) the fake digeridoo
So Rolf wrote and recorded a "mockney" song to get back at him. And he really laid it on thick, with a trowel. The song was loaded with things like:
a) he goes "oo-wacka oo-wacka oo-wacka oo" at the start, in imitation of the fake didge at the start of "Boomerang"
b) tells the band "here's an authentic Cockney folk song I've just written"
c) refers to Cockney "tribes" living in "teepees"
d) purposefully mispronounces "Thames" to rhyme with "games"
e) has a crack at the English weather ("the snow was on the ground")
f) when the Cockney "chief" makes an appearance near the song's end, he speaks in a high, effeminate voice (possibly a parody of Charlie Drake's voice)
G) in the fade-out, he babbles on in a pedantic, circular manner, just like Drake does in the fade-out of "Boomerang".
As for the racism bit, the most off-colour line in "Boomerang" is "practiced till I was black in the face".
Rolf Harris retired the "let the abos go loose, Lou" verse in 1960, and the reference to "piccaninnies" in "Karra Barra Wirra Kanna", while seen nowadays as a patronising term for Aboriginal babies, was really more just a symbol of more innocent (or less enlightened) times. Rolf was actually very keen to get authentic-sounding indigenous songs onto his records, and had to fight against producers like George Martin to have songs like "Sun Arise" feature the non-modulating drone of a didge all the way through the song (Rolf thought it was hypnotic, while Martin thought it was boring).
Another song that has questionable references to Aborigines in it is one from the late 60s by one Bill "Moon Man" Renfree called "Dig That Crazy Digeridoo", which features the chorus refrain:
"Dig that crazy digeridoo
Dig that crazy digeridoo
Ev'rybody's happy and there's nobody blue
When the abos blow on the digeridoo".
Except Carra Barra Wirra Canna was an aboriginal lullaby....
Someone Pinched Me Winkles was the B side of the original Sun Arise release (takes off anorak)
Sun Arise is a great song, captures the mood excellently. I used to love it when he had his show and would do his paintings (usually with a group of Dancers called "The Young Generation" sitting down and watching intently) and then sing a song based on the painting. I do remember Sun Arise being done a couple of times.
Also - it was good enough for Alice Cooper to record on his Love It To Death (third) album.