Rolf Harris "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport"

[tommyregan]

I always loved this tune as a kid! These songs were the hits on our AM radio with other great folk tunes and Folk Artists such as The Statler Bros. "Don't tell Me...I've nothing to do...." (I think the name of the tune was Playing Solataire Countin' Flowers On The Wall or something like that thar, Lol!)

[themanforu2001]

cool song

[beatlesfam7]

Please, do not make fun of me... But what is an abos?

[TheDapperdan75]

@beatlesfam7 It was an offensive slang term for the Aboriginal Australians who worked for the Australian stockman in this song.

[mondoprune]

@TheDapperdan75 to be correct it IS now offensive a term but then (early 1960s) it wasn't

[TheAuzzieKid]

@beatlesfam7 abos is to Aboriginal Australians as is Niggers is to African Americans

[boydegg]

I met him in a bookshop in Cardiff. We shook hands, chatted for a minute or so and he drew a 'rolfaroo' for me. I've still got it.

LEGEND!!!

[33Keith33]

I saw Rolf Harris perform this song in person. It was at the 1984 Worlds Fair in New Orleans and there was a free concert in the amphitheater for "Australia Day". Andy Gibb also made an appearance.

[whatwouldmattdo]

1:26 oh no he di'nt!!!

[cloneadventurer]

my music teacher was showing this vid to us

[MePJtheDJ]

And how about Flowers On the Wall treefingerss?! Pop liked those songs too!

[sweet58441]

why does it look like his in alot of pain at the end?

[Joeykm1972]

@sweet58441 Because in the intro of the song, he explains what is going on. As the song gets closer to the end, you can forget why he's in a lot of pain, until you remember what he said.

[campstar2255]

brilliant

[SuperRJDF]

Where's the last line of "tanning his hide when he's dead, Fred" ? ugghh, editing is so sad.......

[LeighHull]

omg is that really rolf he looks really different!!!

[SMITHALAA]

uMad JiZL?

[Satchmoeddie]

And to think I was going to throw away that old masonite drawer bottom/wobble board.

[clintonearlwalker]

@Satchmoeddie My dad used to talk about that sound all the time when I was kid. "He's using a piece of tin, it's a piece of tin".

[treefingerss]

@clintonearlwalker Hahaha, so did mine (it must be a dad thing).

[clintonearlwalker]

@treefingerss Thanx for that, we still have the original 45 rpm record of this song. It's always been one of my dads favorites, I've heard it about 1 million times. Other greats "Winchester Cathedral", "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose it's Flavor", "The Wreck of the Old 97" etc. Cheers!!

[pattipie100]

Always loved this oldie. And thanks to the cyber age, I've been having a jolly time.XXX

[BrokenneckYgor]

I love many things about Australia. But I especially love your "abos," they are always good for a chuckle.---Malcolm X (Fun Facts About Famous People, publ. in Damas, 1980)

[dbzawsm]

DID HE SAY ABOS the rascist bastard its ABORIGINAL

[MaggotsInDisguise]

@dbzawsm Who cares? I don't.

[rickshaw60]

@dbzawsm are you sure

[menormice2]

"Let me Abbos go loose" is the best line!

[CenaTv2]

Does the 45 single have the Abos line?

As my mp3 doesn't

[hotforewan]

I'm sad if anything that the last line of the song was taken out. That's like the best part.

"Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred. Tan me hide when I'm dead. They tanned my hide when I died Clyde, and that's it hanging on the shed!"

[hubermax]

Posted "coz I can.( Apologies to Mark Hunter for the striking resemblance to Brian Henderson).

[verticalsmurf]

How can we respect, learn from and appreciate what our ancestors went through if we photoshop the non-PC stuff out. The more PC our society is the more easily offended people become, anything considered remotely offensive is settled in court. It came up in conversation at work few weeks ago that my Uncle is Abo, a colleague asked if he was a full-blood and I replied 'black as the ace of spades mate' as my Uncle proudly says. Her jaw dropped. I offended a 2nd generation Scandinavian-Australian.

[kultek]

You must remember at this time aboriginals were still considered part of the Australian fauna.

[dazautomatic]

I think the 'Abos' line is important to the song... at the end of the end, Rolf is playing the part of 'an old Australian' stockman' as the song says and at that time they would have likely called indigenous Australian's 'abos'.

[BeefUnion]

Whats are abos?

[DragoonNoR]

@BeefUnion - Abbos are Australian aboriginals.

[hairhalo14]

@DragoonNoR whats with australian aborigials lolol u cant have an asian aboriginal

[DragoonNoR]

@hairhalo14 - The term "aboriginal" refers to native people from any land, whether it's Australia, Mongolia, or America. Webster's dictionary defines aboriginal as: "The original or earliest known inhabitants of a region. Original or earliest known; native; indigenous: e.g., the aboriginal people of Tahiti." For example, Native American Indians are aboriginals of North America. Granted, when most people use the term aboriginal, they mean Australian aboriginals, but the term itself is general.

[greatsoutherncowboy1]

@DragoonNoR Yes you are right but where did the word originate? its a native Australian native word meaning original inhabitant, hence why the word has spread worldwide in recent years. A bloke i worked with a while ago was born in finland and he was telling us he is aboriginal shit we laughed at him. at the end of the day the aboriginals are the native aussies

[Mechmaster0]

@greatsoutherncowboy1 Actually its from the Latin "ab origine" meaning "from the beginning," the word has been around since 1540 but wasn't applied to native Australians until the 1800s.

[TheAnonyMice]

@greatsoutherncowboy1 do your research before you chat shit on the internet and pretend to know what you are talking about. you just sound more and more like an ignorant fool. Aboriginal refers to indigenous peoples. The name derives from the Aborigines in Roman mythology

[greatsoutherncowboy1]

@TheAnonyMice Fuck off pal I only write what i believe is correct and that's why i made a comment so sorry if im wrong this time round. Anyway to a degree im still right cause how many Chinese or Asians or fucken English even go around sayin' "im an aborigine"? yeah fucken none (except the wanker i worked with from Finland). virtually every European language is derived from Latin so of course the term Aborigine is from roman times. so go fuck your fist

[TheAnonyMice]

@greatsoutherncowboy1 no need to apologise, just thought i'd correct you. but you aren't correct to any degree, "its a native Australian native word" is completely false (being of latin origin) so i don't know why you think you are correct. too much misinformation on the internet. in a similar vein, english aren't an aboriginal people, we are a mix of a number of races who migrated to england. further, i think you'll find that native americans are often referred to as aboriginal peoples.

[greatsoutherncowboy1]

@TheAnonyMice firstly "its a native Australian native word" is a typo and and i wont comment on the English because you ought to know bout that seeing that's where your from and i have never once heard anyone call an American Indian an aboriginal. your sounding like a fucking uni student now just trying to pick at my every word so why don't ya just fuck off. Bottom line is aboriginals or Aborigines are know as always have been known as and will always be known as the first Australians. Fuck you

[TheAnonyMice]

@greatsoutherncowboy1 and and finally, "virtually every European language is derived from Latin so of course the term Aborigine is from roman time" is logically flawed. think about it :)

[greatsoutherncowboy1]

@TheAnonyMice once again your picking away at my text and not the actual argument. just a little smart arsed pommie who deserves a smack in the mouth. what a shame im on the other side of the planet aye? But thats ok ill sit here in the sunshine drinking my ice cold beer looking at women while you sit in your miserable dreary pub drinking warm ales singing songs with the lads

[TheAnonyMice]

@greatsoutherncowboy1 hehe the funny thing is that i'm actually a dual citizen and i'm in sydney at the moment. i'm here to steal your women. your beer is shite though :) false statements aside, what even is the point of your argument?? it sounds like you are saying aboriginal should only refer to native australians. what bollocks. in this case, of course it is. but you sound like a dick by insisting that only native aussies are aboriginal.

[greatsoutherncowboy1]

@TheAnonyMice well arent you just an over educated mong then

[hotforewan]

@BeefUnion it's an old slang for aboriginals.

[DragoonNoR]

"Let me Abbos go loose ... " People need to lighten up! Big deal - this is FUNNY!!!

[pipa123100]

wat a tune:)

[Wabeberu]

Yes, Rolf, "let' em loose." Sing the full version whenever you like!

[Mistertinman]

The last verse was cut out. The one where his hide gets tanned when he's dead. And that's it hanging on the shed.

[tonymontana1974]

Rolf harris rules on friday morning last week he had 100 thousand people in the palm of his hand at the glastonbury festival hope he plays again next year.

[theballer04]

A radio station switched formats here and they played this for 24 hours, lol

[andorionstar]

This song has a Swedish version. But love the original version best in English.

[obbor4]

At four years of age, this was the first record that I ever owned (backed with the B-side,'Big Red Ball'.) I wish thast I still had it...

[mariabrc3]

...HAPPY BIRTHDAY mate

[NataiEndo]

he's freeing them, but he says "let them loose" and "ther're of no further use" and i agree with lordoftheguns Lest we forget.

[wormza69]

just had to confirm the racist bit in there, was tellin a mate and he thought i was mad! hehe. funny how he speaks bout "abo's" and animals in the same context though?!

[JJMFB1]

get a life clyde this song is 50 years old,the PC police are running amuck,this is just a simple old song that has tested time and won

[wormza69]

go fuck urself jjwhateverthefuck! im aginst pc as the next real aussie out there. was just confirming a point! and if ya wanna get technical douchebag, this song hasn't tested time cause sir rolf would lose his fucking knighthood if he sang the original lyrics these days! this version has won as much as ur lame arse comment!

[QueenBoadicea]

Where's the rest? Whenever I heard this song played on the Dr. DEEEEmento show, it ended with "Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred. Tan me hide when I'm dead." "So we tanned his 'ide when he died, Clyde, and that's it 'angin' on the shed! Altogether now!"

[zacandtaylorrule]

Absolutely fantastic.

[brianclough]

@zacandtaylorrule

My sentiments exactly.

Make that Doubly Absolutely Fantastic.

[LordOfTheGnus]

Censoring the line about "me Abos" is historical hypocrisy in my opinion. Let's leave it in there, lest we forget. Lest we forget.

[bphutchins]

@LordOfTheGnus dont worry, we all know what he's saying... peace from USA! love rolfe harris and love the ozzies!

[pernicketty]

@LordOfTheGnus Definitely leave it in there. The arguably more culturally sensitive Poms obviously weren't phased by it either. It seems the only bit they couldn't hack was the best part - "Tan me hide when I'm dead Fred, tan me hide when I'm dead. So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde, and that's it hangin' on the shed."

[Sambo75]

@LordOfTheGnus Yeah whatever. Abo line was shameful then and shameful now, Glad it's gone.

[9hello123]

@LordOfTheGnus He took that line out himself well before any political correctness made him, he found it offensive himself and regretted putting it in.

[bond007collector]

Totally butchered. Obviously the editing was made sometime later. I'm surprised the "Abos" line was kept intact. Love this song UN-EDITED. Enough with the PC crap!

[bigfish700]

yea neither did i abbos were like slaves i heard over there!

[LShackley]

I noticed the non-PC verse about "Let my abos go loose." But they cut the verse about "Tan my hide when I'm dead, Fred."

[oscarNcharlie]

its lew not bruce

[casinobowling]

Different melody on the first verse! Why?

[usmanhasan]

Absolute classic!!!

Thanks for posting this.

I'd never heard the "let me abboes go loose Bruce" line before.