Introduction
Down Under is a song also known as Land Down Under, a piece recorded by the Australian rock group Men at Work. They are an Australian rock band who achieved international success in the 1980s. They are the only Australian artists to have a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the U.S. and U.K. (Business as Usual and "Down Under" respectively). The group won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best New Artist and had sold over 30 million albums worldwide. The songs down went to number one on American, British, Canadian and Australian charts. It is the only Men at Work song to make the UK top 20. It has become a popular and patriotic song in Australia.
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1. The songs down chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways. It was a song about the loss of spirit in that country. It's really about the plundering of the country by greedy people. It is about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic or flag-waving sense.
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2. The songs down under lyrics are about an Australian traveler circling the globe, proud of his nationality, and about his interactions with people he meets on his travels who are interested in his home country. One of the verses refers to Vegemite sandwiches, among other things; the particular lyric "He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich" has become a well-known phrase.
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3. Slang and drug terms are used in the lyrics: Traveling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie. Here "fried-out" means overheated, Kombi refers to the Volkswagen Type 2 combination van, and having "a head full of zombie" refers to the use of a type of marijuana. Cultural slang is also used: after the second verse the refrain is "where the beer does flow and men chunder"; "chunder" means vomit for the down songs.
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4. Cultural Significance - The flute part in the songs down under was allegedly based around the tune of "Kookaburra", a well-known Australian children's rhyme. Originally, it was released as the B-side to "Keypunch Operator", a rare custom-pressed single by Men at Work; some of the guitar melodies from that version were further developed into flute parts on later releases.
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5. Chart Positions - The music video for the songs down under was filmed in Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island. It also featured several liter-size cans.The song is a perennial favorite on Australian radio and television, and topped the charts in the U.S. and UK simultaneously in early 1983. It was later used as a theme song by the crew of Australia II in their bid to win the America's Cup in 1983, and a remixed version appears during the closing credits of Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. Songs down under are also played in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. In May 2001, Songs down Under was ranked as the fourth song on the list of Australasian Performing Rights Association. The song was ranked number 96 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s in October 2006.
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