Song 414: This week the playlist comes around to Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport by Rolf Harris, who also wrote the song. You can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During the summer of 1963, I heard this novelty tune coming out of transistor radios at least a few times while hanging out at the nearby park down the road where kids gathered to play games like chess and checkers and to do simple, fun, crafty stuff. I really liked the catchy chorus, although at the age of 11 I didn't have any clue as to the nature of the story, other than that it obviously referred to the kangaroo country Australia. When, as a young adult a decade later, I added this hit to my record collection, I learned the lyrics and understood the basic context of the extended joke. Even then, though, I did not know what the Abos were - I pictured some sort of horse/donkey type of animal, but only recently did I learn that Abos referred to Aborigines, meaning that the singer had enslaved a group of Australian indigenous people. If I had known that, even as an 11-year-old, it might have clouded my pleasure in the cut, but this one isn't meant to be taken seriously anyway, so maybe they tanned his hide when he died, Clyde, and that's it a-hangin' on the shed, but I can still smile about it.
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