Good old Rolf Harris. Pleading “the times” for the questionable race politics of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, while accusing abos (as he might have had it way back) of being innately disposed to turning their immediate surrounds into a tip. So, we get this:
Rolf Harris regrets the racist verse on Aborigines in Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, the song that made him famous in Britain and launched the wobbleboard on an unsuspecting music world.
In Melbourne yesterday to plug a book of illustrations of the same name, the singer and painter said he had tried to erase the lines “Let me Abos go loose” and “They’re of no further use” from all recordings over the years, with limited success.
Which is fair enough. But then this:
He blames traditional Aboriginal values for the dire living conditions in many indigenous communities.
“The attitude is that in their original way of life they would really wreck the surrounding countryside that they lived in and they would leave all the garbage and they would go walkabout to the next place,” he said. “The traditional attitude is still there and I wish there was a simple solution but I’m not certain.”
Which suggests a certain unreconstructedness from the let me abos go loose days I reckon, your honour.
All of that said, In this line of country, I’ve always preferred Charlie Drake’s boomerang thingy.
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I’ve often wondered; is his painting as unfortunate as his performing ability-if you can call it that.
Re his paintings, my favorite was the portrait he did of the Queen, was it this year or last? in which he gave her his teeth. google it. very funny.