down under

Men at Work had a worldwide smash with this cheeky celebration of their homeland. Colin Hay recalls: "It's a very important song for me. It always felt like a strong song, right from the start. Originally, the idea came from a little bass riff that Ron Strykert, the guitar player for Men at Work, had recorded on a little home cassette demo. It was just a little bass riff with some percussion that he played on bottles which were filled with water to varying degrees to get different notes. It was a very intriguing little groove. I really loved it, it had a real trance-like quality to it. I used to listen to it in the car all the time. When I was driving along one day in Melbourne, the chords popped out and a couple of days later I wrote the verses."

The song has become embraced as a patriotic anthem by his countrymen; but Hay says: "The chorus is really about the selling of Australia in many ways, the over-development of the country. 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 ultimately about celebrating the country, but not in a nationalistic way and not in a flag-waving sense. It's really more than that...It's ironic to me that so many people thought it was about a specific thing and that really wasn't the intention behind the song. If you listen to 'Born In The USA,' it's a similar song in that there's a lot of nuance missed because people like drinking beer and throwing their arms up in the air and feeling nationalistic. It's ultimately a song about celebration, but it's a matter of what you choose to celebrate about a country or a place. White people haven't been in Australia all that long, and it's truly an awesome place, but one of the most interesting and exciting things about the country is what was there before. The true heritage of a country often gets lost in the name of progress and development."

'Down Under' went to number one in Australia in December of 1981 for four weeks. A month later, it hit number one in New Zealand. Eight months later, it went to the top of the charts in Canada. It was at number one simultaneously in Ireland, the UK, and the US on January 29, 1983. It also hit number one in Denmark and Switzerland.

Traveling in a fried-out Kombie

On a hippie trail, head full of zombie

I met a strange lady, she made me nervous

She took me in and gave me breakfast

And she said,

"Do you come from a land down under?

Where women glow and men plunder?

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover."

Buying bread from a man in Brussels

He was six-foot-four and full of muscles

I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"

He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

And he said,

"I come from a land down under

Where beer does flow and men chunder

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover."

Lyin' in a den in Bombay

With a slack jaw, and not much to say

I said to the man, "Are you trying to tempt me

Because I come from the land of plenty?"

And he said,

"Do you come from a land down under?

Where women glow and men plunder?

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover."

Yeah!

Living in a land down under

Where women glow and men plunder

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover!

Living in a land down under

Where women glow and men plunder

Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?

You better run, you better take cover!

In case you're wondering:

"A Fried out Kombi" is a broken-down VW Kombivan.

"Head full of Zombie" refers to a powerful type of marijuana.

"Vegemite" is a fermented yeast spread popular in Australia.

"Chunder" is Aussie slang meaning to vomit.

Larrakin Music sued Hay and Strykert in 2009, claiming they took the flute riff for the song from Marion Sinclair's children's rhyme 'Kookaburra'. They eventually were given a judgement to pay out five percent of royalties earned since 2002. Hay says:

"I'll go to my grave knowing 'Down Under' is an original piece of work. In over twenty years no one noticed the reference to 'Kookaburra.' Marion Sinclair never made any claim that we had appropriated any part of her song, and she was alive when 'Down Under' was a hit. Apparently she didn't notice either." See what you think.