Turn your world upside down on Monday morning with Men at Work.
I like this live version: it’s much faster than the studio version. Stick around for Colin Hay’s kangaroo hop at 2:55.
Thanks to YouTuber showsdoseculo.
Jack Shalom
Musings, Memories, and Magic
Down Under
By Men at Work
Traveling in a fried-out combie
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
Yeah
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? (oh yeah yeah)
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
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
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
Songwriters: Strykert, Ronald Graham / Hay, Colin James
© EMI Music Publishing
For non-commercial use only.
Data from: LyricFind
Thanks for posting the lyrics, Pearl. A lot of it is Aussie slang. A Kombi is a VW van; zombie is marijuana; Vegemite is (to me) a nasty tasting condiment; to chunder is to vomit. It’s actually a pretty funny ironic song about Aussie macho.
The sad thing about this song is that the great flute solos by Greg Ham were the subject of a lawsuit. Believe it or not, the song “Kookaburra” was still in copyright at the time this song was performed, and the publishers of “Kookaburra” claimed that Ham’s flute solo was a riff on that song. A protracted court case followed and Men at Work lost the case–two years later, Ham died of heart failure, some say that it was brought on by the stress of the lawsuit.