Jack Thompson – Battlefield Poems of A B (Banjo) Patterson

Jack Thompson – The Battlefi eld Poems of A.B. (Banjo) Paterson

The famous subject of a controversial Cleo centerfold way back in 1972 and an all-round icon of stage and screen , respected Australian actor Jack Thompson, has the ideal vocal presence and assured command of pace and resonance, to deliver the Battlefi eld Poems of A.B. (Banjo) Paterson with suffi cient drama. Displaying his fl air for naturalness and congruence, Thompson sounds as if he feels and thus means each and every word. Many of the themes covered in these beautifully written poems are often thought-provoking and Thompson does them great justice with his expressive yet unaffected delivery. The human cost of war is explored in two of the most haunting poems in this collection, Moving On and On The Trek. Moving On acts as a reminder of the transience and jarring sense of dislocation and loss forced upon the soldier. Relationships slip from reach, newly made connections dissolve into memory with the tramp of well-worn boots and “When we make a friend another friend is gone.” The gaping, aching distance between home and the draining spirit-sapping grind of war is powerfully evoked by the On The Trek in which the hearts of the weary soldiers “keep turning homeward to the youngsters far away.” On a lighter note, The Quest Eternal, features a delightful knockabout character who claims with great pride, “There’s always in man some gift to show, some power he can command/And mine is the Gift that I always know when a pub is close at hand.” This engrossing CD is guaranteed to inspire the listener to delve further into Banjo Paterson’s powerful writing and into Jack Thompson’s stellar performances.