Kookaburras at Work

I think it’s kind of funny that it took a court case to decide if Men at Work’s song ‘Down under’ ripped of the kids folk tune ‘Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’. It’s pretty damn similar. And considering that the video clip for the song features a guy sitting in a gum tree playing the riff on a flute (check it out on the video, about 55 seconds in), I can’t imagine it took the judge long to find them guilty of copyright infringement.

It’s also odd that it took them 29 years to realise the song had been ripped off – especially since ‘Down under’ was such a massive number one hit, and not just in Australia. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Aussies are essentially super lazy, and so I’m guessing they probably just couldn’t be bothered until now.

I say they did us all a favour by turning an irritating song that we were forced to sing over and over in primary school into something that we can all enjoy listening to again. Thanks Men at Work!