Editing Eric Bogle (section)

== Career ==
[[File:Eric Bogle at Georgetown Folk Festival 1994.jpg|thumb|Bogle on stage at the 1994 Tamar Valley Folk Festival, [[George Town, Tasmania|George Town]], Australia]]
Bogle taught himself to play guitar and joined a [[skiffle]] and rock band.<ref name="MABio"/> He was the leader of Eric and the Informers in Scotland.<ref name="Haliday"/> His early influences were [[Lonnie Donegan]], [[Elvis Presley]] and [[Ewan MacColl]].<ref name="MABio"/> He turned to folk music prior to emigrating to Australia – his first written songs concerned his parents. One of these, "Leaving Nancy", which sang of the day he left home for Australia, being the last time he saw his mother Nancy, was often covered, most notably by [[the Dubliners]] and [[the Fureys]].<ref name="Haliday"/> When living in Canberra he joined the local folk music scene and performed occasionally.<ref name="MABio"/>

Several of his most famous songs tell of the futility or loss of war. Prominent among these is "[[And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda]]", written in 1971, later covered by [[Joan Baez]], [[The Pogues]] and many more. The lyrics recount the experiences of a member of the [[Australian and New Zealand Army Corps]] (ANZAC) in the [[Battle of Gallipoli]]. It has also been interpreted as a reaction to the [[Vietnam War]].

Another of his best-known songs, "[[No Man's Land (Eric Bogle song)|No Man's Land]]", is also World War I-themed. This song is commonly known as "The Green Fields of France", a title it was first given by [[the Fureys]] and which has subsequently been used in many further [[cover version]]s. The song refers to the traditional Scottish song "[[Flowers of the Forest]]" being played over the grave of a [[World War I]] soldier. Bogle deliberately gave the dead soldier an Irish name ("Willie McBride") as a counter to the anti-Irish sentiment prevalent in Britain during the 1970s. The song has been covered by Alex Beaton (with "A Scottish Soldier" from ''The Water is Wide''), [[Plethyn]] ("Gwaed ar eu Dwylo" (Blood on their Hands), sung in [[Welsh language|Welsh]] from "Blas y Pridd"), [[Hannes Wader]] ("Es ist an der Zeit" (It is the Time)), and [[Netherlands|Dutch]] folk band [[Wolverlei]] as "14-18". American folk singer [[Charlie Zahm]] also has a version on his album ''Festival Favorites'', as does American folk singer Robert Marr on his 2011 album ''Celticism''. The lyrics from the song were referred to by former British prime minister [[Tony Blair]] in 2003 as his favourite anti-war poem.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/and-the-band-plays-on-20030224-gdv9wt.html|title=And the band plays on ...|date=24 February 2003|newspaper=[[The Age]]}}</ref>

"As if he Knows" (2001) widens the theme of the wastage of war to describe the sadness of Australian mounted soldiers in Palestine in 1918 as they are obliged to shoot their horses, "who asked so little and gave so much", before embarkation.

Another notable song on a similar theme, but with a more contemporary setting, is [[the Troubles]]-inspired "My Youngest Son Came Home Today", with its tale of a young man killed during fighting in [[Northern Ireland]]. Notably, the song does not take sides in the conflict; it does not mention whether the title character is a nationalist or loyalist. However, the song has been adopted by Nationalists and is now associated with [[Irish Republicanism]]. When [[Billy Bragg]] covered the song, he changed the line "dreams of ''freedom'' unfulfilled" (which echoes the language of Nationalists) to "dreams of ''glory'' unfulfilled". 

Bogle's songs cover a wide range of subjects and themes, including comedic songs ("The Aussie [[Barbecue|Bar-B-Q]]") ,songs of real life emotion “Daniel Smiling “, The Enigma” , “One Small Star” and “ Now I'm Easy". Few would tackle a subject such as Cerebral Palsy,  yet Eric knew the daughter of his friend Ray Smith and wrote “Rosie”,a most endearing song where many find that they join in the chorus .His song "Safe in the Harbour" is an homage to [[Stan Rogers]]. "Katie and the Dreamtime Land" is a tribute to American folk singer [[Kate Wolf]], who died from [[leukemia]] in 1986. Other well-known songs, with lighter subject matter, include two homages to departed pets, "Little Gomez" and "Nobody's Moggy Now" and an acknowledgment of his folk music fans with "Do You Sing Any Dylan?".

In 2000 a five-CD collection, ''Singing The Spirit Home'', was released. His first and only live performance DVD was released in May 2009.