78-year old Australian singer Rolf Harris has apologized for a lyric from his 1957 hit `Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport`.
The veteran performer has said “sorry” to Australia’s original land owners, the Aborigines, for the line “Let me Abos go loose, Lou, let me Abos go loose, they’ve got no further use, Lou, So let me Abos go loose.”Harris says that he has not performed the verse in the song since 1960.
“It was a mark of the times, done totally innocently with no realisation that you would offend at all,” he said. “I was just trying to create a fun song for a bunch of Aussies who were drinking themselves stupid on Swan Lager in London at the time.”
The song was released in very different times in Australia. The Australian government only stopped its policy of assimilating mixed-raced Aboriginal children who later became known as “the stolen generation” in the early 70s.
This year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formerly apologized to the Aboriginal people marking a historic moment for the nation. Former Prime Minister John Howard ignored the issue for his entire term, despite demands from the public to make a statement.
Harris says the song was never meant to offend. “I was just trying to create a fun song for a bunch of Aussies who were drinking themselves stupid on Swan Lager in London at the time.”
Indeed, the times they are a-changing.
