While this is hardly a definitive proof, here are a couple of sources which claim that “zombie” is an Australian slang for marijuana:
Trailhead is not a word that is in common parlance over here. The lyrics ARE “on a hippie-trail, head full of zombie”. Every source I can find online supports this, as well as my own familiarity with the language that I have spoken for 27 years of my life.
So shut up and bugger off. You’re wrong.
So what word do you use for ‘trailhead’ down there?
¿pɐǝɥlıɐɹʇ
I have never heard of Barrie Humphries and have no idea who he is. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story, I say.
if I had found that article earlier, I wouldn’t have needed to start the thread. Interesting that it supports my interpretation of “glow,” which has been almost universally pooh-poohed here.
I understand your frustration, but you’re in Cafe Society, not the Pit, so telling someone to bugger off is a bit beyond the pale. Dial it back, please.
No warning issued.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
Aka Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson.
It’s okay twickster. You don’t have to stick up for me. The entitlement generation thinks that they merely need to provide a cite - any cite - and that proves them unquestionably correct. If you don’t like it then they result to vulgarities. I can’t complain - it’s how we raised them.
The notion that there was some type of marijuana called “Zombie” and that was being referred to in the Men At Work song doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. Or not based on my basic Googles. I have the impression that we might be dealing with a dyed in the wool urban myth here. There’s definitely no pause or linguistic styling that makes one believe that Colin Hay intended “trail” and “head” to be 2 words. I’m wondering the “comma pause” appears on an actual lyric sheet and then I’m wondering if it wasn’t simply a transcription error based on the fact that the word “trailhead” isn’t common in Australia.
If he meant to say “On a hippy trail with a head full of zombie” then why didn’t he just sing that?
Sierra Indigo is actually Australian, and has spoken the dialect all his life. He says ‘trailhead’ is not a word that is often used down there. Why would an Australian singer in an Australian band writing about Australia use a word that is not used there? And you haven’t addressed how an alleged trailhead can be full of a single zombie. I’m going to take the word of a native speaker over yours.
How about a cite from the man who actually wrote the lyrics? Or is he just part of the “entitlement generation” out to make you look wrong as well?
What Americans call a trail, we call a track. I think ‘trail’ in this context means an unofficial but commomly followed itinerary, like a wine trail in a wine-growing district, where there are a bunch of wineries that people visit one after the other. I’ve also heard it for a gallery trail, like in the Blue Mountains where a lot of artists have studios/galleries and you can spend a weekend driving around. To me ‘on a hippie trail’ means driving up the coast along to Lismore/Nimbin/Byron Bay, which were notorious hippie/pothead hangouts. Kombis were a really popular vehicle for doing this in.
That Wikipedia article doesn’t have any cite for its interpretation of ‘glow’, and that’s not a common usage here. I have no idea what this line means.
We barely even use “trail.” It tends to be “walking tracks” or “scenic drives.”
She, actually.
Apologies.
Hippie Trail is a pretty well known term worldwide - if “trail” isn’t really widely used in Australia then it probably makes sense that Hay would put together Hippie Trail and Trailhead as a sort-of play on unfamiliar words. An American would do the same thing when he travels to a Spanish speaking country and hears them call a hike a “trek”. He’d naturally be drawn to say he’d gone on a “rock star trek” or something like that.
As I said before, probably just a transcription error or more a play on unfamiliar words or something like that. A trailhead full of wallaby or dingo or hippie. The “s” is optional.
In any case - I don’t doubt that Men At Work would write about drugs - “Who Can It Be Now” was sort-of understood to be about cocaine when it was popular.
I just doubt the veracity of the claim that there was some sort of weed called “zombie” and Hay was writing about it and he just accidentally stumbled across the words “trailhead”. It doesn’t add up when you try to check the veracity and it doesn’t make much sense anyway. I guess some kid who was 2 when the song was popular thinks he knows the whole story because he’s Australian but I don’t see it that way.
It’s worth talking about, I think, because Land Down Under really has stood the test of time as Australia’s second unofficial national anthem. Good stuff.
Wait, so your theory is that Colin Hay, an Australian, when writing an Australian song about Australia, didn’t use an Australian term, he used an American term which was then mistranscribed so that it appeared to conform to Australian usage?
I’d introduce you to Mr Occam and his tool of choice, but I have a weak stomach and the sight of a man reduced to diced meat right in front of my eyes would upset me.
He did. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but when singing and trying to fit a metre, pauses (or lack thereof) that might be used in normal spoken speech often get slurred or skipped or extended.
I’m not sure the “entitlement generation” (of which I am not a part) is always wrong, or right. How about your generation?
I find many mentions online of the term “zambi” as slang for marijuana. Allowing for misspelling, I can’t see any controversy.
That’s a lot of snark considering the only foundation of your own assertion is the mere magnitude of your belief in it.
Your argument seems to amount to “I just can’t believe it”. I’m starting to wonder if it’s a woosh.
It’s true, there is not really much of a pause. But “trail” is sung for more beats than head - more than it would be if “trailhead” were a single word and more than if they were even part of the same clause. It would be like singing deeeeeeeadhead instead of deadhead. It would be very strange to extend and emphasize the first syllable of a compound word in that manner.
Because it has an identical meaning but doesn’t fit the meter.
No - my theory is that Hay simply wrote “Hippie Trail” because that’s what it was called and he wrote “Trailhead” because that’s where a trail begins and that’s where the song begins and isn’t that really what the song is all about anyway? A young man’s journey of discovery?
I see no credible reason to believe that everybody in Australia was calling marijuana “zombie” and when they were high they had a “head full of zombie” and the “hippy trailhead” phrase was only a happy accident in that song. We were not utterly ignorant to the ways of the Aussie at the time - there were quite a few Australian indie rock bands and low budget films that made it to America in the 80’s and early 90’s. “head full of zombie?” Never heard it. I had Australian friends too - I can’t say I ever asked them about “head full of zombie” but I can say they never said it around me. They were too busy saying Oy! and “Throw another prawn on the barbie!” and “Now that’s a knife!”
Maybe the phrase was simply mistranscribed. Maybe it was broken up to look clever. Maybe Hay just sucks at writing. I don’t know, but I simply don’t buy the allusion.
You’ve asked for cites for the interpretation everyone else has propounded, and you were given them – including statements in this thread by two actual Australians and a Kiwi (?).
Now let’s see your cites.
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