There’s just something about this thread that is giving me a real craving for some creamed cheese… 
Over 40 and in the UK… Not heard the song in a while but…
I always heard it as “On a hippie trail, head full of zombie” - I took this to mean on weed and spaced out - like a Zombie from the old movies…
It looks like (samjones notwithstanding) all of my questions have been answered authoritatively except for “glow.” Is there general consensus that it doesn’t have anything to do with sweating and it was just inserted to fit the rhyme and rhythm?
WTF?
samjones, you’ve been given two mod notes about your behavior in your short time on this board. You’re welcome to your opinion, but you’re consistently rude and dismissive with people who disagree with you. In other words, you’re being a jerk. This is a formal warning.
A trailhead is the transition from civilization to wilderness. If you exit from the wilderness, that’s just a trailhead from another direction. I’ve never encountered a one-way hiking trail, so both ends are always trailheads.
Back to the thread, I never really got the meaning of this song and was just happy to be able to discern the word Vegemite in it. After reading arguments and cites, I’m onboard with the prevailing “trail, head” theory, but it’s just a song. If samjones likes his way better, that doesn’t really hurt anyone, does it?
Dismissing everyone who disagrees with him as an “entitled generation” on the other hand …
I was 13 when it came out and at the time thought it was “Heavy trail half full of zombies”.
I’m right and you’re all wrong so nya nya nya can’t hear you can’t read your cites it’s my song and I can sing it how I WANT.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:63, topic:585967”]
It looks like (samjones notwithstanding) all of my questions have been answered authoritatively except for “glow.” Is there general consensus that it doesn’t have anything to do with sweating and it was just inserted to fit the rhyme and rhythm?
[/QUOTE]
I dunno. I’ve always thought it was a reference to the “Horses sweat…” saying (which I assume is as well-known in the antipodes as it is elsewhere), but that there wasn’t any special significance to it beyond fitting neatly into the song.
My OP is about the slang, but the discussion brought up a metaphorical question as well: What is this “thunder” that they had better run from and take cover?
Thanks, KellyCriterion. I was beginning to wonder. You are a gentleman(woman?), scholar, and a very sound betting formula.
But I notice ol’ samjones is still insisting that the rest of the world, including the writer of the lyrics, is wrong and he is right.
This is where your assumption that everyone knows everyone else’s obscure regionalisms is going to bite you pretty squarely in the arse.
As you’ll obviously know, despite the distance at which you are, David Dale wrote a fairly long-running column about Australian pop culture on and off for the Sydney Morning Herald in the '80s, '90s and '00s. Much of the column drew sweeping generalisms about the state of Oz culture by relating it to TV ratings or brand identification surveys - but it would sometimes look at cultural artifacts including delving into a certain amount of pop-etymology. Theoretically, it may even still be running - it generally ran on Saturdays and I don’t read the SMH on Saturdays.
So it’s exactly the sort of thing he’d write about.
With that said, you’ll also know that the one thing that tended to be lacking from his columns tended to be quality research. Having spoken to someone who was an adult in the regionalism’s region at the time, Zombie was slang for any dope, especially stronger hydro stuff, in the '70s.
When it comes to glowing and thunder, however, your guess is as good as mine.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:63, topic:585967”]
It looks like (samjones notwithstanding) all of my questions have been answered authoritatively except for “glow.” Is there general consensus that it doesn’t have anything to do with sweating and it was just inserted to fit the rhyme and rhythm?
[/QUOTE]
Bit of both. The writer was likely not expecting people to be dissecting his silly lyrics 30+ years later - ‘thunder’ just rhymes with under and sounds kinda cool.
But actually, I think glow meaning sweat would make sense; it’d fit with chunder as talking about Oz as a rough-and-ready place where people aren’t ashamed of their bodily fluids. 
This was one of the first LP’s I’d bought back when I was in high school. I remember the words were printed on the inner sleeve and it was “Traveling in a fried out Kombi, On a hippy trail, head full of zombie”.
I wonder if still have that vinyl disc rattling around in the basement if it’s been lost over the years.
They were also the first band I ever saw in concert.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:69, topic:585967”]
What is this “thunder” that they had better run from and take cover?
[/QUOTE]
You’ve never owned cats I see.
You’ll hear “foot of the trail” from time to time.
Makes more sense your way.
It’s a pop lyric. It doesn’t have to make sense any way.
But it does in fact make a lot of sense to me the way Hay did write it.
You do, finally, concede that your interpretation was not the correct one? 'Cause that denial went on for way longer than most denials do in the face of a lead-pipe-cinch Cite.
No - not at all. I’m just not being allowed to argue my point any more because some moderator thought I was being too hard on you.
I have tons more to say on the topic…
Not hard on me, I just arrived at the party, but rude to people who are right when you’re wrong.
Before I just give up, can you give us a direct answer to whether you have looked at the link to Colin Hay’s own website, and what (in view of the lyrics posted there, which directly contradict your “point”) theory you have for how the song’s own writer and vocalist doesn’t know what he wrote or sang or intended?
Got a live one here, folks.