The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

When I was a young man I carried my pack

And I lived the free life of a rover

From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback

I waltzed my Matilda all over

Then in nineteen fifteen my country said oeSon,

Itoes time to stop rambling cos thereoes work to be doneoe

So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun

And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As we sailed away from the quay

And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers

We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day

When the blood stained the sand and the water

And when in that town that they called Suvla Bay

We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well

He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells

And in five minutes flat heoed blown us all to hell

Nearly blew us right back to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As we stopped to bury our slain

And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs

Then we started all over again

Now those that were living did their best to survive

In a mad world of blood, death and fire,

And, for seven long weeks, I kept myself alive

But the corpses around me piled higher

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit

And when I awoke in my hospital bed

I saw what it had done. Christ ! I wished I was dead

Never knew there were worse things than dying

For Ioell go no more waltzing Matilda

All around the green bush far and near

For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs

No more Waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed,

And they shipped us back home to Australia

The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane,

Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

And as our ship pulled into Circular Bay

I looked at the place my legs used to be

And thank Christ there was no one waiting for me

To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As they carried us down the gangway

But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared

Then they turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch

And I watch the parade pass before me

I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,

Renewing old dreams of past glory

I see the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore

The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war

And the young people ask oewhat are they marching for ?oe

And I ask myself the same question

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

And the old men still answer to the call

But year after year their number gets fewer

Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me