And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Now when I was a young man I carried me pack

And I lived the free life of a rover

From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback

Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over

Then in 1915, my country said son

It's time you stopped rambling

There's work to be done

So they gave me a tin hat

And they gave me a gun

And they marched me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As the ship pulled away from the Quay

And amidst all the cheers

The flag-waving and tears

We sailed off for Gallipoli

And how well I remember that terrible day

How our blood stained the sand and the water

And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay

We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

Johnny Turk he was waiting

He'd primed himself well

He showered us with ******s

And he rained us with shell

And in five minutes flat

He'd blown us all straight to hell

Nearly blew us right back to Australia

But the band played Waltzing Matilda

When we stopped to bury our slain

We buried ours

And the Turks buried theirs

Then we started all over again

And those that were left

Well we tried to survive

In that mad world of blood

Death and fire

And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive

Though around me the corpses piled higher

Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head

And when I woke up in my hospital bed

And saw what it had done

Well I wished I was dead:

Never knew there was worse things than dyin'

For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda

All around the green bush far and free

To hang tent and pegs

A man needs both legs-no more waltzing Matilda for me

So they gathered the crippled

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 Quay

I looked at the place where me legs used to be

And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me

To grieve

To mourn

And to pity

But 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 so now every April

I sit on me porch

And I watch the parades pass before me

And I see my old comrades

How proudly they march

Reviving old dreams of past glories

And the old men march slowly

Old bones stiff and sore

The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war

And the young people ask

What are they marching for? ...

And I ask myself the same question

But the band plays Waltzing Matilda

And the old men still answer the call

But as year follows year

More old men disappear

Someday no one will march there at all

"Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

And their ghosts may be heard as they march by that billabong,

Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"