AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA      Eric Bogle
                                              From the singing of Phil Day
                                              Melbourne Folk Club

     G       C           G         Em
When I was a young man I carried a pack,
      G              D         G
And I lived the free life of a rover.
         G              C            G        Em
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty Outback
  G            D         G
I waltzed me Matilda all over.
        D        C             G
Then in 1915 the country said "Son,
     D                            C          G
It's time to stop roving, there's work to be done",
         G         C           G         Em
And they gave me a tin hat and gave me a gun,
    G        D          G
And sent me away to the War.


Chorus 1:
        G           C        G
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
       G            Em           D
As our ship pulled away from the quay,
     C                              G          Em
And 'midst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears,
   G             D      G
We sailed off to Gallipoli.



Oh, well I remember the terrible day
When our blood stained the sand and the waters,
And how in that hell-hole we called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waiting, and he'd primed himself well
He showered us with bullets, he rained us with shell,
And in ten minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell:
Nearly blew us all home to Australia.

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury the slain.
Well we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
And we started all over again.


Oh, the lads that were left - well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire,
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Whilst around me the corpses piled higher.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me ass-over-head,
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I were dead:
Never knew there were worse things than dying.

For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and free,
For to hump tent and pegs a man needs both legs:
No more waltzing Matilda for me,


They collected the crippled, the wounded and maimed,
And shipped us all home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and insane
The brave wounded heroes of Suvla.
And when 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 and to mourn and to pity.

And the band played Naltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway,
But nobody cheered - they just stood and stared,
Then turned all their faces away.


So now every April I sit on me porch
And watch the Parade pass before me,
And I see me old comrades - how proudly they march,
Reliving old dreams and past glories.
The old men march slowly, their bones stiff and sore.
They're tired old men from a forgotten war,
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda,
And the old men they answer the call,
But year after year those old men disappear (their numbers get fewer)
Soon no-one'll march there at all . .


G                 C
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda,
G             Em         C          D
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me ..
          G             D            G            Em
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass by that billabong ..
G                      D             G
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me.