And the band played waltzing Matilda

[00:45.63] Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack

[00:00.00] And I lived the free life of the rover

[00:00.00] From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback

[00:00.00] Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over

[00:00.00] Then in 1915, my country said "son

[00:00.00] It's time you stopped rambling, there's work to be done"

[00:00.00] So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun

[00:00.00] And they marched me away to the war

[00:00.00] And the band played Waltzing Matilda

[00:00.00] As the ship pulled away from the quay

[00:00.00] And amidst all the cheers, the flag-waving and tears

[00:00.00] We sailed off for Gallipoli

[00:00.00] And how well I remember that terrible day

[00:00.00] How our blood stained the sand and the water

[00:00.00] And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay

[00:00.00] We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

[00:00.00] Johnny Turk, he was waiting, he'd primed himself well

[00:00.00] He showered us with bullets and he rained us with shell

[00:00.00] And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell

[00:00.00] Nearly blew us right back to Australia

[00:00.00] But the band played Waltzing Matilda

[00:00.00] When we stopped to bury our slain

[00:00.00] We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs

[00:00.00] Then we started all over again

[00:00.00] And those that were left, well we tried to survive

[00:00.00] In that mad world of blood, death and fire

[00:00.00] And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive

[00:00.00] Though around me the corpses piled higher

[00:00.00] Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head

[00:00.00] And when I woke up in me hospital bed

[00:00.00] And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead

[00:00.00] Never knew there was worse things than dyin'

[00:00.00] For I'll go no more waltzing Matilda

[00:00.00] All around the green bush far and free

[00:00.00] To hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs

[00:00.00] No more waltzing Matilda for me

[00:00.00] So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed

[00:00.00] And they shipped us back home to Australia

[00:00.00] The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane

[00:00.00] Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

[00:00.00] And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay

[00:00.00] I looked at the place where me legs used to be

[00:00.00] And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me

[00:00.00] To grieve, to mourn, and to pity

[00:00.00] But the band played Waltzing Matilda

[00:00.00] As they carried us down the gangway

[00:00.00] But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared

[00:00.00] Then they turned all their faces away

[00:00.00] And so now every April, I sit on me porch

[00:00.00] And I watch the parades pass before me

[00:00.00] And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march

[00:00.00] Reviving old dreams of past glories

[00:00.00] And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore

[00:00.00] They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war

[00:00.00] And the young people ask, "what are they marching for?"

[00:00.00] And I ask myself the same question

[00:00.00] But the band plays Waltzing Matilda

[00:00.00] And the old men still answer the call

[00:00.00] But as year follows year, more old men disappear

[00:00.00] Someday no one will march there at all

[00:00.00] Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda

[00:00.00] Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

[00:00.00] And their ghosts may be heard

[00:00.00] As they march by that billabong

[00:00.00] Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?