The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Song The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
Artist The Pogues
Album Rum Sodomy & The Lash

Lyrics

[00:07.57] When I was a young man I carried my pack
[00:14.14] And I lived the free life of a rover
[00:20.90] From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
[00:27.96] I waltzed my Matilda all over
[00:35.03] Then in nineteen fifteen my country said
[00:39.68] Son, It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
[00:48.31] So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
[00:55.23] And they sent me away to the war
[01:02.07] And the band played Waltzing Matilda
[01:09.07] As we sailed away from the quay
[01:15.56] And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
[01:22.54] We sailed off for Gallipoli
[01:29.27] How well I remember that terrible day
[01:35.85] When the blood stained the sand and the water
[01:43.25] And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
[01:49.74] We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
[01:56.70] Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
[02:03.87] He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shells
[02:10.36] And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
[02:18.40] Nearly blew us right back to Australia
[02:24.41] And the band played Waltzing Matilda
[02:31.44] As we stopped to bury our slain
[02:38.10] And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
[02:46.36] And then it started all over again
[02:51.90] Now those who were living did their best to survive
[02:58.96] In that mad world of death, blood and fire
[03:05.71] And for seven long weeks I kept myself alive
[03:12.80] While the corpses around me piled higher
[03:19.60] Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
[03:27.06] And when I awoke in my hospital bed
[03:33.02] And saw what it had done
[03:36.36] Christ I wished I was dead
[03:40.06] Never knew there were worse things than dying
[03:47.29] And no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
[03:54.21] Through the green bushes so far and near
[04:01.10] For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
[04:07.76] No more waltzing Matilda for me
[04:14.88]
[04:47.32] So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
[04:54.43] And they shipped us back home to Australia
[05:01.55] The legless, the armless, the blind and the insane
[05:08.38] Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
[05:14.88] And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
[05:22.07] I looked at the place where me legs used to be
[05:28.61] And thank Christ there was nobody who waiting for me
[05:35.51] To grieve and to mourn and to pity
[05:42.26] And the band played Waltzing Matilda
[05:49.18] As they carried us down the gangway
[05:55.99] But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
[06:02.77] And they turned their faces away
[06:10.08] And now every April I sit on my porch
[06:16.78] And I watch the parade pass before me
[06:23.70] I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
[06:30.28] Reliving dreams of past glory
[06:37.24] I see the old men, all twisted and torn
[06:44.24] The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war
[06:50.94] And the young people ask me, "What are they marching for?"
[06:57.97] And I ask myself the same question
[07:05.43] And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
[07:11.69] And the old men still answer the call
[07:19.01] But year after year their numbers get fewer
[07:24.61] Some day no one will march there at all
[07:32.18] Waltzing Matilda <
[07:35.45] Waltzing Matilda <
[07:38.81] Who gonna a-waltzing Matilda with me?