And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Now when I was a young man, I carried me pack

And I lived the free life of the 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 bullets and he rained us with shell

And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all 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 me 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 hump 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