And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

Well when I was a young man I carried my pack

I lived the free life of the rover

From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback

I waltzed my Matilda all over

Then in 1915 my country said "Son

It's time to stop rambling, there's work to be done"

So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun

And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As the ship pulled away from the quay

And amid all the tears, flag-waving and cheers

We sailed off for Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day

When our blood stained the sand and the water

And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay

We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter

Johnny Turk he was ready, oh he primed himself well

He rained us with bullets and he showered us with shell

And in five minutes flat we were all blown to hell

Till he blew us back home to Australia

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As we stopped to bury our slain

And we bury ours and the Turks bury theirs

And it started all over again

Those who were living just tried to survive

In that mad world of blood, death and fire

And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive

While around me the corpses piled higher

And then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head

And when I awoke in my hospital bed

And saw what it had done, I wished I were dead

I never knew there were worse things than dying

And no more I'll go Waltzing Matilda

All around the green bush far and near

For to hump tent and pegs a man needs both legs

No more Waltzing Matilda for me

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed

And they shipped us back home to Australia

The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane

Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

And as the ship pulled into Circular Quay

I looked at the place where my legs used to be

And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me