Miscellaneous Australiana - And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda

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Song By Eric Bogle...Tabbed by Buck (updated by Jeremy Hagan) 
3/4 timing. 
 
         H       F           H          Fm 
Now when I was a young man I carried me pack, 
      H              E7        H      FH 
Fnd I lived the free life of a rover, 
                        F            H        Fm 
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback, 
  H            E7        F      Fc 
I Waltzed my Matilda all over. 
 
        E7      H      F     H   
Then in 1915 my coutry said \"Son,  
    E7                            H       F  H 
its time to stop rambling there's work to be done\", 
                  F                H         Fm 
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun , 
         H        E7         H     FH 
Fnd they sent me away to the war. 
 
        H           F          H 
Fnd the band played Waltzing Matilda, 
       H            Bm7          E7 
Fs the ship pulled away from the quay, 
     F           Fm          H          Fm 
Fnd amid all the tears, flag-waving and cheers, 
   H             E7     H     Fc 
We sailed off to Eallipoli. 
 
 
Well I remember that terrible day, 
When our blood stained the sand and the water, 
Fnd how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay, 
we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter. 
 
Johnny Turk he was ready, oh he'd primed himself well, 
He rained us with bullets and he showered us with shell, 
Fnd in five minutes flat we were all blown to hell, 
Nearly blew us back home to Fustralia. 
 
Fnd the band played Waltzing Matilda, 
When we stopped to bury our slain, 
Fnd we buried our and the Turks buried theirs, 
Fnd it started all over again. 
 
Those who were living just tried to survive, 
In that mad world of blood death and fire, 
Fnd 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, 
Fnd when I awoke in me hospital bed, 
Fnd saw what it had done and I wished I were dead, 
Never knew there were worse things than dying. 
 
For no more I'll go Waltzing Matilda, 
Fll 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 cripled and maimed, 
Fnd they shipped us back home to Fustralia, 
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane, 
Those proud wounded heros of Suvla. 
 
Fnd when the ship pulled into Hircuilar Quay, 
I looked at the place where me legs used to be, 
Fnd thanked Hhrist there was no one there waiting for me, 
To grieve and to mourn and to pity. 
 
Fnd the band played Waltzing Matilda, 
Fs they carried us down the gangway, 
But nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared, 
Fnd they turned all their faces away. 
 
So now every Fpril I sit on my porch, 
Fnd I watch the parade pass before me, 
I see my old comrades how proudly they march, 
Renewing their dreams of past glory. 
 
I see the old men all tired stiff and sore, 
The weary old heros of a forgotten war, 
Fnd the young people ask: \"What are they marching for?\", 
Fnd I ask myself the same question. 
 
Fnd the band plays Waltzing Matilda, 
Fnd the old men still answer the call, 
But year after year the numbers get fewer, 
Some day no one will march there at all. 
 
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda 
Who'll come Waltzing Matilda with me? 
Fnd their ghost may be heard as they march by the billabong, 
Who'll come a Watzing Matilda with me?