[ And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda von Eric Bogle ]


 

C            F           C          Am
When I was a young man I carried a pack
      C              G7        C
And I lived the free life of a rover.
			F            C        Am
From the Murray's green banks to the dusty outback
  C          G7          C
I waltzed my Matilda all over.
	G7                  F             C
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said "son",
	G7                         F          G7
There's no time for rovin' there's work to be done!
	 C         F          C          Am
And they gave me a tin hat and gave me a gun
	 C       G7          C
And they sent me away to the war.


Chorus:
C                   F           C
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
				 Dm
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
G7                  F                C          Am
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving and tears,
   C              G7     C
We sailed off for Gallipoli

		
C            F           C          Am
How well I remember that terrible day
      C              G7        C
How our blood stained the sand and the water
            F           C          Am
And how in that hell they called Suvla Bay
      C              G7        C
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
	G7                  F             C
Johnny Turk he was waiting, he'd primed himself well
	G7                         F          G7
He showered us with bullets, and rained us with shell,
       C            F           C          Am
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us to hell
      C              G7        C
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
 
C                   F           C
And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
				 Dm
As we stopped to bury the slain
G7             F            C          Am
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs,
   C              G7     C
Then we started all over again


C            F           C          Am
They collected the crippled, the wounded and maimed
      C              G7        C
And they shipped us back home to Australia
            F           C          Am
The armless the legless, the blind and insane,
      C              G7        C
All the brave heroes of Suvla
	G7                  F             C
And when our ship pulled in to Circular Quay,
	G7                         F          G7
I looked at the place where my legs used to be,
          C            F           C          Am
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me -
      C              G7        C
To grieve, to mourn and to pity.


C                   F           C
And the band played Waltzing Matilda,
				 Dm
As they carried us down the gangway,
G7             F            C          Am
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared -
   C              G7     C
And they turned all their faces away.


C            F           C          Am
And so now every April I sit on my porch,
      C              G7        C
And I watch the parade pass before me,
            F           C          Am
And I see my old comrades how proudly they march,
      C              G7        C
Reviving old dreams and past glories,
	G7                  F             C
But the old men march slowly their bones stiff and sore,
   G7             F          G7
Tired old men from a tired old war,
           C            F           C          Am
And the young people ask what are they marching for,
      C              G7        C
And I ask myself the same question. 

C                   F           C
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
				 Dm
And the old men still answer the call,
G7             F            C          Am
But year by year more old men disappear
   C              G7     C
Soon no one will march there at all.