G
C G
When I was a young man I carried my pack
G D G
And I lived the free life of a rover
G D C G
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
G D G
I waltzed my Matilda all over
D C G
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said oeSon,
D C G
Itoes time to stop rambling cos thereoes work to be doneoe
G C G
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
G D G
And they sent me away to the war
G C G
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
G C D
As we sailed away from the quay
C G
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
G D G
We sailed off to Gallipoli
G C G
How well I remember that terrible day
G D G
When the blood stained the sand and the water
G D C G
And when in that town that they called Suvla Bay
G D G
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
D C G
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
D C G
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
G C G
And in five minutes flat heoed blown us all to hell
G D G
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
G C G
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
G C D
As we stopped to bury our slain
C G
And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
G D G
Then we started all over again
G C G
Now those that were living did their best to survive
G D G
In a mad world of blood, death and fire,
G D C G
And, for seven long weeks, I kept myself alive
G D G
But the corpses around me piled higher
D C G
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
D C G
And when I awoke in my hospital bed
G C G
I saw what it had done. Christ ! I wished I was dead
G D G
Never knew there were worse things than dying
G C G
For Ioell go no more waltzing Matilda
G C D
All around the green bush far and near
C G
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs
G D G
No more Waltzing Matilda for me
G C G
So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed,
G D G
And they shipped us back home to Australia
G D C G
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane,
G D G
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
D C G
And as our ship pulled into Circular Bay
D C G
I looked at the place my legs used to be
G C G
And thank Christ there was no one waiting for me
G D G
To grieve and to mourn and to pity
G C G
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
G C D
As they carried us down the gangway
C G
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
G D G
Then they turned all their faces away
G C G
And now every April I sit on my porch
G D G
And I watch the parade pass before me
G D C G
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
G D G
Renewing old dreams of past glory
D C G
I see the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
D C G
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
G C G
And the young people ask oewhat are they marching for ?oe
G D G
And I ask myself the same question
G C G
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
G C D
And the old men still answer to the call
C G
But year after year their number gets fewer
G D G
Some day no one will march there at all
G C
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
G D
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me