The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - The Pogues

[04:52.0]The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - The Pogues
[04:52.0]When I was a young man I carried my pack
[04:52.0]And I lived the free life of a rover
[04:52.0]From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
[04:52.0]I waltzed my Matilda all over
[04:52.0]Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
[04:52.0]It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be
[04:52.0]done
[04:52.0]So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
[04:52.0]And they sent me away to the war
[04:52.0]And the band played Waltzing Matilda
[04:52.0]As we sailed away from the quay
[04:52.0]And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the
[04:52.0]cheers
[04:52.0]We sailed off to Gallipoli
[04:52.0]How well I remember that terrible day
[04:52.0]When the blood stained the sand and the water
[04:52.0]And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
[04:52.0]We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
[04:52.0]Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
[04:52.0]He showered us with bullets, he rained us with
[04:52.0]shells
[04:52.0]And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
[04:52.0]Nearly blew us right back to Australia
[04:52.0]But the band played Waltzing Matilda
[04:52.0]As we stopped to bury our slain
[04:52.0]And we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
[04:52.0]Then it started all over again
[04:52.0]Now those who were living did their best to survive
[04:52.0]In that mad world of blood, death and fire
[04:52.0]And for seven long weeks I kept myself alive
[04:52.0]While the corpses around me piled higher
[04:52.0]Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
[04:52.0]And when I woke up in my hospital bed
[04:52.0]And saw what it had done, Christ I wished I was
[04:52.0]dead
[04:52.0]Never knew there were worse things than dying
[04:52.0]And no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
[04:52.0]To the green bushes so far and near
[04:52.0]For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
[04:52.0]No more waltzing Matilda for me
[04:52.0]So they collected the cripples, the wounded and
[04:52.0]maimed
[04:52.0]And they shipped us back home to Australia
[04:52.0]The legless, the armless, the blind and insane
[04:52.0]Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
[04:52.0]And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
[04:52.0]I looked at the place where me legs used to be
[04:52.0]And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
[04:52.0]To grieve and to mourn and to pity
[04:52.0]And the band played Waltzing Matilda
[04:52.0]As they carried us down the gangway
[04:52.0]But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
[04:52.0]And they turned all their faces away
[04:52.0]And now every April I sit on my porch
[04:52.0]And I watch the parade pass before me
[04:52.0]I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
[04:52.0]Reliving the or their dreams of past glory
[04:52.0]I see the old men, all twisted and torn
[04:52.0]The forgotten heroes of a forgotten war
[04:52.0]And the young people ask me, What are they
[04:52.0]marching for?
[04:52.0]And I ask myself the same question
[04:52.0]And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
[04:52.0]And the old men still answer to the call
[04:52.0]But year after year their numbers get fewer
[04:52.0]Some day no one will march there at all
[04:52.0]Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
[04:52.0]Who'll go a-waltzing Matilda with me?