The Band Played Waltzing Matilda chords by The Pogues (Official Version)
Intro 1
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Verse 1
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When I was a young man
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I carried my pack
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And I lived the free life of a rover
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From the Murray's green basin
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to the dusty outback
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I waltzed my Matilda all over
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Then in nineteen fifteen
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my country said "Son,
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it's time to stop rambling,
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'cause there's work to be done"
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So they gave me a tin hat
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and they gave me a gun
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And they sent me away to the war
Chorus 1
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And the band played "Waltzing Matilda"
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As we sailed away from the quay
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And amidst all the tears
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and the shouts and the cheers
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We sailed off for Gallipoli
Verse 2
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How well I remember that terrible day
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When the blood stained the sand
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and the water
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And how in that hell
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that they called Suvla Bay
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We were butchered like lambs
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at the slaughter
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Johnny Turk he was ready,
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he primed himself well
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He showered us with bullets,
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and he rained us with shells
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And in five minutes flat
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he'd blown us all to hell
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Nearly blew us right back to Australia
Chorus 2
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And the band played "Waltzing Matilda"
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As we stopped to bury our slain
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And we buried ours,
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and the Turks buried theirs
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And it started all over again
Verse 3
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Now those who were living
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did their best to survive
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In that mad world of death, blood, and fire
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And for seven long weeks
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I kept myself alive
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While the corpses around me
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piled higher
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Then a big Turkish shell
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knocked me arse over tit
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And when I awoke
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in my hospital bed
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And saw what it had done,
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Christ I wished I was dead
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Never knew there were worse things
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worse than dy ing
Chorus 3
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And no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
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To the green bushes so far and near
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For to hang tent and pegs,
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a man needs two legs
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No more waltzing Matilda for me
Interlude 1
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Dadd9
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E7
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Verse 4
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So they collected the cripples
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the wounded and maimed
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And they shipped us back home
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to Australia
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The legless, the armless,
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the blind and insane
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Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
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And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
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I looked at the place
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where me legs used to be
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And thank Christ there was nobody
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waiting for me
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To grieve and to mourn and to pity
Chorus 4
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And the band played Waltzing Matilda
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As they carried us down the gangway
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But nobody cheered,
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they just stood and stared
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And they turned their faces away
Verse 5
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And now every April
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I sit on my porch
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And I watch the parade pass before me
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I see my old comrades,
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how proudly they march
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Reliving their dreams of past glory
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I see the old men,
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all twisted and torn
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The forgotten heroes
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of a forgotten war
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And the young people ask me,
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"What are they marching for?"
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And I ask myself the same question
Chorus 5
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And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
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And the old men still answer the call
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But year after year
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their numbers get fewer
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Some day no one will march there at all
Outro 1
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Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
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Who'll go a- Waltzing Matilda with me?
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The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
The Pogues
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