{"id":1260,"date":"2008-03-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-17T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda"},"modified":"2008-03-17T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-17T11:00:00","slug":"and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda\/","title":{"rendered":"AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish traditional song lyrics \u2014 collected by Beer Belly Band.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I was a young man I carried a pack and lived the free life of a rover
\nFrom the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback, I waltzed my Matilda all over
\nThen in nineteen fifteen my country said son:
\n“It’s time you stopped rambling, there’s work to be done”
\nSo they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun, and sent me away to a war
\nAnd the band played ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as the ship pulled away from the quay
\nAnd ‘midst all the tears, flag waving and cheers, we sailed off to Gallipoli<\/p>\n

How well I remember that terrible day, our blood stained the sand and the water
\nAnd how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
\nWe were butchered like lambs at the slaughter;
\nJohnny Turk he was waiting, he’d primed himself well,
\nHe rained us with bullets & showered us with shells
\nAnd in five minutes flat he’d blown us all to hell, nearly blew us right back to Australia
\nAnd the band played ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as we stopped to bury our slain
\nWe buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs, then it started all over again<\/p>\n

Those that were living we tried to survive in that mad world of blood, death and fire
\nAnd for ten weary weeks I kept my self myself alive, while around the corpses piled higher
\nThen a big Turkish shell, knocked arse over head, and when I awoke in my hospital bed
\nI saw what was done, I wished I was dead, I never knew there were worse things than dying
\nFor I’ll go no more waltzing Matilda all around the green bush far and free
\nFor to hump tent and peg, sure, a man needs two legs, no more waltzing Matilda for me<\/p>\n

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed, and shipped us back home to Australia
\nThe arm less, the leg less, the blind, the insane, those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
\nAnd when our ship pulled into Circular Quay, I looked at the place where my legs used to be
\nI thanked Christ, there was no one there waiting for me, to grieve, to mourn and to pity
\nAnd the band played ‘Waltzing Matilda’ as they carried us down the gangway
\nBut nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared, then they all turned their faces away<\/p>\n

Now every April I sit on my porch and watch the parade pass before me
\nI see my old comrades, how proudly they march, reliving their dreams of past glories
\nI see the old men, tired, stiff and sore, the forgotten heroes of a forgotten war
\nAnd the young people ask, ‘What are they marching for’ and I ask myself the same question
\nAnd the band played ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and the old men still answer the call
\nBut as year follows year, more old men disappear, someday no one will march there at all<\/p>\n

CODA:
\nWaltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, who’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with me
\nAnd their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong
\nWho’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with me?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a young man I carried a pack and lived the free life of a rover From the Murray’s green basin to the dusty outback, I waltzed my Matilda all ove<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[28,27],"class_list":["post-1260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lyrics","tag-beer-belly-band","tag-irish-lyrics"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"trp-custom-language-flag":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"beerbellycollection","author_link":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/author\/beerbellycollection\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"When I was a young man I carried a pack and lived the free life of a rover From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback, I waltzed my Matilda all ove","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beerbellyband.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}