Digital Tradition Mirror

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (2)

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (2)

When I was a young man I played the guitar
And I lived the free life of the rover
From Brisbane's green river
To each dusty folk bar
I waltzed my old Martin all over

But in each club I played in
The people said, " Son
We do like your singing
But when I was done
They would leap on the stage
Saying now I'll sing you one"
And this is the song that they sang me:

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
And the audience forgot about me
So amidst all the tears, flag waving and cheers
I went to the loo for a pee.

How well I remember that terrible day
How my blood boiled much hotter than water
For up to that time I'd been well on me way
To wooing the publican's daughter.

Johnny Turk he was there
And he sang the song well
I rained him with insults
And truth is to tell
I wished Eric Bogle
Had gone straight to hell
And never had come to Australia.

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
It was such a well-loved refrain
And when Johnny Turk was finished, the berk
Went and sang it all over again.

So now every April I sits on me porch
And I watch my past life go before me
And I wish I had written that rambling song
That brought Eric Bogle such glory

The songs that I wrote
I don't sing 'em no more
They're tiring old songs
From a tiring old bore
And when young people ask
What did he write them for
I ask myself the same question.

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
And the singers respond to the call
As year after year all my hopes disappear
That no one will sing it at all

RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!