[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: VE Day

[Pauline]

Thanks for your informative and touching posts Shaun.

To listen to the author Eric Bogle talk about and sing "And the band played 
Waltzing Matilda" go to
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/matilda.html
where there is a link.


>So Gallipoli was really the first.
>
>And it inspired one of the great Australian ballads:
>
>Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
>And I lived the free life of the rover
> From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback,
>Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over
>Then in 1915, my country said, "Son,
>It's time you stop ramblin', there's work to be done."
>So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun,
>And they marched me away to the war.
>
>And the band played "Waltzing Matilda"
>As the ship pulled away from the quay,
>And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
>We sailed off for Gallipoli.
>
>And how well I remember that terrible day
>How our blood stained the sand and the water
>And of how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
>We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
>Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well
>He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell
>And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell
>Nearly blew us right back to Australia.
>
>But the band played "Waltzing Matilda"
>When we stopped to bury our slain
>Well, we buried ours and the Turks buried theirs,
>Then we started all over again
>
>And those that were left, well, we tried to survive
>In that mad world of blood, death and fire.
>And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
>Though around me the corpses piled higher
>Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head
>And when I woke up in me hospital bed
>And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead
>Never knew there was worse things than dying
>
>For I'll go no more "Waltzing Matilda"
>All around the green bush far and free
>To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs
>No more "Waltzing Matilda" for me
>
>So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed
>And they shipped us back home to Australia
>The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
>Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
>And as our ship sailed into Circular Quay
>I looked at the place where me legs used to be
>And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me
>To grieve, to mourn and to pity
>
>But the band played "Waltzing Matilda"
>As they carried us down the gangway
>But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
>Then they turned all their faces away
>
>And so now every April, I sit on my porch
>And I watch the parade pass before me
>And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
>Reviving old dreams of past glory
>And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore
>They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
>And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
>And I ask meself the same question.
>
>But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda"
>And the old men still answer the call
>But as year follows year, more old men disappear
>Someday, no one will march there at all.
>
>Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda.
>Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
>And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
>Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
>
>Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
>Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
>(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200
>"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
>thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the
>facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be
>uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that
>need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
>Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia
>
>
>
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Love Pauline


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