Luyện nghe bài hát AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA

"And The Band Played Matilda"
- Bogle

Now when I was a man, I carried me pack, and I lived the free life of a rover
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 rambling, there's work to be done.
So they 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
And amidst all the cheers, the and tears, we sailed off for Gallipoli
And how well I remember that day, how our blood stained the sand and the water
And of how in that hell that they Suvla Bay, we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk he was waiting, he'd primed himself well. He shower'd us bullets,
And he rained us with shell. And in five flat, he'd blown us all to hell
blew us right back to Australia.

But the band played Waltzing Matilda, when we stopped to our slain.
We buried ours, and the Turks theirs, then we started all over again.
And those that were left, well we to survive, in that mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks, I kept myself alive, though me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me over head, and when I woke up in my hospital bed,
And saw what it had done, well I wished I was dead. Never knew there was worse things dyin'.

For go no more waltzing Matilda, all around the green bush far and free
To hump tent and pegs, a man needs both legs-no more Matilda for me.
So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed, and shipped us back home to Australia.
The legless, the armless, the blind, the insane, those proud heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay, I at the place where me legs used to be.
And thanked Christ was nobody waiting for me, to grieve, to mourn, and to pity.

But the played Waltzing Matilda, as they carried us down the gangway.
But nobody cheered, they stood and stared, then they turned all their faces away
And so now April, I sit on me porch, and I watch the parades pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how they march, reviving old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore. They're tired old from a forgotten war
And the people ask, what are they marching for? And I ask myself the same question.

But the band plays Matilda, and the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear. Someday no one march there at all.
Matilda, Waltzing Matilda, who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by billabong, who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

"Matilda" - the backpack and associated gear used by livestock and prospecters
in remote areas of the outback.
"Swag" - canvas bag
"Billabong" - or estuary, generally with an outlet to the sea and containing more or less brackish water.

Note:
The Campaign (April 25, 1915-January 8, 1916),
a land and sea operation of World War I, in which
British, French, Australian, and New forces
attempted an invasion of Turkey.
The action was confined to the Strait
and the tip of the Gallipoli (Gelibolu) Peninsula
Istanbul. The of the campaign, devised by British
minister David Lloyd George, first lord of the
admiralty Winston Churchill, General H. Kitchener,
and Admiral Sackville H. Carden, was to up a new
theater of war as an to the stalemate in
France, to relieve Turkish on Russian forces
in the Caucasus, and, by gaining of Istanbul
and the straits, to provide a direct link Russia
via the Black Sea. This campaign is significant
for Australians in that it the first time a major
Australian military force was by Australian,
of English, officers.

What initially was to be exclusively a naval
failed in February 1915 several British and French
ships were damaged by floating mines. A land was
then decided on, but it was not until late April.
An amphibious landing at that time was met heavy
resistance by the Turks. Excessive and timorous
leadership by the commander, Sir Ian Hamilton,
resulted in several lost initiatives. Little
was made beyond the beachheads. In early August,
three months of stalemate and stagnation on the
beaches, a new major was begun. Once again,
however, the excessive caution and leadership
of the British command offset the effect of
reinforcements. The forces, on the other hand, were
by the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatrk,
later president of Turkey) and the skill of their
commander, Otto von Sanders. After a few more months
of stalemate, Hamilton was replaced by Sir Monro,
who was to evaluate the situation. Monro recommended
evacuation, and the allied were withdrawn in December
and January. British were 205,000 out of 410,000;
the sustained a rate of 47,000 out of 79,000; Turkish,
250,000 to 300,000 out of 500,000. The badly
stained the of Churchill, Hamilton, and Kitchener.
Despite its overall failure, however, the Gallipoli
weakened the Turks enough to facilitate the seizure
of Palestine in 1917. The also distracted the Germans
from a plan they had in to begin another offensive in France.