Matilda No More

(album: Looking Forward Looking Back - 2000)

Once jolly swagmen went humping their swags
And stuffed jolly jumbucks in their tuckerbags
These days jolly junkies go on bag snatching jags
And steal to buy the poison they need
The old swaggie just wanted a feed

And who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
Oh Banjo this country's not what it used to be
We've changed all your words and rewritten your score
Now it's waltzing Matilda no more

Once Henry and Mary on a warm afternoon
Rode down a reedy river to the broad bright lagoon
The song of the river is a long vanished tune
Since they built the uranium mine
What's just left now is just toxic slime

And who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
Oh Henry this country's not what it used to be
Days pass with a whimper and not with the roar
And it's waltzing Matilda no more

We cut down the trees and the land we reclaimed
We ploughed and we planted then we ploughed once again
And again and again and again and again
So now on a hot windy day
We can watch our topsoil blown away

And who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
The desert is marching down to the sea
On the day that it stretches from shore to far shore
We'll go waltzing Matilda no more

Saturday night outside a Kings Cross hotel
Kids with hard drugs and soft bodies to sell
Australia these children are halfway to hell
Oh is this the best deal you can give?
Well I find that hard to believe

And who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
Hey Anzac is this what you fought to keep free?
A land fit for heroes or homeless and poor
And it's waltzing Matilda no more

And who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
This country could still be what we want it to be
With care and compassion the dream we'll restore
And we'll go waltzing Matilda once more, yeah
We'll go waltzing Matilda once more