Waltzing Matilda Original Version

Brightly! 6/8 Time

  4  4  4   4   7   7
Once a jol-ly swag-man,
  -7  -7  7 -7   7  6
Camped by a bil-la-bong,
 4  4   4    6
Un-der the shade,
 6 6 -6  -6 -6   6 
Of a cool-i-bah tree,
-6  -7  7   -8  7 -7                        
And he sang as he sat
 6  -6   -6    -6   6  -6   6  5   -4
And he watched as  his bil-ly boi-led,
   4     4  4   6   6   6   -4 5   -4   4  
Who'll come a-walt-zing Ma-til-da with me?

CHORUS (same tune as Verse)
Waltzing Matilda, Matilda my darling,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me,
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Along came a jumbuck and drank from the billabong,
Down jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda.

CHORUS

Down came the squatter mounted on his thoroughbred
Down came the troopers one, two, three,
Whose is the jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda.

Chorus

Well up jumped the swagman and leapt into the billabong,
He drown himself by the coolibah tree,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the billabong,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Banjo Paterson first heard the term in 1895, whilst on a visit to Dagworth Station, Central Queensland.  On the road to Winton, the buggy passed a nomad with a cylindrical blanket roll
on his back.  Robert Macpherson, his host, explained that he called this "Waltzing Matilda"
The term has an obvious affinity with the German
waltz-bruder meaning "rolling brother"
Legend has it that by the time the party reached Winton the story was penned and put to a tune that evening.  So the full blown lifestyle of the Australian itinerant was classically captured in just two words and the age old cry of the poor,
struggling along besides the landed, was given
a powerful Australian voice.  The tune here is the original and not the popular one which arrived later and was an old recruiting ballad
from the time of the Duke of Marlborough.
Extract from "The Bushwackers Australian Song Book"

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