Chords for [The Story Of] Waltzing Matilda (Live)

_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ Darn it, it's in tune.
I had such a great joke. _ _
_ [E] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [A] One of the most beautiful songs in the entire whole world comes from Australia
and is called Waltzing Matilda.
It harkens back to a time when they were pioneering on the continent of Australia
and they spoke in a jargon or a slang which to us just might sound like gibberish
if we didn't know that it did have a great deal of meaning.
The song does have a rather eloquent story that goes with it
and so much so that the Australians consider Waltzing Matilda second only to their own national anthem
which is the very much beloved Timey Kangaroo Down.
[E] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ First of all, the title is slightly misleading.
It's neither a waltz nor is it a song about anybody named Matilda.
When a man in Australia said that he was going to go waltzing Matilda
he meant that he was going to pack up his earthly belongings
and put them into his Matilda which was his bedroll
and kind of move along to another place or to another town.
And the hero of the song, I must say, is a bum.
This is not my personal evaluation of the gentleman's character but what the lyric indicates.
He is called a swag man and in the vernacular that means he is a bum.
He is to be found by the banks of a billabong
and a billabong according to Webster is the backwaters of a canal that form a lagoon.
_ You all get [E] that image in your head.
[Am] It's a mud hole.
That's what it is. _
[Dm] He's also got his back against a koolabah tree which is a eucalyptus tree.
_ I thought that would excite you a bit. _
_ _ [F#] Once a jolly swag man [G] camped beside a billabong
_ [C#] under the shade [E] of a [A] koolabah tree
and he [F#] sang as he watched and waited [G] till his billy boiled
[D] singing you'll come [F#m] oh waltz [Em] in Matilda [A] with [D] me _
_ Waltz in Matilda, _ [G] _
waltz [F#] in [Em] Matilda
_ [D] _ _
[C#] you'll come oh waltz in [B] Matilda
_ [A]
He _ _ [Dm] sang as he [F#] watched, _
[B] waited till [G] his billy boiled
[D] _ _
[D#] you'll come oh [Em] waltz in [A] Matilda [Dm] with me
_ [B] I forgot to mention something.
[E] A billy is a tin can that they used to use for cooking their Heinz beans
or their [Em] Campbell's soup or their [E] Kickapoo joy juice
whatever it was that they [A] cooked over their campfires.
As long as we've stopped there are a few other translations
which would make the song a bit easier to understand.
There is a jumbuck which is a sheep
and there is also a tucker bag.
A tucker bag is a smaller knapsack, smaller than a Matilda
for carrying smaller items.
It was usually called Agnes. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] Down [F#] come the [B] jumbuck to drink [G] beside the billabong
_ Do you get the picture of a sheep coming to a mud [Em] hole?
I [A] want you to visualize a eucalyptus tree drinking out of a knapsack.
It's kind of bizarre.
_ Up jumped [F#m] the swag man [Em] and grabbed him with glee
[E] Oh yes, a glee is a hook that they used to use to catch sheep in [D] Australia. _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ [A] _ And he laughed [F#] as he stuffed the [G] jumbuck in his tucker bag _ _
[D] singing you'll come oh waltz in [Em] [A] Matilda [D] with me
He was singing
Waltz in Matilda
_ [G] Waltz in [Em] Matilda
[A] _ You'll [G] come oh waltz [Em] in Matilda [A] with me
[D] He laughed [F#] as he stuffed [Bm] the jumbuck [G] in his tucker [D] bag
You'll [F#m] come oh [G] waltz in Matilda [A] [D] with me
Next the plot thickens and we meet the landlord who is called the squatter.
And here he comes to his [N] billabong and he sees this swag man
parked against his koolabot tree putting his jumbucks into his tucker bag
which was going to go into his Matilda and he was going to just you know do that
and _ [D] naturally the squatter is peeved. _ _ _ _ _
_ Down come the [G] squatter mounted on his thoroughbred
A thoroughbred is an Australian golf [Em] cart. _
[A] _ _ _ _ [D] Down [F#m] come his troopers _ [Em] one [A] two and three _
[B] Saying where's the [F#] jolly jumbuck [Bm] you're hiding in that [G] tucker bag
[A] _ You'll [F#m] come oh waltz in [A] Matilda with me
He was singing
[D] Waltz in Matilda
_ _ [G]
Waltz in [Em] Matilda
_ [D] _ You'll come oh waltz in [Em] Matilda
[G] Where's the [A] jolly jumbuck?
[A] Where's the [F#] jolly jumbuck?
You're hiding in that tucker bag _
[G] All covered [E] with snow
No [Em] you'll come oh waltz in Matilda
_ _ [A] _ _ In [A#]
snow _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G#] _ _ [G#] _ That's entirely my fault.
It's from a different song as you know. _ _
There are three ways of ending the song.
You've just heard one of them.
No.
_ _ Now the first ending is the typical folk song ending and it goes like [D] so.
_ _ [C#] Up jumped the [Bm] swag man and dived [G] into the billabong
_ _ [C#] You'll never catch me [A] alive says he
_ _ And [D] his [Am] ghost may be heard
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _
As you walk beside the [Gm] billabong _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [C#] _ _
_ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ Well it's ethnic if it isn't disgusting [N] I think.
_ _ I bet you didn't know you were getting the Audubon Society thrown in for [Gm] nothing tonight.
[F#m] And his ghost may be heard as you walk [G] beside the billabong
_ [Dm] Singing cockles [F#m] and mussels [E] and blah blah [D] blah
_ That's a bald faced lie.
The ghost was not singing that.
No it was singing
You'll come oh [G] waltz [A] in Matilda
You're still invited to sing with us if you trust us.
_ [D] Waltz in Matilda
A [G] vote of confidence from the Rankin family.
_ [Em] _ _ [A] _ You'll [G] come oh waltz [Em] in Matilda
[A] And his ghost may be heard
_ _ [F#] As you walk beside the [B] billabong _
[G] Singing you'll come oh waltz in Matilda with [E] me
You'll [C#] come oh [G] waltz in [Em] _ [A] Matilda with me Beautifully done.
[B] It seems that nowadays everything seems to cry for a Hollywood ending.
And I might add that a Hollywood ending is simply a happy ending
for people who are under doctors orders not to go home from nightclubs depressed.
_ _ So here it is.
[D] Up jumped the swag man and [G] hollered I apologize _ _ _
[D] _ _ [F#m] I'll make amends _ [E] for this ignominious deed.
_ Oh, uh, ignominious is a [C] _ _ rock formation that was very prevalent in pioneering Australia.
They had ignominious stratified nimble [D] cumulus.
_ [E] _ Geology [Am] students.
So he married the squatters [C#m] daughter _ [G] who was slightly nimble cumulus herself.
_ [C] _ _ _ _
[E] And nobody but the producer knows how Richard Burton [N] got the lead. _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[C#] _ _ _ There's another ending.
_ [A]
And it's our favorite one.
_ I'm just [F#] a simple swag [G#] man who would be [G] obliged to fare thee well.
_ _ _ [A] I'm [F#m] just a journey [E] down _ to the sea.
_ _ _ [D] For it's God save the [C#m] queen [B] who gave to you [G] this billabong.
_ [D] _ And it was [F#] God [A] gave that jumbuck to [D] me.
So we'll all go a waltzing Matilda.
[E] _ _ [G] _ _
[F#m] Waltzing [E] Matilda.
_ [A] You'll come [Em] a waltzing Matilda [E] with me.
[D] Yes, God gave [C#m] that jumbuck [Bm] to all his [G] hungry children. _ _
[D] And you'll come [D#] a _ [G] waltzing [A] _
Matilda _ _ _ [G] with me. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _