He came in from Melbourne on a
Pioneer
An Adelaide morning warm and clear
And a past that wasn't quite within the law
And he opened yet another ten-dollar room
to a broken blind and rising gloom
And a threadbare cotton carpet on the floor
And the muzak piping through the corridor
Played that song he'd heard before
It went, who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
A suitcase held with rope and twine
His cleanest shirt and an open mind
A trail of debts to mark where he had been
A million miles of racetracks
And torn tickets on the ground
And his only son cut down
In Phnom Penh green
A police car crawled down Gouger
Street
As he looked for some place cheap to eat
It was just another curbside interview
With a warrant out in Adelaide
For a bad decision he once made
Instinct took his tongue and pulled him through
So he left his hotel room that night
In time to make a midnight flight
With a overloaded truckie going east
And the line ran round inside his head
Was it something that his best friend said
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
The billabong's just a grubby pond
It's busy washing ore
The squatter drives a thoroughbred of steel
And if he runs forever
Will his life be all in vain
At least that's how it makes him feel
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
And the truckie pushed the cassette in
As they rumbled through the Grampians
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me
