HMAS Australia

Here I am again in the ship's post office

I want to send a telegram

Send it to the captain

Asking where the hell I am

I've been on this luxury cruise

For twenty five years or more

And I've just begun to wonder

Where we're headed for

 Band keeps playing American songs from 1973

 Getting wise to the officer’s lies

 That we've even got a country

 You say we're independent

 And we've even got the right to choose

 Well we're sick of doing nothing

 We'd like some work,

 We'd like some work,

 We'd like some work to do

Swimming pools, the cocktail parties

You keep us plied with drink

But when we cruised through South East Asia

It made us stop and think

We never take on passengers

Though we seem to have lots of room

And I can't escape the notion captain

That this is a floating tomb

 Band keeps playing American songs from 1973

 Getting wise to the officer’s lies

 That we've even got a country

 You say we're independent

 And we've even got the right to choose

 Well we're sick of doing nothing

 We'd like some work,

 We'd like some work,

 We'd like some work to do

Some of us have calculated

We must be short of oil

Someone mentioned fission

And blood began to boil

The passengers are restless, captain

This is how they feel

Angry at how it came to be you

Who sits beside the wheel

 Band keeps playing American songs from 1973

 Getting wise to the officer’s lies

 That we've even got a country

 You say we're independent

 And we've even got the right to choose

 Well we're sick of doing nothing

 We'd like some work,

 We'd like some work,

 We'd like some work to do

 And the band keeps playing the Imperial Waltz From far across the sea

 Not a long way from discontent

 To open mutiny

 You say we're independent

 And we've even got the right to choose

 Well we're sick of being passengers,

 We've got some work,

 We've got some work,

 We've got some work to do