C
We’ve the cholera in camp,
CFC
And it’s worse than forty fights,
GG7
And we’re dying in the wilderness,
CFC
The same as Israelites,
C
It’s before us and behind us,
C
And we cannot get away,
GG7
And the doctor’s just reported,
CFC
That we’ve ten more today.
Chorus,
C
Oh strike your camp and go,
C
The bugle’s calling,
G
The rains a-falling
GG7
The dead are bushed and stoned
CG7C
To keep them safe below,
CC
And bands are doing all they can to cheer us
GG7CFC
The chaplain’s gone and prayed to god to hear us,
CGC
To hear us
CFG7C
Oh lord for it’s the killing of us all
Verse 2
C
Since August when it started,
CFC
It’s been sticking to our tail,
GG7
For they’ve had us out by marches,
CFC
And they’ve had us back by rail
C
But it runs as fast as troop trains,
C
And we cannot get away,
GG7CFC
And the sick list to the Colonel makes ten more today,
Verse 3
C
And there ain’t no fun in women,
CFC
And there ain’t no bite to drink,
GG7
It’s much too wet for shooting,
CFC
We can only march and think.
C
And at evening, down the nullahs,
C
We can hear the jackals say,
GG7CFC
Get up you rotten beggars you’ve got ten more today,
(Chorus)
Verse 4
C
And it would make a monkey cough
FC
See our way of doing things,
GG7
Lieutenants taking companies,
CFC
And captains taking wings,
C
And lances acting sergeants,
They file to obey,
GG7CFC
Yes there’s lots of big promotion on ten deaths a day
Verse 5
C
And our colonel’s white and twittery,
FC
And he gets no sleep or food,
GG7
He just mucks about in hospital,
CFC
Where nothing does no good,
C
And he sends us heaps of comfort,
C
All bought from his pay,
GG7CFC
But there ain’t much comfort handy on ten deaths a day
(Chorus)
Verse 6
C
And our chaplain he’s got a banjo,
FC
And a skinny mule he rides,
GG7
And the stuff he says and sings,
CFC
Oh lord it makes us split our sides,
C
With his black coat-tails a-bobbing,
C
To tara-ra-boom-de-ay,
GG7CFC
Oh he’s a proper sort of Padre for ten deaths a day,
Verse 7
C
We’ve the cholera in camp,
FC
We’ve got it hot and sweet,
GG7
And it ain’t no Christmas dinner,
CFC
But it’s served and we must eat,
C
And we’ve gone beyond the funking,
C
C’us’ we’ve found it doesn’t pay,
GCFC
And we’re rocking round the district on ten deaths a day
Chorus (Version 2)
C
Oh strike your camp and go,
The bugle’s calling,
G
The rains a-falling
G7
The dead are bushed and stoned
CGC
To keep them safe below,
C
And them that do not like it they can lump it,
GG7CFC
And them that cannot stand it they can jump it,
C
For we’ve got to die somewhere, some way some how,
GG7
So we might as well begin to do it now
Verse 8
C
So number one, let down the tent poles slow,
GG7C
Knock out the pegs and hold the corners oh,
C
Furl up the flies, fold up the ropes and stow,
CFG7C
Oh strike, Oh strike your camp and go.