The Cholera Camp

C
We’ve the cholera in camp,
         C          F     C
And it’s worse than forty fights,
          G            G7
And we’re dying in the wilderness,
    C       F    C
The same as Israelites,
     C
It’s before us and behind us,
       C
And we cannot get away,
        G               G7
And the doctor’s just reported,
           C   F    C
That we’ve ten more today.


Chorus,

   C
Oh strike your camp and go,
            C
The bugle’s calling,
            G
The rains a-falling
    G                   G7
The dead are bushed and stoned
             C    G7  C
To keep them safe below,
    C                               C
And bands are doing all they can to cheer us
G                       G7               C F  C
The chaplain’s gone and prayed to god to hear us,
   C G  C
To hear us
   C                 F       G7    C
Oh lord for it’s the killing of us all


Verse 2

C
Since August when it started,
          C        F      C
It’s been sticking to our tail,
            G             G7
For they’ve had us out by marches,
            C      F       C
And they’ve had us back by rail
       C
But it runs as fast as troop trains,
                   C
And we cannot get away,
        G                G7            C   F    C
And the sick list to the Colonel makes ten more today,


Verse 3

C
And there ain’t no fun in women,

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          C        F       C
And there ain’t no bite to drink,
     G                G7
It’s much too wet for shooting,
       C    F         C
We can only march and think.
       C
And at evening, down the nullahs,
       C
We can hear the jackals say,
    G             G7                 C   F    C
Get up you rotten beggars you’ve got ten more today,


(Chorus)


Verse 4

             C
And it would make a monkey cough
               F     C
See our way of doing things,
    G              G7
Lieutenants taking companies,
    C        F      C
And captains taking wings,
    C
And lances acting sergeants,

They file to obey,
            G              G7        C   F        C
Yes there’s lots of big promotion on ten deaths a day


Verse 5

        C
And our colonel’s white and twittery,
               F        C
And he gets no sleep or food,
        G              G7
He just mucks about in hospital,
      C       F       C
Where nothing does no good,
       C
And he sends us heaps of comfort,
    C
All bought from his pay,
          G                  G7       C   F        C
But there ain’t much comfort handy on ten deaths a day


(Chorus)


Verse 6

        C
And our chaplain he’s got a banjo,
             F       C
And a skinny mule he rides,
        G                 G7
And the stuff he says and sings,
           C        F         C
Oh lord it makes us split our sides,

         C
With his black coat-tails a-bobbing,
   C
To tara-ra-boom-de-ay,
          G              G7        C   F        C
Oh he’s a proper sort of Padre for ten deaths a day,


Verse 7

          C
We’ve the cholera in camp,
             F       C
We’ve got it hot and sweet,
       G                  G7
And it ain’t no Christmas dinner,
         C          F       C
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,
          G                             C   F        C
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
             C    G C
To keep them safe below,
    C
And them that do not like it they can lump it,
    G                G7                C F  C
And them that cannot stand it they can jump it,
          C
For we’ve got to die somewhere, some way some how,
      G                             G7
So we might as well begin to do it now


Verse 8


   C
So number one, let down the tent poles slow,
      G                G7               C
Knock out the pegs and hold the corners oh,
     C
Furl up the flies, fold up the ropes and stow,
   C          F           G7       C
Oh strike, Oh strike your camp and go.