The Cholera Camp

	  		The Cholera Camp, by Bellowhead 

verse 1, 

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, 
           
          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.