esta é uma das grandes canções de waits, um clássico instantâneo dos anos setenta.
o refrão é baseado, quase palavra por palavra, numa canção australiana do séc. xix, "waltzing matilda", de a.b. paterson, embora a melodia seja algo diferente. 
a origem é um tanto ambígua, porque embora o sub-título "quatro folhas ao vento em copenhaga" pareça apontar para um encontro nessa época com a cantora dinamarquesa mathilde bondo, confirmado mais tarde pela própria, muitos anos depois, numa entrevista radiofónica, waits afirmou que tom traubert era um "amigo de um amigo", que morreu na prisão.




Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did
I got what I paid for now
See you tomorrow, hey Frank, can I borrow
A couple of bucks from you?
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me

I'm an innocent victim of a blinded alley
And I'm tired of all these soldiers here
No one speaks English, and everything's broken
And my Stacys are soaking wet
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me

Now the dogs are barking and the taxi cabs parking
A lot they can do for me
I begged you to stab me, you tore my shirt open
And I'm down on my knees tonight
Old Bushmills I staggered, you buried the dagger
In your silhouette window light
To go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me

Now I've lost my St. Christopher, now that I've kissed her
And the one-armed bandit knows
And the maverick Chinamen, and the cold-blooded signs
And the girls down by the strip-tease shows go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me

No, I don't want your sympathy, the fugitives say
That the streets aren't for dreaming now
And manslaughter dragnets, and the ghosts that sell memories
They want a piece of the action anyhow
Go waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me

And you can ask any sailor, and the keys from the jailer
And the old men in wheelchairs know
That Matilda's the defendant, she killed about a hundred
And she follows wherever you may go
Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda
You'll go waltzing Matilda with me

And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace
And a wound that will never heal
No prima donna, the perfume is on
An old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey
And goodnight to the street sweepers, the night watchmen, flame keepers
And goodnight, Matilda, too