The Conscription Ramp - Gary Shearston

As I was walking down the street while on my twentieth birthday-oh!

A government man, he said to me now you’d look fine in Kaki-oh!

The government is in need of men, come read our proclamation-oh!

Two years conscription life for you will be a fine vacation-oh!

And it true me lad’s, it’s true me lads. To tell the truth I’m bound-oh!

There’s always trouble in the air with elections coming ‘round-oh!

Well it may be so I said to him, but tell me if you can-oh!

If I’m old enough to carry your guns, am I old enough to hold too?

If I’m sent to fight in a foreign land not waring with Australia-oh!

What will you give as a guarantee that I’ll not come back in a coffin-oh!

Well the government man he looked at me and his smile was very mockin'-oh!

He looked at me from head to toe and said you must be jokin'-oh!

There’s adult pay and adventure too, and you’re marching in the army-oh!

I winked at a lady passing by and thought of raising a family-oh!

So to fight in other people’s wars, don’t get yourself conscripted-oh!

If Australian soil we must defend, then let’s all volunteer-oh!

But I have no desire to see the world with a bayonet in my hand-oh!

So I tipped me hat to the government man and walked on down the street-oh!