Jim Jones - Joel Plaskett

Come and listen for a moment lads and hear me tell my tale

How across the sea from England I was condemned to sail

The jury found me guilty and says the judge, says he

«For life, Jim Jones, I’m sending you across the stormy sea

You’ll take a trip on a convict ship, you’ll join the iron gang

Don’t get too gay in Botany Bay or else you’ll surely hang

Or else you’ll surely hang, «he says, «and after that, Jim Jones

It’s high upon the gallows tree, the crows will pick your bones»

Our ship was high upon the sea when pirates came along

But the soldiers on our convict ship were full five hundred strong

They opened fire and somehow drove that pirate ship away

But I’d rather have joined that pirate ship than have gone to Botany Bay

With the storms a ragin' round me and the wind a blowin' gale

I’d rather have drowned in misery than have gone to New South Wales

There’s no time for mischief there they say, remember that says they

They’ll flog the poaching out of you down there in Botany Bay

Now it’s day and night and the irons clang and like poor galley slaves

We toil and toil, and when we die, we must fill dishonoured graves

But it’s by and by I’ll slip my chains and to the bush I’ll go

And I’ll join the brave bushrangers there, Jack Donohue and Co

And some dark night, when everything is silent in the town

I’ll shoot those tyrants one and all I’ll gun the floggers down

I’ll give the law no little shock remember what I say

They’ll yet regret they sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay