| Lyrics: | by Bob Dylan (arr)
1. Come and listen for a moment, lads,
And hear me tell my
tale.
How across the sea from England
I was condemned to sail.
Now the jury found me
guilty,
Then says the judge, says he,
"Oh, for life, Jim Jones, I'm sending
you
Across the stormy sea.
But take a tip before you ship
To join the iron
gang.
Don't get too gay in Botany Bay,
Or else you'll surely hang.
Or else you'll
surely hang," says he.
"And after that, Jim Jones,
It's high above on the gallows
tree
The crows will pick your bones."
2. And our ship was high upon the
sea
Then pirates came along,
But the soldiers on our convict ship
Were full five
hundred strong.
For they opened fire and somehow drove
That pirate ship away.
But I'd
rather have joined that pirate ship
Tan gone to Botany Bay.
With the storms ragin' round
us,
And the winds a-blowin' gale,
I'd rather have drowned in misery
Than gone to New
South Wales.
3. Now it's day and night and the irons clang,
And like poor galley
slaves
We toil and toil, and when we die
Must fill dishonored graves,
And it's by and
by I'll slip my chains,
Well, into the bush I'll go
And I'll join the bravest rankers
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 flogger down.
Oh, I'll give
the land a little shock,
Remember what I say,
And they'll yet regret they've sent Jim
Jones
In chains to Botany Bay |
