The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32328   Message #4052519
Posted By: Joe Offer
14-May-20 - 06:21 PM
Thread Name: Jim Jones / Botany Bay: Background?
Subject: Lyr Add: JIM JONES (BOTANY BAY)
Somebody referred me to the Digital Tradition lyrics for Jim Jones (Botany Bay). They look like they need correction. Any suggestions?

Here are the DT lyrics we have now:


JIM JONES (BOTANY BAY)

Come and listen for a moment, lads, and hear me tell me tale,
How across the sea from England, I was condemned to sail.
Well, the jury found me guilty, and 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 up on the gallows tree, the crows will pick your bones."

Well, our ship was high upon the seas when pirates came along,
But the soldiers on our convict ship were full five hundred strong;
Oh, they opened fire and somehow drove the pirate ship away
But I'd rather joined that pirate ship than gone to Botany Bay.
With the storms a-ragin' 'round us, and the winds a-blowing gales
I'd rather drowned in misery than gone to New South Wales,
There's no time for mischief there, remember that, they say
Or they'll flog the poaching out of you down there in Botany Bay.
Well it's day and night the irons clang and like poor galley slaves
Oh we toil and toil and when we die must fill dishonored graves;
But it's bye and bye I'll slip me chains and to the bush I'll go
And I'll join the brave bush rangers there, Jack Donahue 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.
Oh, I'll give the Law no little shock, remember what I say
And they'll yet regret the sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay.

Recorded by Ian Robb, Hang the Piper (Folk Legacy)
@Australian @outlaw @transportation
filename[ JIMJONES
TUNE FILE: JIMJONES
CLICK TO PLAY
TUNE FILE: JIMJONES.2
CLICK TO PLAY
RG


Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:

Jim Jones at Botany Bay

DESCRIPTION: The singer, Jim Jones, is taken, tried, and sentenced to transportation. En route, his ship is attacked by pirates, but the crew holds them off. Arriving in Australia, Jones vows to escape, join the bushrangers, and get revenge
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South)
KEYWORDS: outlaw poaching trial transportation pirate
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
PBB 96, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 50-52, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 28-29, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPot, pp. 8-9, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PASB, pp. 12-13, "Jim Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
AndersonStory, pp. 11-12, "Jim Jones" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward, pp. 46-46, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Bill Wannan, _The Australians: Yarns, ballads and legends of the Australian tradition_, 1954 (page references are to the 1988 Penguin edition), pp. 161-163, "Jim Jones" (1 text)
Bill Beatty, _A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales & Traditions_, 1960 (I use the 1969 Walkabout Paperbacks edition), pp. 264-265, "Jim Jones" (1 text)

ST PBB096 (Partial)
Roud #5478
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bold Jack Donahoe" (tune) and references there
File: PBB096

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