Jim Jones at Botany Bay


Come gather round and listen lads, and hear me tell m' tale,
How across the sea from England I was condemned to sail.
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, he says, and after that, Jim Jones,
Way up high upon yon gallows tree, the crows will pick your bones.

Our ship was high upon the seas when pirates came along,
But the soldiers on our convict ship were full five hundred strong;
They opened fire and so they drove that pirate ship away
But I'd rather joined that pirate ship than gone to Botany Bay.
With the storms a-raging 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
Oh they'll flog the poaching out of you down there in Botany Bay.

Day and night in irons clad we like poor galley slaves
Will toil and toil our lives away to fill dishonored graves
But by and by I'll slip m' chains and to the bush I'll go
And I'll join the brave bushrangers there, Jack Donahue and Co.
And some dark night all is right and quiet in the town,
I'll get the bastards one and all, I'll gun the floggers down.
I'll give them all a little treat, remember what I say
And they'll yet regret they sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay.

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Interesting song, if an anachronism. (See movie goofs.)

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It's a folk song and therwfore not tied to the publishing date, and therefore neither an anachronism nor a goof.

"Australian folklorists such as Bill Scott date the song's composition to the years immediately preceding 1830 when bushranger Jack Donahue, who is named in the song, was fatally shot." Wiki

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So I guess IMDB got this wrong. Interesting.

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Thanks for posting this.

I am sure that the choice of the song had a duel meaning. Jim Jones was a cult leader that enticed a mass suicide in the 1970's by making his followers (including children) drink poisoned Kool-Aid.

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According to the trivia pg. The guitar was a classic 19thC Martin on loan along with 6 replicas, however KR broke the real one. Notice JJL's reaction. She was stunned. Martin will never loan guitars again.

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