Come and listen for a moment, lads
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And hear me tell my tale
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How across the sea from England
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I was condemned to sail
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Now the jury found me guilty
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Then says the judge, says he
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"Oh, for life, Jim Jones, I'm sending you
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Across the stormy sea
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But take a tip before you ship
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To join the iron gang
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Don't get too gay in Botany Bay
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Or else you'll surely hang
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Or else you'll surely hang", says he
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"And after that Jim Jones
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It's high above on the gallows tree
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The crows will pick your bones".
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And our ship was high upon the sea
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When pirates came along
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But the soldiers on our convict ship
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Were full five hundred strong
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For they opened fire and somehow drove
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That pirate ship away
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But I'd rather have joined that pirate ship
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Than gone to Botany Bay
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With the storms ragin' round us
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And the winds a-blowin' gale
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I'd rather have drowned in misery
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Than gone to New South Wales
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There's no time for mischief there they say
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Remember that, says they
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Or they'll flog the poaching out of you
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Down there in Botany Bay.
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Now it's day and night and the irons clang
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And like poor galley slaves
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We toil and toil, and when we die
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Must fill dishonored graves
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And it's by and by I'll slip my chains
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Well, into the bush I'll go
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And I'll join the bravest rankers there
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Jack Donohue and co
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And some dark night, when everything
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Is silent in the town
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I'll shoot those tyrants one and all
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I'll gun the floggers down
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Oh, I'll give the land a little shock
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Remember what I say
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They'll yet regret they've sent Jim Jones
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In chains to Botany Bay.
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-----------------
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Jim Jones
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Bob Dylan |