Jim Jones At Botany Bay
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"Jim Jones at Botany Bay" ( Roud 5478) is a traditional Australian folk ballad dating from the early 19th-century. The narrator, Jim Jones, is found guilty of
poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
and sentenced to
transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...
to the penal colony of
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. En route, his ship is attacked by pirates, but the crew holds them off. When the narrator remarks that he would rather have joined the pirates or indeed drowned at sea than gone to
Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...
, Jones is reminded by his captors that any mischief will be met with the whip. In the final verse, Jones describes the daily drudgery and degradation of life as a convict in Australia, and dreams of joining the
bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...
s (escaped convicts turned outlaws) and taking revenge on his floggers. 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 by troopers. The oldest surviving written version of the ballad is found in ''Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South'' (1907), a book of reminiscences by Charles McAlister, a pioneer who drove bullock teams in southern-eastern New South Wales in the 1840s. According to folklorist A. L. Lloyd, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" may have been lost to history had McAlister not included it in his book. McAlister said "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" was sung to the tune of " Irish Molly O". Others consider it likely that it was sung to the tune of the Irish rebel song " Skibbereen".


Lyrics

One version of the traditional lyrics is shown below. 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 Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...
, 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. 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.
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.
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. 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.


Recordings

* Ewan MacColl, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on "Convicts and Currency Lads" 1957) * Marian Henderson, "Jim Jones of Botany Bay" (PIX magazine EP, 1964) * Gary Shearston, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on "Folk Songs and Ballads of Australia" 1964) * A. L. Lloyd, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on "The Great Australian Legend" 1971) * Bushwhackers and Bullockies Bush Band ("Bushwackers Band"), "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on "The Shearer's Dream", Picture Records 1974. Tune by Mick Slocum as recorded by Bob Dylan 1992; Martin Carthy 1999) *
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
, "Jim Jones" (on '' Good as I Been to You'', 1992) *
Martin Carthy Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later ar ...
, "Jim Jones in Botany Bay" (on '' Signs of Life'', 1999) * Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on ''Dead Set Certainty'', 1999) * Martyn Wyndham-Reed, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on '' Undiscovered Australia'', 19xx) * The Currency, "Jim Jones" (on " 888", 2008) * Mawkin:Causley, "Botany Bay" (on ''Cold Ruin'', 2008) * Chloe and Jason Roweth, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on ''Battler's Ballad, Live at Humph Hall'', 2012) * Jennifer Jason Leigh, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (on ''The Hateful Eight'' soundtrack, 2015) * Bill and Joel Plaskett, "Jim Jones" (on ''Solidarity'', 2017) * Brodie Buttons, "Jim Jones of Botany Bay" (on ''Sit Back and Endure'', 2019)


In popular culture

* In the computer strategy game '' Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire'', the last part of the ballad is used upon faction selection to describe the Free Drones, a labourer faction. * In Quentin Tarantino's
Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...
-style film '' The Hateful Eight'', condemned outlaw Daisy Domergue ( Jennifer Jason Leigh) sings the song in reference to her captivity, altering "And I'll join the brave bushrangers there, Jack Donahue and Co." to "And you'll be dead behind me John when I get to Mexico". This change is specifically to subtly warn her captor, bounty-hunter John "The Hangman" Ruth ( Kurt Russell), that she, like Jim Jones, is planning her escape from captivity followed by violent revenge against her captors. This performance is available on the film's soundtrack, ''The Hateful Eight''. The Hateful Eight takes place during the
Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...
, several decades after the song is thought to have been written but before it was first published in 1907. It was sung to the tune of ''Skibbereen''.


See also

*"
Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...
", another Australian convict ballad *" Wild Colonial Boy", ballad inspired by bushranger Jack Donahue


References


Bibliography

* Charles MacAlister, ''Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South'' (1907), "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text) * Geoffrey Grigson (editor), ''The Penguin Book of Ballads'' (1975), 96, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text) * Warren Fahey, ''Eureka: The Songs that Made Australia'' (1984), pp. 28–29, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text, 1 tune) * J. S. Manifold, ''The Penguin Australian Songbook'' (1964), pp. 12–13, "Jim Jones" (1 text, 1 tune) * ST PBB096 (Partial) * Roud Folkson
#5478
{{authority control Australian folk songs Australian poems Songs about Australia Songs about criminals Songs about crime Songs about pirates 1907 songs Bob Dylan songs Folk ballads Botany Bay