32. Jim Jones at Botany Bay (Traditional Australian)

One of my favourite Australian songs from the convict days. The defiant character portrayed here is far from resigned to his fate, and, as a Victorian, I can relate to his comments about New South Wales!

The song probably goes back to about 1830 as it refers to the bushranger Jack Donahue, who ran into the bush to escape the gallows in 1828, but was shot and killed by the mounted police near Campbelltown, N.S.W. in September, 1830.

I first heard it sung by English-Australian folksinger, Martyn Wyndham-Read, on the classic album "Moreton Bay" (1963), which he made with Brian Mooney and David Lumsden.

It was also recorded by A.L. Lloyd for the Australian EP "Convicts and Currency Lads" (1957) and again for the album "The Great Australian Legend" (1971).

Other recordings are by Bob Dylan, on "Good As I Been To You" (1992) and Martin Carthy, on "Signs of Life" (1998).

This song is on my first CD: "AXIS OF EVIL and other True Stories."

You can see a playlist of my Australian songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DE11C284435E7A2


For a playlist of all my a capella songs:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E81659B9EA983BB2

For lyrics and chords of my songs go to my website: http://www.raymondcrooke.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• folk
• song
• Australia
• convict
• transportation
• ballad
• pirate
• bushranger
• dylan

[TheGuerrillaPoet]

I first heard this on a Ted Egan album....very nice version!

[raymondcrooke]

@TheGuerrillaPoet I've had the pleasure of hearing Ted Egan live a couple of times. He's a very entertaining performer. I don't remember hearing him sing this song though. I'm sure he'd do it well.

[sublimeruca27]

Dylans album good as i been to you is one of my favorites! And this is bloody amazing! The facial expressions and all that. Totally Such an artiste!

[raymondcrooke]

@sublimeruca27 Thanks for your support.

[urwclwg]

I heard this first on a Dylan album; have you heard his version?

[raymondcrooke]

Yes, it's on his excellent acoustic album, "Good As I Been to You". There were some problems about the arrangement not being properly credited.

[Hammersley1967]

Death is the termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. The word refers both to the particular processes of life's cessation as well as to the condition or state of a formerly living body. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include predation, malnutrition, accidents resulting in terminal injury, and disease. The nature of death has been for millennia a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical enquiry...

[urwclwg]

I knew that he did not write it, and it seems obviously an Australian song, but one poster claims it for the Irish. Can you shed some light on this?

[raymondcrooke]

I've probably heard his version as I had a few Lionel Long LPs but this is the way I learnt it from Martyn Wyndham-Read's recording.

[timhately09]

I've also been singing this one for years but with a different tune, which I believe is the Lionel Long version, which I think is a bit more dramatic, and somewhat slower.