BOTANY BAY: Irish Song About Quitting Your Job for Australia (Patreon)

A bricklayer gets told to shape up or ship out. So he ships out. I got my first song request. It was "Botany Bay". This is #5 in my Pub Songs & Stories Music Video Challenge.

"Botany Bay" (also known as "The Good Ship Ragamuffin") is not the convict song of the same name. It's a traditional Irish song about a workman who quits his job and boards an emigrant ship to Australia by choice. Nobody knows who wrote it. The oldest known version was collected in Australia from a busker named Duke Tritton, who learned it on the streets of Sydney.

This one was requested by Dundies100. Thank you! I knew it. Mostly.

I'm launching a Kickstarter for Come Adventure With Me on Vinyl later this week. If you want it it at just $25 for the album, this is the best time to support the Kickstarter. BUT I need to sell 80 copies to make the album a go.

UPCOMING SHOWS

Nov 6: CONjuration, Duluth, Ga

6:00: Nerdy Kids Sing Along with May Will Bloom
9:00: May Will Bloom with The Celtfather

Nov 7: Georgia Renaissance Festival, Atlanta, Ga

Nov 8: CONjuration, Duluth, Ga

11:00: Sci Fi Sing Along with May Will Bloom and The Celtfather
2:00: May Will Bloom Live on Pub Songs & Stories Podcast

🍺 Want to hear a song? Request one (it's free): request@celtfather.net

Or leave it in the comments.

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Part of the Pub Songs & Stories Music Video Challenge:

10 songs, 10 stories, a new video every Thursday at noon ET.

📜 LYRICS (words and music Traditional)

Farewell to your bricks and mortar,

Farewell to your dirty lies.

Farewell to your gangways and your gang planks,

And to hell with your overtime.

For the good ship Ragamuffin is lying at the Quay,

For to take poor Pat with a shovel on his back

To the shores of Botany Bay.

Well I'm on my way down to the quay where the ship at anchor lays

To command a gang of navys that I was told to engage

I stopped in for to drink awhile before I go away.

For to take a trip on an emigrant ship to the shores of Botany Bay.

Well the boss came up this morning, and he said "Well now Pat you know

If you didn't get those navvys out I'm afraid you'll have to go"

So I asked him for my wages and demanded all my pay

And I told him straight, I'm gonna emigrate to the shores of Botany Bay.

And when I reach Australia I'll go and search for gold.

There's plenty there for a'digging, or so I have been told.

Or else I'll go back to my trade and a hundred bricks I'll lay

Because I live for an eight hour shift on the shores of Botany Bay.

Lyrics, chords, and more on my site:

https://www.irish-song-lyrics.com/Botany_Bay.shtml

#BotanyBay #IrishMusic #CelticMusic #PubSongs