A Tale They Won`t Believe Lyrics

A Tale They Won`t Believe lyrics

We left Macquarie Harbour it was in the pouring rain
none of us quite sure if
we would see England again
some fool muttered death or liberty
there was
six of us together a jolly hungry crew
and as the days went by you know our
hunger quickly grew
some fool muttered death or liberty

So that night
we made fires out of twigs and out of bark
and our stomachs they were
grumbling all through the night so dark
we were only trying to keep
ourselves alive
but when the sun came up next morning well the six had
turned to five

And I said, right there’s another one,
don’t you frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down, It’s a tale
they won’t believe,
When I get down to Hobart town

All five of
us were nervous and I'll tell you that’s a fact
bu you should have
seen the bastard who was carrying the axe
He was a sick man he had murder in
his heart

And then we reached the Franklin River, and it took two days to
cross
we were wet and almost starvin’ and for food were at a
loss
we were hungry men with murder on our minds.

So that night we
made a fire out of twigs and out of bark
and our stomachs they were rumbling
all through the night so dark,
And they were making noises the dead could not
ignore
and when the sun came up next morning,
the five had turned to
four!

And I said, right there’s another one, don’t you
frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down, It’s a tale they won’t
believe,
When I get down to Hobart town

Well the four of us kept
marching to a place called Western Teirs
A country full of tasty game but
for us it held no cheer
we had no guns we were traveling without
hope.
But the axe it loomed so ominous and God's hand was at play
a sick
man is a type of game which can not run away
so stay easy, my poor man, your
time's at hand.

So that night we made fires out of twigs and out of
bark
and our stomachs they were grumbling all through the night so dark
I
can't say I feel guilty, after all it wasn't me
but when the sun came up next
morning the four had turned to three

And I said, right there’s
another one, don’t you frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down,
It’s a tale they won’t believe,
When I get down to Hobart
town

well the three of us kept moving but one was fading fast
he had
been bitten by a snake and you could see he would not last
stay easy my good
man your time is at hand
and when he could last no longer his days were
fading fast
we were far to weak to carry him subsistency comes first
stay
easy my good man your time is at hand

So that night we made fires out of
twigs and out of bark
and our stomachs  they were grumbling all through the
night so dark
It was a messy job but it was one we had to do
but when the
sun came up next morning the three had turned to two

And I said, right
there’s another one, don’t you frown,
Chew the meat and hold
it down, It’s a tale they won’t believe,
When I get down to
Hobart town

Now he had been looking at me funny, sort of eyeing me for
days,
And you would not need to be too bright to know that bastard’s
ways:
He was a sick man, he had murder in his heart.
But even bastards
have to rest, and even bastards have to sleep,
And when he was in the land
of Nod straight over I did creep,
and the axe that he had wielded now was
mine.

So that night, I made the fire, out of twigs and out of
bark,
and my stomach it kept rumbling all through the night so dark.
I
can’t say that I enjoyed it, and it wasn’t exactly fun,
but
when the sun came up next morning, the two had turned to one!

And I
said, right there’s another one, don’t you frown,
Chew the
meat and hold it down, It’s a tale they won’t believe,
When I
get down to Hobart town

Well now history is a pack of lies, as any fool
can tell,
So when I got down to Hobart town I told my story well,
But do
you think they would believe one word I said?
For they thought that I was
covering for my mates still at large,
Said they’d be roaming in the
bush so wild and free,
And back to old Macquarie Harbour they sent
me

But I remember the fires made out of twigs and made of bark
and my
stomach it was grumbling all through the night so dark
And this young fool he
just said to me it's liberty or death
and he looked a rather tasty one, I
just could not help it singing

And I said, right there’s another
one, don’t you frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down, It’s a
tale they won’t believe
When I get down to Hobart town

A tale
they won't believe

Chords
em d c d          am  d em     em d c
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based on Australia’s colonial past
a macabre account of
escaped men making
their way across Tasmania, resorting to
cannibalism to
survive the long trek in the bush.
from a  passage in Robert Hughes’
The Fatal Shore