You're better off dead.

Poor Ned, you're better off dead
At least you'll get some peace of mind
You're out on the track, they're right on your back
Boy they're gonna hang you high

Eighteen hundred and seventy eight was the year I remember so well
They put my father in an early grave and slung my mother in gaol
I don't know what's right or wrong
But they hung Christ on nails
Six kids at home and two still on the breast
They wouldn't even give her bail

We sing - Poor Ned, you're better off dead, at least you'll get some peace of mind
You're out on the track, they're right on your back, boy they're gonna hang you high

You know I wrote a letter 'bout Stringybark Creek
So they would understand
I might be a bushranger but I'm not
A murdering man
I didn't want to shoot Kennedy
Or that copper Lonnegan
He alone could have saved his life
By throwing down his gun

(Chorus)

You know they took Ned Kelly
And they hung him in the Melbourne Gaol
He fought so bravely dressed in iron mail
And no man single handed
Can hope to break the bars
It's a thousand like Ned Kelly
Who'll hoist the flag of stars.

(Chorus twice)