So you just keep on drinking
and you try to forget
How they strung up Joe Byrne
to the jailhouse door
Like a marionette

He was dead for two days
and I'll tell you no lies
With the press still around him
making their money
Shooting postcards of him through the flies

Close your eyes Kate
and I'll sing you to sleep
Close your eyes, your dreams will be sweet
Kate Kelly, Kate Kelly
I'm gonna sing you to sleep

Ned rose up through the mist
man made of iron
Fighting his way to the smouldering inn
Where Joe and his brother were dying

They had to shoot out his legs Kate
and if you could sleep
You could forget that they cut off his head
For the warden's paperweight

Close your eyes Kate
and I'll sing you to sleep
Close your eyes
your dreams will be sweet
Don't linger around here
may your soul rest in peace
Kate Kelly, Kate Kelly
I'm gonna sing you to sleep

Now you do horse tricks
in a wild west show
Sharp-shooting Kate
the last of the Kellys
Now the queen of a rodeo

Was Joe your lover?
Did he send you some word?
A friend to your brothers
all the way to the end
Where as brothers-in-arms
they would fall

Close your eyes Kate
I'll sing you to sleep
Close your eyes, your dreams will be sweet
Kate Kelly, Kate Kelly
I'm gonna sing you to sleep
Kate Kelly, Kate Kelly
I'm gonna sing you to sleep

just keep on drinking
and you try to forget
How they strung up Joe Byrne
to the jailhouse door
Like a marionette