One day, I was in the paddock, ignoring the circus, and ah
I could see people waving at us from the side of the paddock, you know they're all screaming and waving
And the police car came into the paddock, and they hustled us into the police car
The lions had escaped from the circus. It's true
Many years later, I was on tour with Cold Chisel doing Circus Animals
Alright, good record. You know, we were one of the acts in the circus
Which was good because we belonged in cages, we're fuckin' animals you know
After one of the shows, I was drinkin' in the pub with the circus blokes, as you do, and I told this story
And a couple of the guys went "We were working on that circus, we can tell you the real story"
And I thought fantastic
So the story was apparently, the lion tamer was a cruel, cruel fellow
He used to beat the lions senseless, he'd starve them right
He was a bad drunk apparently
And they they tried to get him to you know straighten up, they couldn't do it
Because, he used to hide his bottle inside the lions' cage
This day, the lion tamer was at the pub across the road from the hostel
And I don't know whether he got so drunk that he got sloppy, or he got too confident
But he came back and he went to get his bottle from the lions' cage
And he must have opened the door up a little bit too much
And the lions pounced on him, they ripped him to shreds, killed him, right
So I've got there's a picture again in my head of the lions runnin' through the fields
With the wind blowin' in their manes, and the blood of their tormentors on their lips
And for a while, they were lions again, they were free