Music: Swamp Witch / Jim Stafford

John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) and Tony Joe White (Polk Salad Annie) are probably the best known exponents of swamp rock, a form of rock that emerged in the 1960’s.

According to Wikipedia, swamp rock is characterised by

funky, soulful bass, twangy reverb guitar and songs that typically concerned themselves with matters of Southern American States folklore. There's a literary, Southern Gothic feel to most swamp rock. The lyrics of swamp rock songs often describe life in such locales as along the Mississippi River, in New Orleans or such rural areas as the bayou.

In 1973 Jim Stafford had his first chart success with the swamp rock song Swamp Witch but it only just managed to crack the Top 40. This was followed by a bigger success with Spiders and Snakes. He faded after the 1970’s but still performs to the present. His other claim to fame is that he was briefly married to Bobbie Gentry.

Swamp Witch is as good an example of swamp rock as you'all are gonna find and, like country and western music, succeeds in telling a story and giving a life lesson, all in 3 minutes. It has a spooky and eerie feel to it, with the last line chilling in its menace. I love it.

Listen to it at:

http://djallyn.org/archives/5212

The lyrics also make a good story poem:

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp

Where the strange green reptiles crawl

Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees

Like sausage on a smokehouse wall

Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes

An' all of them watchin’ you

Stay off the track to Hattie's shack in the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie's shack

Lies a sleepy little Okeechobee town

Talk of swamp witch Hattie

Lock you in when the sun go down

Rumours of what she'd done, rumours of what she'd do

Kept folks off the track of Hattie's shack

In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on

And the swamp water overflowed

Skeeters and the fever grabbed the town like a fist

Doctor Jackson was the first to go

Some said the plague was brought by Hattie

There was talk of a hang'n too

But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles

From the bowels of the Black Bayou

Early one morn 'tween dark and dawn when shadows filled the sky

There came an unseen caller on a town where hope run dry

In the square there was found a big black round

Vat full of gurgling brew

Whispering sounds as the folks gathered round

"It came from the Black Bayou"

There ain't much pride when you're trapped inside

A slowly sink'n ship

Scooped up the liquid deep and green

And the whole town took a sip

Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue

“Let's thank old Hattie for sav'n our town

We'll fetch her from the Black Bayou”

Party of ten of the town's best men headed for Hattie's shack

Said swamp witch magic

Was useful and good

And they're gonna bring Hattie back

Never found Hattie and they never found the shack

And they never made the trip back in

There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump

Said “Don't come look'n agin”