The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #150618 Message #3510054
Posted By: Jim Dixon
28-Apr-13 - 07:04 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Chords Req: Songs sung by Bobby Bare
Subject: Lyr Add: BOTTOMLESS WELL (sung by Bobby Bare)
BOTTOMLESS WELL
As sung by Bobby Bare on "Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys [sic], Legends and Lies" (1973)
They say there he sits in his big white wicker rocker,
Eatin' candy-coated cashews, sippin' orange lemonade,
While a sweet young thing fans the flies from off his eyebrows.
He's dozing' in the green catalpa shade.
Lord, they say that Jesse Langtry's got it made.
Little bit south of the Okeechobee,
There's a story that the swamp folks tell
About a mean old man named Jesse Langtry
And a sweet young maid and a bottomless well.
That water's cold, but that don't matter.
How deep it is, no one can tell.
Just drop a stone; you'll never hear it splatter;
It just falls down, down, forever in the bottomless well.
Through fifteen miles of snakes and 'gators,
With a ragin' fever and the tremblin' chills,
I wandered lost through the Okeechobee,
And there I seen 'em sittin' there by the bottomless well.
Yeah, now there he set in his big white wicker rocker,
Eatin' his candy-coated cashews, sippin' orange lemonade,
While that sweet young thing fanned the flies from off his eyebrows.
He's dozin' in the green catalpa shade.
Lord, I swear that Jesse Langtry got it made.
Ah, let's hear it for Jesse now!
I asked her for a drink o' water,
And as Jesse slept, me and her, we talked a spell.
She said that she was his wife and daughter, (lord, lord!)
But his heart was cold, cold and dark as a bottomless well.
And as he slept, I bent to kiss her.
I heard a loud and jealous yell,
Felt my head explode in darkness,
And two big hairy arms picked me up and dragged me to the bottomless well.
I woke up in fear and tremblin'.
I was starin' down into the jaws o' hell,
As he held me high above his shoulders,
A-gonna throw me down, down, down to the bottomless well.
Now here I sit in Jesse's big white wicker rocker,
Eatin' his candy-coated cashews, sippin' his orange lemonade,
While that sweet young thing fans the flies from off my eyebrows.
I'm dozin' in the green catalpa shade,
Enjoyin' the things that Jesse Langtry made.
Oh, God bless you, Jesse!
Now some folks say that sweet thing pushed him,
But I was there and I swear, he fell;
But it ain't murder, 'cause he ain't dead, 'cause he's still a-fallin',
Goin' down, down, forever in the bottomless well,
Goin' down, down, down, down, down.
Bye, Jesse!