Album: Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies [RCA Victor]
(Shel Silverstein)
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 dozin' in the green catalpa shade
Lord, they say that Jesse Langtree's got it made.
A little bit south of the Okechobee
There's a story that the swamp folks tell
About a mean old man named Jesse Langtree
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 the raging fever and the trembling chills
I wandered lost through the Okechobee
And there I seen 'em sittin' there by the bottomless well.
Yeah now 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 dozin' in the green catalpa shade
Lord, they say that Jesse Langtree's got it made.
(Oh let's hear it for Jesse now, hey Jesse.)
I asked her for a drink of 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 the bottomless well.
And as he slept I bent to kiss her
I heard a loud and jealous yell
Felt my head explode in darkness two big hairy arms picked me up
And dragged me to the bottomless well.
I woke up in fear and trembling
I was staring down into the jaws of 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
Enjoying things that Jesse Langtree made.
Oh, God bless you Jesse.
Now some folks say that sweet thing pushed him
But I was there and I'd 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...