America’s Favorite Jim Stafford Songs In 1974, Jim wrote and recorded his first chart making song, “The Swamp Witch”, produced by his boyhood friend Kent LaVoie, (known as Lobo). He followed with a gold single, “Spiders and Snakes”, which stayed on the American pop charts for 26 weeks. The hits just kept coming and included “My Girl Bill”, “Wildwood Weed”, and the wonderfully satirical “Cow Patti”, written for the Clint Eastwood movie, Any Which Way You Can, in which Jim appeared.
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Tabbed By Glenn Gibson - [email protected] - 06/23/10 Drop D tuning A fun tune in drop D tuning from the days of Swamp Rock
DC Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp GD Where the strange green reptiles crawl. DC Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees GD Like sausage on a smokehouse wall. DC Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes G An all of them watching you DC Stay off the track to Hatties Shack GD In the back of the Black Bayou
DC Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack GFD Lies a sleepy little Okeechobe town DC Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you GFD In when the sun go down DG Rumors of what she’d done, rumors of what she’d do DC Kept folks off the track of Hattie’s shack GFD 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 say the plague was-a brought by Hattie, there was talk of a hangin’ 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 folk gathered round It came from the Black Bayou
There ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside A slowly sinkin’ 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 Lets thank old Hattie for savin’ our town Well fetch her from the Black Bayou
Party of ten of the towns 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 Never made the trip back in There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump Said don’t come lookin’ again