When I get off of this mountain, you know where I want to go?
Straight down the Mississippi river, to the Gulf of Mexico
To Lake Charles, Louisiana, little Bessie, girl that I once knew
She told me just to come on by, if there's anything she could do.
September 23, 2005
An old song comes to mind.
I'm watching the news reports, talking about Hurricane Rita aiming straight at Lake Charles, Lousiana. Maybe like me, you've got this song running through your head:
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9 comments:
Thanks for sharing those lyrics. I like these as well, from Lucinda Williams:
We used to drive
Thru Lafayette and Baton Rouge
In a yellow Camino
Listening to Howling Wolf
He liked to stop in Lake Charles
Cause that's the place that he loved
Did you run about as far as you could go
Down the Lousiana highway
Across Lake Ponchatrain
Now your soul is in Lake Charles
No matter what they say
I keep hearing Nancy Griffith sing
"I wanna ride the waves down to Galveston when the hurricanes blow in.
'Cause that Gulf Coast water tastes sweet as wine when you're heart's rollin' home in the wind."
Not "lovely Rita, meter maid?"
Matt: That's in an earlier post...
That's exactly the song I thought of. I have a friend named Charles from Lake Charles. He's not there now, but his family is, and I'm thinking of them.
I keep hearing the Battle of New Orleans.
In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip,
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we fought the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.
The funny thing is I didn't know that what I was hearing was called the Battle of New Orleans until I looked up the lyrics on the internet.
The other one that comes to mind if I think about it a second is "House of the Rising Sun"
I loaded the song below onto my crappy Memorex 128 mb MP3 player (be quiet you Apple Nano-Ipod heads) for the first time, not really thinking about the lyrics, though I have listened to it over and over. It's Jacob Dylan and his Wallflowers:
Now on your mark
Get set, let's go
You got to move now before she explodes
Look out the window and out below
Back away from the glass
There she blows
The city's been levelled
The hills are in flame
The streets cracked up
And when we're pushing up clay
The temperatures dropped
The sky is gray
And it ain't even over
Comes driving rain
It ain't me that you feel
There's something moving around in here
That's blood, That's tears
This ain't a warning
Everybody out of the water
And up on dry land
Take what you can
Cause you won't be here again
Eveybody out of the water
Now I'm treading high water to get back to you
Looking for a little spot or something to cling to
There's too many bodies there's not enough room
God help me and God help you
They say nobody panic, help is on its way
We're already on it, you got to be brave
If you can fix it now then don't make us wait
Man they ain't nobody coming back away from the gates
That bell you hear, That's hell ringing in your ears
I fear, that my dear, this ain't a warning
Everybody out of the water
And up on dry land
Take what you can
Cause you won't be here again
I loved you then
Like I love you now
That don't matter anyhow
This is the new frontier
Everybody out of the water
Now I 'm looking up and the shit keeps coming
Like shooting ducks in a barrel of honey
You've got to learn how to pray
love won't be enough
Admit it now, your information sucks
As I slip, down in, I think of a someplace high up a mountain
Smoke clears the fog lifts
Little by little we rebuild again
till then,
Everybody out of the water
And up on dry land
Take what you can
Cause you won't be here again
I loved you then
Like I love you now
It won't matter anyhow
This is the new frontier
Everybody out of the water
Everybody out of the water
Everybody out of the water
It has a driving rythm like a storm.
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