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about

I always wanted to write a story song, I just never could figure out how I should start. So, one day after indulging in way too much John Prine and Johnny Cash I decided the best way to do it would be to sit down and write a real story and then whittle it down into a song. The story that came to mind was of a girl who stands on the edge of a bridge and cries over her lost love. She cries so much that the creek overflows, ruins the crops and kills 41 people. Sounds like a pretty interesting story to me. So, here it is. Otis Creek.

lyrics

Do you remember the year that the Otis Creek flooded?
How it crept up the bank and it soaked all the land?
How it molded the cotton and washed it down river?
And the bails that they saved you could count on one hand.

They say she stood on that bridge for 41 Sundays.
A scar on her finger from the ring that she sold.
And her bloodshot, baby-blue eyes couldn't hold back the water.
And the Otis Creek levee had all it would hold.

Some songs sound better when they're sung in a vaccuum,
where there's nothing to dread, nothing to loose.
You can scream out the window, you can scream at your neighbor,
you can scream at your maker just as loud as you choose.

By the 41st Sunday the town folk had gathered
and they stood at the foot of the Otis Creek bridge.
By the time Sheriff Dooley pulled up in his cruiser
the crowd stretched as far as the Kilbourne town ridge.

We stood there and stared for what seemed like forever
straining our ears to hear what she'd say.
No one said jump, hell no one said nothin'.
But the wake and ripple, it washed us away.

Some songs sound better when they're sung in a vaccuum,
where there's nothing to dread, nothing to loose.
You can scream out the window, you can scream at your neighbor,
you can scream at your maker just as loud as you choose.

When the Otis Creek ebbed and pulled pack to that levee,
tucked in it's fangs and ground finally dried,
there were 41 souls forlorn and forsaken.
Claimed by her grief and the Otis Creek tide.

credits

from Billy's Ego Presents: Songs About Stationwagons, released August 25, 2005
Words and music: Carlton J. Madden

license

all rights reserved

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Billy's Ego West Monroe, Louisiana

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