THE SWAMP MACHINE [Start] [Intro] There’s something breathing underneath that water Something older than the road And an old witch lives beyond the cypress Where the black creek runs cold [Verse 1] Down where the cypress roots twist like hands And the black mud swallows a working man There’s a rusted wheel beneath the reeds Still turning on something nobody sees Granddad told me when I was ten Some things buried don’t stay dead Said, “There’s an old witch beyond that bend She’s been keeping watch since God knows when” [Chorus] Oh, the Swamp Machine Turning down below Grinding through the darkness Where the black waters flow Oh, the Swamp Machine Hear that low-down moan Something keeps on running Long after we’re gone [Electric Guitar Solo] [Verse 2] Found her shack where the dead vines grow With a lantern burning in the window low She had silver hair and a crooked cane And eyes that looked like November rain She said, “Your granddad came here long ago With a rusted key and a debt he owed That wheel down there ain’t turning free And the man who wakes it pays the fee” [Chorus] Oh, the Swamp Machine Turning down below Grinding through the darkness Where the black waters flow Oh, the Swamp Machine Hear that low-down moan Something keeps on running Long after we’re gone [Electric Guitar Solo] [Verse 3] She took me down where the black roots meet And the cold mud swallowed up our feet There was a chain wrapped around that wheel And a hundred names cut into the steel She said, “Every name was a man who tried To wake what’s sleeping on the other side Your granddad gave me the key one night And begged me to keep that chain pulled tight” [Bridge] [Female] I’ve held this chain for fifty years Through every flood and every fear I hear it calling underneath But some things sleeping ought to sleep [Male] Then why’s my name upon that wheel? [Female] Because it knows the blood you carry And it knows the things you feel [Instrumental] [Verse 4] The witch stepped back and the lantern died Something moved on the other side That rusted chain began to sing And the ground shook hard beneath my feet She said, “Boy, you’ve got a choice to make Hold that chain or let it break” I wrapped my hands around the freezing steel And felt the whole damn river kneel [Final Chorus] Oh, the Swamp Machine Turning down below Grinding through the darkness Where the black waters flow Oh, the Swamp Machine Hear that low-down moan Something keeps on running Long after we’re gone [Electric Guitar Solo] [Outro] Now the old witch’s lantern burns Beside a wheel that never turns And every night when the moon hangs crooked I hear something breathing beneath the water [Hard Stop] [End]
