⋄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈◎ᐛ◎┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋄ There's some trivia at the bottom, if you're interested. ⋄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈◎∘◎┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋄ [Tuning up instruments] I'ma gonna hold you steady (You can stop kickin' now) You get in the bow, Then I'll row the boat, I'm ready. No, you won't make it to that levee (Oh please don't leave me) Yes, you, girl... only you, girl... be my girl, be my bayou girl with me You said I can't buy you But I keep thinkin', About me bein' rich, Just by bein' by you, on the bayou I can't buy you, no-no-no, but I can be beside you Always and forever In the mire, I admire you Stopping to hold you, I can take you to Thibodaux Where I hear It's beautiful this time of year Me, I'm askin', will you marry me I'll love you if you will (Mais, I'll marais you if you won't) And then you said "I'd marry any man ...but you" [Instrumental] And I think it over, About us, Us bein' over Us bein' through (Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye) You, on the bayou, 'round the water, down in the bayou (Bye, you) (Bye, you) (Bye, you) Bye, you-bye You I'm takin' the delta, delta, delta But you dealt a blow To my flow Too many gator (gator) In the Atchafalaya (down below) I told 'em you said no. And that's where I let you go I'll remember you for just bein' you, Floating In the bayou With so many stars in the water 'Round you, It's gorgeous, And so are you. (Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye) By you, on the bayou, 'round the water, down the bayou (Bye you, bye you, bye you) ⋄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈◎ᐛ◎┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋄ tl;dl (too long; didn't listen) version: Broke guy loves girl. Girl does not love broke guy. Guy takes girl on a boat ride she did not agree to, proposes in the middle of a swamp, and gets turned down. Guy resolves this the Louisiana way. Guy remains, throughout, deeply impressed by how pretty she looks. ⋄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈◎∘◎┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⋄ And here's some, but not all ;) trivia: *Bayou is a slow, marshy waterway, the kind of water that doesn't go anywhere and won't give anything back. The original song is called "Le Marais", which is French for "the marsh". *The tuning intro is the struggle getting her into the boat. Nobody's playing yet because nobody's ready to depart. *"I can't buy you": he's broke and he knows it. Whether he's referring to buying her affection, or buying her outright (this is Louisiana, after all), the interpretation is up to the listener. *Thibodaux is a parish seat in Louisiana, about an hour southwest of New Orleans, and has a courthouse where you can get legally married. "I can take you to Thibodaux" is the entire proposal: he says he can do things properly. The town, however, is also a place of the infamous 1887 Thibodaux Massacre, hinting at the... alternative outcome, should the proposal be refused. *The "Mais, I'll marais you if you won't" phrase, which he doesn't quite say out loud, takes this threat further. "Marais", French for "marsh" (as you should know by now), is deployed here as a verb. The marais/marry play of words is, of course, intentional. *The Atchafalaya is a river in Louisiana, a distributary of the Mississippi. Its basin is the largest swamp in the United States; roughly 1.4 million acres of very good place to lose something. The name also sounds like "atcha, fall, liar", tying it into the plot: the guy pushes the girl out into the alligator-infested waters because he doesn't believe her refusal can possibly be genuine. *"Bayou", "by you", "buy you", and "bye, you" all sound very similar (and actually identical in Cajun English, which, sadly, I was unable to goad Suno into properly reproducing). He's been saying goodbye since the first verse. *The plot is well over a century old--see "Banks of the Ohio" and "Down in the Willow Garden"--although here it's set in Louisiana.
