[INTRO — hand clap and upright bass only, slide guitar enters bar 4] [VERSE 1] We know your car by the plates and the rust We know a tourist by the way that they fuss We know the water before you been told We been pulling bodies from this black bayou cold We put the markers on the cypress trees We know which way the current bleeds We buried Delacroix out past the bend We're telling you once We won't tell you again [CHORUS] Don't go past where the markers stop Don't wade in after the sun goes down Don't fish where the cypress roots grow up top Don't feed the bayou Don't feed the bayou We laid our grandaddy in that ground We know the sound that the mud makes When it closes Don't feed the bayou [VERSE 2] Your GPS don't know this road Your signal dies at the Thibodaux node We seen your kind come through here before We sent the sheriff out Didn't find much more We know the names on every cross We know whose truck and whose wedding ring got lost We'll wave you off at the parish line But we ain't responsible past that sign [CHORUS] Don't go past where the markers stop Don't wade in after the sun goes down Don't fish where the cypress roots grow up top Don't feed the bayou Don't feed the bayou We laid our grandaddy in that ground We know the sound that the mud makes When it closes Don't feed the bayou [BRIDGE — 808 and hand clap only, vocals drop to near-spoken, flat delivery] We're not saying there's something in the water We're just saying the water takes We're not saying don't come through here We're just saying mind what you make Delacroix's boy went in on a Tuesday By Friday the markers moved back We reset them every second Sunday They always end up off the track [VERSE 3 — full band returns, vocals tighten to unison] We don't talk about the DeSoto group We don't talk about the church van or the loop We sent the paperwork to Baton Rouge They sent it back, said the file was confused We keep the porch lights on past ten We got a guestbook but we don't know when The last page filled — we ordered more But honey, nobody leaves through that door [FINAL CHORUS] Don't go past where the markers stop Don't wade in after the sun goes down Don't fish where the cypress roots grow up top Don't feed the bayou Don't feed the bayou We laid our grandaddy in that ground We know the sound that the mud makes When it closes Don't feed the bayou [OUTRO — slide guitar and 808 only, voices drop one by one over 8 lines] We're just trying to help you We're just passing what we know We been singing this since my daddy's time We been singing it long before The markers move but we reset them The mud takes but we stay We're just trying to help you, honey That's all we're going to say
