Standard (EADGBE)

Black water Hattie lived back in the swamp

 Where the strange green reptiles crawl.

Snakes hang thick from the cypress trees

 Like sausage on a smokehouse wall.

 Where the swamp is alive with a thousand eyes

 An all of them watching you

 Stay off the track to Hatties Shack

 In the back of the Black Bayou

Way up the road from Hattie’s Shack

 Lies a sleepy little Okeechobe town

Talk of swamp witch Hattie lock you

In when the sun go down

Rumors of what she’d done, rumors of what she’d do

 Kept folks off the track of Hattie’s shack

 In the back of the Black Bayou

One day brought the rain and the rain stayed on

And the swamp water overflowed

Skeeters and the fever grabbed the town like a fist

Doctor Jackson was the first to go

Some say the plague was-a brought by Hattie,

there was talk of a hangin’ too

But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles

From the bowels of the Black bayou

Early one morn ‘tween dark and dawn

When shadows filled the sky

There came an unseen caller

On a town where road run dry

You’d swear there was found a big black round, vat full of gurgling brew

Whispering sounds as the folk gathered round

It came from the Black Bayou

There ain’t much pride when you’re trapped inside

A slowly sinkin’ ship

Scooped up the liquid deep and green

And the whole town took a sip

Fever went away and the very next day the skies again were blue

Lets thank old Hattie for savin’ our town

Well fetch her from the Black Bayou

Party of ten of the towns best men

headed for Hattie’s Shack

Said Swamp Witch magic was useful and good

And they’re gonna bring Hattie back

Never found Hattie and they never found the shack

Never made the trip back in

There was a parchment note they found tacked to a stump

Said don’t come lookin’ again