The Legend of Wooley Swamp

"The Legend Of Wooley Swamp" is a song written, composed, and recorded by the Charlie Daniels Band. It was released in August 1980 as the second single from the album Full Moon, which was later certified platinum.^[1]

Content

The song tells the story of a man who, after hearing a fable about a place called Wooley Swamp, stubbornly decided to confirm the story on his own, only to come away with the knowledge that "there's some things in this world you just can't explain" (These words are repeated in the chorus between the two verses and then spoken at the very end of the song).

The first verse briefly tells of Lucius Clay, an elderly recluse who lived in Wooley Swamp, a darkened quagmire hidden in the back of a place called Booger Woods. Aside from being a hermit, Clay was also a miser who cared about nothing except his money that he kept sealed in Mason jars and buried in various spots around the shack where he lived. According to the lyrics, Clay did little more than dig up the jars "on certain nights if the moon is right", and pour all of the money out on the floor of his shack just to run his fingers through it.

The second and longer verse introduces the antagonists: the Cable Boys, three young brothers described as sinister white trash who lived in nearby Carver's Creek. One night, the oldest brother decided they were going to kill Lucius Clay and take his money. Later that night the three met in Wooley Swamp and snuck up to the shack where they found Clay with a shovel and "thirteen rusty Mason jars" he dug up, at which point the Cables mercilessly beat the old man unconscious and killed him by throwing him in the swamp, laughing as they watched his body sink into the mire. They grabbed Clay's money from the shack and began to make their escape only to become trapped in quicksand; the brothers screamed for help and struggled to free themselves, but to no avail. Just before they met their own retributive doom, they could hear Clay himself "laughin' in a voice as loud as thunder."

The final stanza of the second verse wraps up the story saying that, even though the myth is fifty years old (as of 1980), if you go by the shack on certain moonlit nights "you can hear three young men screamin'" while "you can hear one old man laugh".

Success and reception

Although the song only went to number 80 on the Billboard country charts, it was more successful on the U.S. pop charts as it entered the Top 40 on September 27, 1980 and later peaked at number 31. It receives occasional airplay to this day, and has become one of Daniels' signature songs.

Other versions

Daniels re-recorded the song with the group Smokin' Armadillos on their 1996 self-titled album.

References