The Witch of Yazoo (Lightning on the Yazoo Grave) | Swamp Blues Ballad

Lightning on the Yazoo Grave is an original swamp-blues, Southern-gothic ballad with resonator slide, cello, a heartbeat stomp and thunder. It is sung by the Witch of Yazoo herself. She lives where the Yazoo River bends and sings fishermen into the dark. A boy peeps through her window, and the town comes with torches and hounds. She sinks in the quicksand, swearing she'll come back in twenty years and burn the town, so they bury her with a chain around her grave. Then on May 25, 1904, Yazoo City burns. THE LEGEND (folklore) The witch's story is a legend, not documented history. Willie Morris made it famous in his 1971 book Good Old Boy, but local storytellers say the grave and the tale are older than Morris. In the legend, an old woman living on the Yazoo River lured fishermen in off the river. A boy saw through her window, and the sheriff and townsmen chased her into the swamp, where she sank in quicksand. Before she went under she swore to return in twenty years and burn the town; in Morris's version she names the date, May 25, 1904. She was buried with a heavy chain around her grave, and the story says that after the fire the chain was found broken in two. THE HISTORY (fact) On May 25, 1904, a fire really did destroy most of Yazoo City, Mississippi. Driven by strong wind, it burned through the business district and into the residential streets, destroying 324 buildings by the count in the National Register nomination for the Yazoo City town center, with about $2.25 million in damage. Visit Yazoo puts more than 200 homes among them. Contemporary reports listed churches, every bank, the opera house and city hall among the losses. A popular account says it began in the home of Miss Pauline Wise on her wedding day; other accounts differ. Main Street was rebuilt within about a year. The "Witch's Grave," ringed with chain links, is in the historic section of Glenwood Cemetery in Yazoo City, and Willie Morris (1934-1999) is buried 13 steps south of it. The song's "eight hundred houses" is poetic license. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 0:28 Verse 1 1:09 Pre-Chorus & Chorus 1:44 Verse 2 2:05 Pre-Chorus & Chorus 2:39 Bridge (Count the Years) 3:08 Verse 3 (May 25, 1904) 3:49 Final Chorus 4:28 Outro LYRICS [Intro] [Verse 1] I lived out where the Yazoo bends, where the cypress knees grow black Where the fishermen come driftin' in and they don't come driftin' back I'd sing a little song for 'em through the willow and the haze And they'd follow me like moths, boys, to a lantern's lovin' blaze Now the town said I was wicked, said I wasn't Christian kind But the town ain't never seen the things that I've left behind [Pre-Chorus] Then a boy came peepin' through my window And he ran to tell the law [Chorus] There's lightning on the Yazoo grave Lightning on the chain Twenty years I told you, boys I'm comin' back again You can bury me in the quicksand You can lock me in the clay But there's lightning on the Yazoo grave And I'm burnin' down today [Verse 2] They came runnin' with their torches and their hounds and their guns And I ran into the bottomland where the black water runs I was laughin' through the bushes, I was singin' to the moon 'Til the mud grabbed hold my ankles in the dark of the lagoon And I sank down to my shoulders and I looked 'em in the eye And I swore it by the devil, "This whole town is gonna fry" [Pre-Chorus] So they laid me in the graveyard With a chain around my bones [Chorus] There's lightning on the Yazoo grave Lightning on the chain Twenty years I told you, boys I'm comin' back again You can bury me in the quicksand You can lock me in the clay But there's lightning on the Yazoo grave And I'm burnin' down today [Bridge] Count the years, count 'em slow Nineteen-four, the wind will blow Count the links, one by one 'Til the chain comes all undone Hear the thunder, feel the rain Feel the fire in your veins Every house and every steeple Every one of you good people [Verse 3] May the twenty-fifth, nineteen-four, the sky turned red as sin And the fire rolled down Main Street like a demon let back in Eight hundred houses burnin', the churches all aflame And the old folks said they heard a woman laughin' through the rain Then they ran down to the graveyard where my silent body lay And they found that iron chain snapped in two, burned and blown away [Final Chorus] There's lightning on the Yazoo grave Lightning on the chain Twenty years I told you, boys And I came back again You can bury me in the quicksand You can lock me in the clay But there's lightning on the Yazoo grave And I burned it all away Yes, there's lightning on the Yazoo grave And I burned it all away [Outro] Don't you sing to me, sweet fishermen Don't you follow my song 'Cause the chain's still broke And the river's still long #WitchOfYazoo #SwampBlues #SouthernGothic