THE GREEN GREEN DREAM OF THE GUITAR an urban swamp legend that I created

Junkyard Blues by Rat Rod

slide guitar Cajun music

play while reading

                 

The Green Green Dream of the Guitar

       

So I'm driving down this lost highway

In my decades-old black car

With my suitcase sharing the back seat space

With my treasured green guitar

A map opened to Louisiana

On the floor there at my right

As I thought about the strange phone call

That awoke me around midnight

A paying gig, a three night stand

And the pay was really good

They wondered if I could come and play

And I said I thought I could

The bills were high and my rent was due

And the boss had let me go

There was no need to let me stay

For there was no work, you know?

So I packed my bags and I headed south

Though my heart was full of strife

Excited by the prospects looming

Because music was my life!

Playing since the age of ten

I dreamed of going far

But all I'd gained in fifteen years

Was this car and that guitar

And the guitar was a beauty

Shiny silky green so fine

And the sound that came from the two of us

Could blow a grown man's mind

I didn't have a manager

I couldn't afford P. R.

I got my gigs by word of mouth

As I chased that silver star

So, who had called, I didn't know

Truth told, I didn't care

Some tiny bar in the deep deep south

Was waiting for me there

Cold beer and pretty women

Danced cross my poor boy's mind

And I trembled, thinking about it all

And wondering what I'd find

Along 'bout noon on a lonely road

With no cars or bars in sight

I put down the top, pulled out the map

To see if I'd read it right

The air was crisp, the sky was blue

There was honey on the wind

And a kind of feeling came over me

Like I'd been caressed by sin

Alarmed, I turned the ignition key

But the car, it wouldn't start

And no matter how I cursed or prayed

There was no life in her heart

So I grabbed my guitar from the back seat

And headed down the road

Took the fork that turned to left

Though my soul cried to forebode

I walked for what then seemed like days

But I knew that couldn't be

Down roads and paths and country lanes

Following something I couldn't see

Through fields so green, they hurt my eyes

Past creeks and brooks and streams

All colored like bright emerald jewels

Found only in your dreams

Somewhere off there in the distance

I heard a woman's voice

Singing tender lullabies

And I went, I had no choice

And as I walked, played my guitar

To that melody so sweet

That put a wildness in my blood

And dancing in my feet

I followed till the sun went down

Into that dark green west

Into a forest of whispering trees

With longing in my breast

And then the song came to an end

And I heard a lover's sighs

And there she sat and there I fell

With beauty in my eyes

Up in a tree, like fairies do

A girl so pure and rare

Sat on a limb just looking down

While my heart stopped to stare

"I waited for you." is all she said

As I rushed toward the tree

But she put out her hand and said

"Play your green guitar for me."

And as I played, I fell in love

Looking at her light

Playing as the sun sank low

With promise of the night

She sang to me of long ago

Of passion and of fire

And as she sang, my heart became

Filled with her desire.

"Come!" she shouted and laughing, fled

Jumping to the ground

And off she ran through lush green grass

And her footsteps made no sound

I followed, calling, "Wait for me!"

But her feet, they would not slow

And she took me deeper into the dark

To a place I did not know

To marshes and to swamp lands

To thick and foreign vines

To roots of old, like living things

With mouths and eyes and minds

To bird and tree and flower

Like none I'd ever seen

To a realm of song and nightmare

In a world of emerald green

And as the darkness grew, I felt

Her touch upon my arm

"Fear not," she softly said to me

"I will not do you harm."

Her essence, candles in the dark,

Her smile, the moon above,

Her lips like honey in the comb,

Her eyes like liquid love

With urgency I've never felt

With hunger like a knife

I grabbed her up in arms of steel

Like a dead man would his life

Kisses sweet as morning rain

I poured upon her lips

Thirsting for the taste of love

That till then, I'd only sips

And I fell in rapture, falling

Through a haze and maze of thought

Love chased me down forbidden roads

And I knew that I'd been caught

My fingers in her long dark hair,

My mouth against her skin,

I knew if this was love and war

That surely, she would win

Then through the gnarled and ancient trees

I heard a growling roar

And when I opened up my eyes

My love was there no more

My green guitar could not be found

As frantically I searched

Wondering if her father'd seen

Her purity besmirched.

I tried to find a path to walk

As night fell harder still

Feeling I had lost my heart

And worse than that, my will

The quiet was shattered by the sounds

Of crow and frog and beast

Gleaming green now in the bog

And suddenly they ceased

I stood in silence, waiting then

For my love to appear

Waiting to feel that rush of joy

But finding only fear

"Where are you?" I called to her

"I cannot see the path."

And in the distance I heard her sigh

And then I heard her laugh

"Come, my love!" she beckoned me

And I stumbled toward the sound

Falling in the deep dark water

And through the night, and down

Awful things with shining eyes

They brushed against my face

Caught me in their cold dead arms

And held me in that place

Then up I went and fought and sought

The air, the sky, the light

Peering through the greenish glow

To see the hellish sight

My love, a thing not of this world

Without her lovely charms

Holding my sweet green guitar

In her green ghoulish arms

She smiled with razored teeth and laughed

Holding up her prize

Looked at me struggling in the swamp

With no light in her eyes

I do not know what happened next

For my knees and mind went weak

And to this day, I do not know

And the truth I will not seek

I found myself back in my car

On the highway going south

With a mighty hole torn in my soul

And a bad taste in my mouth

I shook for hours, I could not stop

Till I pulled into the bar

Where no one had ever heard of me

Or my missing green guitar

© by Voo Shining Stone

May 5, 2010

Dead Man theme song

by Neil Young
goes really well with this story.....

Cadillac in the Swamp

by Smokehouse