This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I'll take y'all down south Lousiana
Go down in the swampland
With the alligators, cypress leaves
I used to know a couple of Cajun boys lived back in the swamps
One of 'em a great big old boy
One of 'em kinda short, not too big
Lived back in the swamps down by the river
This particular afternoon, there wasn't a whole lot goin on there in the swamps
They were just sittin' there on a log
Ponderin' on what they were gonna do for the night
Stir up a little bit of excitement
Whatever the big boy decides he wants to do
The little one go along with it
'Cos he thinks he's cool
We call this the ballad of Roosevelt and his faithful companion Ira Lee
The river was dark and muddy
And the moon was on the rise
And all of the creatures in the swampland
Had woke up to feed for the night
Roosevelt and Ira Lee were sittin' there on a log
Ira Lee turned to Roosevelt and said
I'd sure like to have a mess of bull frog
He said: Yeah yeah, love them fried frog legs
Well they slipped on their rubber boots
That is, cept for Ira Lee
Now Roosevelt had them real tall boots
Kinda belt 'em around your waist
But Ira Lee didn't have no boots
But he had some eight year old Converse sneakers
With a heel done rotted completely off in the back
Walked down by the water edge
And right away they knew that the night would be a bummer
Cause Ira Lee stepped on a water mossacin
And he said "Oh, oh, oh, somebody help me now!"
That cottonmouth snake got ahold of Ira Lee's sneaker
Chomp, chomp chomp chomp
Gettin' a little funky over there, come on
Boogie down some
Boogie on the piano some too
Go down in the swampland
With the alligators, cypress leaves
I used to know a couple of Cajun boys lived back in the swamps
One of 'em a great big old boy
One of 'em kinda short, not too big
Lived back in the swamps down by the river
This particular afternoon, there wasn't a whole lot goin on there in the swamps
They were just sittin' there on a log
Ponderin' on what they were gonna do for the night
Stir up a little bit of excitement
Whatever the big boy decides he wants to do
The little one go along with it
'Cos he thinks he's cool
We call this the ballad of Roosevelt and his faithful companion Ira Lee
The river was dark and muddy
And the moon was on the rise
And all of the creatures in the swampland
Had woke up to feed for the night
Roosevelt and Ira Lee were sittin' there on a log
Ira Lee turned to Roosevelt and said
I'd sure like to have a mess of bull frog
He said: Yeah yeah, love them fried frog legs
Well they slipped on their rubber boots
That is, cept for Ira Lee
Now Roosevelt had them real tall boots
Kinda belt 'em around your waist
But Ira Lee didn't have no boots
But he had some eight year old Converse sneakers
With a heel done rotted completely off in the back
Walked down by the water edge
And right away they knew that the night would be a bummer
Cause Ira Lee stepped on a water mossacin
And he said "Oh, oh, oh, somebody help me now!"
That cottonmouth snake got ahold of Ira Lee's sneaker
Chomp, chomp chomp chomp
Gettin' a little funky over there, come on
Boogie down some
Boogie on the piano some too
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Roosevelt & Ira Lee Lyrics as written by Tony Joe White
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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