| The Decemberists – E. Watson Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is a song about the outlaw Edgar Watson. Edgar Watson moved to Chokoloskee, Florida in the 1880's. He had killed two people, one also allegedly an outlaw and one apparently for self defense. He bought a plot of land on the Chatham Bend River and began raising vegetables. Watson also bought a claim on Lost Man's River. A man named Tucker squatted on the land and refused to leave. Later, when Tucker and his nephew were found dead, the blame fell on Watson. Afterwards, Watson returned to Chatham Bend and began making syrup from sugar cane. Unsavoury characters were known to hang around his residence, one named Melvin that was said to have burned down a factory and killed a few policemen. While Melvin and Watson were out, a man named Cox and an accomplice killed two people at the house on Chatham Bend. When Melvin and Watson returned, Cox killed Melvin also. It was October 17, 1910, and a hurricane was brewing. Incensed, Watson went to the sheriff in Fort Myers and asked him to arrest Cox. When the sheriff refused, Watson bought some shells at a department store and vowed to kill Cox himself. When Watson returned to Chokoloskee, he was met by a crowd who, after a standoff, killed him. This song is told by the point of view of a Chokoloskee resident, who, with a few friends of his, is trying to make it home in their small dinghy at the start of the storm. "I'll never know why he came ashore, with all those killers", he says, relating the crowd of ruffians known to hang around Chatham Bend. Bitter about the man who came to the town and so sullied it, the mob who killed Watson "buried him all face down with a good view into hell". The narrator asks the Lord to wash away the blood of the people Watson killed and were killed because of Watson. He also asks for Him to "put us in our place", to baptismally wash away the sin of killing Watson and to be forgiven for the murder of a man so obviously vile. This is Decemberists storytelling at its best. |
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