Lake Pontchartrain

(album: You're Awful, I Love You - 2008)

I'll tell it like it happened, it was Darius and Noland and me
just a few po' boys trying to get up out of Missouri.
Took 55 Louisiana, stopped by the highway to eat
They both had crawfish, strictly chicken for me
Back out under thunderheads, the radio was Southern soul.
They interrupted Clarence Carter with a strange-ass local show.
They were sayin':

[Chorus]
"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Rest your soul and feed your brain
That's where you will get to see everything the water can be."

The rain was coming down, the wind was howling outside of Slidell
It was the kinda night that makes you think the whole world's going to hell
We got off on an exit 'cause we couldn't read the map so great
Near the Choctaw Motel, we parked to deliberate
when out of the bayou came a man like the lake had a tounge.
He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, banging on the windshield
screaming like a demon at the top of his lungs:

[Chorus]
"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Rest your soul and feed your brain
Free for you and all your friends, crawfish 'til the bitter end.
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain
Wade to where the shallows break
That's where you will get to see everything the water can be."

I was driving outta there as fast as a Camry could
but the interstate was flooded and I had to take the road through the woods.
Bad move in retrospect, the road disappeared in the rain
and I stood on the break when I saw the sign:
"Lake Pontchartrain..."
Darius was yelling that he saw somebody out in the swells.
He jumped out running and Noland was going as well.
"Come back!" Why the hell would they leave the car?
And that's when I heard it make no mistake
the voices were calling them from under the lake:

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...
Come down to Lake Pontchartrain..."

The crawfish were screaming, the waves danced in time
My friends went in deeper, the water, it climbed
I watched in terror, the lake opened wide
and horribly roaring, it pulled them inside.
That's how it happened, why would I lie?
There were no bodies, I've got none to hide.
I'm just a boy, lost his friends in the rain
Any more questions, just go and ask Lake Pontchartrain.