Bell Swamp Connection

Bell Swamp Connection
Album	Getting Into Knives
Released	October 23, 2020
Length	5:50
Previous Track	"The Last Place I Saw You Alive"
Next Track	"The Great Gold Sheep"

Bell Swamp Connection is the eighth song on the album Getting Into Knives. It also appears as the 13th song on the 2021 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4.

Lyrics

Toward the tail-end of the age that's almost finished 
Where the highway starts to crack and nobody fixes it 
I was wandering through an undeveloped tract 
Out near the ocean 
100 acres, we will build to suit 
See what there is to see before it's gone 
Somebody's always just about 
To put some kind of awful plan in motion 

Eastern redcedars, and the pines 
And suddenly an elevated stone slab
In what must have been a clearing once
Try to recognize the signals and the signposts
My curiosity 
Will likely always get the best of me 

It's like that one thing 
My Dad kept trying to tell me 
As the twilight 
Inched its way on up his body 
Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out! 

Well of course I climbed atop the slab and I lay down on it 
I am a child 
I had my face toward the sky lying there in the sun with both my eyes closed 
Woke up in near darkness
What the hell is wrong with me 
Volunteer pines in their hundreds in the dusk like military tentpoles

Let my eyes adjust 
Try to read the markings on the slab 
Weird alphabets I felt sure I hadn't seen just before I passed out 
Stars growing brighter 
Me looking up 
Like a lobster in a cage down in the depths beneath the bottom of a glass boat 

And I heard a voice 
From somewhere out beyond the free fall 
Like a captive soldier 
Trying to warn his brothers 
Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "Old school song honestly — written in an open alt tuning, speech-singing a la that song about the raccoons on the second or maybe third tape, etc. then when it gets to the studio, I let everybody else play instead of me" - Twitter

Things Referenced in this Song

• Bell Swamp Connection is a road connecting County Road 1406 and US-17 near the town of Winnabow in southeastern North Carolina. The road crosses Bell Swamp, a stream that empties into Rice Creek (which itself empties into Town Creek and then into the Cape Fear River).

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 2021-04-18 - The Jordan Lake Sessions - Pittsboro, NC
• 2021-08-11 - The Mohawk - Austin, TX
• 2024-04-05 - Haw River Ballroom - Saxapahaw, NC
• 2024-04-06 - The Eastern - Atlanta, GA
• 2024-04-08 - Victory Theatre - Evansville, IN
• 2024-04-09 - Kalamazoo State Theatre - Kalamazoo, MI
• 2024-04-10 - Turner Hall Ballroom - Milwaukee, WI
• 2024-04-12 - Palace Theatre - Saint Paul, MN
• 2024-04-13 - The City Center - Champaign, IL
• 2024-04-15 - Washington's - Fort Collins, CO
• 2024-04-16 - Gothic Theatre - Denver, CO
• 2024-04-17 - Gothic Theatre - Denver, CO
• 2024-04-19 - The Stiefel Theatre - Salina, KS
• 2024-04-20 - Delmar Hall - Saint Louis, MO
• 2024-04-21 - The Caverns - Pelham, TN
• 2024-04-22 - Salvage Station - Asheville, NC
• 2024-08-01 - Citizens House of Blues - Boston, MA
• 2024-08-02 - Phantom Power - Millersville, PA
• 2024-08-03 - Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA
• 2024-08-04 - Filene Center at Wolf Trap - Vienna, VA
• 2024-08-06 - The Jefferson Theater - Charlottesville, VA
• 2024-08-07 - Elevation 27 - Virginia Beach, VA
• 2024-08-09 - The Mill & Mine - Knoxville, TN