Song Description
Brief musical history of my town, Middletown, Connecticut, USA. (Part One).
| Song Length |
3:15 |
Genre |
Unique - Unclassified, Folk - Rock |
| Tempo |
Medium Fast (131 - 150) |
Lead Vocal |
Male Vocal |
| Mood |
Composed, Sociable |
Subject |
City, General |
| Language |
English |
| |
Lyrics
MIDDLETOWN, PART I
words & music: David Allen Downs
c. 2011 davedownsmusic/ASCAP
VERSE
Chief Sowheag used to run this place and he probably did it best/He had a tribe to the east of the River, he had a tribe to the west/Then the Pequots came, Destroyers of Men, but even they could not defend/Against the small pox and yellow fever that the strangers brought with them/They brought it with them.
VERSE
The English brought their slaves up river from Barbados against their will/And Chief Sowhead sold off all his land 'cept for a piece of Indian Hill/And the Puritan religion cleared the land for society/Witchcraft and smiting your elders brought the death penalty/That's what it brought.
BRIDGE
Now the Indians would still get angry/And they'd attack from time to time/The whites built their own militia/So as to have some piece of mind/In the days 'fore the Revolution/There were great prosperities/They traded up and down the River/With the folks from the West Indies/The West Indies.
VERSE
They fought the King with ship and plow, delivered grain and lead and meat/To the fighting men they'd ship it out, down near the bottom of Ferry Street/They hid Benedict Arnold's children till the danger for them was done/And with that we end our story of Middletown, Part One/Part One.