From the recording Big Bald Cypress

“The Senator Cypress” stands in a small preserve in Longwood, a northern suburb of Orlando. Over 3,500 years old, it was growing here when the Hittites sacked Old Babylon and ended the rule of the descendants of Hammurabi in that kingdom. Another cypress nearby (“Lady Liberty”) is younger and probably started growing here when Jesus walked the Earth as man. It is nothing less than a miracle to visit two trees of this age and size still growing in the middle of 21st Century Florida. Bald cypress trees are special to me and symbolize the ancient history of this state. Big Bald Cypress is my tribute to this magnificent natural phenomena growing right here in my own “backyard.”

Lyrics

 
I got a big bald cypress out in my back yard,
Cypress knees all weathered and hard,
Bark is stripped, battered and scared,
I got a big bald cypress out in my back yard.
 
300 years before the Spaniards came,
That old cypress tree stood much the same,
Hurricanes and fires and the loggers’ saws,
That big bald cypress survived them all.
 
And when a strong wind blows I can hear history,
Whispered between those old cypress knees,
This lord of the swamp wears a grey beard shroud,
And has stood the test of time so tall and proud.
 
When Osceola was a Seminole king,
That old cypress tree was a sacred thing,
Stretching to the stars in the camp fire’s glow,
To touch a father above and a mother below.
 
And when a strong wind blows I can hear history,
Whispered between those old cypress knees,
This lord of the swamp wears a grey beard shroud,
And has stood the test of time so tall and proud.
 
So when I die oh promise me please,
Lay me between those old cypress knees,
And on that stone above my head,
Write here lies a Florida boy born and bred,
Under the big bald cypress out in my back yard,
I got a big bald cypress out in my back yard.