New Year's Eve in Western Carolina... demo performed by my co-writer, and Carolinian living in Nashville, Herb Ford... You can learn more about Herb at his website, www.herbford.com.
Country & Bluegrass Songwriter
Traditional/Classic Country, Country and Western, Bluegrass, "new-grass" songwriter, co-writing successfully with artists from Nashville to Norfolk to Nacogdoches... BMI affilitated...
Story behind the song
I heard this story on NPR one Saturday morning. The town of Brasstown, North Carolina, has, for 12 years or so, “dropped” a possum, in a plexi-glass ball by a rope, from the roof of Clay Logan’s Citgo gas station.
Festivities commence at 10:00 p.m., and include a “beauty pageant” of truckers in drag, bluegrass music, and, of course, the countdown (from 5).
This year, however, PETA threatened a lawsuit, despite the fact that the possum was fed well for a week before the “drop”, and was released unharmed once on the ground, usually to just wander off on its own. Logan, in order to continue the tradition, had friends find a decent “road-kill” specimen, and things went on (or off?) as planned, with few people realizing the critter was a dead on until the time came to release it.
I pulled over to the side of the road to jot down the general details, and by the time I’d finished my errand (buying, and installing in the auto parts parking lot, a new battery), I’d completed the first and third verses, and the first two lines of the second verse. The remainder came together that night/early Sunday morning… for what it’s worth…
Lyrics
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POSSUM DROPPING TIME
(c) 2004 - G. Smith / H. Ford
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Verse 1:
New Year's Eve in western Carolina;
We're down at Clay's Garage on Broad at Main.
Folks have come to town for celebratin',
'Cause it's possum droppin' time here once again.
Verse 2:
They drop a big ball up in New York City,
They say a million folks’re in Times Square.
We'll be lucky if we get two-hundred fifty;
But chances are we'll know most people there.
Chorus:
It's possum droppin' time here once again;
Time to gather 'round ...
With fam-i-ly and friends;
It's how we ring the new year in,
And how the old one ends...
Yes, it's possum droppin' time here once again.
Verse 3:
Tomorrow we'll eat black-eyed peas and collards,
To bring us luck and money all next year;
But tonight we're gonna hoot and howl and holler,
'Cause possum droppin' time is fin'ly here.
Chorus:
It's possum droppin' time here once again;
Time to gather 'round...
With fam-i-ly and friends;
It's how we ring the new year in,
And how the old one ends...
Yes, it's possum droppin' time here once again.
Chorus:
It's possum droppin' time here once again; (Crowd noise: "FIVE!)
Time to gather 'round... ("FOUR!")
With fam-i-ly and friends; ("THREE!")
It's how we ring the new year in, ("TWO!")
And how the old one ends... ("ONE!")
Yes, it's possum droppin' time here once again. ("HAPPY NEW YEAR!!")
Yes, it's possum droppin' time here once again.
Spoken as music fades:
"The possum has landed"
Spoken once music ends:
"Well, as mayor, I’d like to say that I'm possum-tively o'possum-istic about all the possum-bilities
presented by the coming year"
