Jožin z bažin (Joey from the swamp)

Did those of you in the Czech Republic remember to move your clocks forward one hour this morning?

Across in Poland, it seems they might be turning back the clocks a little. My friend Ian was telling me that this old gem from the Ivan Mladek banjo band is fairly popular at the moment. Someone there has come even out with a disco version.

It's called Jožin z bažin, and apparently Ivan Mladek wrote and performed it for a glass of slivovice in a Zlin pub, but still hasn't received the drink...;-)



Wondering what it's all about?

In my Skoda 100, going camping down to Orava
I’m in a hurry, risking it, cutting across Moravia
There’s a monster there, climbing out of the marsh
He calls himself Joey and he eats Praguers for lunch.

Joey from the swamp in the mire creeping round and round
Joey from the swamp getting closer to the town,
Joey from the swamp his fangs a’sharpening
Joey from the swamp biting, tearing, strangling
Ol’ Joey from the swamp, who would have knowed?
The only thing he fears, is a cropduster’s full load

Going through a village on the road to Vizovice,
The mayor told me, over a slivovice:
"Anyone who brings in Joey, dead or alive
Will get half the Co-op farm and my daughter for a wife!"

Joey from the swamp in the mire creeping round and round
Joey from the swamp getting closer to the town,
Joey from the swamp his fangs a’sharpening
Joey from the swamp biting, tearing, strangling
On Joey from the swamp, who would have knowed?
The only thing that works, is a cropduster’s full load

I said "Give me mayor, the plane and the powder
I’ll bring Joey to you, not a worry in the world"
The mayor helped me, in the morning I was in the sky
The powder from the cropduster hit Joey right between the eyes

Joey from the swamp all covered in white
Joey from the swamp out of the bog he climbed,
Joey from the swamp made it to the shore
Joey from the swamp won’t be creeping round here no more
I bagged Ole Joey, I’ve got him now, Woohoohoohoohoo,
All money’s good money, I’m gunna sell him to the ZOO.