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"Big Alligator" is often sung around a campfire setting. So, perhaps history will view our little swamp gathering on the last days of the 20th Century as one big glorious campfire. From the liner notes to the Alligator Tales CD, “Big Alligator” tells: “A true story about not heeding the elder’s advice and a hard learned lesson of a young boy’s hunting trip in the swamp.” 

Watch Big Alligator on YouTube Chief Jim Billie “Big Alligator” Video by jinxtheclown

Sung by Chief James E. Billie in the first person, the song recounts his experience as a 12-year-old, losing his dog to the mortal clutches of a gator’s jaws on his first gator hunt. A tragic moment always vivid and remembered, the story is cautionary. The spellbinding chant – the wisdom of Jim’s Grandfather – is not in English, but the captivating nature of the rhythms speak a universal language of respect and coexistence with beings more powerful than ourselves in the natural or spiritual worlds. 

It is a rhythm that certainly had 80,000 or so of us in tune with our environment when performed by Chief Jim Billie on 12/30/99, with a nifty little backup band, taboot. One can only hope that Phish and their fans earned the respect and hospitality offered to us by Chief Jim Billie and his tribe.

Watch Big Alligator on YouTube Phish w/ Chief Jim Billie - Big Cypress - 12/30/99. Video by telekinetica

(James Billie)

Big alligator he's mysterious
Big alligator he's amphibious
Big alligator he's dangerous
but with big alligator you can be prosperous

I was raised in the swamp by my old grandpa
We ate turtle meat a fish called gar
Grandpa told me bout panthers and bears
but most of all he told me to beware bout

Halapata Chobee Nocateega
Halapata Chobee Okkeenewa
Halapata Chobee eenogaggwa
Halapata Chobee maggwa

As days of the summers grew longer and hot
Grandpa took me on my first gator hunt
We pushed through sawgrass and willow sloughs
with a big yella dog in our dugout canoe
the dog started sniffin something in the air
grandpa said must be gator over there
better grab your knife and some rope
and remember what I told you when you was a boy
Halapata Chobee Nocateega
Halapata Chobee Okkeenewa

Halapata Chobee eenogaggwa
Halapata Chobee maggwa
By the age of twelve I was sure of myself
I could catch alligators by myself

but my dog didn't know what my grandpa said
he jumped in the water by the gators head
Halapata Chobee didn't even pause
my dog disappeared in the gators jaws
I can still hear my grandpa sayin
Halapata Chobee Nocateega
Halapata Chobee Okkeenewa

Halapata Chobee eenogaggwa
Halapata Chobee maggwa
Halapata Chobee Nocateega
Halapata Chobee Okkeenewa
Halapata Chobee eenogaggwa
Halapata Chobee maggwa
Many years later I remember that day
how the big alligator swallowed my dog

scars and pain haunts my life
but I've learned to live in learned to survive
Halapata Chobee Nocateega
Halapata Chobee Okkeenewa

Halapata Chobee eenogaggwa
Halapata Chobee maggwa
Halapata Chobee Nocateega
Halapata Chobee Okkeenewa
Halapata Chobee eenogaggwa
Halapata Chobee maggwa
Halapata Chobee
Halapata Chobee
Halapata Chobee
Halapata Chobee Hal