Walking cross a bridge on a dirt road
When I heard a troll growl
He said don’t you go walking cross my bridge
I am gonna make it rough on you
I will give you swamp fever
And you’ll be wondering if you’re you
You know you got to pay the toll
Cause Even Trolls Love Rock And Roll…
We don’t have enough songs about trolls, man.
And before you get it twisted, I am not referring to the perpetually miserable internet variety who spend seventeen hours a day angrily correcting complete strangers about mindless crap like Star Wars or the potential pitfalls of Anna May Wong cosplay.
I’m talking about actual, honest-to-goodness, bridge-dwelling trolls, man. Big, monstrous, nasty things.
But whilst genuflecting at the altar of the late great Tony Joe White, we realize they love some rock and roll too.
Which brings us to our latest installment of Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs, a deliciously funky little number from one of our greatest swamp-rock troubadours ever: Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll, from Tony Joe White’s 1972 album The Train I’m On.
What a filthy tune. FILTHY!
Musically speaking, I mean.
If you’re familiar with White’s particular brand of Southern-fried musical goodness, you already know what you’re getting into. The song reaches into the dark and muddy bog water, and pulls out a hypnotic swamp-rock groove, with equal parts blues, funk, R&B, and Southern soul.
The resulting stew is something that sounds like it was recorded in a Louisiana roadhouse where the air conditioning broke sometime during the Eisenhower administration. The first Eisenhower administration.
And with that laconic growl, you just know Tony Joe White has wrassled more than his fair share of local gators.
The story itself is great fun, a wonderfully ridiculous tale about a rock and roll band traveling to a gig… when suddenly they encounter a sinister stretch of woods, an old wooden bridge, and a rather imposing troll who demands they stop and play him some music.
They resist, but the damn thing wants his rock and roll, goddammit. And who are they to argue with a supernatural bridgetender threatening to give them swamp fever?
So they play. And goshdarn it to heck, the troll turns out to be something of a badass musician himself, borrowing their guitar to show the boys some killer licks.
The whole track positively oozes swampy, blues-drenched atmosphere, with a relentlessly infectious rhythm. White’s gloriously deadpan storytelling turns the entire affair into a backwoods monster movie you can actually dance to.
Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll is a perfect Halloween track. It’s spooky without being frightening, funny without becoming novelty, and funky enough to get even the most rhythmically challenged supernatural creature (like your host here) shaking his monstrous backside.
Which is part and parcel of the perfectly peculiar Halloween music we’re always delighted to celebrate.
So yeah. Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll. Tony Joe White is reminding us trolls don’t always want to devour us whole and pick their teeth with our tibiae or like whatever. Sometimes he just wants to borrow your guitar and jam with you and your gang.
Yeah that’s right. Some tolls are so worth paying.
I said yes sir troll you can play it
Oh the fever isn’t really such a bad thing
It’s just hard to understand
But when you see me start to boogie
Well you know it’s got me by the hand
Oh you know you got to pay the toll
Cause even tolls love rock and roll..
