I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth

Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of a fisherman facing a severe drought, lamenting the decline of his trade. The opening lines, "Like Marlon Brando, but bigger," and the subsequent description of a creature "at the bottom of the deep down Susquehanna River," set a tone of grand, almost mythical, encounters that are now absent. The narrator's frustration is palpable as he notes "One little nibble in thirteen years," highlighting a stark contrast between past abundance and present scarcity. This fishing narrative, however, takes a bizarre and dark turn. The central tension arises from the narrator's desperation and the unsettling discovery he makes. The phrase "fishing ain't what it used to be" is a massive understatement for his plight, leading him to a "sick discovery" in a "lead box." This discovery is not just a personal failure in fishing but a historical and morbid find: "I have discovered the body of John Wilkes Booth." The juxtaposition of the mundane struggle of a fisherman with such a monumental, infamous corpse creates a profound sense of unease and dark humor. The most striking craft element is the abrupt shift in narrative focus and the deadpan delivery of the discovery. The repeated line, "Well, I bring 'em on up and then I pack 'em on in," initially refers to fish but takes on a sinister implication when applied to the body. The narrator's pragmatic, almost mercenary, response – "Everybody got to make a living somehow. Do I hear a million?" – underscores a cynical view of capitalizing on even the most macabre of finds, suggesting a world where even historical significance can be reduced to a commodity. This song's effectiveness lies in its audacious blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary, the personal and the historical. The lyrics create a visceral sense of disappointment and desperation in the fisherman's plight, making the shocking revelation of Booth's body feel both absurd and disturbingly plausible within the narrator's desperate worldview. The craft here isn't about subtle metaphor but about a bold, almost surreal, narrative leap that forces the listener to confront the grim realities of survival and the strange places history can surface.