Skunk Ape Lyrics

I first heard of the skunk ape when I was barely nine years old

Uncle Roy had seen one and said it made his blood run cold

He'd been out hunting squirrels when he heard a haunting high- pitched call

And then he turned and saw it ten feet away and standing eight feet tall

Roy stood still as an oak afraid to move, afraid to flee,

But finally ran for his life and breathlessly confessed to me

I saw the skunk ape, a reddish matted mass of hair

I smelled the skunk ape and couldn't wait to get out of there

I heard the skunk ape, his high-pitched wail froze me in place

I fled the skunk ape but I'll never forget his gruesome face

That night I lay awake in bed I couldn't even sleep a wink

I kept imagining the creature; its' cry, its' fur, its' awful stink

Every shadow frightened me, every object on the shelf

But I knew I had to face my fear, I had to see this thing myself

I had to see the skunk ape, to wrap my brain around it all

I had to hear the skunk ape, it's eerie screech, it's plaintive call

I had to smell the skunk ape, it's musty pungent foul perfume

Would I flee the skunk ape as Roy had done or face my doom?

I read everything I could, like Elkins Creek by James P Akin,

But my fears did not abate they just grew worse and I was shaken

But still I knew what I must do, so one night I went with Uncle Roy

Out to his famous sighting spot

That night a man would rise from the boy

I went to see the skunk ape, to face what kept me up at night

I went to hear the skunk ape, the sound that gave uncle Roy such fright

I went to smell the skunk ape whose bitter scent would end my youth

I wouldn't flee the skunk ape I'd stay and learn the awful truth

We walked into that field to the very spot Roy told us of

The air was strangely still, full moon and stars shining above

We waited hours in that field just like Sally Brown and Linus did

I began to think Roy was a liar and I was just a stupid kid

We almost packed it in but then the slightest breeze drifted our way

And on that breeze the foulest odor I had smelled up to that day

We stood there back to back as out of nowhere it appeared

And what I saw that night burned in my brain, and in my memory seared

I saw the skunk ape, smelled the skunk ape, heard the skunk ape's scream

I peed my pants, didn't take a chance, I left Roy and split the scene