Screamin' Jay Hawkins › Lyrics › Ol' Man River

Here we all work on the Mississippi
Here we all work while the rich boys play
Getting no rest from the dawn till sunset
Getting no rest till the judgment day

You don't look up, you don't look down
You don't dare make the rich boss frown
Bend your knees and bow your heads
And tote that barge until you're dead

Let me go away from the Mississippi
Let me go away from the rich man's [incomprehensible]
Show me that stream called the river of Jordan
That's the old stream that I long to cross

Ol' Man River, that Ol' Man River
He don't say nothing, but he must know something
Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling along

He don't plant taters and he don't plant cotton
And then that planters are soon forgotten
But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling along

You know, you and me, sometimes we have to we have to sweat
Sweat and strain, our bodies all aching and wrecked with pain
Tote that barge, lift that bale, get a little drunk
And you land, you gotta land, yes you land in jail

I get weary, oh Lord and so sick of trying
I'm tired of living and 'fraid of dying
But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling a
Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling along