Jimmie Driftwood - Steamboat Mountain Lyrics

(Jimmy Driftwood)

I was standing on Point Peter, early in the morn
Way down on the river, I thought I heard a horn
I noted it was a steamboat and when she homed in sight
I know, she took the left-hand where the Buffalo meets the White

She passed the mouth of the rich land, a-ridin’ on the swell
She tore on through the clean break like a bull-bat out of hell
My friend, she was a beauty, so long and tall and sleek
She floated Old Mount Heresy, then she took up Davy’s Creek

I plump forgot to tell you, there was an awful flood
The valleys all were water and the mountain-tops were mud
I wondered if the time had come when the lovely Buffalo
Was a deep and rugged channel in the Golf of Mexico

-Solo-

The pilot, he was crazy, he had moonshine on the brain
He fired her up with pine nuts, then he took off in the rain
Then rain, she got so heavy, the clouds, they got so low
The steamboat left the creek and to the heaven, she did go

The embers from the smoke stack and the rain forked from the wheel
With lightning and with thunder, caused the boat to rock and reel
And when she came to earth again, there was an awful sound
The trees went up to heaven and the boat went under ground

You know, it must have happened, though it never could have been
Don’t tell me that you doubt it, if you want to be my friend
She went down in the ground and pushed the earth away out far
We call her Steamboat Mountain, you can see her from afar

-Solo-