Old Rivers Songtext
von Jimmy Dean

How old was I when I first saw old Rivers?
I can′t remember when he wasn't around
That old fellow did a heap of work
Spent his whole life walking plowed ground

He had a one-room shack not too far from us
And well, we was about as poor as him
He had one old mule that he used to call Midnight
And I trailed along after them

He used to plow them rows straight and deep
And I′d come along there behind
Busting up clods with my two bare feet
Old Rivers was a friend of mine
The sun'd get high and that mule'd work
And old Rivers′d finally say "Whoa"
He′d wipe his brow and then he'd lean back on them reins
And he′d talk about a place that he's gonna go


He′d say, "One of these days I'm gonna climb that mountain
I′m gonna walk up there among them clouds
Where the cotton's high and the corn's a-growin′
And there ain′t no fields to plow"

I got a letter today from the folks back home
They're all doing fine, the crops are a little dry
Mom said down near the end that you heard old Rivers died
Sitting here now in this new-plowed earth
Trying to find a little shade
The sun′s beating down across them fields
And I can see that mule, old Rivers, and me

I can hear him saying

"One of these days I'm gonna climb that mountain
Walk up there among them clouds
Where the cotton′s high and that corn's a-growin′
And there ain't no fields to plow"

With the sun beating down across them fields
That mule, old Rivers, and me