I ain't gonna ride no rail or hitchhike down no highway
 
 I aint' going nowhere feeling the way I do
 
 Because my baby's long gone and nothings going my way
 
 I'm gonna let this muddy water just wash away my blues.
 
  
  Chorus:
 
 Gonna take a lot of river,
 
 To keep this broken heart afloat,
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 Running all the live long days,
 
 Gonna take the Mississippi, the Monongahela and the Ohio,
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To wash these blues away.
  
 
 Well, I wish I was tug boat pushing and pulling them barges along
 
 Moving on the water with a heart made of iron and steel
 
 There wouldn't be no women that could ever take my loving and do me wrong
 
 I could work all day with nothing in the world to feel.
  
 
 Chorus:
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To keep this broken heart afloat
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 Running all the live long days
 
 Gonna take the Mississippi, the Monongahela and the Ohio
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To wash these blues away.
  
 
 Is she in new orleans
 
 Is she a cajun queen
 
 I wonder what she's doing now
 
 But if I know her she's got rings and furs, struggling along somehow.
  
 
 Chorus:
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To keep this broken heart afloat
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 Running all the live long days
 
 Gonna take the Mississippi, the Monongahela and the Ohio
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To wash these blues away.
  
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To keep this broken heart afloat
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 Running all the live long days
 
 Gonna take the Mississippi, the Monongahela and the Ohio
 
 Gonna take a lot of river
 
 To wash these blues away...