I ain't gonna ride no rail or hitchhike down no highway
I ain't 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

Gonna take a lot of river to keep this broken heart afloat
Gonna take a lot of river running all the live long day
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 tugboat pushing and pulling them barges along
Moving on the water with a heart made of iron and steel
There wouldn't be no woman that could ever take my loving and do me wrong
I could work all day with nothing in the world to feel

Gonna take a lot of river to keep this broken heart afloat
Gonna take a lot of river running all the live long day
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

Gonna take a lot of river to keep this broken heart afloat
Gonna take a lot of river running all the live long day
Gonna take the Mississippi the Monongahela and the Ohio
Gonna take a lot of river to wash these blues away