Lyrics Mississippi River Runnin' Backwards - Tom Russell

Mississippi River Runnin' Backwards

Old man river, that old man river he just keeps rolling along
Mississippi river runnin' backwards, earthquake shook the land, it happened
down here in 1912 it’s happening here again
Feast and famine ya’all fire and flood, abominations you understand,
don’t need no old testament profit to tell me we ain’t living in the promise
land
«Everybody sing blow Gabriel blow, yeah blow that ragtime jazz, judgment day
coming down here y’all in the land of the razzmatazz.»
I saw carpet sweepers, microwave ovens, I saw busted down television screens
Empty t.v.
Evangelist cats with their hair all slicked up with brill cream
Now the gospel news truly real bad news no need to invent all the doom and
gloom, it’s a one legged race to the liquor store, it’s a hop skip and jump
into the doom
«Everybody sing blow Gabriel blow, yeah blow that ragtime jazz, judgment day
coming down here y’all in the land of the razzmatazz.»
Steamboat whistle blowing under water, everything is backwards and upside down,
baby Moses in the bulrushes paddling sidways to higher ground
Old ladies gambling inside river boat casinos, whirlpools swallowing em down
insurance executives and fuller brush salesmen bushwhacked trying to leave town
But their lifeboats went backwards up the mississippi river to the ancient
Missouri side up thru Iowa, Minnesota into the hands of a righteous God
«Everybody sing blow Gabriel blow, yeah blow that ragtime jazz, judgment day
coming down here y’all in the land of the razzmatazz.»