| Here we all work on the Mississippi
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| Here we all work while the rich boys play
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| Getting no rest from the dawn till sunset
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| Getting no rest till the judgment day
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| You don’t look up, you don’t look down
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| You don’t dare make the rich boss frown
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| Bend your knees and bow your heads
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| And tote that barge until you’re dead
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| Let me go away from the Mississippi
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| Let me go away from the rich man’s
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| Show me that stream called the river of Jordan
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| That’s the old stream that I long to cross
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| Ol' Man River, that Ol' Man River
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| He don’t say nothing, but he must know something
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| Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling along
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| He don’t plant taters and he don’t plant cotton
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| And then that planters are soon forgotten
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| But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling along
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| You know, you and me, sometimes we have to we have to sweat
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| Sweat and strain, our bodies all aching and wrecked with pain
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| Tote that barge, lift that bale, get a little drunk
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| And you land, you gotta land, yes you land in jail
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| I get weary, oh Lord and so sick of trying
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| I’m tired of living and 'fraid of dying
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| But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling a
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| Ol' Man River, he just keeps rolling along |