©
1987 Bob Dyer
Learned from Dave Para and Cathy Barton, who learned it from their neighbor Bob Dyer. One of the many great songs from and about Missouri history Bob has written. (ET)
There's a moon on the
Mississippi river tonight
A side-wheel steamboat
makin' up time,
A raft driftin' by with a
bunch of drunk men,
And I'm catfishin' with my
old friend Jim.
They call me Huckleberry Finn, Finn, Huckleberry Finn.
I lived for awhile up in
Hannibal town
My father was a drunkard
and he beat me around,
So I left my friends Joe,
Tom Sawyer and Ben,
And went off araftin' with
Jim.
We run by nights and we
tied (laid) up days
Dawn turns the river to a
smoky haze.
Lazin' in the shallows
doin' just as we please,
Me and Jim layin' there
dreamin'.
Life slides by when you're
livin' on a raft.
You never rightly know
what's gonna pass.
Sometimes danger,
sometimes fun,
Sometimes it's just a
piece of driftwood.
I never much cared for the
civilized life.
I'd rather be out on the
river at niht.
Layin' on my back lookin'
up at the stars,
Smokin' on my pipe and
just driftin'.
Steamboat chimbleys
spewin' out sparks.
Fiddle music driftin' by
in the dark.
There's a hoot owl callin'
from a cottonwood tree
And this lonesome old
river keeps a rollin'.
Huckleberry Finn is recorded on the album Language of the Heart