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God Willin & The Creek Don't Rise Lyrics
In the mountains the sun sets up in ribbons so high
It's like I don't never wanna get old, don't never wanna die
We seein' steady rain, 'bout to drive us all insane
Nearly lost a few head up in the pines
At night, some of the boys get to talking up their girls back home
I tell 'em there ain't none's as fine as mine
I can hear old Chapman sayin', come morning we'll break the range
Be pushin' hard now for the plains
I close my eyes, I can see you
I close my eyes, I can feel you here
God willin' and the creek don't rise
I'll be home again before this time next year
Though I fear this fever won't break
All my love
It's like I don't never wanna get old, don't never wanna die
We seein' steady rain, 'bout to drive us all insane
Nearly lost a few head up in the pines
I tell 'em there ain't none's as fine as mine
I can hear old Chapman sayin', come morning we'll break the range
Be pushin' hard now for the plains
I close my eyes, I can feel you here
God willin' and the creek don't rise
I'll be home again before this time next year
Though I fear this fever won't break
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This is probably my favorite song off this record. That may and probably will change eventually, like it always does, but this song just stands out. So simple but very poignant. It fits Ray perfectly. I can almost see him as the man who's writing the letter to his lady love over a hundred years ago.
I love any words Ray puts in a song. His voice is so mesmerizing. I got to shake his hand after he played at the amphitheatre in Toronto. My daughter and I ventured to Toronto to see him. It was worth the money spent.... I treated my daughter with this trip and Id do it again. We had a blast. In the past I was not one to try to find a meaning in a song because I feared that a song I loved may have been a sad story or a disturbing story, but know I find that I am trying to actually hear the words and try to understand the meaning of the song..... but some songs are too much like poetry and I could not understand poetry to much........ This song my daughter discused with me before we saw Ray in concert and she interpeted to be a letter he writes to his love before he dyes from a fever that took over him while working with a mountain crew probably in the early 1900s
I interpret this song to be about an American Civil War soldier, probably from the south, who is just wanting to get home.
He starts with "Caroline in the mountains," causing me to either think of the Carolinas or his lovers name is Caroline and he sees her beauty in the mountain sunset. With her he'll "never wanna get old, never wanna die."
He tells his fellow soldiers who are reminiscing about home and their girl's that "none's as fine as mine," or that no girl is as good as his.
The chaplin told them they'll be pushing, fighting for new terriotory or to win another battle in the morning.
He misses his girl and thinks about her so much that he can see her and feel her presence when he closes his eyes.
"God willin' and the creek don't rise" is a southern phrase for "hopefully" or "if at all possible," but here I think it means "if things don't continue to escalate in the war (creek = war)" or if he isn't killed, he'll be home next year or as soon as he can.
But he feels "this fever won't break," possibly meaning that his heated, sickening war won't end before he's killed.
I wonder if the lyric should show a capital C for Creek, and that Ray is referring to a possible uprising by the Native American Creek peoples along the Ohio River?