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River Lady Lyrics
The day the river freezes
is the day it won't seem fair
'cause they'll come to get the river lady
and I don't think they'll care
I know they'll scrape her paint off
in there same old foolish ways
now the people see the river
but the old ship's gone away
chorus
Water turns cold and gets to freezin'
before you even know it the old girl's easin'
away from her birth 'round by the point
and out of our veiw
off in the mist her engines pounding
back on the banks that old horn sounding
A little good bye, A little I'll do what I must do
Alittle good bye, A little I'll do what I must do
I know I will remember when I cannot hear that horn
that would roll up by the mountains
as she took us through the storm
I know they've got to take her
but I can't say I approve
'cause she's won so many battles
that I hate to see her lose
repeat chorus twice
is the day it won't seem fair
'cause they'll come to get the river lady
and I don't think they'll care
I know they'll scrape her paint off
in there same old foolish ways
now the people see the river
but the old ship's gone away
Water turns cold and gets to freezin'
before you even know it the old girl's easin'
away from her birth 'round by the point
and out of our veiw
off in the mist her engines pounding
back on the banks that old horn sounding
A little good bye, A little I'll do what I must do
Alittle good bye, A little I'll do what I must do
that would roll up by the mountains
as she took us through the storm
I know they've got to take her
but I can't say I approve
'cause she's won so many battles
that I hate to see her lose
Song Info
Submitted by
pirate87 On Feb 04, 2012
More Roger Whittaker
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Durham Town
Always on My Mind
Send in the Clowns [Live]
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My best guess: a tribute to the paddlewheelers that used to bring people and goods up the Yukon River to Dawson City, in the Yukon. When the highway reached Dawson, the paddlewheelers were dragged onto the riverbank and left to decay.
All sorts of meanings. The direction of flow of river is always one way, like time, and the river has no choice in this regard, but to merge with the ocean losing its identity as also it's freshness and its purity, in lines like, "Water turns cold and ..". All of us are born innocent but die guilty. The boat is suggestive of a rescue vessel or ship, some kind of a savior leading it's passengers to shores of safety battling and weathering the storms in their life, but eventually the ship also has to retire and be broken and torn down and has to go the way of the river, in lines like, which is sad , expressed in lines like, "Cause she has won so many battles that I hate to see her loose". Finally, resignation to the fact that all things as also all people must go the way they go. "A little good bye , a little I'll do what I must do".