"Burn On" as written by and Randy Newman....
There's a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
There's a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
Cleveland city of light city of magic
Cleveland city of light you're calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin' through my dreams
Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn
Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
There's a red moon rising
On the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
Cleveland city of light city of magic
Cleveland city of light you're calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin' through my dreams
Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn
Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
"Burn On" as written by Randy Newman
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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But actually it's mocking the city. Calling early 1970's (This song was released in 1972) Cleveland the city of light and magic is clearly sarcastic. As the city gets cleaner and more modern people forget what a smoggy rusty nasty industrial hellhole Cleveland was for 50 years and the sarcasm gets diluted
It's also a bit of a political statement about how unnatural river fires are. You can't get much stranger than a river catching fire.
Poor Cleveland. Chemically polluted rivers in heavy-industry towns catching fire was not an unusual event in this country, but Cleveland just can't live down the (very minor) Cuyahoga River fire.
For like 10 years I had absolutely no idea what Randy was mushmouth singing
Lol, Cleveland is immortalized as a shithole and people think it is some kind of tribute.