| My mama run off with a Bible salesman
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| Daddy didn’t come back from the Korean War
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| My mama’s mama took me in
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| To save me from sin
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| The kind she says sweet Jesus died for
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| Now one day she said «We're goin' down to River»
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| Got loaded up in her old Pontiac
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| «Before the next sunrise
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| «Gonna get you baptized
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| «And by the way, your mama ain’t comin' back»
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| Now when we get down to the river, a man is in the water
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| He’s like a ghost in a suit of clothes old and gray
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| There was people standin' 'round
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| Yeah this Okie is Glory-bound
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| He raised up his head and he began to pray
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| He said «This river runs red
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| «This river runs red
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| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
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| «We're gonna raise up the dead
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| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
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| «Let me tell you,» he said, «about Revelations
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| «Chariots of fire and a promised land
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| «Be washed in the blood of the Lamb
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| «Or else you’ll be goddamned
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| «Repent for the kingdom is at hand
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| Then the people start shouting «hallalujah»
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| Come on, come on sweet heavenly host
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| Old women begin to cry
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| Throwing their hands up in the sky
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| It was a full-tilt rapture of the Holy Ghost
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| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| Now I got baptized that Sunday morning
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| I guess it didn’t take, as I look back
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| 'Cause when I turned fifteen
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| I just seemed to get mean
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| And I stole my mama’s mama’s Pontiac
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| I took me a little drive up the south side of Tulsa
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| I satisfied and moved in with a woman, sweet Lorraine
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| Talkin' tough and breaking rules
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| Bein' hip, slick and cool
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| At twenty-two I was doin' a little cocaine
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| My luck run out one night in Knoxville
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| «Not less than ten» is what the judge said
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| Now it happens every night
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| When they turn out the lights
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| I can’t stop the voices in my head
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| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud»
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red
|
| «This river runs red like Jesus' blood
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up the dead
|
| «We're gonna raise up these old bones from the cold cold mud» |