Let Him Go On Mama

(Album: Mark Twang - 1976)

Well, he likes black coffee, fried eggs
And a well done T-bone steak
He like a red dress and pearly white teeth
And the flash of a pretty brown leg

He said back in the '30s, you know
You never had it made
He's an engineer over on the Ohio river
Running in the Pittsburgh trade

With the inspection office in Louisville
At a desk for a very short time
And he played in a band on two different boats
Working for the Strackfus line

And long ago he smoked reefer
And he even made home brew
And the reefer come in through New Orleans
Back before World War II

He's just a feller worked on the river
All his life by a paddle wheel
You say he's old fashioned
Well, that ain't no big deal

Well, it's too thick to navigate
And it's too thin to plow
So let him go on mama
And don't put him down for it now

Well, he sits there an' smokes an old I-bolt cigar
Says he doesn't miss it at all
But he still goes out and he makes a few trips
In the summer and then in the fall

Oh, the railroad trains, the bus and planes
Been taking up all the slack
He's been watching all those river towns
Slowly turn their backs

He's just a feller worked on the river
All his life by a paddle wheel
You say he's old fashioned
Well, that ain't no big deal

Well, it's too thick to navigate
And it's too thin to plow
So let him go on mama
And don't put him down for it now

Well, he comes from a real old-time way of life
He had to fight to just learn how
And he might even have voted for Nixon once
But I'm sure he sees that now

Well, Friday night he makes the best damn
Gumbo you'd ever want to eat
And Saturday morning 'fore everyone's up
He's gone off down to the fleet

He's just a feller worked on the river
All his life by a paddle wheel
You say he's old fashioned
Well, that ain't no big deal

Well, it's too thick to navigate
And it's too thin to plow
So let him go on mama
And don't put him down for it now

You're as pretty as he is ugly
And he's the happiest man alive
You've got him into believing
That old men are back in style

Now you see these Oysters Bienville
And this baked potato skin
I eat 'em so I can grow up an' be
An old man just like him

He's just a feller worked on the river
All his life by a paddle wheel
You say he's old fashioned
Well, that ain't no big deal

Well, it's too thick to navigate
And it's too thin to plow
So let him go on mama
And don't put him down for it now