This River Runs Red

(album: Crusades Of The Restless Knights - 1999)

My mama run off with a bible salesman
Daddy didn't come back from the Korean War
My mama's mama took me in
To save me from sin
The kind sweet Jesus died for

One day she said were goin to the Kiamishie River
We loaded up in her old blue green Pontiac
Before the next sunrise
We gonna get you baptized
By the way your mama ain't comin back

When we get to river, a man standin out in water
Dressed up in a suit of clothes old and gray
There was people standin round
Okies glory bound
He raised up his head and begins to pray

This river runs red, this river runs red
This river runs red like Jesus' blood
Gonna raise up the dead, gonna raise up the dead
Gonna raise up these old bones from the cold, cold mud

Let me tell you he said about revelations
Chariots of fire and a Promised Land
Being washed in the blood of the lamb
Your soul being goddamned
Repent, for the kingdom is at hand

Then them people started shoutin hallelujah
Come on come on sweet heavenly host
Old women began to cry
Throwin their hands up to the sky
It was a full tilt rapture of the Holy Ghost

This river runs red, this river runs red
This river runs red like Jesus' blood
Gonna raise up the dead, gonna raise up the dead
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
Gonna raise up the dead, gonna raise up the dead
Gonna raise up these old bones from the cold, cold mud

Now me I got baptized that Sunday
I guess it didn't take as I look back
When I turned 15 I just seemed to get mean
And I stole my mama's mama Pontiac

I took me drive up to the south side of Tulsa
Satisfied and moved in with a woman called sweet Loraine
Talkin tough and breakin rules
Being hip slick and cool
And by 25 I was dealin a little cocaine

My luck run out one night in Knoxville
Not less than 5 more than 10 a judge said
Now it happens every night
When they turn out the lights
I can't stop the voices in my head

This river runs red, this river runs red
This river runs red like Jesus' blood
Gonna raise up the dead, gonna raise up the dead
Gonna raise up these old bones from the cold, cold mud
...