This River Runs Red - Ray Wylie Hubbard

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 she says sweet Jesus died for

Now one day she said «We're goin' down to River»

Got loaded up in her old Pontiac

«Before the next sunrise

«Gonna get you baptized

«And by the way, your mama ain’t comin' back»

Now when we get down to the river, a man is in the water

He’s like a ghost in a suit of clothes old and gray

There was people standin' 'round

Yeah this Okie is Glory-bound

He raised up his head and he began to pray

He said «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»

«Let me tell you,» he said, «about Revelations

«Chariots of fire and a promised land

«Be washed in the blood of the Lamb

«Or else you’ll be goddamned

«Repent for the kingdom is at hand

Then the people start shouting «hallalujah»

Come on, come on sweet heavenly host

Old women begin to cry

Throwing their hands up in 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

«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

I guess it didn’t take, as I look back

'Cause when I turned fifteen

I just seemed to get mean

And I stole my mama’s mama’s Pontiac

I took me a little drive up the south side of Tulsa

I satisfied and moved in with a woman, sweet Lorraine

Talkin' tough and breaking rules

Bein' hip, slick and cool

At twenty-two I was doin' a little cocaine

My luck run out one night in Knoxville

«Not less than ten» is what the 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

«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»