© 1987 Bob Dyer
Learned from Dave Para and Cathy Barton, who learned it from their neighbor Bob Dyer. One of the many great songs from and about Missouri history Bob has written. (ET)
There's a moon on the Mississippi river tonight
A side-wheel steamboat makin' up time,
A raft driftin' by with a bunch of drunk men,
And I'm catfishin' with my old friend Jim.
They call me Huckleberry Finn, Finn, Huckleberry Finn.
I lived for awhile up in Hannibal town
My father was a drunkard and he beat me around,
So I left my friends Joe, Tom Sawyer and Ben,
And went off araftin' with Jim.
We run by nights and we tied (laid) up days
Dawn turns the river to a smoky haze.
Lazin' in the shallows doin' just as we please,
Me and Jim layin' there dreamin'.
Life slides by when you're livin' on a raft.
You never rightly know what's gonna pass.
Sometimes danger, sometimes fun,
Sometimes it's just a piece of driftwood.
I never much cared for the civilized life.
I'd rather be out on the river at niht.
Layin' on my back lookin' up at the stars,
Smokin' on my pipe and just driftin'.
Steamboat chimbleys spewin' out sparks.
Fiddle music driftin' by in the dark.
There's a hoot owl callin' from a cottonwood tree
And this lonesome old river keeps a rollin'.
Huckleberry Finn is recorded on the album Language of the Heart