03/06/2026
John Crombie B.E.M. plays Ol’ Man River a show tune from the 1927 musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925.
The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat and is the most famous song from the show.
Here we all work 'long the Mississippi
Here we all work while the white folk play
Pulling' them boats from the dawn till sunset
Getting no rest till the judgement day
Don't look up and don't look down
You don't dare make the white boss frown
Bend your knees and bow your head
And pull that rope until you're dead
Let me go 'way from the Mississippi
Let me go 'way from the white man boss
Show me that stream called the River Jordan
That's the old stream that I long to cross
Old Man River, that Old Man River
He must know something, but he don't say nothing
He just keeps rolling, he keeps on rolling along
He don't plant taters, and he don't plant cotton
And them what plants 'em is soon forgotten
But Old Man River, jest keeps rolling along
You and me, we sweat and strain
Bodies all aching and wracked with pain
Tote that barge and lift that bale
You get a little drunk and you land in jail
I get weary and so sick of trying
I'm tired of living, but I'm feared of dying
And Old Man River, he just keeps rolling along)
