Steamboat Whistle Blues - John Hartford

Well I started out to be a towboat man

But I never got the hang of a ratchet bar

I was a -growin up a-deckin in the

Illinois trade with coal dust in my ear

I got stuck in the ice on Christmas Eve

And I froze my ass it’s true

Just a shiv’rin and a-shakin with a Down South case of them

Steamboat whistle blues

Oh Captain Way I’m sorry, my hat is off to you

You’ve been a-hanging out by the old cook stove

With the steamboat whistle blues

Well way up North I called your phone

But I didn’t get no one to answer

So I opened up the window and I smoked a little bit

And I watched the cars go by

I’m gonna hunt you up and ask you

If you found out anything new

Or are you a-hangin to the best you had

With the steamboat whistle blues

I’ve been right here since nine o’clock

And believe you me that’s true

Just a-lookin at the water ways churning with the steamboat whistle blues

Well the city’s growing up where it looks all square

Like a crossword puzzle on the landscape

It looks like an electric shaver now

Where the courthouse used to be

The grass is all synthetic

And we don’t know for sure about the food

The only thing we know for sure is them steamboat whistle blues

I’d sit and watch my TV if I thought I could trust the news

About the only thing I trust these days

Is them steamboat whistle blues

Well «far out» Johnny well I heard him say

As he stretched out back on the water bed

Bluegrass music is a thing of the past

And the same for rock and roll

And I loaned him two or three dollars

And he gave me the latest news

And he left me here with a Rolling Stone

And the steamboat whistle blues

I’ll tear off down the river some day before I’m through

Then come back here and see it out

With the steamboat whistle blues