Old Rivers:Walter Brennan.
#2 Easy Listening, #3 Country and #5 on BB
Hot 100 on LIBERTY Records in 1962.
INTRO: A D A
#1.
A D
How old was I when I first seen old Rivers?
A E
I can't remember when he weren't around.
A D
Well, that old fellow did a heap of work.
A E A
Spent his whole life walking plowed ground.
#2.
A D
He had a one-room shack not far from us..
A E
and well, we was about as poor as him.
A D
He had one old mule he called Midnight..
A E A
and I'd trailed along after them.
#3.
A D
He used to plow them rows straight and deep..
A E
and I'd come along near behind.
A D
A-bustin' up clods with my own bare feet..
A E A
Old Rivers was a friend of mine.
#4.
A D
That sun'd get high and that mule would work..
A E
till old Rivers'd finally say, 'Whoa!'
A D
He'd wipe his brow, lean back on the reins
A E A
and talk about a place he was gonna go.
CHORUS:
D A
He'd say, one of these days I'm gonna climb that
mountain.
E A D
Walk up there, among them clouds, where the cotton's
high.
A E
And the corn's a-growin' and there ain't no fields
A
to plow.
INTERLUDE: A B
#5.
B E
I got a letter today from the folks back home and
B Gb
they're all fine and crops is dry.
B E B
Down at the end my mama said, 'Son,' you know old
Gb B
Rivers died.'
#6.
B E
Just sittin' here now on this new-plowed earth
B Gb
trying to find me a little shade.
B E
With the sun beating down 'cross the field I see,
B Gb B
that mule, old Rivers and me.
CHORUS:
B Gb
He'd say, one of these days I'm gonna climb that
mountain.
Db Gb B
Walk up there, among the clouds, where the cotton's
high.
Gb Db
And the corn's a-growin' and there ain't no fields
Gb
to plow.
OUTRO:
E B
With the sun beating down 'cross the fields I see..
Gb B
that mule, old Rivers, and me..
A sixties smash from Kraziekhat.
