Let Him Go on Mama - John Hartford

Well he likes black coffee, fried eggs

And a well done T-bone steak

He like a red dress and pearly white teeth

And the flash of a pretty brown leg

He said back in the '30s, you know

You never had it made

He’s an engineer over on the Ohio river

Runnin' in the Pittsburgh trade

With the inspection office in Louisville

At a desk for a very short time

And he played in a band on two different boats

Working for the Strackfus line

And long ago he smoked reefer

And he even made home brew

And the reefer come in through New Orleans

Back before World War II

He’s just a feller worked on the river

All his life by a paddle wheel

You say he’s old fashioned

Well that ain’t no big deal

Well it’s too thick to navigate

And it’s too thin to plow

So let him go on mama

And don’t put him down for it now

Well he sits there an' smokes an old I-bolt cigar

Says he doesn’t miss it at all

But he still goes out and he makes a few trips

In the summer and then in the fall

Oh, the railroad trains, the bus and planes

Been takin' up all the slack

He’s been watching all those river towns

Slowly turn their backs

He’s just a feller worked on the river

All his life by a paddle wheel

You say he’s old fashioned

Well that ain’t no big deal

Well it’s too thick to navigate

And it’s too thin to plow

So let him go on mama

And don’t put him down for it now

Well he comes from a real old-time way of life

He had to fight to just learn how

And he might even have voted for Nixon once

But I’m sure he sees that now

Well Friday night he makes the best damn

Gumbo you’d ever want to eat

And Saturday morning 'fore everyone’s up

He’s gone off down to the fleet

He’s just a feller worked on the river

All his life by a paddle wheel

You say he’s old fashioned

Well that ain’t no big deal

Well it’s too thick to navigate

And it’s too thin to plow

So let him go on mama

And don’t put him down for it now

You’re as pretty as he is ugly

And he’s the happiest man alive

You’ve got him into believing

That old men are back in style

Now you see these Oysters Bienville

And this baked potato skin

I eat 'em so I can grow up an' be

An old man just like him

He’s just a feller worked on the river

All his life by a paddle wheel

You say he’s old fashioned

Well that ain’t no big deal

Well it’s too thick to navigate

And it’s too thin to plow

So let him go on mama

And don’t put him down for it now