Pete Seeger - The Clearwater lyrics

I was sitting on my front porch
As I watched the river rot
Thinking about the sturgeon that are
Gone but not forgot
And the buffalo an restless
Underneath the prairie sod
And the smoke stacked up to heaven so's
It hid the face of God

There were soldiers marching by my door
And a tap upon my phone
And a freeway inching toward me that
Would someday eat my home
And the smokestacks hid a sunset
That would never come again
When they brought the Sloop Clearwater
A-sailing 'round thе bend

The captain had a mustache that
Was fourteen inchеs long
And the shanty master paced the


Deck a-roaring out a song
And the man who held the tiller wore
His hair down to his knees
And a hundred tons of canvas
Billowed out into the breeze
But Redwood trees are crashing down
Out on the Western coast
And an angry shadowy army
Follows Crazy Horse's ghost
And the eagle's nest's as barren
As the mountain lion's den
On the day the Sloop Clearwater
Came sailing 'round the bend

The ship cut through the sewage
Lying on the river's face
And the sloop docked in the garbage
That was all around the place
And the crew struck up a hornpipe and
The boots rang on the wood
And the sound fell on the river
And the river found it good

But there's lightening in the Asian sky
And thunder in the slums
You can hear the Indians tuning
Up their long forgotten drums
Children clap their hands and laugh
As men are killing men
On the day the Sloop Clearwater
Came a-sailing 'round the bend

I said you people all are fools
To laugh and sing and shout
When your ship's so deep in liquid
Shit it never will get out
When children cry from hunger and grown
Men get mean from shame
And a war rages in every heart
And the very ground's in flame

You sail your dirty river and
You sing your little songs
You dance your pretty dances and
Recite your petty wrongs
Don't you know that Abiyoyo's making
Footprints in the fen
While you bring your Sloop Clearwater
A-sailing 'round the bend

The crew just laughed and danced some more
And the beads began to fling
And beards were lifted to the skies
As the crew began to sing
A black man rose upon the deck
And he preached a sermon there
And a crewman capered on the mast
Like a dancing grizzly bear
I said you people all are fools but
I guess I am one too
And it seems the guns went quiet then
And the river all was new
The smoke clouds cleared and I almost
Wept to see the skies again
As they brought that Sloop Clearwater
A-sailing 'round the bend

The mountains rang as children laughed
And women raised a song
The bison thundered down the plains
A hundred thousand strong
The Ghost Dance tent was raised again
And the Lion wandered free
And the rivers ran like silver from
The mountains to the sea

There was love and joy and brotherhood
And peace the world around
There was life and paint and energy
And trees and taste and sound
And Abiyoyo danced a solemn waltz
Out in the fen
When they brought the Sloop Clearwater
A-sailing 'round the bend

Now the sloop is gone and once
Again I watch the river rot
And someone feels the skyfire and
Another hugs the shot
And the heart of man is angry and
The land of man is mad
And the air of man chokes on it'self
And the rivers all are sad

We war against each other and we
Fight with our own souls
And we've killed off every river and
Our blood is icy cold
But a spark of joy jumps in
My breast as I remember when
They brought that Sloop Clearwater
A-sailing 'round the bend