Five Feet High and Rising - Live at The White House, Washington D.C., April 17, 1970

Well to tell you a little bit about ourselves about our background
Where we come from and maybe why we're here we hope to show you a little bit of
The soul of the South tonight and we hope it'll be a pleasant look for you me I remember when I was a little bitty boy
I guess I was about to 5 years old it was a cold winter night 1937 it was the rain going to fall in at the Mississippi County Arkansas
That old Mississippi River been arising watch the beehives away cows and chickens are dogs run off all the old folks
Kept the sanative at Mississippi River keeps Horizon one of these days is going to come right over that Cotton Patch
Come right up to the front door that's house and that's what it did that one morning at black muddy
Mississippi river waters right at the front door step and I heard my daddy hot and ask my mama said

How high's the water, mama?
Two feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
Two feet high and risin'

We can make it to the road in a homemade boat
That's the only thing we got left that'll float
It's already over all the wheat and the oats,
Two feet high and risin'

How high's the water, mama?
Three feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
She said it's three feet high and risin'

Well, the hives are gone,
I've lost my bees
The chickens are sleepin'
In the willow trees
Cow's in water up past her knees,
Three feet high and risin'

How high's the water, mama?
Four feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
She said it's four feet high and risin'

Hey, come look through the window pane,
The bus is comin', gonna take us to the train
Looks like we'll be blessed with a little more rain,
Four feet high and risin'

How high's the water, mama?
Five feet high and risin'
How high's the water, papa?
She said it's five feet high and risin'

Well, the rails are washed out north of town
We gotta head for higher ground
We can't come back till the water comes down,
Five feet high and risin'
Well, it's five feet high and risin'

Well whatever you so that's what you're going to harvest
And we hope as we go along soon to see that the fruits going to be sweet someday from some other
That flood water went down we come back from Pine Bluff where the hills are came back mom and daddy
Daddy you remember this clean out the house on the pigs off got the dogs out of house cleaning mud out
Planet of cotton crop 1938 and groove tall and we had a good harvest that year the simple things we harvested that year
And if you go to that 48 acres of ground up in Northeast Arkansas now you finally want nothing grow
Because is too much salt in the dirt and salt it is from the sweat of The Facts of the case then