Radio John

Stated out workin' in the summertime
On the docks of the Mississippi Valley Barge Line

Stokin' towboats on those long hot days
Getting' half days off, sometimes with pay

Became a steamboat captain, wrote the songs to Mark Twang
Rollin' down the river to New Orleans
Cho:
Oh I can hear somethin' comin' up around the bend
It's the Julia Belle Swain boys gleamin' and steamin'on in

And it's Radio John standing at the helm
With a wave and a smile and some yarns to tell

He loved life on the river and the fiddle tunes
Of blind Ed Haley and Benny Martin too

He always played them songs with a Vamp in the Middle
With a hustle and a shuffle and a skittle wah diddle

He wrote songs every day, lord he'd scratch and scribble
So the tunes that he wrote, he could play on his fiddle

Well I went up the river come away last Sunday night
With my fiddle and my banjer and my baby there to hold me tight

A banjo man, he rolled while he sang
With rhythm like a piston on a railroad train

Gotta see Radio John, with his two-toned shoes
A slippin' and a sliding while he danced for you

He knew every crooked turn up n-down the Mississippi
He was a Huckleberry Finn, an airwaves hippie

Radio John, a steamboat troubador
A Mississippi Sawyer, like we'd never seen before

He spun those tunes in St. Louie and Illinois they say
He played Bill, Earl and Lester and some boys named Bray

You could hear his voice every night til' dawn
So cut yer television off and turn yer radio on
It's Radio John

He danced and he played in the bars and the halls
While he was tappin' his shous, we was havin' a ball!

Yeah Radio John had us all sing along
Justa clappin' anda stompin' to every one of his songs

He could make us happy and sometimes make us cry
And lookin' back now I wish we never had to say goodbye

It was 6-9-0 KSTL
Where he played those songs we all knew so well
RADIO JOHN