Proud Mary
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"Proud Mary" is a song originally performed by American band Creedence Clearwater Revival, written by lead singer John Fogerty and released on their 1969 album Bayou Country. It was also famously covered by R&B duo Ike & Tina Turner on their 1970 album Workin' Together, earning them a Grammy award and becoming one of Tina Turner's signature songs.
The Longest Johns released a YouTube cover of the song on 14 June 2023 as part of their series of studio covers, and it saw an official album release as track 3 on Voyage.
Factoids
Though sometimes claimed to refer to a Memphis tugboat called Mary Elizabeth, the song was not actually written about any real craft; the name "Mary" originally was an idea Fogerty was working on about a washerwoman, and the riverboat angle didn't occur to him until several months later. Ultimately, he described the song as being "about a mythical riverboat, cruising on a mythical river, in a mythical time."[1]
Fogerty speculated that he'd unconsciously lifted the line "Rollin' on the river" from a Will Rogers movie involving paddlewheel steamboats. He may have been referring to the 1935 comedy Steamboat Round the Bend, whose title song features the repeated line, "Just watch her rollin', rollin' along." [2]
Lyrics
Lyrics as performed in the YouTube video.
Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might've been
{Chorus}
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
And we're rollin' (rollin'), rollin' (rollin')
Rollin' on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of 'tane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a riverboat queen
{Chorus}
And we're rollin' (rollin'), rollin' (rollin')
Rollin' on the river
If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have no money
People on the river are happy to give
{Chorus}
And we're rollin' (rollin'), rollin' (rollin')
Rollin' on the river
Well, I left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worrying about the way things might've been
{Chorus}
And we're rollin' (rollin'), rollin' (rollin')
Rollin' on the river
And we're rollin' (rollin'), rollin' (rollin')
Rollin' on the river
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'