drums are still playing I can see them marching close
this he walks like a shadow and that he dances like a ghost
the one that looks like jimmy lord he scares me the most
river rat jimmy and jehoshaphat

playing boyhood mumbly peg a six inch bowie blade
out the top of my redwing kickers and down a muddy slippery grade
to the fever pitch savannah where granddaddy lay
river rat jimmy and jehoshaphat

river jimmy ghosty face ate off the kitchen floor
cause woman mom threw dinner plates at drunken dad on the door
he would cop us cans of beer and close his eyes and soar
river rat jimmy and jehoshaphat

shouting revelation out a boyman child of ten
never looking up to heaven it was heaven there and then
we wrapped our bloody fingers like a shine eyed mister zen
river rat jimmy and jehoshaphat

neither us knew who would pop and who would sink the lake
and who would run off fast enough before the bow string'd break
man we was crying for tomorrow through the crying and the shake
river rat jimmy and jehoshaphat