Yeah a mile around the bend down the Ohio 

Comin up the river for the Sunday show 

There's a tuba and a banjo and a steam calliope 

Sittin on the deck of the big paddlewheel 

What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks 

Up and down the river on the first showboat 

What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks 

Up and down the river on the first showboat 



Yeah well poppa took the kids, momma took the lunch 

The gents took the belles and the whiskey took the drunks 

But the biggest thrill of all you know it had to be 

Way up front playin steam calliope 



What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks 

Up and down the river on the first showboat 

What a thrill it must have been playin Dixie for the folks 

Up and down the river on the first showboat 



Yeah there's magic in the air riddle in the rhymes 

Slow and easy in the summertime 

Yeah an who'd a ever thought it could come to be 

That Jim Crows flyin where the eagle ought to be