I thought I knew what I was doing
I was wrong
Mistakes I've made and lived to tell
I tell them in a song

I knew a river wide and deep
Her banks were very tall
At one end was a mountain stream
The other was a waterfall, boys
The other was a waterfall

I asked the old man by the river
He did not recall
The last attempt to ride a barrel
Over the waterfall

The ferryboatman, he did tell me
That the chance was very small
None survived who went alive
Over the waterfall, boys
Over the waterfall

So I built myself an oaken barrel
And inside I did crawl
I broke the record but I broke my back
Going over the waterfall

And it's been my luck to live to tell
The only tale I can
It don't hurt you when you fall
Only when you land, boys
Only when you land