The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19834   Message #204675
Posted By: MMario
31-Mar-00 - 02:53 PM
Thread Name: INFO REQ-Steamboats, Music & History of
Subject: Lyr Add: STEAMBOAT BILL (Ben Shields, Leighton Br)
"Steamboat Bill" is the song I found out on the Levy Sheet music Site I was going to enter, so guess I will.

STEAMBOAT BILL
Lyrics - Ben Shields
Music - Leighton Bros.
1910

Down the Mississippi steamd the Whipperwill
commanded by that pilot, Mister Steamboat Bill
The owners gave him order, on the strict Q. T.
To try and beat the record of the 'Robert E. Lee'
Just feed up your fires, let the old smoke roll
Burn up all your cargo if you run out of coal
If we don't beat that record, Billy told the mate
"Send my mail in care of Peter to the Golden Gate

Steamboat Bill steaming down the Mississippi
Steamboat Bill a mighty man was he
Steamboat Bill steaming down the Mississippi
going to beat the record of the "Robert E. Lee"

Up then stepped a gambling man from Louisville
who tried to get a bet against the Whipperwill
Billy flashed a roll, that shurely was a bear
The boiler it exploded, threw them up in the air
The gambler said to Billy as they left the wreck
"I don't know where we're going, but we're neck in neck"
Says Bill to the gambler "I'll tell you what I'll do
I will bet another thousand I'll go higher then you"

Steamboat Bill, he tore up the Mississippi
Steamboat Bill, the tide it made him swear
Steamboar Bill, he tore up the Mississippi
the explosion of the boiler got him up in the air

River's all in mourning now for Steamboat bill
No more you'll hear the puffing of the Whipperwill
There's crepe on ev'ry steamboat that plows those streams
from Memphis right to Natchez down to New Orleans
The wife of Mister William was at home in bed
When she got the telegram that steamboat's dead
Says she to the children, Bless each honey lamb
The next papa you have will be a railroad man

Steamboat Bill, missing on the Mississippi
Steamboat Bill, is with an angel band
Steamboat Bill, missing on the Mississippi
He's a pilot on a ferry in that promised land