I'm going to provide as much as my brain cells can recollect of RIVER OF SMOKE and I'VE GOT A FEVER IN MY BONES. The two songs, both composed I believe by Terry Gilkyson, were coupled on a Burl Ives Columbia 78 around 1950. I once had the record, but... (the usual long story). I even wrote to Eliza Gilkyson trying to get the lyrics to both, but got no reply. So here's what I recall:

RIVER OF SMOKE
(by Terry Gilkyson I believe, maybe with co-composers)

There's a river of smoke, rollin' over my home town,
Got to get to work, never let the sun shine down,
Black factory smoke, comin' over the hill
From the burnin' furnace of the mill,
But that river of smoke keeps tellin' me things are fine,
'Cause I'm workin' all day, makin' my pay,
Putt'n it away for to marry that gal of mine,
Pretty little gal of mine.

There's a river of smoke, rollin' over my home town,
Black fact'ry smoke, never let the sun shine down,
(line missing here about the factory whistle, not sure about the next either)
(....sayin' hurry, hurry to the mill?).
But the river of smoke keeps tellin' me things are grand,
'Cause I'll buy that ring, and maybe next spring,
I'll build that house on our very own plot of land,
The way that I've always planned.

(bridge)
High as a kite, merry as a meadowlark,
Ev'rything's bright even though the skies are dark.   

Repeat verse 1

I believe there were only the two verses and bridge, so that's all but a line or two of it. Unique pro-pollution argument, but in those days who gave it a thought? Certainly not the GI Bill returnees whose hopes this expresses.

I'm going to start a separate thread for "I've Got a Fever In My Bones".

Bob