Lyr Req: Something's Always Happening on the River

Subject: Lyr Req: River is the only life for me
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Aug 03 - 09:47 PM

Years back (1950s?) when I was a-growing on the banks of the Upper River (the Mississippi, of course) there was a song, part of which went

"...something's always happenin' on the river, on the river, on the                      river,
Tons of cargo to deliver,
Oh the river is the only life for me."

Anyone recognize this? I only heard it on the radio.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: River is the only life for me
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Aug 03 - 10:14 PM

Sorry, nothing on searches.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: River is the only life for me
From: JJ
Date: 23 Aug 03 - 08:31 AM

"Something's Always Happening on the River" is from the 1958 Broadway musical SAY DARLING, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, where it was sung by David Wayne. The original cast recording has long been out of print.

Subject: Lyr Add: SOMETHING'S ALWAYS HAPPENING ON THE RIVER
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 09:45 AM

I found a complete mp3 file at http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Mike_Gentry_And_Ray_Leake/
Sure, it's a hokey old show tune, but I sort of had fun transcribing it. I'm a bit uncertain about the place names, especially Crazy (?) Point, which I can't find in any online gazetteer.

SOMETHING'S ALWAYS HAPPENING ON THE RIVER

You're standing on shore and you're watching the boats
A-steaming and puffing along.
You're listening to the sound of calliope notes
A-playing an old river song.
You're smelling the steam and the cylinder oil
And watching the work of the crew
You're getting that itch to get off of the soil
And suddenly you've joined the crew, too.

CHORUS: Something's always happening on the river
On the river, on the river,
Got a lot of cargo to deliver.
Oh, the river is the only life for me.

Along the Ohio from Pittsburgh on down
Till Cairo comes on into view,
That old Mississippi, all muddy and brown,
That takes you on up to St. Lou.
Then past Crazy Point (?), the Missouri now flows
To Tarkio and then to Squaw Bend,
To Omaha and to Sioux City she goes
And now in Montana, my friend. CHORUS.

You think that you'll get off before it's too late
And try some respectable job. (Yuck!)
Before you know it, you've been promoted to mate,
Instructing a new bunch of swabs.
And then you're a captain, you'll find with alarm,
With kiddies and wife far away.
You know you should leave home and buy you a farm,
But you're on the river to stay.

FINAL CHORUS: Something's always happening on the river,
On the river, on the river.
Got a lot of good times to deliver.
Oh, Monongahela, old Missouri, Allegheny, Mississippi, ev'ry river rolling out to sea,
Oh, the river is the only life for ... me!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: River is the only life for me
From: GUEST,wbheff
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 03:19 PM

The original cast album is avaiable on CD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Something's Always Happening on the River
From: GUEST,Rodger
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 09:13 PM

I was trying to find other old 50s songs like Have A Cigar, Got A
Match & recalled Something's Always Happening On The River being
the flip side of an instrumental. I couldn't remember the a-side
so did a search and found this thread. I still can't find the
instrumental I'm looking for but I can confirm hearing it only
when i played the flip side of my old 45 in the 50s or 60s.
I still can't locate Have A Cigar either which was an instrumental
in the same vein as Tequila.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Something's Always Happening on the River
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 11:16 AM

Rodger:

GOT A MATCH b/w HAVE A CIGAR, recorded by the Daddy-O's on Cabot #122 in 1958.

Go to Berlin Beatet Bestes (a German blog about 45-rpm records) and look for the heading "THE DADDY-O'S, Got a match?, 1958" which is about halfway down a long page. Click on links which will take you to a page where you can play the songs.