I bought a small notebook

Left a good job in the city

Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day

And I never lost one - minute of sleepin'

Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been


Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep in burnin'
Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river.


Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of 'tane down in New Orleans
But I never saw - the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen

Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river

Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river

If you come down to the river,
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry, 'cause you have no money,
People on the river are happy to give


Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river

Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river
Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river
Rollin' - rollin' - rollin' on the river


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{"Proud Mary," Recorded by:  Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Written by John Fogerty; producer:  John Fogerty.  Released:  January 1969.  Label:  Fantasy Records.  Genre:  Roots rock; Swamp rock.}
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---------------- [excerpt] ------------ John Fogerty:  "Back in the fall of 1967 -- before the release of our first Creedence album -- I bought a small notebook and began keeping a list of song-title ideas.  My first entry was "Proud Mary."  I didn't really know what those two words meant but I liked how they sounded together.


     At the time, I was living in an apartment in Albany, California, near San Francisco, with my wife at the time and our newborn son.  I was still in the Army Reserve and was concerned about being sent to Vietnam.  

One day in the early summer of '68, I saw an oversize envelope on the steps of our apartment building.  It was my honorable discharge.  In the blink of an eye, I was a civilian again.  I did a handstand and flipped a few times on the small lawn out front.


     Then I went inside, picked up my Rickenbacker guitar and began playing a song intro I had been working on.  The chord riff was based on the opening to Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony," which I had first heard on TV growing up. ...

     When I added rhythm to the chords, the song had the motion of a boat.  I had always loved Mark Twain's writing and the music of Stephen Foster, so I wrote lyrics about a riverboat.  The line "rollin' on the river" was influenced by a movie I once saw about two riverboats racing.  

I finished most of it in two hours.  Then I opened my notebook for a song title.  There was "Proud Mary."... 

------------------------- [excerpt from GENIUS website on Internet]

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On You Tube, type in

Creedence Clearwater Revival:  Proud Mary

(uploader:  masterofacdcsuckaS)

PLAY!

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