Yeah a mile around the bend down the Ohio
Comin up the river for the Sunday show
There's a tuba and a banjo and a steam calliope
Sittin on the deck of the big paddlewheel

What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat
What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat

Yeah well poppa took the kids, momma took the lunch
The gents took the belles and the whiskey took the drunks
But the biggest thrill of all you know it had to be
Way up front playin steam calliope

What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat
What a thrill it must have been playin Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat

Yeah there's magic in the air riddle in the rhymes
Slow and easy in the summertime
Yeah an who'd a ever thought it could come to be
That Jim Crows flyin where the eagle ought to be