Proud Mary Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been


[Refrain]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river


[Verse 2]
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of 'pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen

[Refrain]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

[Instrumental break]
1:14 - 1:50

[Refrain]
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
[Verse 3]
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


[Refrain]
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

[Bridge]
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

CCR frontman John Fogerty explains the origins and recording of the hit, which would go on to be covered by Tina Turner, Solomon Burke and many others:

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. I didn’t like how Beethoven had composed it. I preferred hitting the first chord hard for emphasis, not the fourth.

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.”

A few weeks later, I played the song for the band. We had been rehearsing in my brother Tom’s garage in nearby El Cerrito. I showed them how the song went, but for a period of days it didn’t sound right. So I wrote out music parts for everyone.

When we recorded the tracks at RCA Studios in Hollywood in October ‘68, I channeled Wilson Pickett and Howlin' Wolf with my lead vocal. Just as we were extending the final chorus at the end of the last and best take, the 2-inch reel of tape ran out. Luckily we had enough on there to create a fade-out in the final mix.

Listening to the playback, I wasn’t happy. The band’s background vocals sounded abrasive — like punk rock, not harmonious. I wanted a gospel feel. When I told the guys I was going to overdub the vocal harmony tracks myself, we had a big fight. Bruce Young, our road manager, took them to dinner.

I stayed behind and overdubbed all the background vocal parts. I also overdubbed a guitar solo using a Gibson ES-175—a big jazz guitar that I bought for the recording session. I recorded my solo line twice so it sounded more pronounced.

At the restaurant later, the guys were still angry and threatened to quit. I convinced them to hear the results. Back at the studio, I played them the song with my vocals. Nobody said anything. Then Bruce said, “Wow.” The single came out in January ‘69 and topped out at No. 2 on Billboard’s pop chart in March for three weeks. The band eventually broke up in '72.

That’s right: John Fogerty says he wasn’t into Beethoven’s composition of the Fifth. Whoosh.

Credits
Produced By
Written By
Release Date
January 1, 1969
View Proud Mary samples
Tags
Comments