Steve Earle — The Gulf of Mexico

[Intro] Come and gather around me, people and a tale to you, I'll tell Of my father and his father in the days before the spill With an endless sky above 'em and a restless sea below And every blessing flowing from the Gulf of Mexico [Verse 1] Well, my Granddad with the shrimp boats From the time that he was grown And he scrimped and saved And bought himself trawler of his own He was rough and he was ready And he drank when he was home And he made his family's living on the Gulf of Mexico [Chorus] He was rolling He was rolling 'Cross the deep blue water He was rolling [Verse 2] Well, my Daddy drove a crew boat Hauling workers to the rigs He was sick of mending nets And couldn't stand the smell of fish He drew a steady paycheck Twenty years at Texaco When he died, we spread his ashes On the Gulf of Mexico [Chorus] He was rolling He was rolling 'Cross the deep green water He was rolling [Verse 3] As for me, I dreamed of nothing Any grander than the day That I stepped out on the drilling floor To earn a roughneck's pay Then one night, I swear I saw the devil Crawling from the hole And he spilled the guts of hell out In the Gulf of Mexico [Chorus] We were rollin' We were rollin' 'Cross the blood-red water We were rollin'