Down Where the Swanee River Flows

Transcript

I really saw my old hometown way down in Dixieland, it was simply grand just to sit right there and gaze on the scenes of Bycombe Day. It made me yearn to return to the land and people I will love always. I even saw the same old school where I learned the golden rule.

Down where the Swanee River flows, I want to be there. Down where the cotton blossoms grow, I want to be there. My little sister Blowie keeping time with Uncle Joe, singing a song and ragging on his old banjo.

I see my dear old mother, oh lordy, lordy, lordy, how I love her. When mothers are singing in the wildwood, my happy childhood comes back once more, my heart is full. That's why I'm going back where they care for me.

Every night they say a little prayer for me. Down where the Swanee River flows. I'd like to meet that moody man, I want to shake him by the hand.

I want to tell him that he wrote a grand scenario. He knows where to go, plain as day up on the screen. As the kayak can be seen, little Moe's on his toes looking at the camera, nearly spoiled the scene.

I saw the cotton white as smoke, I saw my home, sweet home. Down where the Swanee River flows, I want to be there. Down where the cotton blossoms grow, I want to be there.

My little sister Blowie keeping time with Uncle Joe, singing a song and ragging on his old banjo. I see my dear old mother, oh lordy, lordy, lordy, how I love her. When mothers are singing in the wildwood, my happy childhood comes back once more, my heart is full.

That's why I'm going back where they care for me. Every night they say a little prayer for me. Down where the Swanee River flows.

Transcribed by AI from the recording above. These are noisy hundred-year-old cylinders, so expect misheard words and the occasional invented line — trust your ears over the text.