Woody Guthrie Lyrics

The Song of the Grand Coulee Dam
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Contact Publisher - TRO-Essex Music Group

Way up in that Northwest land of the skies
Columbia River's headwaters rise.

Mountain to Mountain all covered with snows,
I'll follow that River wherever she goes.

Winter and summer, springtime and fall,
She makes her way down her high canyon wall;

Bright rippling waters, sparkling so bright,
Seldom you see such a beautiful sight.

It's ninety-two miles northwest of Spokane,
There you will see her Grand Coulee Dam;

Woodwork and steel, and cement and sand,
Biggest thing built by the hand of a Man.

Power that sings, boys, turbines that whine,
Waters back up the Canadian Line:

400 miles of waters will stand
Rich farms will come from hot desert sand.

Flood waters lift up canyons so steep,
Making a lake eight hundred feet deep;

Waters will roll to the north and the south,
Never again be 'fraid of the drought.

Waters will flow with the greatest of ease
A hundred miles west, boys, and hundred miles east;

Factories that work for Old Uncle Sam
Run on the power from Gand Coulee Dam.

Ship on the Ocean, ships in the skies,
Inch after inch her waters will rise,

High line will top your mountains and hills,
Driving your shop, and factories, and mills.

Niagara Falls send mist to the sky,
But Grand Coulee Dam is just twice as high,
She's forty-three hundred feet crost her top,
Five hundred and 50 down her rock.

I'll settle this land, boys, and work like a man,
I'll water my crops from Grand Coulee Dam,

Grand Coulee Dam, Boys, Grand Coulee Dam,
I wish we had a lot more Grand Coulee Dams

Columbia River Collection Woody Guthrie