Left a good job in the city
Working for the man both night and day
But I never lost a minute of sleep
Worrying 'bout the way things might have been
Big wheel, keep on turning
Proud Mary, keep on burning
Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
I said I pumped a lot of tan in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of a city
Till I hitched a ride on a riverboat queen
I said you know that I'm rolling, rolling
You know that I'm rolling' on the river
Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river
If you come down to the city
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to live if you ain't got no money
People on the river that know how to give
You know I said that I'm rolling, rolling
I'm rolling on the river
I gotta keep on turning, burning, rolling down the river……
"Proud Mary", often erroneously
called "Rollin' on the River", is a song written by American
singer and guitaristJohn
Fogerty. It was first recorded by rock band
Creedence
Clearwater Revival (in which Fogerty played lead guitar
and sang lead vocals) on the 1969 album Bayou
Country. Released as a single in January 1969, it
became the band’s first top-ten hit on the U.S.
Pop chart, peaking at number two,[1
] or number one according to some
charts.
[2] It was the first of five
singles that the band released that would reach that peak on
the chart, a record for most number-two singles for a group
without ever having a number-one song. The song reached number
eight in the UK.
The song was written on a steamboat
called the Mary Elizabeth owned by the Grafton
family.
[citation
needed]
The second line of the second verse has
generated considerable confusion, and can be considered a type
of mondegreen.
Listeners have variously interpreted it as “pumped a lot of
pain” and “pumped a lot of ’pane”, referring to propane,
which is commonly used as a fuel. The controversy was
further fueled by Ike
& Tina Turner’s cover, in which Tina sings “pumped a
lot of ’tane,” referring to octane, the
grading scale and chemical in gasoline.
The author, Fogerty, finally laid the confusion to rest,
saying,
“Sometimes I write words to songs because they
sound cool to sing. Sometimes the listener doesn’t
understand what I’m singing because I’m dedicated
to singing the vowel, having fun with the word
sounds coming out of my mouth. ‘Cleaned a lot of
plates in Memphis, pumped a lot of pain down in New
Orleans,’ is a good example. I think Tina Turner
sang '`tane' instead of 'pain,' as in a contracted
form of 'octane'. But I knew what she meant.”
"Proud Mary" has, over the years, been
covered by a number of artists, one of the first being by
Solomon
Burke, and another by Ed Ames on
his 1969 Windmills of Your Mind album (RCA Victor LSP
4172). Anthony
Armstrong Jones reached #22 on the U.S. country charts
in 1969 with a rendition.
In 1971, a cover
version was released by Ike
& Tina Turner that differed greatly from the
structure of the original, but is also well known and has
become one of Tina’s most recognizable signature
songs. The Turners’ version was substantially rearranged
by Soko
Richardson[3]
[4] and Ike
Turner. It included a sultry, slow opening and
spoken-word intro by Tina Turner, as well as bass backing
vocals from Ike. It reached #4 on the pop charts on 27 March
1971, two years to the week after Creedence Clearwater
Revival's version was at it peak, and won the Grammy Award
for
Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group in 1972. The song
has since become a staple in all of Tina's live shows,
including live duet versions with Beyonce and
Cher.
Tina
Turner later re-recorded the song for the 1993
soundtrack album
What's Love Got to Do With It. This version was
released as a promotional single issued to radio stations and
DJs. Tina's solo version was later included on her 2004
greatest hits album
All the Best.