Songtext Concrete river Karla Bonoff

Concrete river

Well they say it starts somewhere up north in the mountains above the fields

They moved it around til it flows through the town just a channel of asphalt and steel

The city's green but the rainbirds are running and the river is parched

And under the street beats the heart of a desert from another time gone by

How I wish I had seen you then

With your long green grass and your silver bend

Oh concrete river

All I've ever known

Rolling through all my dreams

I can see you cool and clean

Spirit so strong and deep

Won't you carry me

Won't you carry me home

Now the bridges cross every mile or two

And the kids jump the barb wire fence

Just looking for something to do

At night the powerlines crackle and buzz

You can hear the sirens moan

The water's so slow it moves like blood

Through the heart and the soul and the bone

How I wish I had seen you then

When you ran so free to the valley's end

Oh concrete river

All I've ever known

Rolling through all my dreams

I can see you cool and clean

Spirit so strong and deep

Won't you carry me

Won't you carry me home

It's just a dry bed most of the time

Floods every decade or so

Carries a kid off and a couple of cars

Raging out of control

Oh baby let's go down to the river tonight

Bring your radio and we'll dance beneath the mercury lights

Cause life is short and hard as a stone

And oh the time shoots by

I wanna live it as far as my soul can go

and wake up before I die

Oh concrete river

Oh concrete river

Well it starts in the mountains above the fields

And it rolls through town just a channel of steel

Bring your radio we're gonna dance tonight

Fall in love beneath the mercury light

Sometime I think that life is as hard as that river that runs thorough my backyard

(Oh concrete river)

Sometime I think that life is as hard as that river that runs through my backyard