The Gulf Of Mexico Lyrics & Chords By Steve Earle

Come and gather around me people, and a tale to you I will tell
Of my father and his father before the spill
With an endless sky above ‘em, and a restless sea below
And every blessing flowing down from the Gulf of Mexico

Well my granddad worked the shrimp boats from the time that he was grown
Well he scrimped and saved and bought a trawler of his own
He was rough and he was ready and he drank when he was home
But he made his family’s livin’ on the Gulf of Mexico

He was rollin’, he was rollin’
Across the deep blue water he was rollin’
My daddy drove a crew boat haulin' workers to the rigs
He was sick of mendin' nets and couldn't stand the smell of fish
so he drew a steady paycheck twenty years from Texaco
when he died we spread his ashes on the Gulf of Mexico

He was rollin' he was rollin'
Cross the deep green water he was rollin'

As for me I dreamed of nothing any grander
than the day that i stepped out on the drillin' floor
to earn a roughneck's pay
then one night I swear I saw the devil crawlin' from the hole
and he spilled the guts of hell out in the Gulf of Mexico

We were rollin' we were rollin'
cross the blood-red water we were rollin'