Over the Waterfall

I thought I knew what I was doing

I was wrong

Mistakes I've made and lived to tell

I tell them in a song



I knew a river wide and deep

Her banks were very tall

At one end was a mountain stream

The other was a waterfall, boys

The other was a waterfall



I asked the old man by the river

He did not recall

The last attempt to ride a barrel

Over the waterfall



The ferryboatman, he did tell me

That the chance was very small

None survived who went alive

Over the waterfall, boys

Over the waterfall



So I built myself an oaken barrel

And inside I did crawl

I broke the record but I broke my back

Going over the waterfall



And it's been my luck to live to tell

The only tale I can

It don't hurt you when you fall

Only when you land, boys

Only when you land