Come and gather 'round me people
And a tale to you I'll tell
Of my father and his father
In the days before the spill
With an endless sky above 'em
And a restless sea below
And every blessing flowing from the Gulf of Mexico

Well my Granddad worked the shrimp boats
From the time that he was grown
And he scrimped and saved and bought himself
A trawler of his own
He was rough and he was ready
And he drank when he was home
And he made his family's living on the Gulf of Mexico

He was rolling
He was rolling
Cross the deep blue water
He was rolling

Well my Daddy drove a crew boat
Hauling workers to the rigs
He was sick of mending nets
And couldn't stand the smell of fish
He drew a steady paycheck
20 years to Texaco
When he died we spread his ashes
On the Gulf of Mexico

He was rolling
He was rolling
Cross the deep green water
He was rolling

As for me I dreamed of nothing
Any grander than the day
That I stepped out on the drilling 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 rolling
We were rolling
Cross the blood red water
We were rolling