For all those millmen who cut their teeth   Whose minds were made up on roof and feed   I'll come and I'll leave   Aching from a night in the city   It might ruin me now, but I'd probably already be ruined      For skin burned black with coal and grease   That stuck to their lungs whenever they'd breathe   I'll come and I'll leave   Tempted by the lights of the city   No clowning around   T onight we're going out to get ruined      And I probably woulda never have thought    If it weren't written on metal   That this is very old ground that you're running from   Can't look for long, gotta be left and gone by five    To be half-seas over by nine    And bleeding drunk by midnight      Forever indebted to the feats of our fathers   But carry it on your back, it's a sure collapse   Laid out flat, gaspin'    All the trouble you attract   With cause to match   Would bring a quick collapse   If you always had to carry that      If the gear wheel goes   (There's gonna be a flood comin')      When the wallower rolls   (There's gonna be a flood comin')      Next thing you know   (There's gonna be a flood comin' on)      And the water won't spare us   (The water won't spare us)      If it comes to get us    (If it comes to get us)      And it won't let up 'til all that's dear and precious is gone   And our hearts all screech a hault   Whenever there's a flood coming on      And when that flood comes it comes as a canon   One that lets you catch the shot in your hands   But just to send its shocking tidal wave    Through every bone in your body   Dealt our hands, mine's low on luck   If you're all going out you can sign me up   Seems the only time that I can collect my thoughts   Is if I'm bleeding, stinking drunk (so drink up)      We'll admit in the names of our fathers   But carry it on your back, it's a sure collapse   Laid out flat, gaspin'    All the trouble you attract, with cause to match   Would bring a quick collapse   If you always had to carry that      And even though the doubt we all felt   Came to prove itself   The overflow came down   With a force we never dreamed off   When that rolling canon shot   Rolls along again, our guard is up   All the damage and all we've lost   Lost it all with a canon shot