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 ferry boatman, he did tell me
That the chance was very small
None survived who went alive
Over the water fall, 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 now 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