“Goin’ Down (live)”

Floatin’ down the river
With a saturated liver
And I wish I could forgive her
But I do believe she meant it
When she told me to forget it
And I bet she will regret it
When they find me in the morning
Wet and drowned
And the word gets ’round
Goin’ down
Goin’ down

Comin’ up for air
It’s pretty stuffy under there
I’d like to say I didn’t care
But I forgot to leave a note
And it’s so hard to stay afloat
I’m soakin’ wet without a boat
And I knew I should have taken off my shoes
It’s front page news
Goin’ down
Goin’ down
Let’s go on down!

Hep hep
Hep hep
Hep, hep hep, hep hep
Goin’ down
Goin’ down

Wish I looked before I leaped
Didn’t know it was so deep
Been down so far I can’t get wet
Haven’t touched the bottom yet
This river scene is a-gettin’ old
Hungry, sleepy, wet, and cold
Told me to forget it nice
Should’ve taken her advice
Only want to go on home
I’d gladly leave that girl alone
What a way to spend the night
If I don’t drown, I’ll die of fright
Pappy taught me how to float
Can’t swim a single note
Threw me in to teach me how
I stayed there floatin’ like a mama cow
Now I’ve floated way downstream
Oh, this has to be a dream
Find my way to shore
I’d never, never do this any more
Give you three, been down nine
One more time, goin’ down

Now the sky is gettin’ light
Everything will be alright
Think I finally got the knack
Floatin’ and lazy on my back
I never really liked that town
Think I’ll ride the river down
Just movin’ slow and floatin’ free
River swingin’ under me
Wavin’ back to the folks on shore
Should’ve thought of this before
I’m floatin’ on down to New Orleans
Gonna pick up on some swingin’ scenes
Find me a better day
But I’m goin’ down groovin’ all the way
Goin’ down
Down
Down
Back

Back, back, back, back home
Back, back, back, back home
Back, back, back, back home
Goin’ down

Micky: Take that! Guess I showed them! Ha ha! … Huh? Oh, shit, sorry.

Micky: Nurse.
Peter: Could use a little oxygen myself, actually. Uh, in uh, in the last millennium, sometime, the Monkees uh, did a TV special called Thirty—thank you both—the, called 33 ⅓ Revolutions Per Monkee, uh, and it featured, among others, the uh, the very great rock stars, uh, Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino, and uh, uh, and a third guy, whose uh, song we’re gonna do now, uh, just in honor of him, and because it’s a change of pace, and uh, we’re sort of drifting into that section of the show where we uh, where we talk a little bit about where we’ve come from. This is the kind of music that changed my life. It is uh, uh, this guy who did this song, Little Richard, is, as far as I’m concerned, the greatest rock and roll singer of all time. Of all time. And, to the point where Muhammad Ali is not the Little Richard of boxi—is the uh, is the Little Richard of boxing, not the other way around, and uh, we’re gonna do this song called “Lucille”, which goes a little bit like this. Actually, it goes exactly like this. Except for the mistakes.


  1. The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story of the ’60s TV Pop Sensation (2005), Andrew Sandoval, p. 290.