We come from that muddy river, funny looking and nearly blind, Colorado River Gila cypha, sipapuvani of the humpback kind,
We survived the ice age floods and droughts when the river was low, But the trouble really started when the Bureau built the dam, thirty-six years ago.
Glen Canyon Dam turned the Colorado River from a warm muddy raging stream, To a regulated river with daily fluctuations and a trophy trout fisherman¹s dream.
But the changes haven¹t been all bad for us fish with the Colorado cold and clear,
And we love those shrimp-like scuds as much as boatmen love their beer.

Bring back the river, set that muddy water free,
We want to frolic and spawn our whole lives long In the shade under Whaler¹s boat,
In the sky blue waters at the mouth of the Little C.

Now we¹re caught between the lies of the river compacts and the lawyers of the crsp.
Selling our natural heritage for hydropower subsidy.
The only way the barons of water and power in the Colorado Basin states
Want to see us is filleted on a sesame bun with tartar sauce on their plates.

But we¹ve got friends in the government to help us out of this mess,
They study us with radio implants, stomach pumps and trammel nets.
As the fishery biologists fight over their portions of the research funding dish,
The Arizona Game and Fish Department has done everything that you can think of to a funny-shaped fish.

Bring back the river,
We¹d beg you on our knees (but we don¹t have knees)
Don¹t walk all over our muddy water home,
Set the Colorado free.

For all the money spent studying us, we could use a couple extra grand,
We want to buy us a humpback time-share condo aquarium in Disneyland.
Bony and the Rounder have a hot scam going on a worm ranch east of Grants,
And Lucy wants the money to try out one of those silicon hump implants.

To all our friends on the water and the rim above river mile sixty-one,
We wish you all a long, full life and a happy spawning run,
But we are fish out of water, and now it¹s time to go,
And the songs of the humpback chub are brought to you
Straight from the heart of the wild Grand Canyon, live from a river called the Colorado.

Bring back the river,
Set that muddy water free
We need floods, warm water, and adaptive management,
Set the Colorado free.

Bring back the river, set that muddy water free,
We want to frolic and spawn our whole lives long
In the shade under Whaler¹s boat,
In the sky blue waters at the mouth of the Little C.

Set the Colorado free,
Set that muddy water free,
Set the Colorado free.

words and music by Larry E. Stevens