Under my bed is an old banjo
My grandpa played in a dance band aboard
A steam boat they called the susquehanna
Now you won't remember but the susquehanna
Sailed from west end to mandeville
You could take a train to slidell
You could not drive but you could sail
'cross lake pontchartrain on the susquehanna
This was long before
Everybody moved to the north shore
Before the causeway was built
And grandpa was was killed
In the second world war
Now the susquehanna was a paddle steamer
Just like the new camelia
Everybody knows about the new camelia
When she sank it was a big deal here
But no one give a damn about the susquehanna
Under my bed is an old banjo
I don't know how to play it I just to pull it out to show
My friends when the come and I tell them
How my grandpa used to play it on the susquehanna
I don't play the banjo I got a good job I make
A whole lot of money bought a house across the lake
At five o'clock every day
I drive seventy miles an hour across the causeway
I think about the susquehanna and my dad's old man
And how he played the banjo in a dance band
Maybe one day if I take the time
I'll learn to play that banjo of mine
That's under my bed, the old banjo
My grandpa played in a dance band aboard
A steam boat they called the susquehanna
Now you won't remember but the susquehanna
Sailed from west end to mandeville
You could take a train to slidell
You could not drive but you could sail
'cross lake pontchartrain on the susquehanna