I used to wake up every morning saying I must be getting away with something here
Every day was like parole before the levees overflowed; I refuse to think it could all just disappear (I refuse to think)
How long before the street car rattles down St. Charles Avenue and beads swing from two hundred year old trees
How long before they walk down long Lake Pontratrain with the smell of just magnolia on the breeze
Yeah I've seen people laughing all the way down to the cemeteries just to send another soul off on its way
Yeah I've seen them dance right up to the edge of it
But this time their gonna dance back from the grave
Dance back
Dance back
Dance back
Dance back from the grave
Well a thousand souls crossed over and they were greeted by an all-star band
And while the saints go marching in there's still hell to pay back down in Dixie Land
Yeah the storms are headed south again and the hour's getting pretty late
Somebody better build that levee its already Mardi Gras at heavens gate (yeah)
Dance back
Dance back
Dance back
Dance back from the grave
Dance back
Dance back
Get your tambourines, slide trombones
And dance back from the grave
Oh yeah, ooh yeah, ooh yeah
So don't shed a tear for them tonight as they circle and swoop and promenade
They're just carrying their torches and marching in a heavenly parade
No don't shed a tear but take their cue there's only one thing left to do in the name of every soul we didn't save
From the ninth ward to the quarter to the Mississippi border dance back from the grave
Dance back
Dance back
Dance back
Dance back from the grave
Dance back
Dance back
Get your tambourines, slide trombones
And dance back from the grave
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Get your tambourines, slide trombones
And dance back from the grave