Well, God blessed my daddy,
I learned so much from him
You know, he taught me at an early age,
I had to sink or swim
He said, boy, that old river of life
can wash away your dreams
So you gotta keep right on kickin',
son,
swimmin' up the street
Well, before I knew it,
I was out there on the street
That old gal called Lady Luck,
she wasn't kind to me
As a matter of fact,
you could say she was downright mean
She kept me in way over my head,
swimmin' up the street
Swimmin' upstream,
swimmin' upstream
Findin' every inch of the way
for a poor boy's dream
Things will get rough,
times will get lean
But the only choice you've got's
to keep swimmin' upstream
Well,
every time I thought
my ship was coming in
That old tide would turn
and take it back out again
Well if I just lay back and float
I'll be in trouble deep
So I gotta keep workin' at it, kickin' at it,
swimmin' upstream
Swimmin' upstream, swimmin' upstream
If I can never itch in the way
for a poor boy's dream
But things will get to rough,
times will get to mean
But the only choice you've got's
to keep swimmin' upstream
Swimmin' upstream,
swimmin' upstream
I'd never get in the way
for a poor boy's dream
But things will get to rough,
times will get to mean
But the only choice you've got
is to keep swimming upstream
Yes, you gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta,
gotta keep swimming upstream