Ray Stevens Lyrics
"Mississippi Squirrel Revival"

Verse 1

Well when I was kid I'd take a trip every summer down to Mississippi.
To visit my granny in her ante bellum world.
I'd run barefooted all day long, climbing trees free as a song.
One day I happened catch myself a squirrel.
Well I stuffed him down in an old shoebox,
Punched a couple holes in the top and when Sunday came,
I snuck him in the church.
I was sittin' way back in the very last pew
Showin' him to my good buddy Hugh,
When that squirrel got loose and went totally berserk!

Well what happened next is hard to tell.
Some thought it was Heaven others thought it was Hell.
But the fact that something was among us was plain to see.
As the choir sang "I Surrender All"
The squirrel ran up Harv Newman's coveralls
Harv leaped to his feet and said, "Somethin's got a hold on me!"
YEOW!

Chorus

The day the squirrel went berserk in the First Self-Righteous Church
In that sleepy little town of Pascagoula.
It was a fight for survival, that broke out in revival.
They were jumpin' pews and shoutin' Hallelujah!

Verse 2

Well Harv hit the aisles dancin' and screamin'
Some thought he had religion, others thought he had a demon
Harv thought he had a weed eater loose in his fruit of the looms.
He fell to his knees to plead and beg
And that squirrel ran out of his britches leg,
Unobserved to the other side of the room.

All the way down to the Amen pew
Where sat Sister Bertha "Better than you"
Who had been watching all the commotion with sadistic glee.
Should've seen the look in her eyes
When that squirrel jumped her garters and crossed her thighs.
She jumped to her feet and said, "Lord have mercy on me!"
As that squirrel made laps inside her dress,
She began to cry and then to confess
To sins that would make a sailor blush with shame.

She told of gossip and church dissension,
But the thing that got the most attention
Is when she talked about her love life
And then she started namin' names!

Chorus

The day the squirrel went berserk in the First Self-Righteous Church
In that sleepy little town of Pascagoula.
It was a fight for survival that broke out in revival.
They were jumpin' pews and shoutin' Hallelujah!

Verse 3

Well seven deacons and then the pastor got saved
And 25,000 dollars was raised.
And 50 volunteered for missions in the Congo on the spot.
And even without an invitation
There were at least 500 rededications.
And we all got rebaptised whether we needed it or not.

Now you've heard the Bible story I guess
How He parted the waters for Moses to pass.
Oh the miracles God has brought in this ol' world.
But the one I'll remember to my dyin' day
Is how he put that church back on the narrow way
With a half crazed Mississippi Squirrel

The day the squirrel went berserk in the First Self-Righteous Church
Of that sleepy little town of Pascagoula.
It was a fight for survival that broke out in revival.
They were jumpin' pews and shoutin' Hallelujah! 2X