Joe and Eddie – Follow the Drinking Gourd is an African-American folk song first published in 1928. The Drinking Gourd is another name for the Big Dipper star system that points to the North Star. Folklore has it that enslaved people in the United States used it as a point of reference heading north so they would not get lost. According to legend, the song was used by a conductor of the Underground Railroad, called Peg Leg Joe, to help fugitive slaves escape to the North and to freedom.

Follow the Drinking Gourd • Joe and Eddie

Track on There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonite (1963)

Follow the drinkin’ gourd
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is comin’ just to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

When the sun comes back, and the first quail calls
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is waiting just to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Follow the drinkin’ gourd
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Well the river bank makes a mighty good road
Dead trees will show you the way
Left foot, peg foot, travelin’ on
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Follow the drinkin’ gourd
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Well the river ends, between two hills
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
There’s another river on the other side
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Follow the drinkin’ gourd
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Well, where the great big river meets the little river
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
The old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

Follow the drinkin’ gourd
Follow the drinkin’ gourd
For the old man is waiting to carry you to freedom
Follow the drinkin’ gourd

For the old man is waiting just to carry you to freedom
If you follow the drinkin’ gourd

Songwriters: Eric Charles Bibb, Linda Joyce Tillery, Dp.