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Ballad of the Wrong Way Whale

by Rocky Leplin

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This song is about a real whale who got lost in the Sacramento River Delta in 1985. Robert McKenzie produced it and played guitars.

lyrics

Harken to the story of a humpbacked whale
And how he got all turned around
He started one day from the mouth of S.F. Bay
And no one knows if he knew where he was bound
But soon he was far up the Sacramento River
Lookin’ for adventure I guess
Ladies and gentlemen, lovers of wildlife
Let’s get him out of this mess

Soon from all over the country they came,
Reporters to relay the tale
And the first thing they did was to give him a name
Because they couldn’t just call him Someone the Whale
So they called him Humphrey and phoned in the story
As the whale rescue team tried to turn him around
Back out to the ocean from out of Shag Slough
But it’s not easy to tell a guy what to do
When he weighs eighty thousand pounds

(Chorus)
Wrong Way Humphrey the Whale
Where are you going to now?
The sun’s setting over the ocean
But you aren’t letting that turn you around
You’ll travel the highways of water forever
You knew that you would from the start
Humphrey the Wrong Way Whale, where are you going to?
Humphrey, follow your heart

Someone said Humphrey he must be a she-whale
Just lookin’ for somewhere to calf,
But under water so murky,
It’s much harder to tell than with a giraffe
And other folks they speculated that Humphrey
Was a couple bricks shy of a load
But he wasn’t telling and folks were just guessing;
In the end, nobody knowed

Marine biologists, soldiers and citizens
Converged on the river to herd Humphrey home
And as he passed by Pittsburgh, California
Thousands of people were cheering him on
And now Humphrey’s gone, he’s back in the ocean
But the people who helped him should know
That Humphrey will never forget all your kindness
And will hold you in his heart every wrong way he goes

Repeat Chorus

credits

released October 26, 2021
Robert McKenzie, guitars and studio production

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Rocky Leplin Richmond, California

Rocky Leplin is a singer-songwriter and author who has written 500 songs and eight books, six of them on Amazon, including the rhymed verse epic novel "Humphrey's Long Journey Away From the Sea," the off-world romance musical "The Purpose of the Moon," and "A Psycho's Guide to Animal Companionship." ... more

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