I originally wrote this in probably 2006, but then just kinda filed it away and forgot about it. Thanks in part to what some are calling The Great Pause (coronavirus lockdown, etc.) I've had time to revisit a lot of these unfinished projects. So you could say I've been waiting 14 years to share this with someone!!! (OK, well I was doing some other stuff during those 14 years too.)

FYI, It didn't really happen; it's a metaphor. Even though it easily COULD HAVE happened.

P.S. I didn't realize when I went in to record it I was going to go for the lower octave... it kinda just happened. After I got back into editing I checked it out and that's a Bb... two half steps BELOW low C. I definitely have never recorded myself singing that low before!

Oh, I went out walking with my girl one day
Came to a stream and had no way
to step across. It was not far, I say
Just barely out of reach.

All it would take was a little hop
But the banks were steep and a bit of a drop
So she stood there quivering at the top
And she would not cross that breach.

She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
There was no way.

She didn't really want to walk all the way back,
But she couldn't go forward, for a lack
of courage, so she sat there on the track.
There was nothing I could say.

She tried to stretch and tried to bend
But no matter what she did she could not win
Then she slipped on the edge and fell right in
And went splashing down the way.

She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
So she fell down!

She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
So she fell down!

(instrumental)

Well I ran downstream and got the girl,
Lookin like a drowned cat 'n hating the world
Her moss-filled hair had lost its curl,
She was soggy and distraught.

"Just put me over there!" she cried,
But I couldn't get her out on the other side
See, the bank was steep, no matter how I tried
We were stuck in the very same spot.

But,
She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
So she fell down!

She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
So she fell down!

I said, "Now, there's a time for caution,
And there's a time for watchin',
But now's the time for launchin!"
There's nothing more that I can do.

And so at last I left her there
Yelling at the empty air
Honestly, I no longer care
She'll jump when she wants to.

She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
So she fell down!

She would not jump
She would not jump
She would not jump
So she fell down!