Les paroles, à la première personne du singulier, évoquent le dur travail de plongeuse dans les villes de Memphis et de La Nouvelle-Orléans, la fierté d'y échapper en prenant un bateau descendant le Mississippi, enfin la solidarité et le sens du partage des gens vivant le long de la rivière.
Proud Mary, également connue sous le nom Rolling on a River, est une chanson rock de Creedence Clearwater Revival influencée par les sonorités du bayou, écrite par le chanteur-compositeur et multi-instrumentiste John Fogerty. Proud Mary est reprise par Ike & Tina Turner qui la classèrent une nouvelle fois au Billboard Hot 100

You know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from us
Nice and easy but there's just one thing
You see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy
We always do it nice and rough
So we're going to take the beginning of this song
And do it easy
Then we're going to do the finish rough
This is the way we do 'Proud Mary'
And we're rolling, rolling, rolling on the river
Listen to the story

Left a good job in the city
Working for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleeping
Worrying 'bout the way that things might have been

Big wheel keep on turning
Proud Mary keep on burning
And we're rolling, rolling
Rolling on the river

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
I pumped a lot of 'tane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
Until I hitched a ride on the riverboat queen

If you come down to the river
I bet you going to find some people who live
And you don't have to worry if you got no money
People on the river are happy to give

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river