Written by Randy Newman in 1975, about a flood that covered much of Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana in 1927. Newman's mother grew up in New Orleans, and Randy spent summers there until he was 11 years old. The song addresses the deceitful manner in which New Orleans's municipal government managed the flood of 1927, as the lyrics state, "The guys who ran the Mardi Gras, the bosses in New Orleans decided the course of that flood. You know, they cut a hole in the levee and it flooded the cotton fields."