The book that I wrote won't cross no ocean,
The book that I wrote... (etc)

The story:

I heard this song many times over the years on record stations playing golden oldies and could never fathom out why she appeared to be making such a strange statement. Wasn't it obvious that a book would get all soggy in the water?

I suppose I always had a suspicion that I must have misheard it but it took the advent of the world wide web and an internet search to realise just how far off I was.