Dave Lippman, Paula Rogovin, Mark Greenberg
Heavy, volatile fracked oil from North Dakota travels in flimsy, outmoded rail cars across the country, through communities, over reservoirs, and from time to time derails and blows up, killing scores in Ontario, exploding and burning in Illinois, Alabama, Virginia,…THIS is sustainable energy?! Lyrics (parts 1&2 by Dave Lippman, part 3 by Paula Rogovin; Mark Greenberg, guitar on pt 3).
Pardon me boys, is that the bakken frackin’ oil train?
Right on track by my house
Endangering my spouse and cat & parakeet, I gotta tweet
I can’t afford the stored explosive crude that rolls there
It isn’t fair, & they don’t seem to care
It leaves the North Dakota bakken Yes that is where they drill
Our neighborhood is burned & blackened when there’s a spill
30 trains a week, we’re really up a creek
Derailment and defilement, is that what we seek?
When you see us demonstratin’
Maybe you should
Not wait until it blows then it’s too late, it’s no good
Frackin’ in the bakken
Our anger musn’t slacken
Woo, woo! Whoosh there goes the neighborhood
There’s gonna be a little party at the station
We’ll be makin’ our case
This train is such a disgrace
We’re gonna cry
And tell the CSX folks they can’t roam
Over our reservoir, we’re gonna send them on home
I hear that train a comin’
Across the reservoir
Our water source is pure and clean
Cause the oil ain’t spilled – so far
I’m stuck with frackin’ oil trains
That oil can really blaze
But that train keeps a-rolling
Right through our waterways
When I was just a baby
My mama told me, “Dude
Always keep a clean train
Don’t load it up with crude”
But this oil train’s a casino
They’re gambling with our lives
When I hear that whistle blowin’
I raise my fist and cry
I bet there’s rich folks cheatin’ us
with volatile bomb trains
Blowin’ up communities
For ill-gotten gains
Well as long as they keep comin’
I know I can’t be free
But those bomb trains keep a-movin’
And that’s what tortures me
Well when the people have arisen
Will the railroad hear our yell
Will they snap out of it, break that
hydrocarbon spell
Convert to safer sources
Outgrow this crude oil scene
For the planet and the people
You know it’s time to go green
Oil trains, oil trains passing by
We’re endangered, can’t stand by
The Gov. won’t tell when Bakken’s flowin’
He won’t tell the comin’s and goin’s
In Quebec an oil train rode
That Bakken oil train did explode
Forty-seven good people lost their lives
Listen, you’ll still hear their loved ones cry
In Lynchburg, Virginia an oil train rode
It fell off the tracks, and it did explode
Toxins got on the ground and in the water supply
Listen, you’ll still hear the wildlife cry
Don’t want those Bakken oil trains here
We think people’s lives are way too dear
It’s time that we start thinking green
And keep our air, soil, and water clean
Thanks to Harry Warren, Mark Gordon, Johnny Cash and Elizabeth Cotten
