"Oh the engine's gone dead," cried the men who work there
|
And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware
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Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away
|
And they penned that report, "The Big Spill" on that day
|
|
It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
|
Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore
|
There were geese in the marshes out looking for food
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They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude
|
|
And it's oil, oil
|
Ah, drifting to the sea
|
Oil, oil
|
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
|
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be
|
|
In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
|
There's a ship run aground full of oil, we were told
|
In a week's worth of rough winter weather and waves
|
The boat started cracking and it could not be saved
|
|
It was seven-point-six million gallons this time
|
Consider the danger and think of the crime
|
As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
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Over hundred-miles and yes, it came deep, it came wide
|
|
And it's oil, oil
|
Oil pouring in the sea
|
Oil, oil
|
Oh, don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
|
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be
|
|
There's talk of some writing found in the ship's log
|
Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job
|
And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy
|
Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by
|
|
And you know it's oil, oil
|
Yeah, pouring in the sea
|
Oil, oil
|
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
|
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be
|
Yeahhh
|
|
Now both of these ships, like a great many more
|
Got registered in through Liberian doors
|
Inspections are quick and regulations are few
|
Just sign on the line and go find you a crew, yes
|
|
One of these ships was the Olympic Games
|
The Argo Merchant was the other one's name
|
Well it's sad, but it's true, things got worse for the seas
|
'Cause I ain't even mentioned Amoco Cadiz
|
|
Amoco Cadiz, between England and France
|
The big super tanker out there taking it's chance
|
With its one-hundred-thousand black tons of the slime
|
Amoco Cadiz spilled the most of all time
|
|
Yes, ya' know it's oil, oil
|
Man, it's creepin' in the sea
|
Oil, oil
|
Oh, don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
|
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be
|
|
Now down in the Gulf east of Mexico Way
|
There's something gone wrong, so the papers all say
|
A Mexican oil well is leaking it's goo
|
They say it's the worse that things have ever come to
|
|
Yes it's gallons of sludge, sixty-million and more
|
It's cruising and oozing towards many a shore
|
Yes, things have got bad but they will probably get worse
|
If you can't drink the oil, oh, you might, you might die of thirst
|
|
Because it's oil, it's oil
|
And it's creeping in the sea
|
Oil, oil
|
Don't buy it at the station, you can have it now for free
|
Just come on down to the shoreline where the water used to be
|
|
-----------------
|
The Oil Song
|
| Steve Forbert |
