At one point there were evergreens In this part of the state But I always knew it as some kind of a miserable wasteland In the 50s on McKinley Hill Mr. Senator you made room For 17 houses, a reservoir, and a sulphur mine It’s an old familiar story That you keep behind a door But someday someone’s gonna wanna Even up the score But the rug you swept it under Wasn’t even yours to begin with First came the strugglin’ Then came the pills Both of them were brought here Against the people’s wills They’re addicted to the hard stuff A product of your theft You’d drink a fifth of something If it’s cleaner than the water that is left At one point there were eagles here Dancing in the trees But the pit of the mine it drowned them in a poison lakebed
Mr. Senator I beg of you Bear witness to this place The decaying earth, and the decaying town beside it It’s an old familiar story That you’ve likely heard revised But you don’t know the agony Till you see it with your eyes In Washington you billed them But the people out here can’t pay it now First came the strugglin’ Then came the pills Both of them were brought here Against the people’s wills They’re addicted to the hard stuff A product of your theft You’d drink a fifth of something If it’s cleaner than the water that is left I bet you’d drink a fifth of something If it’s cleaner than the water that is left I bet you’d drink a fifth of something If it’s cleaner than the water that is left