David Rovics - Hills Of Tennessee lyrics

Beneath the Nashville skyline There on Music Row Songwriters churn out lyrics Behind the laptops' glow Country stars go shopping Looking for the perfect fit A&R men roam the streets Looking for another hit While just a couple hours' drive And a hundred light years from the city They're blowing up the hills of Tennessee The scope of devastation Is a challenge to compare If you've been to Hiroshima Then perhaps you're almost there ‘Cause that's how much dynamite Is used up every week To make barren wasteland From what was once a mountain peak Where all the watersheds and rivers And forests used to be They're blowing up the hills of Tennessee They used to have miners Send them underground But people are expensive So they found a way around Just bomb the hills to hell And buy off the EPA With ten percent the workforce And twenty times the pay Do it in the name of God And private property They're blowing up the hills of Tennessee Like an invisible tsunami Man-made and hidden from our eyes Where every living thing is k**ed And the rest of it just dies For a four inch seam of coal They'll just wipe out life on earth Look on the New York Stock Exchange To see how much it's worth Sam won't be making moonshine No more banjo on his knee They're blowing up the hills of Tennessee And back in Nashville The cancer wards are filling up )They've got to filter the water Before they put it in a cup Can't go vacation on Blair Mountain Not here in real life It's only good for songs now No place to take the wife ‘Cause there's nothing left there But mudslides and misery They're blowing up the hills of Tennessee