Union Songs

Talkin' Global Warming Blues

A Song by Smokey Dymny©Smokey Dymny 2002

- [play]

If you want to get to heaven let me tell you what to do
Just mix yourself some industrial stew
Slop it all over your lovely land,
Then export it to others, that's the plan
And when you're done - you'll be ex-tinct.... I mean gone....
Like the dinos & the dodos

So, how'd we get into this awful mess....
I mean, can't we rely on scientists?
To tell us how to stay away from trouble
And fix those problems on the double?
I mean why not have solar & wind power.... ecological farms...
Electric cars.... NO cars.

Well, y'know big business is slow to change
And to slow things more they try t'arrange it
So's politicians owe them lots for being elected & being big shots
At least they act like big shots....
You & I know who pulls their chains.

So, if an oil company owns a president,
He ain't likely to call for disarmament,
'Cause there's nothing Big Oil likes more'n War
What else are all those big vehi-cules for? Than
Ridin'all over the desert....dropping bombs...
All lookin' for one guy.... I mean.....
200,000 soldiers all out lookin' for one guy
John Wayne must be rollin' in his grave!
Now the problem in the rest of the Global Village
Is that nobody's looking at the dire image
Of ocean's rising - forests burning...
Why think of that when you're all yearning for a trip to Cuba...
Or someplace else warm.... like Tuktuyutuk.

But this rapid warming ain't the only bother
This warming could bring heavy cloud cover
And just a little later it'd get real cold
And the sun won't see through the clouds, we're told
Then we'll have another ice age .... within just a few years....
Fa - st - frozen Toronto. (Vancouver)

I mean, you can forget your cottage in the Kawarthas (Okanagan)
You'll be wearin' year-round, goose-down parkas
(You'll be ridin' year-round on an old toboggan)
You'll have mile thick ice on your favourite lake
To go to Mississippi you'll be wearin' skates
Just follow the Erie Canal... on your ice boat... go visit Bush.

Maybe this makes you all kinda shocked
And you ask: "Why doesn't our government act?"
But I already told you, they're told what to do,
By corporations more powerful than you.
So maybe you should start to protest....I mean yell at those guys...
The who-ole lot of them.

And there's lots of practical things you can do,
Like sell your car...... buy walking shoes...... shop organic......
Ride a bike...... buy local produce..... and learn more too.
Find out who makes all the bad decisions...
And get rid of them...... right NOW! Mar. 2002

Notes

Many thanks to Smokey Dymny for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.

Smokey Dymny writes
"After writing a few other ant-war songs I wanted one which connected this war to everything which was happening to the climate. I borrowed the old talking blues format which needs to be revived occasionally. When I use an old song like this I like to 'borrow' some of the original words and put them in the new verses just to acknowledge where it came from.
The "Original Talking Blues" comes from a John Greenway, album. Folkways FH 5232.
It began with the words:
"If you want to get to heaven let me tell you how to do it:
Grease your feet in a little mutton suet,
Slide right out of the devil's hand,
And ooze right over to the Promised Land,
Go easy. Make it easy. Go greasy."
This seemed like an appropriate tune for a song about oil."

"Smokey's voice is a pork chop with a little bit of road dirt."- Art Farquharson
http://radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/Smokey
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$17 Cdn, to this address, includes postage.
Smokey Dymny
Box 745, Quathiaski Cove, B.C.
V0P 1N0, Canada
phone: 250-285-2447

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