Oil on the Water

This song was stuck in my head, and I couldn’t rest until it came out, even though it may be a bit crude. And nowadays, it seems the best way to get wide release of a new song is to make it into a youtube video:


The lyrics are after the jump.

BP and halliburton
left from the louisiana seashore
to drill an oil well one mile down
at the bottom of the ocean floor.
Some bonehead in accounting
said that safety gadgets didn’t pay,
so when murphy’s law enforced itself
everything was blown away.
Oil on the water
and blackness in the sky
oil on the water….

They burned down the drilling rig.
It sank like a burning stone.
A hundred twenty six people were on board.
Eleven of them are never coming home
Five thousand barrels of oil each day
are gushing up into the gulf.
They drilled the hole to find this oil
but they don’t know how to turn it off.
Oil on the water
more of it every day, and it won’t go away
oil on the water….

They tried to skim the oil to one spot
and burn it off into the sky.
They sprayed chemicals to make it not look bad
but the oil’s still there and fish still die.
They tried an upside-down funnel
but it wouldn’t work that far down.
Looks like it’s gonna be a long time
that this gusher’s gonna be around.
Oil on the water.
Dead turtles on the shore, there’s sure to be some more.
Oil on the water….

We’ve ended up with a big freaking mess,
blobs of sticky tar everywhere.
the marshes are oily and the beaches are black.
The smell of tar and solvent fills the air.
This seems to happen every twenty years
and we always say we’ll shut ’em down.
But if we keep driving, they’ll keep drilling.
what beach will we sacrifice twenty years from now?
Oil on the water
When is it gonna end? This stuff has got to end.
Oil on the water…

4 thoughts on “Oil on the Water

  1. Would love to have a mp3 of this song so I could play it on our radio show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com

    We live in Mobile, Alabama we see this every day on T.V. and with our own eyes on our beaches. And yes, something Has to be done to put an end to this. As you said, What will happen in the next 20 years. How bad does it have to be before we come together and do something to stop it.

    Raven

    • Ladiraven: We could make an mp3, but musically, it’s not our proudest moment (It would’ve taken a couple of extra days to give it a proper “polish”, but we wanted to release it quickly). If you still want it anyway, let us know.

      Thanks for your encouragement, and good luck.
      —-
      Obbie

  2. Over the past few weeks the more that comes out of this spill the angry I get. I moved to Mobile just this past March. From a town in Michigan. Unless you are directly effected by this spill, you just have no idea what it is doing to the people here.

    Become more aware of those folks that are truely suffering. Not to mention the ecosystem that is going to suffer long after they “fix” it.

    Truely sad and disheartening.

  3. hey! great lyrics. i’m in a populist protest band. we might be interested in ‘covering’ your lyrics/song. are you claiming any rights?

    check out our songs at synisterdane.com

    way to go!!

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