The Clearwater Pete Seeger

I was sitting on my front porch as I watched the river rot
Thinking about the sturgeon that are gone but not forgot
And the buffalo an restless underneath the prairie sod
And the smoke stacked up to heaven so's it hid the face of God

There were soldiers marching by my door and a tap upon my phone
And a freeway inching toward me that would someday eat my home
And the smokestacks hid a sunset that would never come again
When they brought the Sloop Clearwater a-sailing 'round thе bend

The captain had a mustache that was fourteen inchеs long
And the shanty master paced the deck a-roaring out a song
And the man who held the tiller wore his hair down to his knees
And a hundred tons of canvas billowed out into the breeze

But Redwood trees are crashing down out on the Western coast
And an angry shadowy army follows Crazy Horse's ghost
And the eagle's nest's as barren as the mountain lion's den
On the day the Sloop Clearwater came sailing 'round the bend

The ship cut through the sewage lying on the river's face
And the sloop docked in the garbage that was all around the place
And the crew struck up a hornpipe and the boots rang on the wood
And the sound fell on the river and the river found it good

But there's lightening in the Asian sky and thunder in the slums
You can hear the Indians tuning up their long forgotten drums
Children clap their hands and laugh as men are killing men
On the day the Sloop Clearwater came a-sailing 'round the bend