Great Alaska Oil Rush

the news hit the streets and it spread like wild fire
lit up all the headlines and the teletype wires
calling out for fortune in the far off frozen cold
goin’ up to Alaska to mine the black pipeline gold
and they were loading up their cars
payin’ fare to take the trains
and it was black gold fever
that was burning in their brains
in the Great Alaska Oil Rush

poster print and hand bills pasted on the walls
of the job call stations and the union halls
promised high pay wages for those that ply the trade
and take a chance to make a killing where the big money’s made
and they were headed out of the highway
headed north to stake a claim
on the mighty pipeline fields
where they’re cut out across the plains
in the Great Alaska Oil Rush

stock investment brokers sold the fat fiscal shares
to the payroll gamblers and the landed millionaires
corporation kickbacks and side door deals
to pad the pockets of the profiteers and the big shot wheels
mouthpiece preachers
talking progress designs
with the future of the empire
laid out on the line
of the Great Alaska Oil Rush

the lucky ones who made it worked the twelve hour days
workin’ hard to beat the clock to get the payroll raise
while the unlucky others, cut off and stranded
turned away refused, unemployed and empty handed
huddled in the hotels
of the cold water freeze
to join the ranks of the thousand
new Alaskan refugees
of the Great Alaska Oil Rush

hard hated prospectors shoveled on the crews
wearing sub-zero jackets and insulation shoes
diggin’ with Caterpillar tractors muscled in the ditch
eating prime rib and lobster tails fit for the rich
with a maid to do their laundry
and a maid to clean their rooms
ten dollars an hour
scrubbin’ pots and pushin’ brooms
in the Great Alaska Oil Rush

across the high wild tundra, through the forest and the trees
through the valleys and the fields of a million mysteries
the mine field marauders swept through in a wave
dug a trench through the ground to make a junk yard grave
where the throw-away
machinery was thrown off in the blinders
in a garbage dump trail
that was to serve as a reminder
of the Great Alaska Oil Rush

environment protectors shouted their despair
hammered out their voices through the empty hollow air
for the rape and the plunder of the virgin native soil
torn up and gutted in the mighty name of oil
but it was progress for the future
and there was no time to stall
the importance of the project
was the most important thing of all
in the Great Alaska Oil Rush

it was an all out effort and a last chance try
a high stakes gamble at an all time high
to uphold the honor and the patriotic pride
of the two car family and the limousine ride
to the show the whole wide world
they could make it on their own
like the rugged individual
independent and alone
in the Great Alaska Oil Rush

all hail the future of conglomerated dreams
all power to the powerful who deal in gasoline
lo and behold the greatest sight yet to appear
the utmost wonder of the western hemisphere
like the poor fool’s folly
of fanatical need
a monumental overdose
of blind raging greed
in the Great Alaska Oil Rush

but like a joke that the world plays on those that try to trick it
those too big for their britches that they think that they can lick it
the greatest gasoline machine to ever make the fat man drool
left half unconstructed when the trucks ran out of fuel
and like the bones of the dinosaur
plowed under in the plains
the scraps of the skeleton
are all that remain
of the Great Alaska Oil Rush