Oregon Landslide

there’s a donation jar on a cafe counter in a little Oregon town
for the children who lost their parents when the mountainside came down
and you put in your folding dollar bill and you go along your way
and you wonder to yourself how it got to be that way
how it got to be that way

then you see the mills and the work yards with the logs all stacked in rows
and you know it’s timber country and that’s how the money flows
and you see the dark green forests a hundred miles wide
with their roots all intertwined holding up the mountainside
holding up the mountainside

there was a family lived on the mountainside in the beautiful evergreen shadow
and when the company came to clear cut they new there was gonna be trouble
they took every standing tree as far as could be seen
they must’ve made a fortune when they picked that mountain clean
when they picked that mountain clean

there were those who cried a warning with what little voice they had
but the logic of the dollar is a logic that’s gone mad
with their futures held to ransom and the ax all set to fall
they would not be satisfied until they took it all
until they took it all

it rains every winter in Oregon and the river gives rise to a flood tide
if it hadn’t of been for the clear cut there never would of been a landslide
there never would of been a landslide and the mountain never would’ve come down
and there never would’ve been such a tragedy in that little Oregon town
in that little Oregon town

for there were no trees to hold up that dreadful deadly flow
when a million tons of mud and rock came crashing down below
turned the children into orphans with their parents trapped inside
it was murder by profit and that’s how those people died
that’s how those people died

so many came to the funeral and many tears were shed
and many words were spoken and this is what they said
“if there’s justice in this world then let that justice be
for the landslide came from the clear cut and the clear cut came from the company
it came from the company”

there’s a donation jar on a cafe counter in a little Oregon town
for the children who lost their parents when the mountainside came down
and you put in your folding dollar bill and you go along your way
and you wonder to yourself how it got to be that way
how it got to be that way