we're filling up the Earth with GARBAGE . . .

[OneBlueSky]

GARBAGE
by Bill Steele; 4th verse by Pete Seeger and Mike Agranoff (1977)

Mister Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potato
Then he leaves the bone and gristle and he never eats the skins;
The busboy comes and takes it, with a cough contaminates it
And puts it in a can with coffee grinds and sardine tins;
The truck comes by on Friday and carts it all away;
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the Bay, oh,

Garbage (garbage, garbage, garbage) Garbage!
We're filling up the sea with garbage (garbage. . .)
What will we do when there's no place left
To put all the garbage? (garbage. . .)

Mr. Thompson starts his Cadillac and winds it down the freeway track
Leaving friends and neighbors in a hydro-carbon haze;
He's joined by lots of smaller cars all sending gases to the stars.
There they form a seething cloud that hangs for thirty days.
And the sun licks down into it with an ultraviolet tongue.
Till it turns to smog and settles down and ends up in our lungs, oh,

Garbage (garbage. . .) Garbage!
We're filling up the sky with garbage (garbage. . .)
What will we do
When there's nothing left to breathe but garbage (garbage. . .)

Getting home and taking off his shoes he settles down with the evening news,
While the kids do homework with the TV in one ear
While Superman for the thousandth time sells talking dolls and conquers crime
Dutifully they learn the date of birth of Paul Revere.
In the paper there's a piece about the mayor's middle name,
And he gets it done in time to watch the all-star bingo game, oh,

Garbage (garbage. . .)
We're filling up our minds with garbage
Garbage (garbage. . .)
What will we do when there's nothing left to read
And there's nothing left to need
And there's nothing left to watch
And there's nothing left to touch
And there's nothing left to walk upon
And there's nothing left to talk upon
Nothing left to see
And there's nothing left to be but
Garbage (garbage. . .)

In Mister Thompson's factory, they're making plastic Christmas trees
Complete with silver tinsel and a geodesic stand
The plastic's mixed in giant vats from some conglomeration
That's been piped from deep within the earth or strip-mined from the land.
And if you question anything, they say, "Why, don't you see?
It's absolutely needed for the economy," oh,

Oh, Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!
Their stocks and their bonds -- all garbage!
Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!
What will they do when their system goes to smash
There's no value to their cash
There's no money to be made
But there's a world to be repaid
Their kids will read in history books
About financiers and other crooks
And feudalism, and slavery
And nukes and all their knavery
To history's dustbin they're consigned
Along with many other kinds of garbage.
Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

(c) William Steele. Copyright assigned 1992 to the Rainbow Collection, Ltd.

Pete Seeger Appreciation Page
http://www.peteseeger.net

[Junkdrawer]

1. I heard Pete sing that live at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Protest...

Circa 1978...

[OneBlueSky]

3. hey, I was there too! . . .

hadn't seen Pete in awhile, and was able to chat with him for a few minutes before his set . . . I also enjoyed Bright Morning Star and Tom Rush that day . . . and those yellow-clad monks chanting on the hillside . . . :)

[illinoisprogressive]

2. with things like potato skins, us gardeners know...

that this is good things. It is something that breaks down to something that feeds the plants. Coffee grinds are very popular to put around the plants.
I understand the jist of your article but, thought it should not be confused with some of the good things with garbage. When you add your scraps to your mulch bin it breaks down into black gold. Very rich mulch.

[OneBlueSky]

4. trust me, Pete Seeger is a big supporter of composting . . .

in fact, following the death of Lee Hays, his partner in the Weavers, he and other friends accommodated his wishes and had his ashes mixed into Lee's compost pile . . . his favorite line was something like "everytime you eat something from my garden and take a good dump, you can say 'there goes Lee again'" . . . :)