"Oh the engine's gone dead," cried the men who work there
And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware
Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away
And they penned that report, "The big spill" on that day
It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore
There were geese in the marshes out looking for food
They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude
And it's oil, oil
Ah, drifting to the sea
Oil, oil
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be
In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
Was a ship run aground full of oil, we were told
In a week's worth of rough winter weather and waves
The boat started cracking and it could not be saved
It was seven-point-six million gallons this time
Consider the danger and think of the crime
As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
Over one hundred-miles and yes, it came deep, it came wide
And it's oil, oil
Oil pouring in the sea
Oil, oil
Oh, don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be
There's talk of some writing found in the ship's log
Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job
And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy
Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by
And you know it's oil, oil
Yeah, pouring in the sea
Oil, oil
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be, yeah
Now both of these ships, like a great many more
Got registered in through Liberian doors
Inspections are quick and regulations are few
Just sign on the line and go find you a crew, yes
One of these ships was the Olympic Games
The Argo Merchant was the other one's name
Well, it's sad, but it's true, things got worse for the seas
'Cause I ain't even mentioned Amoco Cadiz
Amoco Cadiz, between England and France
The big super tanker out there taking it's chance
Within one hundred thousand black tons of the slime
Amoco Cadiz spilled the most of all time
Yes, you know it's oil, oil
Man, it's creepin' in the sea
Oil, oil
Oh, don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be
Now down in the Gulf east of Mexico way
There's something gone wrong, so the papers all say
A Mexican oil well is leaking it's goo
They say it's the worse that things have ever come to
Yes, it's gallons of sludge, sixty million and more
It's cruising and oozing towards many a shore
Yes, things have got bad but they will probably get worse
If you can't drink the oil, oh, you might, you might die of thirst
Because it's oil, it's oil
And it's creeping in the sea
Oil, oil
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be, yeah
And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware
Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away
And they penned that report, "The big spill" on that day
It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore
There were geese in the marshes out looking for food
They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude
And it's oil, oil
Ah, drifting to the sea
Oil, oil
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be
In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
Was a ship run aground full of oil, we were told
In a week's worth of rough winter weather and waves
The boat started cracking and it could not be saved
It was seven-point-six million gallons this time
Consider the danger and think of the crime
As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
Over one hundred-miles and yes, it came deep, it came wide
And it's oil, oil
Oil pouring in the sea
Oil, oil
Oh, don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be
There's talk of some writing found in the ship's log
Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job
And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy
Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by
And you know it's oil, oil
Yeah, pouring in the sea
Oil, oil
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be, yeah
Now both of these ships, like a great many more
Got registered in through Liberian doors
Inspections are quick and regulations are few
Just sign on the line and go find you a crew, yes
One of these ships was the Olympic Games
The Argo Merchant was the other one's name
Well, it's sad, but it's true, things got worse for the seas
'Cause I ain't even mentioned Amoco Cadiz
Amoco Cadiz, between England and France
The big super tanker out there taking it's chance
Within one hundred thousand black tons of the slime
Amoco Cadiz spilled the most of all time
Yes, you know it's oil, oil
Man, it's creepin' in the sea
Oil, oil
Oh, don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be
Now down in the Gulf east of Mexico way
There's something gone wrong, so the papers all say
A Mexican oil well is leaking it's goo
They say it's the worse that things have ever come to
Yes, it's gallons of sludge, sixty million and more
It's cruising and oozing towards many a shore
Yes, things have got bad but they will probably get worse
If you can't drink the oil, oh, you might, you might die of thirst
Because it's oil, it's oil
And it's creeping in the sea
Oil, oil
Don't buy it at the station
You can have it now for free
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be, yeah
Contributed by Bartleby - 2011/1/10 - 10:18
Language: English
La canzone attualizzata da Forbert nel 2010.
Vi si fa riferimento, fra gli altri, ai disastri petroliferi della Exxon Valdez (Alaska, 1989, tra i 38 e i 121 milioni di litri di greggio a mare), a quelli delle due guerre del Golfo, a quello della petroliera Prestige (Galizia, 2002, 75 milioni di litri di greggio), a quelli che inquinarono il Delaware, dopo “The Big Spill” del 1975, ancora nel 1985, e poi ancora nel 1989 e di nuovo nel 2004, a quello causato dai bombardamenti israeliani nella guerra contro il Libano del 2006, quando fu colpito il terminale energetico libanese di Jiyeh, un disastro ecologico nel mar Mediterraneo fortemente voluto e accuratamente realizzato da Tel Aviv, comparabile nella proporzione dei danni a quello della Exxon Valdez del 1989… Gli israeliani, dopo aver colpito, ovviamente impedirono dal cielo e dal mare ai libanesi di intervenire per cercare di spegnere l’immenso rogo, che durò 10 giorni, e limitare il disastro…
L'ultima strofa fa ovviamente riferimento al recente incidente della piattaforma petrolifera Deepwater Horizon nel Golfo del Messico...
Ne abbiamo già parlato a proposito di God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You, ultima fatica dell'infaticabile, vecchio Pete Seeger.
Vi si fa riferimento, fra gli altri, ai disastri petroliferi della Exxon Valdez (Alaska, 1989, tra i 38 e i 121 milioni di litri di greggio a mare), a quelli delle due guerre del Golfo, a quello della petroliera Prestige (Galizia, 2002, 75 milioni di litri di greggio), a quelli che inquinarono il Delaware, dopo “The Big Spill” del 1975, ancora nel 1985, e poi ancora nel 1989 e di nuovo nel 2004, a quello causato dai bombardamenti israeliani nella guerra contro il Libano del 2006, quando fu colpito il terminale energetico libanese di Jiyeh, un disastro ecologico nel mar Mediterraneo fortemente voluto e accuratamente realizzato da Tel Aviv, comparabile nella proporzione dei danni a quello della Exxon Valdez del 1989… Gli israeliani, dopo aver colpito, ovviamente impedirono dal cielo e dal mare ai libanesi di intervenire per cercare di spegnere l’immenso rogo, che durò 10 giorni, e limitare il disastro…
L'ultima strofa fa ovviamente riferimento al recente incidente della piattaforma petrolifera Deepwater Horizon nel Golfo del Messico...
Ne abbiamo già parlato a proposito di God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You, ultima fatica dell'infaticabile, vecchio Pete Seeger.
THE OIL SONG (2010 UPDATE)
“Oh, the engine’s gone dead!” cried the men who were there
And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware;
Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away
And they did not report the big spill on that day.
It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore;
There were geese in the marshes out looking for food,
They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude!
And it’s oil, oil,
Drifting to the sea;
An' it's oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
Was a ship run aground, full of oil we were told;
In a week’s worth of rough winter weather and waves,
The boat started cracking and it could not be saved.
It was seven point six million gallons this time---
Consider the danger and think of the crime
As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
Over one hundred miles, it came deep, it came wide!
It was oil! oil!
Pouring in the sea;
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
One of these ships was the Olympic Games;
The Argo Merchant was the other one’s name.
It’s sad but it’s true, things got worse for the seas,
Along came a craft called Amoco Cadiz---
Amoco Cadiz between England and France,
Big supertanker out taking a chance
With his one hundred thousand black tons of the slime,
Amoco Cadiz spilt the most of all time!
People, oil! oil!
Creeping in the sea!
It was oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Gallons of sludge, sixty million and more!
Sleazin' and easin'; towards many a shore;
A Mexican oil well went leaking its goo----
At that time the worst things had ever come to!
It was oil, oil,
Creepin' in the sea;
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Hey, the captain's now free and his case it is closed,
The Exxon Valdez wrecked itself I suppose;
What's left of the life in the Prince William Sound
Might not condone what our court of law found!
And it’s oil! oil!
Creeping in the sea!
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Saddam Hussein was a pretty strange man,
Look what he's done for his trusting homeland,
With sanctions and bombing he'd no way to sell
Crude from his captured Kuwaiti oil wells;
He sat down to think and came up with a scheme---
One that he thought might protect his regime;
Covered the Gulf in a blanket of black
Thought it might hold a few battleships back!
It was oil, oil,
Creepin' in the sea,
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Registered in through Liberian doors,
Passin' the Shetlands near Scotland's cold shores,
A single-hulled ship with his engine broke down
Drifted five hours and then ran aground
Right where the wildlife preserve chanced to be
And twenty million more gallons got free.
But don't worry, folks, "It's light crude!," they did say,
"It'll prob'ly break up and be gone right away!"
And it’s oil, oil,
Drifting to the sea;
An' it's oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
They're banning those single-hulled tankers we hear,
Phasin' 'em out in the next sev'ral years;
There's one called The Prestige won't be junked in that heap,
It stalled off of Spain and it sank down the deep;
One million gallons of fuel reached the beach,
Nineteen more sank in some tanks that weren't breached;
If air's trapped inside 'em they'll burst any day,
If not, they'll just sit there to rust and decay…
Till it's oil! oil!
Creepin'' in the sea...
The Delaware River was back in distress,
This time the captain did not cause the mess;
The paint on his ship was the same as the type
That divers found scraped on a fifteen-foot pipe;
Therefore the pipe was the cause of the hole,
The hole in his hull was beyond his control;
Hey, whomever knows how that pipe got stuck there---
Thanks for the half-million-gallon nightmare!
Which was oil, oil,
Yeah, creepin' to the sea,
It was oil. it was oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
The Israeli Army was bombing Beirut
Cause Hezbollah kidnapped some Israeli troops;
The Lebanese oil was in tanks near the sea
Cause that's where those oil storage tanks tend to be;
The Israeli bombs hit the tanks on the shore,
The oil isn't stored in those tanks anymore;
The Mediterranean tourism buzz
As per The Holy Land ain't what it was!
Now it's oil, an' it's oil,
Creepin' in the sea,
It was oil. it was oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
A barge full of oil hit a tanker last night,
The good news I guess is the tanker’s alright;
The barge broke in two and so old New Orleans
Got stuck with what newscaster teams call a “sheen”
The riverfront walk was a-funk, yeah, with fumes,
The Coast Guard was rollin' out red plastic booms
To block off the spill and contain it … (good luck!)
Four hundred thousand thick gallons of muck!
It was oil, oil,
Creepin' to the sea,
It was oil. it was oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
We're pumpin' out petrol, no matter what cost
And now that eleven men's lives have been lost
The price is as high as rig workers can pay—
Payin' the price for the U.S. of A.
A deepwater rig called Horizon went down,
No way to seal off its pipe has been found;
So south Louisianans all wait for to see
Just what the landfall of this spill will be. . .
People, oil, an' it's oil,
Creepin' in the sea,
Don't buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
“Oh, the engine’s gone dead!” cried the men who were there
And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware;
Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away
And they did not report the big spill on that day.
It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore
Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore;
There were geese in the marshes out looking for food,
They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude!
And it’s oil, oil,
Drifting to the sea;
An' it's oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals
Was a ship run aground, full of oil we were told;
In a week’s worth of rough winter weather and waves,
The boat started cracking and it could not be saved.
It was seven point six million gallons this time---
Consider the danger and think of the crime
As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide
Over one hundred miles, it came deep, it came wide!
It was oil! oil!
Pouring in the sea;
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
One of these ships was the Olympic Games;
The Argo Merchant was the other one’s name.
It’s sad but it’s true, things got worse for the seas,
Along came a craft called Amoco Cadiz---
Amoco Cadiz between England and France,
Big supertanker out taking a chance
With his one hundred thousand black tons of the slime,
Amoco Cadiz spilt the most of all time!
People, oil! oil!
Creeping in the sea!
It was oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Gallons of sludge, sixty million and more!
Sleazin' and easin'; towards many a shore;
A Mexican oil well went leaking its goo----
At that time the worst things had ever come to!
It was oil, oil,
Creepin' in the sea;
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Hey, the captain's now free and his case it is closed,
The Exxon Valdez wrecked itself I suppose;
What's left of the life in the Prince William Sound
Might not condone what our court of law found!
And it’s oil! oil!
Creeping in the sea!
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Saddam Hussein was a pretty strange man,
Look what he's done for his trusting homeland,
With sanctions and bombing he'd no way to sell
Crude from his captured Kuwaiti oil wells;
He sat down to think and came up with a scheme---
One that he thought might protect his regime;
Covered the Gulf in a blanket of black
Thought it might hold a few battleships back!
It was oil, oil,
Creepin' in the sea,
Oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Registered in through Liberian doors,
Passin' the Shetlands near Scotland's cold shores,
A single-hulled ship with his engine broke down
Drifted five hours and then ran aground
Right where the wildlife preserve chanced to be
And twenty million more gallons got free.
But don't worry, folks, "It's light crude!," they did say,
"It'll prob'ly break up and be gone right away!"
And it’s oil, oil,
Drifting to the sea;
An' it's oil, oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
They're banning those single-hulled tankers we hear,
Phasin' 'em out in the next sev'ral years;
There's one called The Prestige won't be junked in that heap,
It stalled off of Spain and it sank down the deep;
One million gallons of fuel reached the beach,
Nineteen more sank in some tanks that weren't breached;
If air's trapped inside 'em they'll burst any day,
If not, they'll just sit there to rust and decay…
Till it's oil! oil!
Creepin'' in the sea...
The Delaware River was back in distress,
This time the captain did not cause the mess;
The paint on his ship was the same as the type
That divers found scraped on a fifteen-foot pipe;
Therefore the pipe was the cause of the hole,
The hole in his hull was beyond his control;
Hey, whomever knows how that pipe got stuck there---
Thanks for the half-million-gallon nightmare!
Which was oil, oil,
Yeah, creepin' to the sea,
It was oil. it was oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
The Israeli Army was bombing Beirut
Cause Hezbollah kidnapped some Israeli troops;
The Lebanese oil was in tanks near the sea
Cause that's where those oil storage tanks tend to be;
The Israeli bombs hit the tanks on the shore,
The oil isn't stored in those tanks anymore;
The Mediterranean tourism buzz
As per The Holy Land ain't what it was!
Now it's oil, an' it's oil,
Creepin' in the sea,
It was oil. it was oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
A barge full of oil hit a tanker last night,
The good news I guess is the tanker’s alright;
The barge broke in two and so old New Orleans
Got stuck with what newscaster teams call a “sheen”
The riverfront walk was a-funk, yeah, with fumes,
The Coast Guard was rollin' out red plastic booms
To block off the spill and contain it … (good luck!)
Four hundred thousand thick gallons of muck!
It was oil, oil,
Creepin' to the sea,
It was oil. it was oil,
Don’t buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
We're pumpin' out petrol, no matter what cost
And now that eleven men's lives have been lost
The price is as high as rig workers can pay—
Payin' the price for the U.S. of A.
A deepwater rig called Horizon went down,
No way to seal off its pipe has been found;
So south Louisianans all wait for to see
Just what the landfall of this spill will be. . .
People, oil, an' it's oil,
Creepin' in the sea,
Don't buy it at the station,
You can get it now for free,
Just come on down to the shoreline
Where the water used to be.
Contributed by Bartleby - 2011/1/10 - 10:21
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Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
Album “Jackrabbit Slim”
Canzone scritta da Forbert all’indomani dell’ennesimo disastro ecologico causato da una superpetroliera, la Amoco Cadiz (di proprietà statunitense ma battente bandiera liberiana), che il 16 marzo 1978 incappò in una tempesta al largo di Finistère, si spezzò in due e riversò in mare 250.000 m3 di greggio.
Nel testo si fa anche riferimento ad altri incidenti del genere, quello della Argo Merchant, una bagnarola classe 1953 che nel 1976 s’inabissò al largo delle isole Nantucket in Massachussetts versando in mare circa 29 milioni di litri di greggio, e quello della Corinthos che nel 1975, a seguito di una collisione mentre si trovava in un terminal della British Petroleum nella baia del Delaware in Pennsylvania, sversò tra fiume e mare gran parte del suo carico di circa 50 milioni di litri di “crude oil”…
Vedi anche Le soleil est noir.