Boom and Bust

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Silver Bells”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
When the wells went
Dry so quickly
Three years after first frack
As we now
Know that they’re prone
To doing.

Now two new trucks
In the driveway
But our water is bad
And it’s obvious in every way:

Boom and bust, boom and bust
It’s fracking time in the country.
It’s ca-ching when drilling
But soon it all goes away.

Now we’re left with
Toxic landscapes
All the tourists are gone
And the lakes
Smell of methane
and benzene.

Small time farmers
Lost their water
And their animals too
Though it’s too late you’ll hear people say:

Boom and bust, boom and bust
It’s fracking time in the country.
It’s ca-ching when drilling
But soon it all goes away.

Well the frackers
Went so crazy
That the price of gas crashed
And only
The financiers
Made money.

But they can’t stop
All the drilling
‘Cause the stock price would tank
It’s a ponzi scheme all of the way:

Boom and bust, boom and bust
It’s fracking time in the country.
It’s ca-ching when drilling
But soon it all goes away.

Carol of the Drills

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Carol of the Bells”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
Argh! how the drills
Great grinding drills
All seem to say,
Throw health away.
Fracking is here
Breaking our ears
To young and old
Your bell is tolled.

Load as a gong
All night long
Fouling the air
With neigh a care
Till one can’t bear
Living in fear
How can they dare
Drill oh so near.

Oh how they pound,
Into the ground,
Through rock and shale,
Frack it to fail,
Upward to fling
Such poisoning
If you are near
Tremble with fear.

Greedy, greedy, greedy, greedy fracking
Greedy, greedy, greedy, greedy fracking

Oh, how they spend
Ads without end
Their lying tome
To every home
Gas, gas, gas, gas.

Cheasapeake is Coming to Town

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
You better not frack
You better not drill
We’re telling you now
It’s making us ill
Cheasapeake is coming to town

They’re making a brew
Five hundred compounds
They’re gonna shoot it
Down into the ground
Cheasapeake is coming to town

There’s endocrine disruptors
And there’s carcinogens
They pump them down into the ground
And they come back up again

Oh, you better not frack
You better not drill
We’re telling you now
It’s making us ill
Cheasapeake is coming to town

There’s open waste pits
Just waiting for spring
Their toxic runoff
Goes into our streams
Cheasapeake is coming to town

They drill when you are sleeping
They frack when you’re awake
Compressors running round the clock
So don’t breath for goodness sake

Oh, you better not frack
You better not drill
We’re telling you now
It’s making us ill
Cheasapeake is coming to town

They’re leasing a school
To put in a rig
They really don’t care
It’s close to young kids
Cheasapeake is coming to town

Energy independence
Nothing could be finer
They just forgot to tell us that
They’ll sell the gas to China

Oh, you better not frack
You better not drill
We’re telling you now
It’s making us ill
Cheasapeake is coming
Cheasapeake is coming
Cheasapeake is coming to town

Drums for You

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Little Drummer Boy”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
Cop-per sul-fate
It’s in there for you
2-Eth-yl-hex-an-ol
It’s in there for you
Ben-zene, Xy-lene, Bar-ite
They’re in there for you
Glu-tar-al-de-hyde
It’s in there for you,
In there for you,
In there for you

Do-de-cyl-ben-zene
It’s in there for you
Tol-u-ene

Ac-ryl-am-ide
A neurotoxin
Crys-tal-line sil-i-ca
A carcinogen
Ar-o-mat-ic ke-tones
They’re in there for you
Di-eth-an-ol-am-ine
It’s in there for you,
In there for you,
In there for you

Eth-yl-ene ox-ide
A carcinogen
Form-am-ide

For-mal-de-hyde
A carcinogen
Di-eth-yl-ene gly-col
A human toxin
Trade se-cret chem-i-cals
They’re in there for you
Pet-ro-le-um nap-tha
It’s in there for you,
In there for you,
In there for you

1,4-Di-ox-ane
A carcinogen
Bu-tan-1-ol

First the Landsman Came Around

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Good King Wenceslas”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
First the landsman came around
With a voice like honey
Said the gas beneath our ground
Was worth so much money.
We signed up and before long
Drills they were a-ringing
Trucks lined up a hundred strong
Boy our eyes were stinging.

Then one day came to our door
Our insurance comp’ny
Said that they cannot insure
Industrial prop’ty.
The kids got sick and for a
Buyer did we forage
No one could pay because they
Could not get a mortgage.

When our water made us ill
They gave us a buff-lo
They would give us a re-fill
‘Less we said what we know.
Then after three little years
The wells stopped producing
The frackers packed up their gear
And went back to Houston.

Our money’s gone, water’s bad
We can’t sell our prop’ty
The quick fix we thought we had
Did not turn out happ-ly.
In this life we need to leave
For our children’s future
Clean water and air to breath
This should be our culture.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Fracking

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
Have yourself a job with perks and bennies,
Leave the DEP
From now on,
You’ll close your eyes to all you see.

Have yourself some campaign contributions,
Take our fracking dough
From now on,
You’ll be our little bitch, you know.

Here we are as in olden days,
Robber baron days of yore.
Your concerns don’t mean squat to us
It’s just biz to us for sure.

What the years
Will bring to all your children,
We don’t know and how
We’re just grabbing all
The gold that you’ll allow.
Bend over for
A merry little fracking now.

Home for Radon

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
Shale radon in your home
Marcellus brings thee.
Do not breath or you’ll receive
Radioactivity.

They’re building a pipeline
Straight to you it seems.
Shale radon in your home
Don’t think it’s just a dream.

O Wellbore Seal

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Oh, Christmas Tree”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
O wellbore seal, o wellbore seal
Cement between rock and steel
Can we really depend on you
To hold down fracking’s toxic brew?
O wellbore seal, o wellbore seal
Cement between rock and steel

O wellbore seal, o wellbore seal
For you my heart is aching
You are so very fragile
Can you long keep from breaking?
O wellbore seal, o wellbore seal
For you my heart is aching

O wellbore seal, o wellbore seal
Six percent are born leaking
You can’t protect our watershed
What could they have been thinking?
O wellbore seal, o wellbore seal
Six percent are born leaking

The Twelve Days of Fracking

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
On the first day of fracking
My gas well gave to me
A sore throat and a dead tree

Continue for days two through twelve

On the twelfth day of fracking
My gas well gave to me
Twelve drillers drilling
Eleven truckers trucking
Ten palpitations
Nine tumors growing
Eight streams a-poisoned
Seven sores a-forming
Six dogs a-dying
Five sleepless nights
Four coughing kids
Three sick cats
Two nosebleeds
And a sore throat and a dead tree

To The Bank

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Jingle Bells”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
We’re here to lease your land
We’re here to give you dough
Your LIFE will be just grand
You CAN trust us, you know.
We DE-cide where to drill
The noise it will be great
You want us to move our rig?
Ha Ha it’s too late.

To the bank, to the bank
Laughing all the way
Oh what fun it is to frack
Marcellus shale play.
To the bank, to the bank
Laughing all the way
Oh how rich it is to frack
Marcellus shale play.

Your water makes you sick?
We say it was bad before
You say we caused a slick?
Sue US if you’re so sure.
We’ll give you water now
Just sign this NDA
And if you dare break your vow
We will make you pay.

To the bank, to the bank
Laughing all the way
We have lawyers up the ass
So just sue away.
To the bank, to the bank
Laughing all the way
Oh how rich it is to frack
Marcellus shale play.

We bought a governor
To make the rules so lax
And so we could be sure
There’d be no severance tax.
We’ll bring you jobs galore
Just trust us with your health
And if bad things are in store
At least we’ve made our wealth.

To the bank, to the bank
Laughing all the way
We have paid for so much clout
We’ll crush you in a fray.
To the bank, to the bank
Laughing all the way
Oh what fun it is to frack
Marcellus shale play.

We Wish You Would Take Your Drill Rigs

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “We Wish You a Merry Chirstmas”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
We wish you would take your drill rigs;
We wish you would take your drill rigs;
We wish you would take your drill rigs, get the hell out of here.

Bad water you brought to us and our kin;
Bad water for Christmas and throughout all the year.

We’re here to protect our water;
We’re here to protect our water;
We’re here to protect our water, so we don’t live in fear.

Bad water you brought to us and our kin;
Bad water for Christmas and throughout all the year.

We’re here to protect our children;
We’re here to protect our children;
We’re here to protect our children, because nothing’s more dear.

Bad water you brought to us and our kin;
Bad water for Christmas and throughout all the year.

If Middlefield can ban fracking;
And Buffalo can ban fracking;
And Syracuse can ban fracking, can’t we ban fracking here?

Winter Wasteland

© 2012 N. Starr
To the tune of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”
CLICK HERE to download this lyric as a pdf.
 

 
Diesels chug, drills are winding,
In the lane, truck gears grinding
The racket’s a fright,
We can’t sleep tonight.
Living in a fracking wasted land.

Gone away is the quiet,
Here to stay is a riot
A constant parade
Of trucks, we’re afraid,
Living in a fracking wasted land.

In the meadow where once there were green trees,
Stands a slick, the trees are dead and brown
We say: This is crazy
They say: No man,
And you can’t stop us cause
We own the town.

Here we thought, we’d retire,
Now our water’s on fire
We face in a rage,
The mess that they’ve made,
Living in a fracking wasted land.

In the meadow now there stands a well pad,
Fracking toxins down into the ground
Don’t let the kids drink your water now, dad
You don’t know all the cracks the fracks have found.

Gone away, is our old world,
Now we live in the third world
Gave the frackers their way, now we must pay,
Living in a fracking wasted land.

Living in a fracking wasted land.
Living in a fracking wasted land.