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lyrics

Factory town (Wake)

Back when beer was just a quarter and I was barely old enough to drink
I got me a job in a barrel factory clearin’ ninety bucks a week
I stumbled through a summer romance – I was headed for college in a couple month’s time
I punched a clock and joined the union, I worked my ass off but I didn’t mind

Now the coolest thing about that barrel factory was a creek out back that glowed in the dark
It smelled like week-old sausage sandwich but I thought it wouldn’t do no harm.

A year went by and I came home from school and got myself another job
I worked all day and drank all night and dated the daughter of a guy in the mob
The job I had was out in the sticks in place they once called Model City
They dealt in acids and surplus solvents, heavy metals and PCBs

Back in the days of the Manhattan Project, Model City was a dumping site
By the time I got there they’d sent in men with Geiger counters to set things right
Those Geiger counters clicked away and then they hauled out loads of earth
and told us everything was fine. I felt relieved and reassured

I finally finished up my studies although I didn’t have a clue
of how to make a living or of what the fuck I oughta do
I moved back home and got a job in a factory makin’ grease and wax
but I spent my time playing 500 rummy and getting high in a shed out back

Across the street was a factory making chlorine gas and PVCs
It never even crossed my mind that all that poison caused disease

Most of the factories now have closed, headed south or moved offshore
The jobs are gone, the city lifeless, but the air is cleaner than before
For forty years it’s been like that – an unremitting sad decline
But here and there you still can find a sign of what they left behind

Silhouettes of rusty tanks and pipes and cranes along the river
Toxic dumps, abandoned houses and cirrhosis of the liver
Broken dreams and alcoholics but no one prepared to answer
for the poverty and the ruined lives and the elevated rates of cancer.

credits

from Whatever it is I'm against it, released October 14, 2012
by Jim Wake

Jim Wake –vocals, rhythm guitar
Ruud Fransen – bass
Egbert Kemner – guitar
Eelco Flapper - drums
Arnoud van Buuren – accordion
Corné van Woerdekom, violin

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Jim Wake & Sleepwalker Netherlands

Jim Wake and Sleepwalker, like the musical traditions in blues, rock ’n’ roll, and rhythm blues from which the band draws inspiration, is an experience defying easy description. It is music that swings, drives, bumps and grinds, moans and groans, screams and shouts, and then steps back and turns introspective, plaintive, or nostalgic. ... more

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