BAY AREA LAMENT
(written by miriam berg while commuting from Berkeley to Hayward in 1961)
There was a fair region out westward, they say
Yes, the Bay it was clean, and the fish, they did jump,
Oh, the cities were green, and the houses were proud,
The cities were clean, and the houses were glad,
The lupines and poppies, they bloomed on the hills,
Once both builder and owner took pride in a home,
The breezes and mists, they would dance and would fly,
The breezes and mists, they would freshen the air,
We're glutted with stuff to buy and to choose,
The ravines are all filled up with empty beercans,
We spray all the orchards, the fields and the trees,
Clear Lake was a place that had too many gnats,
So there once was a Bay, and a clean, sandy shore;
I'd rather see mushrooms grow in the grass,
Come, young lads and young lasses, and hear what I say,
Come, young lads and young lasses, and listen to me,
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
Till the planners came along and they filled up the Bay,
And old tires and scrap by the score and the ton
Littered the beach and that land was undone.
Till the cities began all their sewage to dump,
Now the bottom is black with the muck of the lands
And the Bay shrinks away while industry expands!
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
Till the freeways ran wild to follow the crowds,
They tore down old mansions to pave all the ground
So that millions of big cars could go round and round.
Till the realtors said, These old houses are bad,
We can't make enough money, let's tear them all down,
And build expensive apartments all over the town.
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
But they've disappeared with the cuts and the fills,
And billboards invaded, like a gangrenous hand,
To blot out what scenery was left in the land.
And inside and outside were built like a poem,
But subdivisions have won, they are spread like a blight,
And houses with antlers are everywhere in sight!
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
And the stars shone like diamonds all over the sky,
But the stars are all gone, they are hidden from sight
By millions of stars blinking throughout the night!
But no pleasant smells are left anywhere,
Diesel fumes and smokestacks now blanket the skies
And the clouds of yellow smog bring the tears to our eyes.
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
And automobiles, we've too many to use,
So we pile the wrecks high, making mountains of steel,
Soon the earth will be covered with junk automobiles!
The roadsides are littered with junk that was man's,
Wherever you wander, wherever you pass,
The green earth's all covered with paper and glass.
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
We kill off the insects, the birds and the bees,
We sterilize wildlife, and shorten their days,
But nobody cares, we keep making new sprays.
So they sprayed all the lake and they sprayed all the flats,
It killed all the grebes and it poisoned the fish,
And the poison ended up in someone's dinner dish!
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
But all of that beauty will ne'er be no more,
There were beautiful cities with quiet dark streets,
But the rampage of progress destroys what it meets.
Barnacles covering a ship's hull at last,
Than stifling apartments beyond our control,
And the roaring of freeways taking peace from my soul.
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!
We may still have time to rescue the day
And save the Bay and the towns and the hills
From the billboards and freeways and Bay-snatching fills.
Let's save our fair land for posterity,
And don't just sit by while destruction and greed
Take away all the air, sky, trees, and water that we need.
Singing, Too-ra-li, oo-ra-li, oo-ra-li-ay!