The Oil Song-Steve Forbert

"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log Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by And you know it's oil, oil Yeah, pouring in the sea Oil, oil Don't buy it at the station You can have it now for free Just come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