[Waterthrush]

OK, a lighter-hearted post than most ...

I'm just curious whether Peak Oil has found its way into any country music songs? I'm a New Jerseyan, and don't hear country too much. But it seems as though country music would provide a natural outlet for lamentations over the decline of the combustion engine, the dead pickup in the driveway (with a long middle section on whether to replace it), and a new focus on rural roads as opposed to highways?

Or maybe not. Surely, though, there must be one song out there about running out of gas??

[Leanan]

These songs are from the last energy crisis. Downloadable MP3s, even. (And it's legal. It's a radio station web site.)

Songs of Energy Crises Past

Personally, I like "Cheaper Crude or No More Food". Not because I think it'll work, but because that's really how a lot of people think.

[Leanan]

Oh, and "Nothing But Flowers" isn't really country, but it does sound like a peak oil song.

Lyrics

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees
Are smiling upon them
From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers

[BigTex]

Merle Haggard - "Rainbow Stew".

[Lumpy]

Not a Peak Oil song, per se, but one we really like -- and hang on to increasingly in our present (and predicted future) situation --

Country Folks Can Survive - by David Alan Coe
(also known as Country Boys Can Survive)

Lumpy

[Ayoob]

The Ballad of Hollis Brown

[PenultimateManStanding]

There's one called If Oil Were Love, I'd Be A Quart Low

but Country songs have the coolest titles:

Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart was Pure

Billy Broke My Heart at Walgreens and I Cried All the Way to Sears

I Got In At 2 With A 10 And Woke Up At 10 With A 2

At the Gas Station of Love, I Got the Self-Service Pump

I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling

You Stuck My Heart In a Old Tin Can and Shot It Off a Log

Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life

I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me

They May Put Me In Prison But They Can't Stop My Face From Breaking Out

[PrairieMule]

The closest thing I can think of is the Bellamy Brothers-Kids of the Baby Boom

As our lives become a capsule they send to the stars
And our children look at us like we came from Mars
As the farms disappear and the sky turns black
We're a nation full of takers, never giving back
We never stop to think what we consume
Kids of the baby boom

Kids of the baby boom, we had freedom, we had money
Baby boom, here in the land of milk and honey
Counting our chickens way too soon
Kids of the baby boom

Our optimism mingles with the doom
Kids of the baby boom

[BigTex]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', 'M')erle Haggard - "Rainbow Stew".

[Schadenfreude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'F')igured you all might enjoy it.

No, I'm not really growing marijuana in my yard. No, I don't have a biodiesel car, although I am building an electric car(no it's not hemp-bodied, yet...) and when I get my own place, I will be using wind and solar panels to provide electricity for it(and my dwelling) with sterling engines and diesel gensets as backup. Off grid is the goal.

Anyway, here's the video of Ben Scales singing the original song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LusYNmp1AsI

If you don't feel like downloading the song, you can read his lyrics here:

http://www.benscales.com/music.htm

Here's my version:


I'm growin' marijuana in my yard,
I use it every day to run my car,
For one gallon of biodiesel,
Sixty cents is quite a steal,
Three bucks a gallon, or marijuana in your yard?

George Washington grew marijuana in his yard,
Thomas Jefferson smoked it rather hard,
Said for national prosperity,
Grow sweet hemp in our land of the free,
So our founding fathers grew marijuana in their yards.

I'm growin' marijuana in my yard,
In a sterling engine, it burns swell,
Livin' out in the hills,
I don't pay no electric bill,
Because I'm growin' marijuana in my yard.

The oil industry wanted to outlaw pot,
Wood paper too, would've had their profits drop a lot,
So DuPont and William Randolph Hearst,
Paid good cash to do their worst,
Made sure we can't grow marijuana in our yards.

I'm growin' marijuana in my yard,
Yes I'm growin' marijuana in my yard,
Helping protest this oil war,
I'm not using no gas anymore,
So I support the troops, growin' right there in my yard.

My plants are growing rather well,
So Fark you Mr. Bush and your drug war,
Violating our constitution,
This problem has one solution,
Assert your rights and grow more marijuana in your yard!

I'm growin' marijuana in my yard,
Makes a body for my race car, it ain't hard,
One third the weight of steel,
No rust just seals the deal,
So I'm growin' marijuana in my yard.

Cops came to my door just yesterday,
Wouldn't leave, so they had a talk with Mr. AK,
They should have let me be, isn't this the land of the free?
It's my right to grow marijuana in my yard!
Yes our founding fathers grew marijuana in their yards!

If you don't defend your rights away they go,
Men with guns, tell you what seeds you can't sow,
When they won't leave your home they can go to hell,
So grab your gun and pump 'em up with shells,
Fertilizer for growin' marijuana in your yard!
To your death, marijuana growin' in your yard!
Fly that flag high with marijuana growin' in your yard!



Figured you all would get a laugh out of it, especially given its rather libertarian theme.

[Quagmire]

Yes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh5fpZ3r ... re=related

The tune is great. This song rocks!

8 Miles a Gallon
by Scott Miller

With a Ford 460 that’s an engine pretty mean
shittin’ out bolts and pissin’ gasoline
7 and 1/4 tons of pure mule power
Rollin’ down the road at 8 miles per gallon

Hit the hammer lane and mash the engine to the floor
the CB is cracklin’ with a truck stop whore
hard to hear her 20 when the engine valves rattle
Rollin’ down the road at 8 miles per gallon

To you boys all deployed if its me your fightin’ for
I need: Democracy, Gasoline and world wide rock n’roll
I’m praying everyday that you can make it through the battle…
So I don’t feel so guilty ‘bout 8 miles per gallon

So I invent a big engine
make it run on bullshit
put in on a chasse
Buddy, it’ll never quit
invent a big engine
make it run on bullshit
put it on a train track
Buddy, it’ll never quit
invent a big engine
make it run on bullshit
put it on the highway
Buddy, it’ll never quit

From Washington to Arlington to the House of Saud
They’ll all be buying shovels so they can have a job
And I’ll be living happy in the Shenandoah Valley
Rollin’ down the road on 8 miles per gallon

Q.

[Quagmire]

And the heartbreakingly beautiful
"Thrasher" by Neil Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaRwoCIzzm4

One of my personal anthems, about peak oil amongst other things:

"They were hiding behind hay bales,
They were planting in the full moon
They had given all they had for something new
But the light of day was on them,
They could see the thrashers coming
And the water shone like diamonds in the dew.

And I was just getting up, hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun
When I saw those thrashers rolling by,
Looking more than two lanes wide
I was feelin' like my day had just begun.

Where the eagle glides ascending
There's an ancient river bending
Down the timeless gorge of changes
Where sleeplessness awaits
I searched out my companions,
Who were lost in crystal canyons
When the aimless blade of science
Slashed the pearly gates.

It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don't understand....."