Song picture
Bomb Train
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Written while sitting on the tracks at the Port of Albany
acoustic folk social commentary political satire western massachusetts oil coal climate change fracking incineration music for social change nuclear energy
Folk singer, social commentary, satire, people's stories, children's music
Hi Folks, The Bard Insurgent here. My comrade D.O. (the Poet Roofer) and I got that handle (The Bard Insurgents) from traveling town to town performing songs and poetry about people's lives. I've been performing since I was 3 years old, cutting my vocal chords on liturgical and classical music. I was a concert soloist as a child, when I wasn't herding cows, throwing hay and shoveling manure. During the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam war, I began writing songs about social change. I left the country in 1970 and my dozen years in other countries, mostly in Africa & South America, have provided a global perspective to my music. My travels helped me realize that people all around the world are essentially the same in their basic life needs and their desires to live peacefully in their communities. These experiences have informed my commitment to working for international understanding as I organize at home. A powerful way to educate and inspire is with music. I tell people's stories, do social commentary with a touch of satire that I hope you enjoy and share with your friends, as well as sing together in the streets and in your living rooms. I also have children's music written for the children in my life with Jacob and Kayla as primary muses. Looking forward to seeing you on the road, Tom
Song Info
Charts
Peak #38
Peak in subgenre #9
Author
Tom Neilson
Rights
Tom Neilson 2016
Uploaded
June 08, 2016
Track Files
MP3
MP3 3.6 MB 160 kbps 3:08
Story behind the song
Ezra Prentice, in Albany, NY is a public housing complex that is home to 179 families and 288 children (most recent census). It borders an industrial railyard that is 20 feet away from backyards and the playground. Trains pass carrying crude oil through the community to the Port of Albany. The dissolved methane in the oil is very flammable and explosive and most of the cars have the thinner walls that do not provide adequate protection. These are the same type of trains that have been derailing and exploding with frequency around the country. The residents were never informed about these trains or that the tankers, which line up just 20 feet from the community’s playground, were hauling a type of crude oil that is highly flammable and toxic. They weren’t notified that the fumes released during the tank car unloading operations at the Port of Albany included cancer-causing chemicals. Exposed to the multiple health hazards, residents in Ezra Prentice are organizing to stop the toxic fumes, gases and cancer causing chemicals from coming through their community. In mid-May 2016, 2000 residents and allies blocked Pearl St and sat on the tracks at the Port of Albany forcing the trains to re-route.
Lyrics
Bakken oil shale is comin by rail – in a bomb train Oil company in the Port of Albany with a bomb train Every other day there’s an oil train spill Destroying the land and making you ill And the number rises of people to kill with a bomb train. South End feels a tremor in the ground with a bomb train Don’t want to blow up Albany town with a bomb train In Ezra Prentice a chain link fence is What’s in between the bomb and residences Stop the violence, it makes no sense this bomb train Out in the back is a RR track with a bomb train 20 feet away, the children play with a bomb train Why put the poor where out the front door Every hour 100 trucks & more – Stuck in the middle of a toluene corridor with a bomb train. So we sit in the street and sit on the tracks of the bomb train For 24 hours no clickity clack of the bomb train In Ezra Prentice our self-defense is a human barricade – both sides of the fences Civil disobedience the consequence of the bomb train. Lac-Megantic burned to the ground with a bomb train Incinerated people in the town with a bomb train Crashed in Alabama, West Virginia, PA; Mosier, Oregon just the other day North Dakota, Illinois, It’s comin' your way – a bomb train Bakken oil shale is comin by rail in a bomb train Oil company thinks it owns you and me with a bomb train Everyone knows there’s a lot to lose There’s only one choice and you got to choose Cut the fuse, Don’t let em use the bomb train Stand our ground – got to shut it down the bomb train In South End, let it be the end of the bomb train
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