Last Great American Whale - Live at The Mosque, Richmond, VA, 8/8/1989

Just like to tell you about on this, this particular song
We don't use any samples
So, the uh, sounds made by the musician on stage aren't being sampled off
Somebody who's dead or in jail
So the sound of the whale is gonna be on the cymbals
Whereby, the drummer is going to try to do a good whirl tonight

As a, as a pros to our meno
And Mr. Radkey is going to get the sound of the ocean out of his guitar somehow
I'm not sure
And this called the last great american whale
One, two, three, four

They say he didn't have an enemy
His was a greatness to behold
He was the last surviving progeny
Uh-huh the last one on this side of the world
Measured half a mile from tip to tail
He's silver and black with powerful fins
They say he could break a mountain in two
That's how we got the Grand Canyon

Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale

Some say they saw him off at the Great Lakes
Some say they saw him off at the coast of Florida
Now you know my mother said she saw him in Chinatown
But you can't always trust your mother
Off the Carolinas, the sun shines brightly in the day
The lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
He'd been on death row since 1958

Oh, the mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
Spit on Indians lots worse
Old chief buried a hatchet in his head
Life compared to death for him seemed worse
The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
Tried to conjure up a little storm, some rain
The harbor parted, the great whale sprang straight up
Causing a huge tidal wave

Wave crushed the jail, freed the chief
The tribe let out a roar, thank you
The whites were drowned, the browns, reds set free
But sadly one thing more
Some local yokel member of the NRA
Kept a bazooka in his living room
Thinking he had the old chief in his sights
Blew the great whale's brains out with a lead harpoon

Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale

Americans don't care for much of anything
Land and water are the least
Animal life is low on the totem pole
Human life's not worth much more than infected yeast
Americans don't care too much for beauty
They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in their streams

They'll watch dead rats washing up on their beaches
With oil from nexon
And then they'll complain they can't swim
They say things are done for the majority
Don't believe half of what you see, none of what you hear
It's just like what my painter friend Donald said to me
"Stick a fork in their ass roll 'em over, they're done"
Thanks, I'm off the line