Made to Last
Copyright Bill Honker 2006
Goose Island Music, ASCAP
This old town lies off the highway about ten miles or so
To people who are passing by, it don’t have much to show
Empty streets, empty buildings, empty hopes and dreams
But ask around and this old town will tell you where it’s been
This old town was once a city, fifty years ago
Tens of thousands called it home, in search of what’s below
They worked their shifts and they drank their fifths and they risked their necks each day
But those who founded this old town mostly moved away
This old town is a mining town
It made a living under ground
But glory days are in the past
And piles of waste and empty shafts
Are the only things that were made to last
This old town was sacred ground before the mining came
Fish swam up and down its streams and horses ran its plains
But now the hills are piles of barren rock and the streams run orange and red
The sons and daughters of the mines are raised on iron and lead
Chorus
Even after all the diggin’s’s done
The mines and the mills lie cold and still
Like windows on another time
As a mining town knows all too well, the cost goes on and on
And you never really see the bill till the mining company’s gone
The things the miners left behind tell a tale we won’t forget
A few may profit from the mines, but many share the debt
Chorus
Recorded by the Alan Munde Gazette on “Made to Last” in the key of F
