Songs
LYRICS from PERSISTENCE: A TRIUMPH IN SIX ACTS
Performed by The Cow Players at the Desert Communities Under Seige conference Joshua Tree, California February 26, 2005
Lyrics by Deborah Dozier, “Paradise” by Mark Heuston with apologies to the original songwriters ;-)
Give Back My Home (To the tune of Home on the Range)
Oh, give back my home, where now ORVs roam
Where the outlaws on ATVs play
Where no longer is heard the sweet song of a bird
And the dust clouds just roll by all day.
If the law thinks it’s sport
Who’ll protect us from crimes of this sort
Please stop their display – you must help us today
Please, please put offenders away!
The Tortoises’ Lament/Take the Desert Back (To the tune of Leader of the Pack)
Those outlaw riders are running us down (down, down, down)
They’re taking over this part of town (they want to take it over but it is our part of town)
Still, we don’t really know why, all we can do is cry
Come on and help us, take the desert back.
Those outlaws think they can ride anywhere (where, where, where)
Past boundary markers they ride without care (they just keep going ‘cause they are so unaware)
Their lugs treads rip up the land, and turn it into wind blown sand
That’s why we need to, take the desert back.
We all have the power to take this place back (back, back, back)
Although we feel like we’re under attack (don’t want to feel so in danger of attack)
And even though it’s not much fun, you’ve gotta report every one.
That’s how we’re gonna, take the desert back.
Dispatcher, Dispatcher (To the tune of Matchmaker, Matchmaker)
Dispatcher, Dispatcher, can you dispatch
An outlaw is here that I want you to catch.
So take this report and add it to the batch
Dispatcher, make this dispatch.
Dispatcher, Dispatcher all hell has come loose
Their screaming machines are now scaring my goose.
And when I protested they showed me a noose!
Dispatcher, all hell’s come loose.
Dispatcher, Dispatcher, please file this report
Give it a number, it involves a tort.
Peace is a memory and tempers are short.
Dispatcher, file this report.
Dispatcher, Dispatcher, they’re in my yard now
But I’ve called in my friends, the strong ones from COW.
Send us a backup with brains and know-how
Dispatcher, they’re out there now.
Paradise (To the tune of Paradise, by John Prine)
When I was a child, my family would travel
Out to the Mojave, where coyotes are born
There’s a wild desert land there, that’s often remembered
So many times that my memory’s worn.
Chorus:
And, Daddy, won’t you take me back to San Berdoo County
Up in the Yucca, where Paradise lay
“Well, I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’
Mr. Yamaha’s dirt bikes have ripped it away.”
Well sometimes we’d travel right up the Morongo,
To the old ‘bandoned cabins up by Donell Hill.
Where the air smelled like the Primrose we’d shoot with our camera
Those wildflower snapshots still give me a thrill.
Repeat Chorus
Then the offroaders came in hordes on big quad bikes,
They tortured the cactus and stripped all the land.
Well they stumped for their access til the land was forsaken,
Then they wrote it all down as the profits of man.
Repeat Chorus
Dear Officer (To the tune of Sweet Genevieve)
Oh Officer, dear Officer
We want you to enforce the law.
Protect our rights and property
As your grandpa did so long ago.
I’m So Angry I Could Fight (To the tune of I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry)
When I hear a two-stroke engine’s whine destroy the peaceful night
It means they’re on closed public land
And I’m so helpless I could cry.
The choking dust clouds blot the sky, the stars are gone from sight
The warm breeze smells like gasoline
And I’m so hopeless I could cry.
They want to fly like Superman, to them it’s sheer delight
They deny it’s wrong to scar the land
And they’re so ruthless, I could cry.
The officer who came to call, that warm September night
Had no sympathy for me
And I’m so pissed-off that I’ll fight.
The Battle Hymn of the Desert (To the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Mine eyes have seen the damage that’s been done by ORVs
Some is legal some illegal, it just spreads like a disease
From the sands of Central Baja to the woods of Tennessee
The ORVs churn on.
Reporting them is the solution
Reporting them is revolution
Reporting them is the solution
Enforcement marches on.
Some riders are just outlaws, and they ride where e’r they please.
They intimidate the ladies and harass the complainees.
The laws have owners hamstrung and have brought us to our knees. The ORVs churn on.
Refrain
We are prisoners in our homes and now it’s time to take a stand
Let law enforcement step up now and offer us a hand
Together we have power to protect this desert land.
Enforcement marches on.
Refrain
Whenever I Feel Dismayed (To the tune of Whenever I feel Afraid)
Whenever I feel dismayed at outlaw ORVs,
I just pick up my phone and file an incident report.
When ready to blow my top at incursions close to home
I just pick up my phone and file an incident report.
I have hopes in my persistence, which is very plain to tell
For when I call the fourteenth time, I feel so gol darn swell.
I just pick up the phone and every single time, the insistence in my tone
Makes them file an incident report.
Law Enforcement (To the tune of On Wisconsin)
Law enforcement, Law enforcement
Please protect our rights
We are with you, we are for you
Hurry, get them in your sights
Legal’s okay, but where I stay
Is not their place to play
So law enforcement, law enforcement
Make them stay away.
When ORVs Are On The Move (To the tune of Has Anybody Seen My Gal)
Four stroke or two, old or new, oh, what damage they can do
When ORV’s are on the move.
Crushing burrows, plants, and dens, the tragedy just never ends
when ORVs are on the move.
(Begin repeat) Now if you run into an outlaw who’s all covered with dirt
Turn ‘em in, it’s no sin,
In the end it’s how we’ll win
Their rights end, where ours commence, we shouldn’t have to build a fence.
To keep them off our property.
So document, don’t relent, tell them it is our intent
To ensure our legal boundaries. (End repeat)
Repeat