Last Great American Whale

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They say he didn't have an enemy
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His was a greatness to behold
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He was the last surviving progeny
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The last one on this side of the world

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He measured a half mile from tip to tail
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Silver and black with powerful fins
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They say he could split a mountain in two
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That's how we got the Grand Canyon

[Chorus]

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

[Verse 2]

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Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes
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Some say they saw him off of Florida
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My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
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But you can't always trust your mother

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Off the Carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day
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The lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
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The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
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And he'd been on death row since 1958

[Verse 3]

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The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
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Spit on Indians and lots worse
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The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
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Life compared to death for him seemed worse

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The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
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And tried to conjure up a storm or rain
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The harbor parted, the great whale sprang full up
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And caused a huge tidal wave

[Verse 4]

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The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
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The tribe let out a roar
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The whites were drowned, the browns and reds set free
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But sadly one thing more

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Some local yokel member of the NRA
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Kept a bazooka in his living room
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And thinking he had the chief in his sights
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Blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon

[Chorus]

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

[Verse 5]

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Well Americans don't care for much of anything
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Land and water the least
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And animal life is low on the totem pole
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With human life not worth more than infected yeast

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Americans don't care too much for beauty
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They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
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They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
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And complain if they can't swim

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They say things are done for the majority
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Don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear
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It's like what my painter friend Donald said to me
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"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"