Tekster: David Rovics. Tennessee.

I met a young woman in a diner one day
Somewhere in Tennessee
She asked me what I wanted
And she brought me my breakfast of biscuits, gravy and coffee
I saw the for sale sign in the window
And I asked her how come, what for
She said you can see they way this town's gone
By the boards on every door

'Cause the company came and it went
And I guess they reached their goal
Used to be a beautiful mountain here
Now there's just a pile of coal
And everywhere you look you can see
The countryside they stole
The biggest tree in this old forest
Is a telephone pole

She said this used to be a company town
Not so very long ago
Now the most common car that you see
Has a U-Haul trailer in tow
It's so sad to watch a town
Grow up just for it to fall apart
To think of all the good and the hard times we had
It's enough to break my heart

'Cause the company came and it went
And I guess they reached their goal
Used to be a beautiful mountain here
Now there's just a pile of coal
And everywhere you look you can see
The countryside they stole
The biggest tree in this old forest
Is a telephone pole

The only thing worse than the company being here
Was watching it say goodbye
You know we had to fight do damn hard
Just to get a little piece of the pie
But there's nothing left here for me now
But memories and things gone wrong
Don't know where I'll go
All I know is I'm gone

'Cause the company came and it went
And I guess they reached their goal
Used to be a beautiful mountain here
Now there's just a pile of coal
And everywhere you look you can see
The countryside they stole
The biggest tree in this old forest
Is a telephone pole