[ti:Last Great American Whale ]
[ar:Lou Reed]
[al:]
[00:00.00]They say he didn't have an enemy
[00:03.96]His was a greatness to behold
[00:08.91]He was the last surviving progeny
[00:11.50]The last one on this side of the world
[00:16.94]He measured a half mile from tip to tail
[00:19.16]Silver and black with powerful fins
[00:26.27]They say he could split a mountain in two
[00:28.29]That's how we got the Grand Canyon
[00:33.46]Last great American whale
[00:37.46]Last great American whale
[00:41.19]Last great American whale
[00:45.26]Last great American whale
[00:50.22]Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes
[00:52.90]Some say they saw him off of Florida
[00:57.39]My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
[01:00.83]But you can't always trust your mother
[01:06.15]Off the Carolinas, the sun shines brightly in the day
[01:09.86]The lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
[01:14.27]The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
[01:18.04]He'd been on death row since 1958
[01:22.60]The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
[01:25.18]Spit on Indians and lots worse
[01:30.56]The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
[01:33.98]Life compared to death for him seemed worse
[01:39.01]The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
[01:43.07]And tried to conjure up a storm or rain
[01:46.99]The harbor parted, the great whale sprang full up
[01:50.98]And caused a huge tidal wave
[01:55.10]The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
[01:59.05]The tribe let out a roar
[02:03.12]The whites were drowned, the browns and reds set free
[02:06.90]But sadly one thing more
[02:11.77]Some local yokel member of the NRA
[02:15.06]Kept a bazooka in his living room
[02:19.99]And thinking he had the chief in his sights
[02:22.88]Blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon
[02:27.85]Last great American whale
[02:31.35]Last great American whale
[02:35.83]Last great American whale
[02:39.59]Last great American whale
[02:44.12]Well, Americans don't care for much of anything
[02:47.26]Land and water, the least
[02:52.19]And animal life is low on the totem pole
[02:55.98]With human life not worth more than infected yeast
[03:00.81]Americans don't care too much for beauty
[03:03.78]They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
[03:08.24]They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
[03:12.05]Complain if they can't swim
[03:17.05]They say things are done for the majority
[03:20.52]Don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear
[03:25.49]It's like what my painter friend Donald said to me
[03:28.42]"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"