Slim Dusty - Clean Up Our Own Back Yard lyrics

rate me

There's an old rhyme that pits out time take it for what it's worth,

Things are crook at Tallarook and there ain't no work in Burke,

But we still find room for the many who come a-knockin' at our door,

And we sell our wide brown acres without a second thought,

Some will say we are building a nation rich and strong,

But if you take a closer look at it perhaps we've got it wrong,

Makes you think maybe we're a bit crazy doing it quite so hard,

Shouldn't be a crime to take the time to clean up our own backyard.

In the country towns and the land around, in the city streets and slums,

The dreamtime lore has gone before and the walkabout is done,

On the streets at night you see the plight of our old ones and our young,

And the Salvo refugge overflows, but still the people come.

Just a little drop of caring in an ocean of neglect,

Can't stem the tide of anger from the lost and dispossessed,

In the land of promise keepin' our promise gets to be too hard,

Shouldnt be a crime to take the time to clean up our own backyard.

Make you think maybe we're a bit crazy doing it quite so hard,

Shouldnt be a crime to take the time to clean up our own backyard.

[From his album: "Looking Forward, Looking Back"

Songwriters/Composers: Joy McKean;

Transcribed: Marten Busstra 2010]