Big Smoke Lyrics - Prairieography - Del Barber

Del Barber (composer and performer; album: Praireography, 2014) 

Blinded by the city lights 

No one can see you stallin' 

It's been so long since you've seen the prairie stars 

You're not sure you can recall them 

But there is something here for you to find 

You may have found it once and lost it now 

We used to fly through the woods 

On the backs of quarter horses 

Pickin' dandelion bouquets for our sister and our mother 

We felt like men but we were boys 

Too young to know 

That we were as free as fire 

And you're lost out in the Big Smoke 

Lookin' for a way home 

There are no straight paths 

There's no easy way 

Brother do you remember 

That one September morning we were shooting cans 

With Dad's .22 without a worry or a warning 

You pulled the trigger down and dropped that deer 

And you looked at me with tears in your eyes 

And I never in a million years 

Thought that you'd make that shot 

And I picture you tonight, with your sights still on something so far off 

Wherever you are I hope you're being careful 

About the things you think you want 

And you're lost out in the Big Smoke 

Without a fire of your own 

There are no straight paths 

There's no easy way 

(Last year, father and son produced 12,000 bussels. Under the Crow, they paid thirteen cents a bussel to ship it to Vancouver: $1560. Within four years they'll likely be paying twice as much and within a decade maybe five times as much. "If the price of grain would increase, I suppose a guy wouldn't feel it quite so badly; but on the horizon we don't see it, an increase." "Supposing they, ah, say that a few towns down the road - that grain should be here. There goes our elevator and I would think that 20% of the taxes in this town come from the elevators.) 

The sky is getting hazy 

It's filling up with grain dust 

And it could be in a year the bank finally gets the best of us 

But our cows are fed and the bins are full 

We're hoping to see you before the snow 

You're lost out in the Big Smoke 

Without a fire of your own 

There are no straight paths 

There's no easy way 

You're lost out in the Big Smoke 

Without a fire of your own 

There are no straight paths 

There's no easy way