The Oil Song Lyrics - Steve Forbert

"Oh the engine's gone dead," cried the men who work there 

And she passed up the dock on the wide Delaware 

Then the ship ran aground and the oil got away 

And they penned that report, "The big spill" on that day 

It was hundreds of thousands of gallons galore 

Stretching thirty-two miles down the Delaware shore 

There were geese in the marshes out looking for food 

They got stuck where they stood in the oncoming crude 

And it's oil, oil 

Ah, drifting to the sea 

Oil, oil 

Don't buy it at the station 

You can have it now for free 

Just come on down to the shoreline 

Where the water used to be 

In the well-charted waters of the Nantucket shoals 

Was a ship run aground full of oil, we were told 

In a week's worth of rough winter weather and waves 

The boat started cracking and it could not be saved 

It was seven-point-six million gallons this time 

Consider the danger and think of the crime 

As it poured out a slick stretching into the tide 

Over one hundred-miles and yes, it came deep, it came wide 

And it's oil, oil 

Oil pouring in the sea 

Oil, oil 

Oh, don't buy it at the station 

You can have it now for free 

Just come on down to the shoreline 

Where the water used to be 

There's talk of some writing found in the ship's log 

Saying one of the helmsmen's unfit for his job 

And the ship's gyro compass was six degrees shy 

Their charts were outdated but they, they tried to get by 

And you know it's oil, oil 

Yeah, pouring in the sea 

Oil, oil 

Don't buy it at the station 

You can have it now for free 

Just come on down to the shoreline 

Where the water used to be, yeah 

Now both of these ships, like a great many more 

Got registered in through Liberian doors 

Inspections are quick and regulations are few 

Just sign on the line and go find you a crew, yes 

One of these ships was the Olympic Games 

The Argo Merchant was the other one's name 

Well, it's sad, but it's true, things got worse for the seas 

'Cause I ain't even mentioned Amoco Cadiz 

Amoco Cadiz, between England and France 

The big super tanker out there taking it's chance 

Within one hundred thousand black tons of the slime 

Amoco Cadiz spilled the most of all time 

Yes, you know it's oil, oil 

Man, it's creepin' in the sea 

Oil, oil 

Oh, don't buy it at the station 

You can have it now for free 

Just come on down to the shoreline 

Where the water used to be 

Now down in the Gulf east of Mexico way 

There's something gone wrong, so the papers all say 

A Mexican oil well is leaking it's goo 

They say it's the worse that things have ever come to 

Yes, it's gallons of sludge, sixty million and more 

It's cruising and oozing towards many a shore 

Yes, things have got bad but they will probably get worse 

If you can't drink the oil, oh, you might, you might die of thirst 

Because it's oil, it's oil 

And it's creeping in the sea 

Oil, oil 

Don't buy it at the station 

You can have it now for free 

Just come on down to the shoreline 

Where the water used to be, yeah