Get out of bed, put on your shoes

Make some coffee, turn on the news

There’s people dyin’ cryin’, singing the blues

In every age of the centuries’ span

Wise men try to understand

Why sorrow is forever the song of man

Hope lives in the hearts of men
Hatred creeps in now and then
I hate to tell you kid, but it’ll never end
Women cry as the men kill
Always have and always will
You know we’re never gonna run out of blood to spill

Chorus:

Hearts break, hearts mend

Pick up the pieces, you get up again

The sun comes up and the sun goes down

That’s just the way the world goes around

Lions kill and rabbits run
Men make bread and butter and guns
Death comes around to visit everyone
Empires crumble and fall from the
Twin towers to the wailing wall
One thing remains, the terrible beauty of it all

Chorus

Solo

Chorus

F G Am (Choke)
There??s an old dirt road, just off route nine.
Fades into the lake, at the low water line.
Sometimes I wander down that road alone.
Remembering the town, that I once called home.
I grew up on the valley, every neighbor a friend,
Until the modern world started creeping in.
One day came the lawyers, with cash in hand.
They swore that our village would light up the land.

Chorus:
The dusky waters move cold and slow,
And the ghosts of a village still wander below.
Homesteads of families and friends forever more,
Dm G Am (Choke)
Haunting the valley below this sparkling shore.

Surrounding the valley was a painted red line,
Drawn by company men like marking a crime.
A silent reminder that all inside it must go,
Or be lost to the rising dead river's flow.
Some folks took the money, started grinding gears,
While the rest of us held out, twenty odd years.
We watched our town, like a photograph fade,
Dm G Am (Choke)
As the company came, to take it all away.
They tore down the church, and the schoolhouse burned.
They dug up the graves, the wheels of progress turned.
They got Dutchie’s Store, and Hayden’s Pool Hall,
When the dozers rolled, it shattered us all.

Chorus:

The dusky waters move cold and slow,
And the ghosts of the village still wander below.
Homesteads of families and friends forever more,
Dm G Am (Choke)
Haunting the valley below this sparkling shore.

Instrumental Break
Am / F / G / Am / Dm / G / Am (Choke)

Old May Savage stayed as long as she could.
Her house on the hill towered over the flood.
It rose up alone, in the dark of night,
Its face on the water, in the cold moonlight.
I shake off the memories, on my lips a prayer.
Thanks for the grace, and the beauty down there.
And while the porch lights glow, all over the state,
There’s nothing but darkness, under the lake.

Chorus:

The dusky waters move cold and slow,
And the ghosts of a village still wander below.
Homesteads of families and friends forever more,
Haunting the valley below this sparkling shore.
They haunt the valley below this sparkling shore.