No Fracking Way
There was a knock one morning, a man was standing at my door
He said, hello, I’m from Halliburton, have you heard of us before?
We’d like to lease your backyard to drill for natural gas
It’s called hydraulic fracturing and it is the very pass
For a clean energy future above the Marcellus stone
Plus we’ll give you lots of money and a new mobile phone
I said you are a corporate crook, I don’t believe the things you tell
And you can drive right of my property and then go straight to hell
No fracking way! (2x)
I don’t trust corporate salesmen, whatever they may say
No fracking way! (3x)
My neighbor was out of work and things were looking grim
So when the fracking guy came knocking he had better luck with him
The company said don’t worry, everything will be just fine
So just sign your name right here, sir, on this dotted line
Pretty soon the water was tasting pretty dire
One day I lit a match and the water caught on fire
I thought about a lawsuit, then stumbled upon the fact
That fracking is exempted from the Clean Water Act
No fracking way! (2x)
Is that how democracy works here in the USA
No fracking way! (3x)
As if the situation weren’t sufficiently unattractive
We tested the water and found it was radioactive
Now my property is worthless and there’s a tumor in my brain
Half of my neighbors are sick, the rest are just in pain
Maybe I should take the money, move off to live somewhere
But all the places I look at, they’re fracking there
Our choices now are simple, lose that which we hold dear
Or communicate the message in a way that’s unstoppably clear
No fracking way! (2x)
Tell these frackers to frack off, both tomorrow and today
No fracking way! (3x)
Buy/share the album:
Sheet music:
No Fracking Way
“No Fracking Way” appears on the Bandcamp album, Ten New Songs (2011).
There is no more clean water in the entire state of Pennsylvania due to the fracking boom, and Pennsylvania’s brain cancer rate since the boom began is now #1 in the US — even more than in New Jersey, where something like 95% of the population lives within 1 mile of a toxic waste site. Someone at a gig in upstate New York (a state which has since banned the practice of hydraulic fracturing within their borders, along with Vermont, the nation of France, and other places) had a “no fracking way” button. I believe that was the first time I heard that slogan, and I thought it would make a good song. (I later discovered at least one other songwriter who has written a song using the same slogan. I think someone was upset that I did the same thing, actually. Which is very silly, in my humble opinion!)