There Won’t Be No Country Music
(Bill Fries, Chip Davis)

Pay attention, I’m only gonna ’splain this to you once.

Well, it’s only gonna be about a decade, friend
’Til they dam your favorite river
So you can water-ski just one more reservior
And them supersonic ships is gonna take you
’Cross a sea of pavement
To one more faceless brickyard on the shore

Yeah, it’s only gonna be about a year or so
’Til they rip off all your mountains, boy
And that one last tired old eagle bites the sand
And all of that high-and-mighty scenery’s
Gonna be leveled to the ground, boy
By a bunch a’ them mindless strip mines on the land

[Chorus]
So listen well, my brothers
When you hear the night wind sigh
And you see the wild goose flying
Through the gray, polluted sky
There won’t be no country music
There won’t be no rock ’n’ roll
’Cause when they take away our country
They’ll take away our soul

Well, it’s only gonna take about a month or so
’Til the junkyards fell the prairies, boy
And them smokin’ yellow grass fires start to burn
And the warnings on them beer cans
Gonna be buried in them landfills
No deposit, no sad songs, and no returns

Yeah, it’s only gonna take about a week or so
’Til the factories blot the sun out
You gonna have to turn your lights on just to see
And them lights are gonna be neon, sayin’
"Fly Our Jets To Paradise"
And the whole damn world is gonna be made a’ styrene

[Chorus]
So listen well, my brothers
When you hear the night wind sigh
And you see the wild goose flying
Through the gray, polluted sky
There won’t be no country music
There won’t be no rock ’n’ roll
’Cause when they take away our country
They’ll take away our soul

Yeah, it’s only gonna be about a second, boy
’Til they take away all’a this country
And they’ll tell you not to listen to this here song
And that far-off sound of freedom’s
Gonna be an echo from the past
And the final tune is gonna be sad and long

And it’s only gonna be about an eye-blink, boy
’Til they pull out the wool to blind us
So we just can’t read all the messages on the wall
But the only words that matter
Oughta be scribbled all over them billboards
In big old black and bloody letters, ten feet tall

[Chorus]

There won’t be no country music
There won’t be no rock ’n’ roll
’Cause when they take away our country
They’ll take away our soul

There won’t be no country music
There won’t be no rock ’n’ roll
’Cause when they take away our country
They’ll take away our soul

There won’t be no country music
There won’t be no rock ’n’ roll
’Cause when they take away our country
They’ll take away our soul
’Cause when they take away our country
They’ll take away our soul

The original recording of "There Won’t Be No Country Music" was released on the album Wilderness. That version can be found on the albums C.W. McCall’s Greatest Hits and The Best of C.W. McCall.