The Idiot

作曲：Stan Rogers

作词：Stan Rogers

I often take these night shift walks when the foreman's not around

I turn my back on the cooling stacks and make for open ground

Far out beyond the tank farm fence where the gas flare makes no sound

I forget the stink and I always think back to that Eastern town

I remember back six years ago, this Western life I chose

And every day, the news would say some factory's going to close

Well, I could have stayed to take the Dole, but I'm not one of those

I take nothing free, and that makes me an idiot, I suppose

So I bid farewell to the Eastern town I never more will see

But work I must so I eat this dust and breathe refinery

Oh, I miss the green and the woods and streams and I don't like cowboy clothes

But I like being free and that makes me an idiot I suppose

So come all you fine young fellows who've been beaten to the ground

This western life's no paradise but it's better than lying down

Oh, the streets aren't clean, and there's nothing green, and the hills are dirty brown

But the government Dole will rot your soul back there in your home town

So bid farewell to the Eastern town you never more will see

There's self-respect and a steady cheque in this refinery

You will miss the green and the woods and streams and the dust will fill your nose

But you'll be free, and just like me, an idiot, I suppose

These are the words I tell myself

When I miss my own hometown

I tell myself that I'm doing right by turning that welfare down

But now I see for you and me

That I want those woods and streams

For I owe my life to this workers strife

Why can't just be free