Song Description

A song about urban sprawl affecting country life, comparing today to the 1893 Oklahoma Cherokee Strip land run in which 100,000 white settlers lined up to stake claims on what had been Indian land.

Lyrics

CHEROKEE RUN

It used to be forty acres and a mule
Now it's forty condos and a swimming pool
They burn that feed corn up as fuel
in a stove in the living room
You worked this land for forty years
Raised your sons and daughters here
Now it all comes down to the auctioneer
Another victim of the boom

Well, everybody old moving out
Everybody new moving in
Lookout honey
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again
Everybody old moving out
Everybody new moving in
Here they come
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again

The city used to be far away
Now it's creeping closer every day
The old dirt roads have all been paved
Make way for all the people
Remember how this town used to be
Now they call it a bedroom community
Swear to God they put a cell phone tree
Right up on the steeple

Well, everybody old moving out
Everybody new moving in
Lookout honey
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again
Everybody old moving out
Everybody new moving in
Here they come
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again

Covered wagons lined up in the noonday sun
Speculators waiting for the starting gun
Bankers and lawyers gonna have some fun
Bulldoze this land to kingdom come
Cut the ribbon when the deed is done
Man you won't even recognize where you're from
Everybody gets rich except the ones
Too dumb to sell the future

Well. everybody old moving out
Everybody new moving in
Lookout honey
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again
Everybody old moving out
Everybody new moving in
Here they come
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again
Here they come
It's the Cherokee Run
All over again

© 2006 Terry Kitchen 617-218-4418 terrykit@aol.com