This song started out as a literal lament as to the state of disrepair of the old windmill on the farm where I grew up. As a boy, I loved to climb it, and it successfully pumped water for the livestock for many generations.
But, like windmills and small farms all across the country, it has become obsolete in my lifetime. Over the years, I have come to understand that the loss of the old windmill is but a symbol of much larger losses and collateral damage done in the name of our civilization's misnamed and relentless progress.
2011
Gonna fix the old windmill;
It's dying of thirst.
It was on my to-do list,
But it should have been first.
It fell out of favor a long time ago;
Became out-dated, but the wind still blows.
We've made a deal with the devil,
But oh, what a price.
We're burning the ocean,
And melting the ice.
Ease off the gas, unplug the air;
Turn off the tube, and act like you care.
Can't find the pieces, searching for parts;
Has the old windmill become a lost art?
Oh, Mother Earth, will still survive;
But our day of judgment must soon arrive.
