Lyrics Boom Gone Bust - James Keelaghan

My dad started East, some time in the 30's
With the On-To-Ottawa men
He'd enough of the camps, the dole, and the handouts
He wanted to work and to tie the loose ends
He drifted from factory to foundry to flop-house
The war sorted out what mere men could not
In Sudbury's forges he worked like a madman
Those years lost to hunger, Dad never forgot

I headed West when I had turned twenty
When the factories and foundries had closed
And in my mind's eye I thought I might settle
Out here where my father was raised and was born
I worked as a jug-hound, a roughneck, a bouncer
I worked where I wanted, I drew damn good pay
Saw no end to our luck and so we just pushed it
But O.P.E.C. and mortgages ate it away

Now the boom's gone to bust
And we're down on the dole boys
No treasure laid up, for family and friends
It's pull up stakes now, or pull up stakes later
For a labouring man, the road never ends

It seems to me somehow, this nation of migrants
From father to daughter, from mother to son
Must constantly shift from the East or the West
'Til we run out of work or of places to run
Gone now the days when you lived where your parents
And their parents before them were bred and were born
We must go where the work is to live any life boys
Bend like a willow to weather the storm

Now the boom's gone to bust
And we're down on the dole boys
No treasure laid up, for family and friends
It's pull up stakes now, or pull up stakes later
For a labouring man, the road never ends

Yes the boom's gone to bust
And we're down on the dole boys
For a labouring man, the road never ends