Lou Reed - Last Great American Whale Lyrics

Lyrics Last Great American Whale - Lou Reed




They say he didn′t have an enemy
His was a greatness to behold
He was the last surviving progeny
The last one on this side of the world
He measured a half mile from tip to tail
Silver and black with powerful fins
They say he could split a mountain in two
That's how we got the Grand Canyon
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes
Some say they saw him off of Florida
My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
But you can′t always trust your mother
Off the Carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day
The lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
And he'd been on death row since 1958
The mayor′s kid was a rowdy pig
Spit on Indians and lots worse
The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
Life compared to death for him seemed worse
The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
And tried to conjure up a storm or rain
The harbor parted, the great whale sprang full up
And caused a huge tidal wave
The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
The tribe let out a roar
The whites were drowned, the browns and reds set free
But sadly one thing more
Some local yokel member of the NRA
Kept a bazooka in his living room
And thinking he had the chief in his sights
Blew the whale′s brains out with a lead harpoon
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Last great American whale
Well Americans don't care for much of anything
Land and water the least
And animal life is low on the totem pole
With human life not worth more than infected yeast
Americans don′t care too much for beauty
They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
They′ll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
And complain if they can't swim
They say things are done for the majority
Don′t believe half of what you see and none of what you hear
It's like what my painter friend Donald said to me,
"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"



Writer(s): Lou Reed


Lou Reed - The Sire Years: Complete Albums Box
Album The Sire Years: Complete Albums Box
date of release
30-10-2015

1 Original Wrapper (Live Version)
2 Harry's Circumcision - Reverie Gone Astray
3 Riptide (Live Version)
4 Coney Island Baby (Live Version)
5 The Kids (Live Version)
6 Riptide
7 Kicks (Live Version)
8 Set the Twilight Reeling
9 The Raven
10 The Bed
11 Busload of Faith
12 What's Good (The Thesis)
13 The Courtly Orangutans
14 Dirty Blvd. (Live Version)
15 Perfect Day (Live Version)
16 Strawman
17 Dirty Blvd.
18 Hello It's Me
19 Rouge
20 Overture
21 Fire Music
22 Dorita (The Spirit)
23 A Thousand Departed Friends
24 Set the Twilight Reeling (Live Version)
25 Candy Says (Live Version)
26 Call on Me (Live Version)
27 Ecstasy (Live Version)
28 Vanishing Act (Live Version)
29 Tell It to Your Heart (Live Version)
30 Guardian Angel
31 Who Am I? (Tripitena's Song)
32 Every Frog Has His Day
33 A Wild Being from Birth
34 The Cask
35 Vanishing Act
36 Imp of the Perverse
37 Tell Tale Heart, Pt. 2
38 The Tell Tale Heart, Pt. 1
39 Broadway Song
40 Balloon
41 The City in the Sea / Shadow
42 The Valley of Unrest
43 Big Sky
44 Rock Minuet
45 Tatters
46 Modern Dance
47 Ecstasy
48 Mystic Child
49 Paranoia Key of E
50 Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker), Pt. II [Live]
51 Hang on to Your Emotions
52 Trade In
53 NYC Man
54 Egg Cream
55 Starlight
56 Work
57 Open House
58 Smalltown
59 Good Evening Mr. Waldheim
60 Hold On
61 Sick Of You
62 Beginning of a Great Adventure
63 There Is No Time
64 Endless Cycle
65 Romeo Had Juliette
66 Dreamin' - Escape
67 Forever Changed
68 Turning Time Around
69 Talking Book - Live Version
70 White Prism
71 Into The Divine - Live Version
72 Mad
73 Warrior King - Revenge
74 Change
75 Future Farmers Of America
76 Baton Rouge
77 Call On Me
78 Xmas In February
79 Nobody but You
80 I Wanna Know (The Pit and the Pendulum)
81 Guilty (Edit)
82 Perfect Day
83 All Tomorrow's Parties (Live Version)
84 Men of Good Fortune (Live Version)
85 Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker), Pt. II [Recorded Live July 4th, 1995]
86 Revien Cherie (Live Version)
87 Sunday Morning (Live Version)
88 The Bed (Live Version)
89 The Day John Kennedy Died (Live Version)
90 The Raven (Live Version)
91 Venus in Furs (Live Version)
92 Smalltown (Live Version)
93 Street Hassle (Live Version)
94 How Do You Think It Feels (Live Version)
95 Heroin (Live Version)
96 Advice (Live Version)
97 Hop Frog (feat. David Bowie)
98 Guilty (feat. Ornette Coleman)
99 Blind Rage
100 Halloween Parade
101 Burning Embers
102 Last Great American Whale
103 Science Of The Mind
104 Annabel Lee/The Bells
105 Dime Store Mystery
106 Tripitena's Speech
107 Style It Takes
108 Trouble With Classicists
109 Faces And Names
110 Images
111 Slip Away (A Warning)
112 It Wasn't Me
113 I Believe
114 A Dream
115 Power and Glory - The Situation
116 Magician - Internally
117 Sword of Damocles - Externally
118 Goodby Mass (In a Chapel Bodily Termination)
119 Cremation (Ashes to Ashes)
120 No Chance - Regret
121 Gassed And Stoned - Loss
122 Power and Glory, Pt. II - Magic - Transformation
123 Magic And Loss (Summation)
124 Finish Line
125 Hookywooky
126 The Propostion
127 Adventurer
128 I'll Be Your Mirror (Live Version)
129 Vicious (Live Version)
130 Busload Of Faith - Live Version
131 New Sensations - Live Version
132 Why Do You Talk (Live Version)
133 Like A Possum
134 The Conqueror Worm
135 Old Poe
136 Prologue
137 Edgar Allan Poe
138 The Fall Of The House Of Usher




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