Metal Drums

[Verse 1]
From the time he was a kid
Mark O'Donnell and his buddies would
Play in the pasture out behind his neighborhood
There were acres of vacant land
And they played as only children can
Ooh, in the pasture

[Verse 2]
Out in the long tall grass
Metal drums were lying in the broken glass
The kids would play with the stuff inside them
They'd crawl in and roll around
End up spinning around on the summer ground
Ooh, of the pasture

[Chorus]
Ooh, they were playing with the metal drums
Ah, banging on the metal drums now
Ooh, beat that metal drum a little faster

[Verse 3]
In the town of Holbrook, Mass
You're lucky if you got the chance
Working a good job, making a few bucks
And it's Baird and McClair
They run that chemical plant down there
Ooh, by the pasture

[Chorus]
Ooh, they were playing with the metal drums
Ah, banging on the metal drums now
Ooh, beat that metal drum a little faster (Yeah)

[Verse 4]
Joanne O'Donnell had five kids
And all but one of her kids got sick
She was hard pressed for answers
And on the other side of town
There was a street where all the doctors found
Every other woman died of cancer

[Chorus]
Ooh, playing with the metal drums
Ah, banging on the metal drums now
Ooh, beat that metal drum a little faster (Yeah)

[Bridge]
News broke like a lightning bolt across a red-hot sky
In the blue TV light Joanne O'Donnell cried
Seemed like the kiss of death hung in the air
When a whole town found out they'd been poisoned for years

[Verse 5]
The environmental plan
Put the site on the list of the big top ten
To the tune of sixty-three million
Thanks to the women and the wives
There's a chain link fence up eight feet high
But that won't bring back their children

[Verse 6]
And as for Baird and McClair
All the soil from the ground to the bedrock down there
Was ruined by the bastards
Thanks to the corporate mind
They protected their assets - they're doing fine
Too bad about the Holbrook disaster

[Chorus]
Ooh, they were playing with the metal drums
Ah, banging on the metal drums now
Ooh, beat that metal drum a little faster (Yeah)
Ooh, playing with the metal drums
Ah, banging on the metal drums now
Ooh, beat that metal drum a little faster (Yeah)

[Outro]
Beat that metal drum a little faster now
Beat that metal drum now
Beat that metal drum now
Beat that metal drum