Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  

Seventy Miles

Notes: words by Malvina Reynolds, music by Pete Seeger; copyright 1965 Abigail Music Company, renewed 1993.

Chorus:
Seventy miles of wind and spray,
Seventy miles of water,
Seventy miles of open bay,
It's a garbage dump.

What's that stinky creek out there,
Down behind the slum's back stair,
Sludgy puddle, sad and gray?
Why man, that's San Francisco Bay!

(Chorus)

Big Solano and the Montecell',
Ferry boats, I knew them well,
Creak and groan in their muddy graves,
Remembering San Francisco Bay.

(Chorus)

Joe Ortega and the Spanish crew
Sailed across the ocean blue,
Came into this mighty Bay,
Stood on the decks and cried, "Ole!"

(Chorus)

Fill it here, fill it here,
Docks and tidelands disappear,
Shaky houses on the quakey ground,
The builder, he's Las Vegas bound.

(Chorus)

"Dump the garbage in the Bay?"
City fathers say, "Okay.
When cries of anguish fill the air,
We'll be off on the Riviere."

(Chorus)

Malvina Reynolds songbook(s) in which the music to this song appears:
---- The Muse of Parker Street

Other place(s) where the music to this song appears:
---- Broadside No. 61 (15 August 1965)
---- Broadside No. 106 (April-May 1970)
---- Jim Morse and Nancy Mathews: The Sierra Club Survival Songbook (San Francisco and New York: The Sierra Club, 1971)

Malvina Reynolds recording(s) on which this song is performed:
---- [none]

Recordings by other artists on which this song is performed:
---- Pete Seeger: God Bless the Grass (Columbia CL 2432, 1966)
---- Pete Seeger:  listen to video
---- Fred Starner: Ecology; The People Are Scratching (Kimbo Educational KLP-9000, 1971)