The Manhattan Transfer - The Jungle Pioneer Lyrics

(Music by Milton Nascimento & Marcio Borges; Lyrics by Brock Walsh)

Here where we stand there used to be a forest
A timber rising endlessly before us
We cleared away that God forsaken jungle
And in return the Indians adore us

What was mud now is a highway
Reaching wide into a prairie
Horses run -- cattle are grazing
You would swear it was Oklahoma

Day by day dark is illuminated
God's mistake altered and uncreated
Wrong's made right left to the jungle pioneer

See in the field my little son and daughter
Not long ago that ground was underwater
Now you can see them walking with the cattle
Singing them songs before they go to slaughter

There are those who would appose us
Crying out, "God save the planet"
Bleeding hearts can't turn assunder
This the eighth and final wonder

Day by day this land is liberated
God's mistake altered and uncreated
Wrong's made right left to the jungle pioneer

Saddle up giddy up and ride on out of here
We got a mile of burning to do today
Get along now gonna need you out of here
We got a pile of earning to do today

Down in Brazil there used to be a forest
Now in it's place a crazy wind is whistling
As every tree was falling in the forest
It made a sound but nobody was listening

When the last is buried under
What has been will be no longer
No matter what man may endeavor
Eden's gate closes forever

Day by day life is eliminated
God's own work altered and eliminated
Through it all there stands the jungle pioneer