1450 Miles - Colorado River

I was shocked to learn the degree to which Southwest towns and farmland are dependent on the Colorado River.  It is now drying up at a record pace.  Lake Mead, providing 90% of the Las Vegas valley's water, is at its lowest level ever recorded.  I composed my original song about the Colorado River hastily, but plan to re-record it soon. I have composed a newer version with a nice piano accompaniment and more consistent tempo.

Over 1450 Miles: the Colorado River

by Vicky Oldham © 2017

 

VERSE 1:

John Wesley Powell explored it, when he rode the rapids through,

The wild Colorado, though he’s not the first to do.

Native people farmed by it, a thousand years ago,

Bringing civilized societies to the valleys down below.

 

CHORUS:

Over 14-hundred fifty miles, and 7 US States,

Through 11 National Parks, it flows and irrigates,

From the snowmelt in the Rockies, and on to Mexico,

Toward the Gulf of California, goes the Color-a-a-do

 

VERSE 2:

Winding through Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon National Park

It forms and shapes the landscape, both beautiful and stark

Filling up Lakes Powell and Mead and Havasu, today

It’s a River of Life to 40 million livin’ along the way.

 

[CHORUS REPEAT]

 

VERSE 3:

Water to the homes and towns of 7 Southwest states,

The desert turns to bounty with the farmland it creates,

Four million acres, for livestock and for crops,

From the Colorado, flowing from the mountaintops

 

[CHORUS REPEAT]

 

VERSE 4:

Today the Colorado, changed by time and fate,

Is harnessed and controlled, the subject of debate,

With every drop of water, it carries on its way,

Will it still be here tomorrow, by what we do today?

 

[CHORUS REPEAT]