Over the washes of the Big and Little Tujunga
Above the Mojave in a two-horse buckboard
Bill Mulholland, Fred Eaton set out for the Owens River Valley
In the fall of 1904
Through the Tehachapi, up along the Sierra Nevada
Through the Green Valley towards the Owens River mouth
They come to bring that Owens River water
Two hundred miles to the desert city south
Ain’t you feelin’ dry? Ain’t you feelin’ dry now?
My brother, ain’t you feelin’ dry?
I was a blaster in the black hole of Elizabeth
Hardrock tunneled five miles of the coast range
In the black mud, we drilled and set the charges
Blew through that mountain in just a thousand days
Owens River water for the Queen of Angels
From the heavens of the High Sierra packed snow
Owens River water for the children of the Queen of Angels
Make rich the land syndicate of the San Fernando
Ain’t you feelin’ dry? Ain’t you feelin’ dry now?
My brother, ain’t you feelin’ dry?
An uncle pushed the Paiute from their valley
Cut out his homestead in blood and pulled crops out the desert sand
Then the south, they come to share our water
‘Cause the south was thirsty, my friend
Come the drought of ’19, they started pumpin’
Water from the Owens table underground
Our big cottonwoods died, our ranches, they went dry
The green fields, they blew dusty and brown
I set the first charges for the ranchers in ’24
Fired the fuse on two hundred pounds of dynamite
Blew a hole in that aqueduct I’d helped build
Sent thunder rollin’ out across the desert night
Ain’t you feelin’ dry? Ain’t you feelin’ dry now?
My brother, ain’t you feelin’ dry?
Sacramento, the Kern, the Colorado
The King, the San Joaquin, my friend
For the power, for the water, for the prosperity
And for the men with the money in the end
Tonight the Santa Ana’s drawin’ west across the Mojave
Blowin’ fire and dust onto L.A. County windowsills
Bill Mulholland, Fred Eaton’s dead in their graves
The Queen of Angels, she remains thirsty still
Ain’t you feelin’ dry? Ain’t you feelin’ dry now?
My brother, ain’t you feelin’ dry?
Ain’t you feelin’ dry? Ain’t you feelin’ dry now?
My good brother, ain’t you feelin’ dry?