Severance Pay

When I came to the Prince William Sound

The Glaciers were friends to me

Not one of them said I had to be home

Or I couldn't have a drink

Sometime late in '63

Appetites finally grew near

How to get kicked off a pipeline crew

Get too drunk to feel fear

Winter was coming anyway seeming to last an age

Lived off of my severance pay from the old pipeline days

Did just fine out in the snow -- Jack was just a little help

You think six months of darkness easy, you just try it yourself

Woke up in time that early spring

To turn on the evening news

Could only sit dumb as Cronkite said

"Look what's gonna happen to you"

I was drunk when the shock wave hit

Said goodbye to Valdez

Nothing much there anyway

Just the pipeline and me

Earth shook earth shook

Never meant nothing to me

Never meant anything