Youngstown by Matthew Ryan Lyrics

Here in north east Ohio
Back in eighteen oh three
James and Danny Heaton found the ore
That was lining Yellow Creek
They built a blast furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannon balls
That helped the union win the war

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinking down
Here, darling, in Youngstown

Well my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept them hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam, worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the devil as well
Taconite coke and limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Then smokestacks reaching like the arms of god
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay
Well, my daddy come on the Ohio works
When he come home from World War Two
Now the yard's just scrap and rubble he said
"Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do"
These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dying for

From the Monongahela Valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven hundred tons of metal a day
Now, sir, you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heaven's work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell