Tiny Fish for Japan - Intellectual

[Verse 1]

Where Patterson Creek's muddy waters run down

Past the penny arcades, by the harbour downtown

All the old Turtlebacks rust in the rain

Like they never will leave there again

But leave there they will in the hours before dawn

Slip out in the darkness without word or song;

For a few more years yet they will work while they can

To catch tiny fish for Japan

No white fish or trout here, we leave them alone

The inspectors raise hell if we take any home

What kind of fisherman can't eat his catch

Or call what he's taken his own?

But the plant works three shifts now. There's plenty of pay

We ship seventeen tons of this garbage each day

If we want to eat fish, then we'll open a can

And catch tiny fish for Japan

In the Norfolk Hotel over far too much beer

The old guys remember when the water ran clear

No poisons with names that we can't understand

And no tiny fish for Japan...

So the days run together. Each one is the same

And it's good that the smelt have no lovelier name

It's all just a job now, we'll work while we can

To catch tiny fish for Japan

And we'll catch tiny fish for Japan