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Geologic Repository Trilogy

from Isoprolific by vonHummer

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about

Back in the swingin' 60s, Gordon Lightfoot—an all-time favorite of mine--wrote a swell suite of songs about the birth of the railroads in Canada. It's about 7 minutes long or so, "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy." I figured I'd write a modern American equivalent about the history of the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The project has since been squashed, but I predict we'll have no choice but to get it in operation sooner or later. Really, where else can the spent plutonium rods go? They're just sitting around in tubs of water at the various plants now, piling up as you read this. That storage facility has had a lot of names, but at the time I worked on the project for a government contractor in 1998, it was known as the Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, hence the title of my work, "The Geologic Repository Trilogy."

This song wasn't more to me than a one-shot in-joke for Lightfoot fans and political junkies, so imagine my surprise when it became one of the top-20 downloads. Surfing the internet one day, I came across a blog entry by an unknown fan of the song who tried to transcribe the lyrics, but messed up the location names. Makes sense. "Deaf Smith County, Texas," "the Ghost Dance and Solitario lines of fault," aren't terribly famous. I made some correction comments on their blog. This is history, after all.

It's a medium-difficult song to play for me. Lots of barred chords on a bass, as usual and tons of words. And it's more like three long songs to learn, instead of one.

If you see the video, there are actual illustrations flashing in the background that I did as part of the 1998 Congressional Feasibility Study.

lyrics

"Geologic Repository Trilogy"
[vonHummer]

Not long after mankind’s face had settled down to the nuclear race, we cast our eyes on the land contemplating space: a space to place the waste, a space to place the waste, a place for the waste to go, oh...to chill out for ten thousand years or so...

Scientific heads were scratched, funds were raised and wits were matched, we cast our eyes on the land searching for a patch: a patch to catch the rads, a patch to catch the rads, a patch for the rads to go, oh...to chill out for ten thousand years or so...

Deaf Smith County, Texas was no damn good due to their water table, and Hanford, Washington, they did what they could, but were politically unable, but valhalla for the wretched and the weary finally was found in the great wasted state of Nevada’s most god forsaken ground...

Yucca, Yucca Mountain, Yucca Mountain, we’re gonna put it to the test,
Yucca, Yucca Mountain, Yucca Mountain, does this desert rest in peace?
Yucca Mountain, by the grace of God, we’ll get the rods out of our own backyards at least,
We’ve found the sod for the rods to rest below to chill out for ten thousand years or so...

So get off your high horses people, and get in the hole,
We’re boring down three hundred feet, sweating bullets in the devilish heat,
We’re storing armageddon’s empties just a couple steps higher than hell,
We’re going in thru busted butte as soon as DOE gets the loot, and the usual suspects get a cut as well...

So move your machines gently, people, thru the heavy rock
which used to be volcanic ash, dirty work by the fluorescent flash,
We’re standing up and staring down the danger where we shop and dwell,
so show pride in each emplacement drift, it’s our subterranean gift to our grandchildren’s grandkids, as time will tell...

After all, what will be left behind after the megamall has faded away and the prodigal sun which tans the hide of vegas is an ancient one, and the bones of the last blonde showgirl have fossilized someday?

Who’ll be left to tell the story of the put-in-on-layaway glory of the geologic repository?

Yucca, Yucca Mountain, Yucca Mountain, who will survive to see history’s deepest latrine?
Yucca, Yucca Mountain, Yucca Mountain, carved permanently between the Ghost Dance and Solitario lines of fault, just a couple steps higher than hades,
recalling the gents and the ladies whose lust for power filled this mighty vault?

Wasn’t pretty, but the waste found a place to go to chill out for ten thousand years or so...

credits

from Isoprolific, released August 21, 2016
vonHummer: vocals and bass.

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vonHummer Portland, Oregon

vonHummer is a Portland music/cable access legend whose career spanned from Fall of 2001 to Fall of 2011, during which he recorded a hundred or so songs for use in his absurdist show (and feature film) and played only a handful of concerts. Currently retired, his work shines on for the ages. Or will he someday return...? ... more

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