The Ballad of Robert Moses

Music & Lyrics: John Forster

Robert Moses was a builder,
A master builder was he.
He dreamed up a network of parks and parkways
To link Long Island to NYC.
Robert Moses started building
Through farm and swampland he flew.
"I'll make this desert bloom,
I'll get the place to boom."
And that is what he got it to do.

And some days, in the rush hour's rush,
In the hush of my Honda I drive
And sing, "Praise be to Moses.
For bringing his children
Through the desert on I 495."

Robert Moses dreamed a new road
Cross a wilderness called the Bronx.
A road through houses, bedrooms, kitchens,
Schoolyards, playgrounds, local honkytonks.
Robert Moses taught those neighbors
A lesson in democracy.
"I must sacrifice your hood
But it's for the greater good
Of a higher Authority.

"Comin' through! Get out the way!
Comin' through! Get the hell out of the way!
The Thruway Authority's
A one-man majority
And you have to do as I say!"

And some days, in the diesel haze
And the noise of a traffic jam
I get this feeling that Moses
Was sent here by the Pharoah
To screw up the Promised Land.

Verrazano.
Major Deegan
Koskiusko
Henry Hudson
Pelham Parkway
Comin' thru!

Robert Moses lay a dyin'
On the fifth floor of Mt. Sinai.
He looked out his window at the Bruckner Expressway
And said "What a good boy am I."
Then his eyes closed and his head sank
And he smugly met his doom.
Now he's down there where it's hot
But his dozers are not.
They're right outside our livingroom.

"Comin' through! Get out the way!
Comin' through! Get the hell out of the way!
The Thruway Authority's
A one-man majority
And you have to do as I say!"

And some night when there ain't light
And the Tri-state world is in bed,
I'm gonna get me a backhoe and dig his grave
And make goddam sure that Robert Moses is dead.

(c) Limousine Music Co. (ASCAP)