There's a bloodshot moon risin'
On the cornfield since she went away
A rusty ax layin' in the barnyard
It's seen better days
The banks are tellin' him he should sell
He's tellin' them to go straight to hell

Everyone is headin' for the city
Givin' up on the land
Takin' jobs with the big corporations
Too tired to make a stand
The dusty roads are all empty now
The wind and weather have taken
'em all to task

The frontier is returnin'
Forward into the past

From the silent frozen winter
The dark and endless night
Where the plains stretch out forever
In a sea of barren white
To the billion dollar merger
To bailouts in the east
Where currencies are mangled
And Wall Street has a feast
Independence is outmoded
Out of favor, out of sync
Abandoned and forgotten
Discarded in the blink of an eye

His hometown's nearly empty now
Schools and churches too
The trains have stopped for a hundred years
They just rumble through
The trucks stay out on the big highway
His whole way of life is fadin' fast

The tall grass is returnin'
Forward into the past

Forward into the past forward into the past
Forward into the past forward into the past