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I discovered the lyrics to this song (I've never heard it, so far...) in the Digital Tradition database. Somehow, I found the similarities (topic and lyrics) to the identically named Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson song to be rather striking -- mere coincidence? Somehow, I doubt it....

To be fair, however, didn't Bob himself start the whole thing with "Ballad of Hollis Brown" back in the 1960s? Or Woody Guthrie in "Tom Joad", his rendering of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath"... Or, for that matter, the anonymous authors lamenting the plight of peasants in medieval England?

-- Manfred Helfert, Mar 1997

HEARTLAND (Steve Gillette and Rex Benson)
© 1990, Foreshadow Music, BMI / Jesse Erin Music, ASCAP

Here, in the heart of the nation,
I'm just a man who's made a promise he can't keep.
I've been workin' every sunrise,
But it's too late, I'm in too deep.

This farm is my home, it's my birthright,
It's the only life I know.
I've worked this land with all the love in these hands,
And I can't just let it go.

But in the heartland,
There's a man who holds the paper on my soul,
There's a circumstance that's out of my control.
And the thunder and the winds begin to roll....

In the heartland,
In the light before the darkness falls,
Revelations in those marbled halls,
Where they've traded away my home,
Where they've taken away my home.

What does it profit a man,
To gain the world and lose the seed?
To see the innocent land
Become the servant of their greed?

And I know I'm not alone.
, There's a woman who knew me when my prayers were younger,
And children, ashamed of their hunger.
And others, family farmers like my own,
Up late tonight in the heartland.

And in the heartland,
There's a man who holds the paper on my soul,
There's a circumstance that's out of my control.
And the thunder and the winds begin to roll....
In the heartland,
In the light before the darkness falls.
Recriminations in those distant halls
Where they've traded away our home,
Where they've taken away our home.

HEARTLAND (Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson)
© 1992, Special Rider Music (ASCAP) / Fred Mann (BMI)
Lyrics as reprinted in liner-notes to Willie Nelson's "Across the Borderline" (SONY/COLUMBIA 472942 2, 1993)

There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland,
And the bankers are takin' my home and my land from me.
There's a big achin' hole in my chest now where my heart was,
And a hole in the sky where God used to be.

There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland,
There's a well with water so bitter nobody can drink.
Ain't no way to get high and my mouth is so dry that I can't speak.
Don't they know that I'm dyin', why nobody cryin' for me?

My American dream
Fell apart at the seams.
You tell me what it means,
You tell me what it means.

There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland,
The bankers are takin' my home and my land away.
There's a young boy closin' his eyes tonight in the heartland
Who will wake up a man with a home and a loan he can't pay.

His American dream
Fell apart at the seams.
You tell me what it means,
You tell me what it means.
My American dream
Fell apart at the seams.
You tell me what it means,
You tell me what it means.

There's a home place under fire tonight in the heartland....
[REPEAT AND FADE]