R-E-C-Y-C-L-E

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E
by Michael Mark & Tom Chapin
© 1994 HCD Music & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

A stegosaurus in the forest munching on some hay,
Lay down to snooze in a bed of ooze and sadly passed away.
Her body changed and rearranged as she sank beneath the soil,
And over time she turned to slime and then she turned to oil.

So she disappears for a jillion years 'til finally she is found
By a guy named Bill with an oil drill who sucks her from the ground.
Bill pipes that poor old dinosaur to an oil refinery,
Where they bubble and boil and change that oil into stuff for you and me.
R-E-C-Y-C-L-E. That's the way it's s'posed to be.
The Earth recycles and so do we. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.

From the late Jurassic it's fantassic how our dino-friend
Has now become petroleum and still that's not the end.
With dino-juice they now produce a million plastic jugs,
And stegosaurus drinking straws and stegosaurus mugs.
R-E-C-Y-C-L-E. That's the way it's s'posed to be.
The Earth recycles and so do we. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.

That's the way the system works, things don't disappear:
We turn sand into window glass, and roots into root beer.
We cut and mine and we refine and make these things and then
Use 'em not just once, not just twice,
But again and again and again and again and again.

And if a dinosaur could see us pouring orange juice this way
From a plastic jug we made of her, well this is what she'd say:
"It took me 80 million years to get to you today;
So don't throw that mug, don't throw that jug, don't you throw me away..."
R-E-C-Y-C-L-E. That's the way it's s'posed to be.
We're just a link in the chain of history. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.
R-E-C-Y-C-L-E. That's the way it's s'posed to be.
Hey, I recycled this melody. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.
Use it again. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E. And again. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.

This song appears on both Tom Chapin's Zag Zig and This Pretty Planet CD's.

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