Drive-By Truckers Uncle Frank (Alternate Version) lyrics

They powered up the city with hydro-electric juice
Now we got more electricity we can ever use
They flooded out the hollow
Now folks down there moved out
They got paid so there ain't nothing else to think about

Some of them made their living cutting the timber down
Snaking it one log at a time up the hill and into town
But TVA had a way to clear it off real fast
Lots of men and machinery build a dam and drown the rest

Uncle Frank lived on a bottle down on Cedar Creek
Bought fifteen acres when he got back home from overseas
Fifteen rocky acres, figured no one else would want
All that backed up water had to have some place to go

Uncle Frank couldn't read or write

Never held down a job or needed one in his life
They assured him there'd be work for him in town
Building cars, it's already going down

The cars never came to town and the roads never got built
And the price of all that power kept on going straight uphill
And the banks around the water sold for lake-front property
Where doctors, lawyers, and musicians
Teach their kids to water ski

Uncle Frank couldn't read or write
So there's no note or letter found when he died
Just a rope around his neck
And the kitchen table turned on its side