Hard Times ...and who knows it better than Guy, Arkansas

I wrote this song based upon the lyrics of the great Ray Charles standard "Hard Times" to help highlight the problems and dangers of using "fracking" and injection in natural gas production. We've seen swarms of quakes around Guy and Quitman in Arkansas, and now we've seen Oklahoma have the biggest quake in its history -- and yes, they're fracking round that region too! Does that mean the fracking caused the Oklahoma quakes? We don't know, but people who live there should be looking for answers. As I say in the song, it's not just hard times in Arkansas. If the fracking goes on, there'll be more hard times in other places too.
Here's the words to song as on the video:
Hard Times (and who knows it better than Guy, Arkansas)

My moma called me
Just the other day
Said her whole house was shaking, man
Like it was gonna fall away

She said there'll be hard times
Arkansas' hard times
And who knows it
Better than those folks down in Guy?

Well I soon found out
Just what she meant
When I had to run outside
As that ground began to rent

Yeah we got those hard times 'cos those frackin' wells
Arkansas' hard times...
And who knows it
Better than Guy?

(Middle 8)

Arkansas' got beauty
All those towns and hills so green
But when those quakes start up again
It's enough to make you scream

Talking hard times 'cos those frackin' wells,
Arkansas' hard times
And who knows it
Better than Guy?

(Middle 2)
[Spoken: It's getting bad down there... and not just Arkansas.
Gotta stop 'em, you know... Gotta stop 'em
And I'll tell ya, I'll tell ya...]

Oh man, one of these days,
All them gasmen with their frackin' wells
They're gonna have to pay

Pay for those hard times
They'll pay for those hard times
And who knows it... [Yeah I'm asking ya, who knows it?]
Who knows it...
Better than Guy?

I'd like to thank my friends on AboveTopSecret who have worked hard to dig for information and who in some cases have personally got involved in the protests to end fracking and also to raise public awareness.

There are plenty of good videos on Youtube about fracking. Watch a few and you'll see that this is a growing problem.

Thanks to InstantMedia for giving me studio time free, and to their sound tech AdamJ for mixing. The keyboard backing is from a version of Hard Times played by BenPaterson and he's a brilliant musician. Please check out his channel.

And thanks for listening.

Mike