Sam Lovejoy was a farmer by choice
He left the city for the land
And in the hills of Western Mass
He found this patch of grass
And it was there Sam chose to take a stand
There he chose to take a stand
Now the Valley farmers thought Sam was kinda strange
By the style of his life and his hair
He just tended to his field
Went on living off the yield
And in time the farmers all learned not to care
In time they all learned not to care
And in 1973 the power company came to town
With money bags in their eyes
They said that the demand
Was growing faster than they'd planned
Sam knew they were all full of lies
He knew they were all full of lies
They talked about jobs, they talked about lights
And they said that there was only one way
They said you just can't avoid
A nuclear plant
That's the price that you're all gonna have to pay
The price you're gonna have to pay
So they set up a tower on the Montague plain
To stand where the power plant would be
And on top a beacon shone
Brighter than the moon
For all the Valley residents to see
For all the residents to see
And Sam saw the beacon in his valley so green
And he came to hate that flashing light
And the way that like a knife
That beacon would slice
Into the heart of the Montague night
The peaceful Montague night
On George Washington's birthday in 1974
Sam set out with a monkey wrench in hand
And he loosened up the cable
That held the tower stable
So the power plant's tower couldn't stand
The power plant's tower couldn't stand
With a whoosh and a crash that weather tower fell
Sam just smiled when he saw
Then he thumbed a ride down
To the station in the town
And turned himself over to the law
And turned himself over to the law
Sam faced a jury of women and men
And he wondered which way they would go
He said "you can believe me
Or the power company
But profit's the only law they know
Profit is the only law they know"
"In a few more years that plant'll be entombed
And leave us only poisonous ground
How do you reply
When your grandkids wonder why
You let 'em build the plant in our town
A nuclear reactor in our town"
Some of the jurors thought Sam had done wrong
And some of them thought he was right
But before they could begin
To hand their final verdict in
The government had given up the fight
The government had given up the fight
For after the judge heard the experts on nuclear power
His judgment revealed his alarm
He said "this act wasn't malicious
All Sam ever wished was
To protect the community from harm
Protect his community from harm"
So Sam is free and his story lives on
He's gone off to teach and organise
To tell everyone
About the things that he's done
And to talk about the power company's lies
To talk about the power company's lies
For as long as they keep building nuclear plants
That pollute, radiate, and melt down
So long as profit is
Their only law
We'll need a Sam Lovejoy in every town
A Sam Lovejoy in every town
recording: Jeff Lee (2016) [YouTube]
history (article): "The Story Of Sam Lovejoy", by Harvey Wasserman (c.1975) [Win magazine reprint]
history (film): "Lovejoy's Nuclear War", directed by Daniel Keller (1975) [YouTube]