Song Description

Unhappiness with life in a small town in America's heartland.

Lyrics

My Grandpa worked the family farm
Until the day he died
Don't think he ever left here
Not sure he even tried

My uncle had the sense to go
Our one ambitious man
He never had to come back
'cause he died in Viet Nam

But Daddy, 'course he stuck around
He mumbles 'bout the fertile ground
And swears he loves this wretched town
He's never been quite right

Mama sees the misery,
The ache these acres bring to me
She reads me like an old marquee
That flickers through the night

I'm living in the heartland
I'm dying in the heartland
This cannot be what God planned
I'm beaten by the heartland

Andy Brown's out on his tractor
The one that took his leg
Best wrestler in the county
With his upper-body strength

He could've gone to college
Yeah, that's what the papers wrote
I'd gladly give a leg of mine
To get to Terra Haute

I'm living in the heartland
I'm dying in the heartland
This cannot be what God planned
I'm beaten by the heartland

Mama's canning peaches
And telling me of beaches
And mountains that she's never gonna see

A dozen years of learning
Have only led to yearning
For things I know are never gonna be

I'm living in the heartland
I'm dying in the heartland
This cannot be what God planned
I'm beaten by the heartland