California Earthquake (Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On) - Grateful Dead

There was a California earthquake, in the year of '83

It shook the living daylights out of the Owens County Seat

Not a building was still standing when the dust had cleared away

And there was a rumble in the distance all the way to San Andrea

Sherman Buck was driving his old mule into town

When a big one came and shook so hard, that it knocked him to the ground

Lord there opened up a hole so big, he thought his time was up

And it swallowed up that poor old mule and it just missed Sherman Buck

California earthquake you just don’t know what you’ve done

We may fall off in the ocean, but you’ll never make us run

You’re a partner to the devil, but we ain’t afraid of him

We’ll build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again

Then came the quake of '99 that levelled Mission Creek

The earth was like an ocean churning, with waves of twenty feet

Lord it sounded like a thousand trains were screaming underground

All the way to San Joachim they heard that mournful sound

Then came one day the holocaust on San Franciso Bay

Miles of walls came down like old Jericho that day

Might near everything the earthquake missed, a holy fire consumed

And left 'em smoke and the ashes of the dreams that can’t be ruined

Build ourselves another town so you can tear it down again