There was a time, a simpler time   When a man could be sure of where he stood   I used to work at the yard, working honest and hard   The hours were long but the pay was oh so good      I had a family and friends, oh so many friends   We'd drive to the lake on holidays   Back then it wasn't so dear for a sandwich or beer   At night I still dream I can see their faces      Certain things that you depend upon   There are places that you know   And the faces of america   Oh, where do they go, where did they go      I was born on a farm, a mid-western farm   I rode on the tractor with my dad   And though we never had much it was always enough   And we made the best with what we had      But then came four years of drought and the bottom dropped out   My father was broken like the rest   And I can still see his hands signing over his lands   And the bankers grow fat on the flesh of the dispossessed      Certain things that you depend upon   There are places I can go I sift the ashes of america   For someplace I used to know   Someplace I used to know   Someplace I used to know      There was a time, a simpler time   When a man could be sure of where he stood   I used to work at the yard, working honest and hard   The hours were long but the pay was oh so good      Certain things that you depend upon I used to think were guaranteed   Like the right of every man to work and feed his family   And the faces of america seem so distant and estranged   Have their eyes become too blind to see   How much their hearts have changed   How much their hearts have changed   How much their hearts have changed