Nine miles of two-strand topped with barbed wire   Laid by the father for the son   Good shelter down there on the valley floor   Down by where the sweet stream run      Now they might give me compensation   That's not what I'm chasing   I was a rich man before yesterday   Now all I have got is a cheque and a pickup truck   And I left my farm on the freeway      They're busy building airports on the south side   Silicon chip factory on the east   And the big road's pushing through along the valley floor   Hot machine pouring six lanes at the very least      Now, they say they gave me compensation   That's not what I'm chasing   I was a rich man before yesterday   Now all I have left is a broken-down pickup truck   Looks like my farm is a freeway      They forgot they told us what this old land was for   Grow two tons the acre, boy, between the stones   This was no South Fork, it was no Ponderosa   But it was the place that I called home      They say they gave me compensation   Well, that's not what I'm chasing   I was a rich man before yesterday   And what do I want with a million dollars and a pickup truck   When I left my farm under the freeway?