Falling Down on New Jersey

Mitchell Burnside Clapp

Falling Down on New Jersey

Lyrics Copyright ©1990 Mitchell Burnside Clapp - All Rights Reserved
Music: "Rolling Down on Old Maui" (Traditional)
Used by permission

It's a damn tough life far from home and wife
that we astronauts undergo
And we don't much care when the mission's done
how far the ship did go
But you'll be sad to learn our deorbit burn
won't be made for our tanks are empty
And the fuel line's torn so you'd better warn
all the folks in New Jersey

Chorus:
Falling down on New Jersey, me boys
Falling down on New Jersey
We thought it wise we apologize
to the folks in New Jersey

Well it's widely known that a ship alone
would be burned up and destroyed
But the ship and crew brought with us too
an eleven mile asteroid
So when you've awoken all the folks in Hoboken
and the profs at Princeton too
We'll divulge the fact that the rock's impact
will be at seven thirty two

Chorus

Well now why the shock? Hell it's just a rock
Are we just alarmist fools?
But it has you see potential energy
of roughly ten to the nineteenth joules
With the rock's advance there is Buckley's chance
that the Garden State'll be spared
And soon we'll show if you didn't know
that E is mc squared

Chorus

We will strike a spark that'll toast Newark
and will flatten Perth Amboy
It won't be pretty in Atlantic City
You should shade your eyes in Troy
Even so and yet we have one regret
that we haven't the delta V
To push it forth just a few miles north
to land smack on N Y C

Chorus
Falling down on New Jersey me boys
falling down on New Jersey
We apologize- gee we're sorry guys!
What a drag for New Jersey