This Used To Be Paradise

My grandaddy was a fisherman
 Lived on the water more than the land
 He could tell the seasons by the turn of the tide
 I grew up right by his side
 He was a proud cajun and he worked real hard
 The atchafalaya basin was his front yard
 I can hear him saying with a tear in his eye
 This used to be paradise
 This used to be paradise
 Brown pelicans and sac au lait
 Big salty oysters and alligators
 So many fish they would jump in your boat
 Throw in a line and that's all she wrote
 We had a little house on high ground
 Cypress trees all around
 Good living, peace and quiet
 This used to be paradise
 This used to be paradise
 Then one day the oil man came
 He gave us jobs and everything changed
 We still run our boats and we drag our nets
 But every day we get less and less and less
 I guess you can't stop the way that time goes by
 But I can't think of any reason why
 They had to come and take our way of life
 Now we don't know if we can even survive
 They took the very land our house was on
 And the shrimp and the pelicans, they're just hanging on
 It's a damned shame to make an old man cry
 This used to be paradise
 This used to be paradise
 This used to be paradise
 This used to be paradise
 My grandaddy was a fisherman