[Intro]
Mm, pour it slow

[Verse 1]
After the war, 
Iowa Electric took him in.
Miss Dows in his arms next and nepotism began.
Sutherland had house and company and say,
daughter and station moving one same way.
Then came nuclear, and he took to it at once,
smooth as evening bourbon,
Duane Arnold on the rocks.

[break]
[Refrain]
[vocal reverb]
Duane Arnold on the rocks,
radiation, remediation, buttoned up,
Mark One legacy, decommission cost,
Duane Arnold on the rocks,
spent fuel management money,
old Iowa assurances, nuclear always on top
Duane Arnold on the rocks.

[Verse 2]
He liked the reactor spoken of as proper, safe, and fine,
a gentleman’s arrangement with uranium in mind.
Containment for the county, megawatts for board and street,
and that’s the way they served it,
Duane Arnold on the rocks.

[Bridge]
The country had its warning, he never changed his tone,
one month on he spoke as if the atom still belonged.
No pause inside the answer,
no room for second thought,
Duane Arnold on the rocks.

[Verse 3]
By eighty-three the man was gone, but not the station name,
it stayed upon the vessel long after shutdown came.
Turbine quit its office, switchyard lost its part,
spent assemblies carried on in casks beyond the dark.
What remains when all the current drops,
a site, a fund, a cask yard, Duane Arnold on the rocks.

[Outro]
Pour the bourbon slowly now, let quarterly remarks
settle where nobody looks.
The gentleman is history, the title still unlocks,
a site, a fund, a cask yard, Duane Arnold on the rocks.
Not power now but custody, not promise now but years.
Pour another for the trust fund,
no one says a word,
Duane Arnold on the rocks,

Duane Arnold on the rocks.

Duane Arnold on the rocks.