He was choking back the tears As he tried to tell his wife That the job he'd had for years He'd worked hard all his life That everything went south And he couldn't meet the bills And he had to sell the house That his daddy built And he'd ask how such a thing could be happening But he was sure there was nobody listening In the Gulf of Mexico Near the town of New Orleans Where all the tourists go In this land of hopes and dreams Then there came a killer storm A devastating flood And the people, they were warned That it would turn their streets to mud Sure enough, that storm took everything And it was like there was nobody listening In these days of change and mass communication Seems like no one's plugged into the sounds of desperation And they say the future's just an extension of the past And history has knack of comin' back Now the writer takes his pen And he tries to find the words Though time and time again They often go unheard And the singer sings his song And he tries to impart All the troubles goin' on Weighin' heavy on his heart But what good is the song that he has to sing When nobody's listening? But I know why he has to try to sing 'Cause he believes that somebody's listening