It's going to be difficult for a audience to accept this,
but we have this automobile
company at home,
the Chrysler Motor Company,
which through the manufacture
of crummy cars
that nobody wants
and other managerial goodies
drove itself onto the shoals
of bankruptcy.
Now I was always raised in civics class
to understand that when you went bankrupt,
you went bankrupt.
That's the end of the road.
You join the great line
of buggy whip manufacturers
into the annals of history there.
Incredibly, that's not what happened.
The president of Chrysler,
man named Lee Iacocca,
went down to Washington
and conned Congress
out of millions of dollars
of loan guarantees of federal money,
my money,
and pumped it all into this company
to keep it in business.
Now, I know that you can find
that hard to believe here.
I hear your derisory snorts.
Trust me, it actually happened.
Well, maybe a few other places,
but all I got out of it was a song.
Oh, the price of gold is rising out of sight,
and the dollar is in sorry shape tonight.
What the dollar used to get us now
won't get ahead of lettuce.
No, the economic forecast
But amidst the clouds I spot a shining ray
I begin to glimpse a new and better way
I've devised a plan of action
Worked it down to the last fraction
And I'm going into action here today
I am changing my name to Chrysler
I am going down to Washington, D .C.
I will tell some power broker
I'm what you did for Iacocca
would be perfectly acceptable to me.
I am changing my name to Chrysler,
I am leaving for that
great receiving line.
And when they hand a million grand out,
I'll be standing with my hand out,
yes sir, I'll get mine.
When my creditors come
screaming for their dough,
I'll be proud to tell them all
where they can go.
They won't have to scream and holler,
they'll be paid to the last dollar
Where the endless streams of money
seem to flow
I'll be glad to tell them all
what they must do
It's a matter of a simple form or two
It's not just remuneration,
it's a liberal education
Aren't you kinda glad
that I'm into it too?
An d I'm changing my name to Chrysler
I am going down to Washington, D .C.
I will tell some power broker,
what you did for Iacocca
would be perfectly acceptable to me.
I am changing my name to Chrysler,
I am leaving for that great receiving line.
And when they hand a million grand out,
I'll be standing with my hand out,
yes sir, I'll get mine.
Since the first amphibian
crawled out of the slime, of the slime,
We've been struggling in an unrelenting climb,
lenting climb
We were hardly up and walking
before money started talking
And it's said that failure is an awful crime
It's been that way a millennium or two,
a more two
Now it seems there is a
different point of view
If you're a corporate titantic
and your failure is gigantic
Down in Congress there's
a safety net for you
So I'm changing my name to Chrysler
I am go ing down to Washington, D .C.
I will tell some power broker
what you did for Iacocca
Would be perfectly acceptable to me,
da -da -da -da -da
I'm changing my name to Chrysler
I am leaving for that great receiving line
And when they hand a million grand out
I'll be standing with my hand out,
yes sir, I'll get mine
Oh, when I hand a million grand out
I'll be standing with my hand out,
yes sir, I'll get mine
Tom Paxton 
