[Intro: Solemn acoustic guitar picking, distant cello] [Verse 1] Out in the heartlands, the factories rust The promises crumbled and turned into dust The grandfathers built it with sweat and with pride Now the doors are all boarded, with nothing inside The suits in the city, they looked the other way When the lifeblood of the town was traded away [Pre-Chorus] We are the numbers they erased from the sheet The ghosts that wander on the empty street [Chorus] Listen to the echoes of the forgotten! A harvest of sorrow, bitter and rotten We gave them our youth, we gave them our prime And they left us behind at the end of the line Oh, the echoes ring loud in the cold evening air A chorus of betrayed, a song of despair [Instrumental Interlude: Emotional cello solo accompanied by strummed acoustic guitar] [Verse 2] They speak of the future, a bright new dawn But the people who built it are broken and gone Discarded like tools when the job is all done Left in the shadows, eclipsed by the sun The ledger is balanced, the profit is clear But they don't count the cost of the misery here [Chorus] Listen to the echoes of the forgotten! A harvest of sorrow, bitter and rotten We gave them our youth, we gave them our prime And they left us behind at the end of the line Oh, the echoes ring loud in the cold evening air A chorus of betrayed, a song of despair [Instrumental Outro: Acoustic guitar slows down, a single cello note fades into the wind] [End]
