"Goodbye to a river" by Don Henley, album: Inside job (2000)

“The rains have come early”, they say “We're all gonna wash away”
Well, that's all right with me
If heaven's torrent can wash clean the arrogance that lies unseen
In the damage done since we have gone where we ought not to be
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river; so long

Lakes and levees, dams and locks, they put that river in a box
It was running wild and men must have control
We live our lives in starts and fits; we lose our wonder bit by bit
We condescend and in the end we lose our very souls
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, so long

The dirty water washes down poisoning the common ground
Taking sins of farm and town and bearing them away
The captains of industry and their tools on the hill
They're killing everything divine
What will I tell this child of mine?

I make a church out of words as the years dull my senses
And I try to hold on to the world that I knew
I struggle to cross generational fences
And the beauty that still remains; I can touch it through you

Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, so long
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, so long
Goodbye to a river, goodbye to a river, roll on

A song/lament about how people treat natural landscapes, in this case a river, by changing its way, polluting its water, bulding dams etc. Probably the artist (ex-Eagles member and environmentalist) expresses personal feelings about the destruction of a river in his homeland. We read in wikipedia about his environmental activities:

In 1990, Henley founded the Walden Woods Project to help protect Walden Woods from development. The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods was started in 1998 to provide for research and education regarding Henry David Thoreau.

Henley co-founded the non-profit Caddo Lake Institute in 1993 to underwrite ecological education and research. As part of the Caddo Lake Coalition, CLI helps protect the Texas wetland where Henley spent much of his childhood.

You can hear this song in youtube