Once Was The Time of Man - performed by the Limelighters, circa 1960, can't remember the author

Chorus: Once there were trees and a river.
Once there was grass where you stand.
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs.
Once was the time of Man.

Grass doesn't grow on the hillside.
Trees shrink and die in the sun.
No place to hide my little baby's eyes
From the damage the dead have done.

(Chorus)

They didn't know in the old times,
The earth and the seas were to share.
They didn't know in the old times,
For there...
Once were trees and a river.
Once there was grass where you stand.
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs.
Once was the time of Man.

Once was the time of Man.