New York

Pedro lives out of the wilshire hotel
He looks out a window without glass
The walls are made of cardboard, newspapers on his feet
His father beats him 'cause he's too tired to beg

He's got 9 brothers and sisters
They're brought up on their knees
It's hard to run when a coat hanger beats you on the thighs
Pedro dreams of being older and killing the old man
But that's a slim chance he's going to the boulevard

He's going to end up, on the dirty boulevard
He's going out, to the dirty boulevard
He's going down, to the dirty boulevard

This room cost 2,000 dollars a month
You can believe it man it's true
Somewhere a landlord's laughing till he wets his pants
No one here dreams of being a doctor or a lawyer or anything
They dream of dealing on the dirty boulevard

Give me your hungry, your tired your poor i'll piss on 'em
That's what the statue of bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death
And get it over with and just dump 'em on the boulevard

Get to end up, on the dirty boulevard
Going out, to the dirty boulevard
He's going down, on the dirty boulevard
Going out

Outside it's a bright night
There's an opera at lincoln center
Movie stars arrive by limousine
The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of manhattan
But the lights are out on the mean streets

A small kid stands by the lincoln tunnel
He's selling plastic roses for a buck
The traffic's backed up to 39th street
The tv whores are calling the cops out for a suck

And back at the wilshire, pedro sits there dreaming
He's found a book on magic in a garbage can
He looks at the pictures and stares at the cracked ceiling
"at the count of 3" he says, "i hope i can disappear"

And fly fly away, from this dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly-fly-fly-fly, from dirty boulevard

I want to fly away
I want to fly
Fly, fly away
I want to fly
Fly-fly away (fly a-)
Fly-fly-fly (-way, ooohhh...)
Fly-fly away (i want to fly-fly away)
Fly away (i want to fly, wow-woh, no, fly away)

Sam was lyin' in the jungle
Agent orange spread against the sky like marmalade
Hendrix played on some foreign jukebox
They were praying to be saved
Those gooks were fierce and fearless
That's the price you pay when you invade
Xmas in february

Sam lost his arm in some border town
His fingers are mixed with someone's crop
If he didn't have that opium to smoke
The pain would never ever stop
Half his friends are stuffed into black body bags
With their names printed at the top
Xmas in february

Sammy was a short order cook
In a short order black and blue collar town
Everybody worked the steel mill
But the steel mill got closed down
He thought if he joined the army
He'd have a future that was sound
Like no xmas in february

Sam's staring at the vietnam wall
It's been a while now that he's home
His wife and kid have left, he's unemployed
He's a reminder of the war that wasn't won
He's the guy on the street with the sign that reads
"please help send this vet home"
But he is home
And there's no xmas in february
No matter how much he saves

There's blacks with knives and whites with clubs
Fighting in howard beach
There's no such thing as human rights
When you walk the n.y.streets
A cop was shot in the head by a 10 years old kid
Named buddah in central park last week
The fathers and daughters are lined up by the coffins
By the statue of bigotry, hey

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
Well i meet you in tompkins square

The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend
They shot him in the car where he sat
And eleanor bumpers and michael stewart
Must have appreciated that
There's a rampaging rage rising up like a plague
Of bloody vials washing up on the beach
It'll take more than the angels or iron mike tyson
To heal this bloody breach, hey, hey

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
I'm gonna meet you in tompkins square

A junkie ran down a lady a pregnant dancer
She'll never dance but the baby was saved
He shot up some china white and nodded out at the wheel
And he doesn't remember a thing
They shot that old lady 'cause they thought she was a witness to
A crime she didn't even see
Whose home is the home of the brave
By the statue of bigotry, hey

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
Meet you in tompkins square

You got a black .38 and a gravity knife
You still have to ride the train
There's the smelly essence of n.y. down there
But you ain't no bernard goetz, ah
There's no mafia lawyer to fight in your corner
For that 15 minutes of fame
The have and the have nots are bleeding in the tub
That's new york's future not mine, oh

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
You better, something's happening here
Hold on, ooohhh, babe

You can't depend on your family
You can't depend on your friends
You can't depend on a beginning
You can't depend on an end

You can't depend on intelligence
Ooohhh, you can't depend on god
You can only depend on one thing
You need a busload of faith to get by, watch, baby

Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
You need a busload of faith to get by

You can depend on the worst always happening
You can depend on a murderer's drive
You can bet that if he rapes somebody
There'll be no trouble having a child

You can bet that if she aborts it
Pro-lifers will attack her with rage
You can depend on the worst always happening
You need a busload of faith to get by, yeah

Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by, baby
Busload of faith to get by

You can't depend on the goodly hearted
The goodly hearted made lamp-shades and soap
You can't depend on the sacrament
No father, no holy ghost

You can't depend on any churches
Unless there's real estate you want to buy
You can't depend on a lot of things
You need a busload of faith to get by, woh

Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by

You can't depend on no miracle
You can't depend on the air
You can't depend on a wise man
You can't find 'em because they're not there

You can depend on cruelty
Crudity of thought and sound
You can depend on the worst always happening
You need a busload of faith to get by, ha

Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by
Busload of faith to get by

This is no time for celebration
This is no time for shaking heads
This is no time for backslapping
This is no time for marching bands

This is no time for optimism
This is no time for endless thought
This is no time for my country right or wrong
Remember what that brought

There is no time
There is no time
There is no time
There is no time

This is no time for congratulations
This is no time to turn your back
This is no time for circumlocution
This is no time for learned speech

This is no time to count your blessings
This is no time for private gain
This is no time to put up or shut up
It won't no time to come back this way again

There is no time
There is no time
There is no time
There is no time

This is no time to swallow anger
This is no time to ignore hate
This is no time to be acting frivolous
Because the time is getting late

This is no time for private vendettas
This is no time to not know who you are
Self knowledge is a dangerous thing
The freedom of who you are

This is no time to ignore warnings
This is no time to clear the plate
Let's not be sorry after the fact
And let the past become out fate

There is no time
There is no time
There is no time
There is no time

This is no time to turn away and drink
Or smoke some vials of crack
This is a time to gather force
And take dead aim and attack

This is no time for celebration
This is no time for saluting flags
This is no time for inner searchings
The future is at head

This is no time for phony rhetoric
This is no time for political speech
This is a time for action
Because the future's within reach

This is the time
This is the time
This is the time
Because there is no time

There is no time
There is no time
There is no time
There is no time

Good evening mr.waldheim
And pontiff how are you?
You have so much in common
In the things you do

And here comes jesse jackson
He talks of common ground
Does that common ground include me
Or is it just a sound

A sound that shakes
Oh jesse, you must watch the sounds you make

A sound that quakes
There are fears that still reverberate

Jesse you say common ground
Does that include the plo?
What about people right here right now
Who fought for you not so long ago?

The words that flow so freely
Falling dancing from your lips
I hope that you don't cheapen them
With a racist slip

Oh common ground
Is common ground a word or just a sound
Common ground
Remember those civil rights workers buried in the ground

If i ran for president
And once was a member of the klan
Wouldn't you call me on it
The way i call you on farrakhan

And pontiff, pretty pontiff
Can anyone shake your hand ?
Or is it just that you like uniforms
And someone kissing your hand

Or is it true
The common ground for me includes you too

Oh, oh, is it true
The common ground for me includes you too

Good evening mr.waldheim
Pontiff how are you
As you both stroll through the woods at night
I'm thinking thoughts of you

And jesse you're inside my thoughts
As the rhythmic words subside
My common ground invites you in
Or do you prefer to wait outside

Or is it true
The common ground for me is without you

Or is it true
The common ground for me is without you

Oh is it true
There's no ground common enough for me and you

They say he didn't have an enemy
His was a greatness to behold
He was the last surviving progeny
The last one on this side of the world

He measured a half mile from tip to tail
Silver and black with powerful fins
They say he could split a mountain in two
That's how we got the grand canyon

Last great american whale
Last great american whale
Last great american whale
Last great american whale

Some say they saw him at the great lakes
Some say they saw him off of florida
My mother said she saw him in chinatown
But you can't always trust your mother

Off the carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day
The lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
And he'd been on death row since 1958

The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
Spit on indians and lots worse
The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
Life compared to death for him seemed worse

The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
And tried to conjure up a storm or rain
The harbor parted, the great whale sprang full up
And caused a hugh tidal wave

The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
The tribe let out a roar
The whites were drowned, the browns and reds set free
But sadly one thing more

Some local yokel member of the nra
Kept a bazooka in his living room
And thinking he had the chief in his sight
Blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon

Last great american whale
Last great american whale
Last great american whale
Last great american whale

Well americans don't care for much of anything
Land and water the least
And animal life is low on the totem pole
With human life not worth more than infected yeast

Americans don't care too much for beauty
They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
And complain if they can't swim

They say things are done for the majority
Don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear
It's like what my painter friend donald said to me
"stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"