Ooh, baby, I love your way, every day, yeah
I wanna tell you I love your way, every day, yeah
I wanna be with you night and day
And who makes me feel like smiling
When the weary day is through?
You baby, no one but you, baby, nobody but you
You baby, no one but you, baby, nobody but you
My baby takes the morning train
He works from nine till five and then
He takes another home again
To find me waitin’ for him
I hear that whistle blowin’
Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night
Lookin’ for the fight of her life
In the real-time world no one sees her at all
They all say she’s crazy
Locking rhythms to the beat of her heart
Changing movement into light
She has danced into the danger zone
When the dancer becomes the dance
It can cut you like a knife, if the gift becomes the fire
On a wire between will and what will be
Sittin’ in the porch swing
Listenin’ to the light rain
Beatin’ on the tin roof
Baby, just me and you
Rockin’ with the rhythm of the rain
Her brother was on the sofa eatin’ chocolate pie
Her mama was in the kitchen cuttin’ chicken up to fry
Her daddy was in the backyard rollin’ up a garden hose
I was on the porch with Charlotte feelin’ love down to my toes
And we were swingin’ (swingin’)
Yeah, just a-swingin’ (swingin’)
Little Charlotte she’s as pretty as the angels when they sing
I can’t believe I’m out here on her front porch in this swing
A-swingin’ (swingin’)
Daddy sits on a front porch swinging
Looking out on a vacant field
Used to be filled with burley t’bacca
Now he knows it never will
My Brothers found work in Indiana
M’ Sisters a nurse at the old folks home
Mama still cooking too much for supper
And me I’ve been a long time gone
Been a long time gone
No, I ain’t hoed a row since I don’t know when
Long time gone
And it ain’t coming back again
Mama’s in the factory
She ain’t got no shoes
Daddy’s in the alley lookin’ for the fuse
I’m in the kitchen with the tombstone blues
Johnny’s in the basement mixin’ up the medicine
I’m on the pavement, thinkin’ about the government
The man in the trench coat, badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough, wants to get it paid off
Johnny’s in America
Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah-ah
Johnny wants a brain, Johnny wants to suck on a coke
Johnny wants a woman, Johnny wants to think of a joke
Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah-ah
Johnny’s in America (ah-ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah-ah)
Living in America (ow)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America
Got to have a celebration
Flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C
Didn’t get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I’m back in the U.S.S.R
You don’t know how lucky you are, boy
Back in the U.S.S.R
Last night I watched the news from Washington, the Capitol
The Russians escaped while we weren’t watching them
Like Russians will
Now we’ve got all this room, we’ve even got the moon
And I hear the U.S.S.R will be open soon
A vacation land for lawyers in love
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin’
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin’
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got 'til it’s gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
Since you’re gone
The nights are gettin’ strange
Since you’re gone
Well, nothing’s makin’ sense
Since you’re gone
I stumble in the shade
Since you’re gone
Everything’s in perfect tense, well
I can’t help it
When you fall apart
And I can’t help it
Guess you better start
I got a girlfriend that’s better than this
But you don’t remember at all
As we get older and stop making sense
You won’t find her waiting long
Stop making sense, stop making sense
Stop making sense, making sense
I got a girlfriend, she’s better than that
And nothing is better than this (is it?)