You don’t get nowhere there in life
When you can walk there faster than you drive
Kill yourself slowly with each passage of time
Every day you’re less and less alive
Well, you gotta love this city ‘cause it’s so damn easy to hate
Take a whiff and sniff the subway stench that makes this city great
Scrape away the grime and you’ll find something to appreciate
Under the urban rotgut
I’ve seen the city turn people into animals
I’ve seen those animals run over and left in the street
I’ve seen the human spirit grow stagnant
Then mugged in the tunnels and left to rot in the heat
Graffiti covers everything, they’ve got it down to calling it art
You won’t notice it after awhile, you tell me, once you get city smart
Ain’t no cardiacs bein’ arrested ‘cause you won’t find no heart
Under the urban rotgut
I was never one to like beans
But I sure prefer beans to big rotten apples
And you can call me a hick ‘cause of where I live
But I’m glad as hell I don’t have to put up with all your hassles
The rent may be higher here but it sure is quieter here
The taxes may be out of sight here but at least I can walk out at night here
Maybe it’s too much away to give but enough you can’t pay me to live
Under the urban rotgut
©2024 The Hesh Inc.
My attempt at Lou Reed–like urban criticism (to wit, the New York album as well as "Kill Your Sons" from Sally Can't Dance). I wrote it when I was living in Boston in the late 1980s, watching New York City from afar as it struggled under the Dinkins administration. Never recorded or performed.