Lawless Avenues

[Verse 1]

Papa hit him, Mama kissed him

Made him go to Catechism

With the sisters in their black and white

And all the time those city streets

Were teaching him another kind of wisdom

When to run and when to fight

Up at the playground after school

Listening to tales of the prison system

And those lawless avenues

[Chorus]

Down on a half-darkened street

A child's footsteps repeat

And something there turns them

Down those lawless avenues

[Verse 2]

Silent Joe went down so bad

He was the strongest fighter the avenues had

Stabbed in the chest—he went down swinging

Someone from some other part of town

No one even seen it coming down

And you don't hear no church bells ringing

And in the violent night the police light

Sweeps across the lots and the yards

Following those lawless avenues

[Chorus]

Down on a half-darkened street

Armies advance and retreat

And struggle to take control

From those lawless avenues

[Verse 3]

Manuelito's sister Rosa

Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa

(Manuelito, cuida a Rosa

¡Hay mira como estan las cosas!)

But who could blame her after she saw

Every boy die who could have gotten close to her?

(Rosa es joven u solo quiere

Ver la belleza del mundo)

Manuel said—

"You gotta fight for what you want in this life"

Just before they shipped him overseas to 'Nam

(Otra guerra sin razon

Otra guerra sin fin, sin honor)

And she was fighting to understand

When they shipped Manuelito's body home

All she heard was one more shot

Echoing down lawless avenues

[Bridge]

Hoy amigo, tal igual como ayer

La lucha en el barrio no cambia

Nuestros hijos son los que han de crecer

Por ley de la calle, viviendo entre abrazos

Y chingazos

[Chorus]

Down on a half-darkened street

Fathers' and sons' lives repeat

And something there turns them

Down those lawless avenues

[Outro]

Down on a half-darkened street

(En el calor de la calle)

Down on a half-darkened street

(Buscan valor en la calle)

Down on a half-darkened street

(Hasta final de la calle)

Down on a half-darkened street