It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go

[Verse 1]

I am a backseat driver from America

And they drive to the left on the Falls Road

And the man at the wheel's name is Seamus

We pass a child on the corner he knows

Seamus says, "Now what chance has that kid got?"

I say from the back, "I don't know"

He says, "There's barbed wire at all of these exits

There ain't no place in Belfast for that kid to go"

[Chorus]

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life

It's a hard life wherever you go

If we poison our children with hatred

Then the hard life is all that they'll know

There ain't no place in Belfast for these kids to go

[Verse 2]

Cafeteria line in Chicago

The fat man in front of me

Is calling black people trash to his children

Ah, he's the only trash here I see

I'm thinking this man must wear a white hood

In the night when his children should sleep

But they slip to the window and they see him go out

And they think that that white hood is all that they need

[Chorus]

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life

It's a hard life wherever you go

If we poison our children with hatred

Then the hard life is all that they'll know

There ain't no place in Chicago for these kids to go

[Instrumental Break]

[Verse 3]

Well, I was a child in the sixties

And your dreams could be held through TV

With Disney and Cronkite and Martin Luther King

Oh, I believed, I believed, I believed, I believed

Now I am that backstreet driver from America

And I'm not at the wheel of control

I am guilty, I am war, I am the root of all evil

Lord, and I can't drive on the left side of the road

[Chorus]

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life

It's a hard life wherever you go

If we poison our children with hatred

Then the hard life is all that they'll know

It's a hard life, it's a hard life, it's a very hard life

It's a hard life wherever you go

There ain't no place for these kids to go