Living on a shoe string / dark side of Brooklyn town / nothing stuffing the mattress / no money coming in or going out / we ain't got no future / under the great abusers / it was so easy to deny / we ain't got no prospects / beneath this smog and perspex / the great white well is running dry

When there's nothing left to pawn / what's the sense in being born / all of the cracks are branching out / when we've nothing else to give / what'll we eat where will we live / I guess it's the dark side of Brooklyn town or nothing now

Blend in with the street lights / on a cold night in Brooklyn town / sifting through the gutter / it's our bread and butter / anything to keep this ship from going down / we got no protection / us and the other spectres / drifting in and out of the doorways of the police inspectors / what good is law and order / when you're trapped inside its borders / losing interest more and more / each time they've sold and bought us

So don't ask me / for anything / that I don't have / because it's only stealing / without feeling / no sense in that

I guess it's always seemed crazy to me / to distribute everything unevenly / but you know it's all for our own good / so take your dose like you know you should / we'll attend an austere brain-dead mass / from a man with a fine veneer of glass / oh we've seethed we've chocked we've boiled and spat / but you can't wipe a smile from a Cheshire cat / so take your dose and carry on / you can brag and boast that there's nothing wrong / 'cause we're all too numb for a change of plan / it's the will of god it's the nature of man

And tomorrow / I think I'll be leaving / the dark side of Brooklyn town / because you know I'll never believe in / the good of a living lost and found / and everyone wants to tell you / what's a sin and what else is virtue / only to tiptoe along that line / high society so selective / sees you with a skewed perspective / this'll all come clear in good time

And you call this living