Harry Chapin - What Made America Famous? lyrics

It was the town that made America famous
The churches full and the kids
All gone to hell
Six traffic lights and seven cops and
All the streets kept clean
The supermarket and the drug store and
The bars all doing well

They were the folks that made America famous
The local fire department stocked
With shorthaired volunteers
And on Saturday night while America boozes
The fire department showed dirty movies
The lawyer and the grocer seeing their dreams
Come to life on the movie screens
While the plumber hopes that he won't be seen
As he tries to hide his fears
And he wipes away his tears
But something's burning somewhere
Does anybody care?

We were the kids that made America famous
The kind of kids that long since
Drove our parents to despair
We were lazy long hairs
Dropping out, lost confused, and copping out
Convinced our futures were in doubt
And trying not to care

We lived in the house
That made America famous
It was a rundown slum
The shame of all the decent folks in town
We hippies and some welfare cases
Crowded families with coal black faces
Cramped inside some cracked old boards
The best that we all could afford
But still too nice for the rich landlord
To tear it down, and we could hear the sound
Of something burning somewhere
Is anybody there?

We all lived the life
That made America famous
The cops would make a point to
Shadow us around our town
And we "love children" put a swastika
On the bright red firehouse door
America, the beautiful, it makes a body proud

And then came the night
That made America famous
Was it carelessness or someone's sick
Idea of a joke? In the tinderbox trap that
We hippies lived in, someone struck a spark
At first I thought I was dreaming
Then I saw the first flames gleaming
And heard the sound of children screaming
Coming through the smoke that's
When the horror broke
Something's burning somewhere does
Anybody care?

It was the fire that made America famous
The sirens wailed and the firemen
Stumbled sleepy from their homes
And the plumber yelled: "Come on let's go!"
But they saw what was burning
And said: "Take it slow
Let 'em sweat a little, they'll never know
And besides, we just cleaned the chrome"
Said the plumber: "Then I'm going alone"

He rolled on up in the fire truck
And raised the ladder to the ledge
Where me and my girl and a couple of kids
Were clinging like bats to the edge
We staggered to salvation
Collapsed on the street
And I never thought that a fat man's face
Would ever look so sweet

I shook his hand in the
Scene that made America famous
And a smile from the heart
That made America great
We spent the rest of that night in the
Home of a man I'd never known before
It's funny when you get that close
It's kind of hard to hate

I went to sleep with the
Hope that made America famous
I had the kind of a dream that maybe
They're still trying to teach in school
Of the America that made America famous and
Of the people who just might understand
That how together, yes we can
Create a country better than
The one we have made of this land
We have a choice to make each man
Who dares to dream, reaching out his hand
A prophet or just a crazy God damn
Dreamer of a fool - yes a crazy fool

There's something burning somewhere
Does anybody care? Is anybody there?
Is anybody there?