Kirsty MacColl - Walking Down Madison (LP Extended Mix) lyrics

Walking down Madison
I swear I never had a gun
No I never shot no-one i was only having fun
Walking down Madison swear I never had a gun
I was philosophizing some
Checking out the bums

See you give ’em your nickels
Your pennies and dimes
But, you can’t give ’em hope
In these mercenary times, oh no
And you feel real guilty about
The coat on your back
And the sandwich you had, oh no
From an uptown apartment to a
Knife on the "A" train it’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to
The rats in the basement it’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep in thе park
Oh, no it’s not that far



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I can show you if you’d likе to

Walking down Madison
I swear I never had a gun
No I never shot no-one
Wouldn’t do it just for fun
Walking down Madison
Trying to keep my head screwed on
I was philosophizing some
Checking out the nuns
When you get to the corner
Don’t look at those freaks
Keep your head down low and
Stay quick on your feet, oh yeah

The beaming boy from Harlem
With the airforce coat the ones who died
The ones who tried
The ones that sit and gloat
From an uptown apartment to a
Knife on the "A" train it’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to
The rats in the basement it’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep
On the church steps it’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

Within every city and town there’s a Madison
Frozen lives for whom nothing’s happening
Hungry children is a mother’s dilemma
Dumpster diving to feed her baby Emma
So you walk on by like it doesn’t affect you
The held out hand that you pay no respect to
Nickels and dimes won’t even buy your guilt
Another wino dead burnt to death in his quilt
It’s a cardboard city, newspaper metrapolis
The system can’t cope or keep on top of this
The outhorities come as you’re
Not for display do they solve the problem no
They move him away
They’re in a vicious circle of no fixed abode
The social won’t pay ’em
The money they’re owed
When you got no money you can’t pay rent
Hypothermia kills ‘cos the system is bent
From an uptown apartment to a
Knife on the "A" train it’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to
The rats in the basement it’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep in the park
It’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

From an uptown apartment to a
Knife on the "A" train it’s not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to
The rats in the basement it’s not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep
On the church steps it’s not that far

Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you’d like to

In the subway sit's a vacuous man
His grip on life is a bent tin can
It’s a holy shrine where he burns his light
It makes things easy and removes his plight
For an hour or two but he can’t escape
They’re all penned in with government tape
There are good samaritans who bring them soup
The sally army with their bibles and boots
You can see yourselves it’s not too far
One short trip you don’t know who they are
Till the night comes then it all comes back
Like the smell of patchoulli and
The armies of rats
It’s a shame to be human it’s a human shame
It seems we’ve forgotten we’re
One and the same

One and the same one and the same
No it’s not too far no it’s not too far
We’re one and the same