Neil Young - Ordinary People lyrics

Two out of work models and a fashion slave
Try to dance away the Michelob night
The bartender poured herself another drink
While two drunks were watching the fight
The champ went down and he got up again
Then he went out like a light
Fighting for the people
But his timing wasn't right
The high rolling people
Taking limos in the neon light
The Las Vegas people
They came to see a Las Vegas fight
Fighting for the people yeah, yeah

There's a man in the window with a big cigar
Says everything's for sale
He had a house and a boat and a railroad car
The owner's got to go to jail
He acquired these things from a life of crime
Now he's selling them to make bail
He was ripping off the people


Selling guns to the underground
Living off the people
Skimming the top when there's no one around
Trying to help the people
Lose their ass for a piece of ground
A patch of ground people yeah, yeah, yeah

He was dealing antiques in a hardware store
But he sure had a lot to hide
He had a back room full of the guns of war
And a ton of ammunition besides
Yeah, he walked with a cane
Kept a bolt on the door
With five pit bulls inside
Just a warning to the people
In case they might try to break in at night
Protection for the people
He's selling safety in the darkest night
Trying to help the people
Get the drugs to the street all right
Trying to help the people yeah, yeah, yeah

Well, it's hard to say where
A man goes wrong
Might be here and it might be there
What starts out weak might get too strong
If you can't tell foul from fair
But it's hard to judge from an angry throng
Of hands stretched up in the air
Vigilante people
Taking the law into their own hands
The conscientious people
Cracking down on the drug lord and his bands
Government people
Confiscating all the dealer's lands
The patch of ground people yeah, yeah, yeah

A new Rolls Royce, a company car
They were racing down the street
Each one was trying to make it to the gate
Before employees manned the fleet
The trucks full of products
For the modern home
Were set to roll out into the street
Of ordinary people
Trying to make their way to work
The downtown people
Some are saints and some are jerks
(That's me) everyday people
Stopping for a drink on their way to work
Alcoholic people yeah, yeah
Taking it one day at a time

Down on the assembly line
They keep putting the same things out
The people today, they just ain't buying
Nobody can figure it out
They try like hell to build the quality in
They're working hard without a doubt
Ordinary people
But the dollar's what it's all about
Lee Iacocca people
But the customers are walking out
The nose to the stone people
Yeah, they look but they just don't buy
The patch of ground people hey, hey hey hey

In a dusty town the clock struck high noon
Two men stood face to face
One wore black and one wore white
But of fear there wasn't a trace
A hundred and eighty years later
Two hot rods drag through the very same place
A half million people
They moved in to pick up the pace
A factory full of people
Making parts to go to outer space
A train load of people
They were leaving for another place
Out of town people yeah, yeah

Down at the factory they're
Putting new windows in
The vandals made a mess of things
And the homeless just walked right in
Well, they worked here once and
They live here now
But they might work here again
The ordinary people
They're just living in a dream
Hard working people
Just don't know what it means
To give up people
They're just like they used to be
Patch of ground people hey, hey

Out on the railroad track they're
Cleaning old number nine
They're scrubbing the boiler down
She really is looking fine
(A beauty, that number nine)
Times'll be different soon
They're going to bring her back on line
Ordinary people
They're going to bring the good things back
Hard working people
They put the business back on track
The everyday people
I got faith in the regular kind
Patch of ground people yeah, yeah