The Clash
Ghetto Defendant (edited version)
Starved in metropolis
Hooked on necropolis
Addict of metropolis
Do the worm on the acropolis
Slam dance cosmopolis
Enlighten the populace

Hungry darkness of living
Who will thirst in the pit?

(Hooked in metropolis)
She spent a lifetime deciding
How to run from it
(Addicts of metropolis)

Once fate had a witness
And the years seemed like friends
(Girlfriends)
Now her child has a dream
But it begins like it ends
(Shot in eternity)
(Methadone kitty)
(Iron serenity)

Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
(Strung out committee)
Walled out of the city
Clubbed down from uptown
Sprayed pest from the nest
Run out to barrio town
(The guards are itchy)
Forced to watch at the feast
Then sweep up the night
Flipped pieces of coin
(Broken bottles)
Exchanged for birthright
(Grafted in a jiffy)

Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
(Strung out committee)
Not tear gas nor baton charge
Will stop you taking the city
(Not sitting pretty)
(Grafted in a jiffy)
Heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
Will stop you taking the city

The Ghetto Prince of gutter poets
Was bounced out of the room
(Jean Arthur Rimbaud)
By the bodyguards of greed
For disturbing the tomb
(1873)
His words like flamethrowers
(Paris commune)
Burnt the ghettos in their chests
His face painted whiter
And he was laid to rest
(Died in Marseilles)
Ghetto defendant
(Buried in Charleville)
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
Stops you taking the city
(Shut up in eternity)
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city

Ghetto defendant
In heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
Will stop you taking that city
Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge