| Prayed in the ghetto with my face in the cement,
|
| Heard the last moan of a boxer, seen the massacre of the innocent
|
| Felt around for the light switch, became nauseated.
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| She was walking down the hallway while the walls deteriorated.
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| East of the Jordan, hard as the Rock of Gibraltar,
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| I see the burning of the page, Curtain risin' on a new age,
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| See the groom still waitin' at the altar.
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| Try to be pure at heart, they arrest you for robbery,
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| Mistake your shyness for aloofness, your shyness for snobbery,
|
| Got the message this morning, the one that was sent to me
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| About the madness of becomin' what one was never meant to be.
|
| West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,
|
| I see the burning of the stage,
|
| Curtain risin' on a new age,
|
| See the groom still waitin' at the altar.
|
| Don’t know what I can say about Claudette that wouldn’t come back to haunt me,
|
| Finally had to give her up 'bout the time she began to want me.
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| But I know God has mercy on them who are slandered and humiliated.
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| I’d a-done anything for that woman if she didn’t make me feel so obligated.
|
| West of the Jordan, west of the Rock of Gibraltar,
|
| I see the burning of the cage,
|
| Curtain risin' on a new stage,
|
| See the groom still waitin' at the altar.
|
| Put your hand on my head, baby, do I have a temperature?
|
| I see people who are supposed to know better standin' around like furniture.
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| There’s a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it,
|
| Tonight you got the power to take it, tomorrow you won’t have the power to
|
| keep it.
|
| West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,
|
| I see the burning of the stage, Curtain risin' on a new age,
|
| See the groom still waitin' at the altar.
|
| Cities on fire, phones out of order,
|
| They’re killing nuns and soldiers, there’s fighting on the border.
|
| What can I say about Claudette?
|
| Ain’t seen her since January,
|
| She could be respectably married or running a whorehouse in Buenos Aires.
|
| West of the Jordan, west of the Rock of Gibraltar,
|
| I see the burning of the stage,
|
| Curtain risin' on a new age,
|
| See the groom still waitin' at the altar. |