We Can't Make It Here-James McMurty/Joe Ely

[ti:We Can't Make It Here] [ar:James McMurty/Joe Ely] [al:Childish Things] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]We Can't Make It Here - James McMurty/Joe Ely [00:25.07]There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign [00:28.34]Sitting there by the left turn line [00:31.43]The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze [00:34.34]One leg missing and both hands free [00:37.02] [00:40.64]No one s paying much mind to him [00:42.91] [00:43.42]The V A budget s just stretched so thin [00:46.33]And now there's more coming back from the Mideast war [00:49.45]We can't make it here anymore [00:51.51] [00:57.00]And that big OL building was the textile mill [00:59.85]That fed our kids and it paid our bills [01:02.91]But they turned us out and they closed the doors [01:06.02]Cause we can't make it here anymore [01:08.03] [01:13.07]You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock [01:16.33]They're just gonna sit there til they rot [01:19.63]Cause there's nothing to ship nothing to pack [01:22.67]Just busted concrete and rusted tracks [01:25.24] [01:26.08]Empty storefronts around the square [01:28.68]There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere [01:31.62]You don't come down here unless you're looking to score [01:34.25] [01:34.77]We can't make it here anymore [01:36.88] [01:48.26]The bars still open but man it's slow [01:51.33]The tip jar's light and the register s low [01:53.95] [01:54.53]The bartender don't have much to say [01:56.63] [01:57.37]The regular crowd gets thinner each day [02:00.15] [02:03.69]Some have maxed out all their credit cards [02:06.39]Some are working two jobs and living in cars [02:09.61]Minimum wage won't pay for a roof won't pay for a drink [02:13.77]If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr CEO [02:17.96]See how far 5 15 an hour will go [02:21.08]Take a part time job at one your stores [02:24.01]I bet you can't make it here anymore [02:26.51] [03:01.32]And there's a high school girl with a bourgeois dream [03:04.45]Just like the pictures in the magazine [03:07.25]She found on the floor of the laundromat [03:10.28]A woman with kids can forget all that [03:13.04]If she comes up pregnant what'll she do [03:15.59] [03:16.16]Forget the career and forget about school [03:19.06]Can she live on faith live on hope [03:21.99]High on Jesus or hooked on d**e [03:24.99]When it s way too late to just say no [03:27.73]You can't make it here anymore [03:30.00] [03:47.27]Now I'm stocking shirts in the wal mart store [03:50.21]Just like the ones we made before [03:52.88]Cept this one came from Singapore [03:55.76]I guess we can't make it here anymore [03:58.07] [04:03.30]Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin [04:07.09]Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in [04:09.29]Should I hate em for having our jobs today [04:12.22]No I hate the men sent the jobs away [04:14.83] [04:18.04]I can see them all now they haunt my dreams [04:20.86]All lily white and squeaky clean [04:23.12] [04:23.99]They've never known want they'll never know need [04:26.92]Their sh*t don't stink and their kids won't bleed [04:30.07]Their kids won't bleed in their damn little war [04:32.93]And we can't make it here anymore [04:34.87] [05:09.12]Will I work for food will I die for oil [05:12.36]Will kill for power and to us the spoils [05:15.05]The billionaires get to pay less tax [05:18.02]The working poor get to fall through the cracks [05:20.65] [05:23.87]So let em eat jellybeans let em eat cake [05:26.73]Let em eat sh*t whatever it takes [05:29.36]They can join the air force or join the corps [05:32.37]If they can't make it here anymore [05:34.52] [05:51.31]So that's how it is that's what we got [05:54.15]If the president wants to admit it or not [05:56.96]You can read it in the paper read it on the wall [06:00.07]Hear it on the wind if you're listening at all [06:02.83]Get out of that limo look us in the eye [06:05.73]Call us on the cell phone tell us all why [06:08.58]In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine [06:11.47]Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains [06:14.16] [06:14.70]That's done closed down along with the school [06:17.37]And the hospital and the swimming pool [06:20.16]Dust devils dance in the noonday heat [06:23.28]There's rats in the alley and trash in the street [06:26.22]Gang graffiti on a boxcar door [06:29.11] [06:30.72]We can't make it here anymore