Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Starved in metropolis
Hooked on necropolis
Addict of metropolis
Do the worm on the accropolis
Slamdance the 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
That stops you taking the city (not sitting pretty)
(Grafted in a jiffy) heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops 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 (eighteen-seventy-three)
His words like flamethrowers (paris commune)
Burnt the ghettos in their chests
His face was painted whiter
And he was laid to rest (died in Marseille)
Ghetto defendant, it is heroin pity (buried in Charleville)
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city (shut up in etenity)
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Guatemala, Honduras, Poland, the Hundred-Years War
TV re-run invasion
Death squad Salvador
Afghanistan, meditation, old Chinese flu
Kick junk, what else can a poor worker do?
Ghetto defendant
In heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
Hooked on necropolis
Addict of metropolis
Do the worm on the accropolis
Slamdance the 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
That stops you taking the city (not sitting pretty)
(Grafted in a jiffy) heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops 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 (eighteen-seventy-three)
His words like flamethrowers (paris commune)
Burnt the ghettos in their chests
His face was painted whiter
And he was laid to rest (died in Marseille)
Ghetto defendant, it is heroin pity (buried in Charleville)
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city (shut up in etenity)
It is heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Guatemala, Honduras, Poland, the Hundred-Years War
TV re-run invasion
Death squad Salvador
Afghanistan, meditation, old Chinese flu
Kick junk, what else can a poor worker do?
Ghetto defendant
In heroin pity
Not tear gas nor baton charge
That stops you taking the city
Ghetto defendant
It is heroin pity
Lyrics submitted by aebassist, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Ghetto Defendant Lyrics as written by Mick Jones Joe Strummer
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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