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Hate Street Dialogue Lyrics
Woman please be gone
You've stayed here much too long
Don't you wish that you could cry
Don't you wish I would die
Seamy, seesaw kids
Childwomen on the skids
The dust will choke you blind
The lust will choke your mind.
I kiss the floor, one kick no more
The pig and hoes have set me free
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I kiss the floor, one kick no more
The pig and hoes have set me free
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
The inner city birthed me
The local pusher nursed me
Cousins make it in the street
They marry every trick they meet
A dime, a dollar they're all the same
When a man comes in to bust your game
The turnkey comes, his face a grin
Locks the cell I'm in again
I kiss the floor, one kick no more
The pig and hoes have set me free
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
You've stayed here much too long
Don't you wish that you could cry
Don't you wish I would die
Childwomen on the skids
The dust will choke you blind
The lust will choke your mind.
The pig and hoes have set me free
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
The pig and hoes have set me free
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
The local pusher nursed me
Cousins make it in the street
They marry every trick they meet
When a man comes in to bust your game
The turnkey comes, his face a grin
Locks the cell I'm in again
The pig and hoes have set me free
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
I've tasted hate street's hanging tree
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I can't contribute anything as far as interpretation to the lyrics other than what may be obvious. I was given the Cold Fact album to listen to a few weeks ago and after a full listen I determined this was my favorite song from the list. I just love the prosody and rhythm of the chorus.
If you like it, which it seems you do, check out Searching for Sugar Man, the documentary.
If you like it, which it seems you do, check out Searching for Sugar Man, the documentary.
According to this:
https://blog.sugarman.org/2012/08/11/the-amazing-story-of-hate-street-dialogue/
It was written by Gary Harvey, Mike Theodore (producer) and Dennis Coffey (guitarist).
The original title was "Haight Street Dialogue", referring to the hippie community in Haight/Ashbury.
"pigs and hoes" might actually be / have been "pigs and hoses", referring to the frequent harassment by the police ("pigs") using pieces of garden hose for beatings. Which, according to Harvey, triggered the change of the title.
However, "hoes" fits the rest of the song at least as well.
The lyrics don't match the ideas of a hippy community, however: without the reference to Haights it could be the description of any tough, rundown inner city area: the dirt, the drug dealers ("pushers"), the young girls, thir children playing inbetween. The central feeling of the song is one of two-sided alienation: once by the the frequent police harassment, equally well by the drug culture, the shattered family structures (birthed by the city, raised by dealers, cousins work as dealers) and the futility of finding love inbstead of another trick.
The dust will choke you blind
The lust will choke your mind.
(Not quite sure about th "hanging tree"; though...)
@amlethus Thank you for this, it's excellent. I'll fill in the gap. Hanging Tree is an eastern ritual of mass suicide, sometimes committed by families in solidarity to escape this life and, in the belief of reincarnation, be rebirthed into another. The group form a circle and drop, hanging like the branches of a banyan tree. This interpretation may fit into the hippie era well, given that many Westerners were turning to Eastern religion...
@amlethus Thank you for this, it's excellent. I'll fill in the gap. Hanging Tree is an eastern ritual of mass suicide, sometimes committed by families in solidarity to escape this life and, in the belief of reincarnation, be rebirthed into another. The group form a circle and drop, hanging like the branches of a banyan tree. This interpretation may fit into the hippie era well, given that many Westerners were turning to Eastern religion...