Lawless Avenues

Papa hit him, Mama kissed him
Made him go to Catechism
With the sisters in their black and white
And all the time those city streets
Were teaching him another kind of wisdom
When to run and when to fight
Up at the playground after school
Listening to tales of the prison system
And those lawless avenues
Down on a half-darkened street
A child's footsteps repeat
And something there turns him
Down those lawless avenues
Silent Joe went down so bad
He was the strongest fighter the avenues had
Stabbed in the chest, he went down swinging
Someone from some other part of town
No one even seen it coming down
And you don't hear no church bells ringing
And in the silent night, the police light
Seems to cross the lots and the yards
Following those lawless avenues
Down on a half-darkened street
Armies advance and retreat
And struggle to take control
From those lawless avenues
Manuelito's sister Rosa
Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa
Manuelito, cuida a Rosa
Ay, mira como están las cosas
(Manuelito, take care of Rosa
Look at the way things are)
Who could blame her after she saw
Every boy who could have gotten closer
Rosa es joven, sólo quiere
A ver la belleza del mundo
(Rosa is young, she just wants
to see the beauty in the world)
Manuel said, "You gotta fight for what you want in this life"
Just before they shipped him overseas to Nam
Otra guerra, sin razon
Otra guerra sin fin, sin honor
(Another war, without reason
Another war without an end or honor)
She was fighting to understand
When they shipped Manuelito's body home
All she heard was one more shot
Echoing down lawless avenues
Hoy amigo, tal igual como ayer
La lucha del barrio no cambia
Nuestros hijos, son los que han de crecer
Por ley de la calle viviendo entre brazos
Y chingazos
(Today my friend, it's the same as yesterday
The fighting in the neighborhood never changes
Our children are the ones who have to grow up
By the laws of the streets, living between hugs
And blows)
Down on a half-darkened street
Fathers' and sons' lives repeat
And something there turns them
Down those lawless avenues
Down on a half-darkened street
En la calor de la calle
(In the heat of the street)
Down on a half-darkened street
Buscan el valor en la calle
(They look for the truth in the street)
Down on a half-darkened street
Hasta final de la calle
(Until the end of the street)
Down on a half-darkened street...