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


Lyrics submitted by aebassist, edited by Mellow_Harsher

Ghetto Defendant Lyrics as written by Mick Jones Joe Strummer

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Ghetto Defendant song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    It's about the drugs business in the ghetto's of the world not wanting change. But simply rich pickings.

    NOT TEAR GAS NOR BATON CHARGE THAT STOPS YOU TAKING THE CITY

    • They're not harmed or affected by the draconian clampdowns aimed at the ghetto dwellers, while:

    THE ADMIRAL SNORES COMMAND SUBMARINES BOIL IN OCEANS WHILE THE ARMIES FIGHT WITH SUNS

    [We've got our priorities wrong].

    BoHoon February 08, 2006   Link

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