Jackson Browne

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
Dawn on a half darkened street
A childs footsteps repeat
And something there turns them
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 dont hear no church bells ringing
And in the violent night the police light
Sweeps across 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
Manuelitos sister rosa
Ran away with a surfer from hermosa
Manuelito, cuida a rosa,
Hay mira como estan las cosas!
(manuelito take care of rosa
--look at how things are)
But who could blame her after she saw
Every boy die who could have gotten close to her
Rosa es joven u solo quiere