What Made America Famous?

It was the town that made America famous The churches full and the kids all gone to hell Six traffic lights and seven cops and all the streets kept clean The supermarket and the drug store and the bars all doing well Now they were the folks that made America famous Our local fire department stocked with short-haired volunteers And on Saturday night while America boozes The fire department showed dirty movies The lawyer and the grocer seeing their dreams Come to life on the movie screen While the plumber hopes that he won't be seen As he tries to hide his fears and he wipes away his tears But something's burning somewhere Does anybody care? We were the kids that made America famous The kind of kids that long since drove our parents to dispair We were lazy long hairs dropping out, lost confused, and copping out Convinced our futures were in doubt and trying not to care We lived in the house that made America famous It was a rundown slum, the shame of all the decent folks in town We hippies and some welfare cases Crowded families of coal-black faces Cramped inside some cracked old boards The best that we all could afford But still too fine for the rich landlord to ever tear it down And we could hear the sound Of something burning somewhere Is anybody there? We all lived the life that made America famous Our cops would make a point to shadow us around our town And we love-children put a swastika on the bright red firehouse door America, the beautiful, it makes a body proud And then came the night that made America famous Was it carelessness or someone's sick idea of a joke In the tinder box trap that we hippies lived in, someone struck a spark At first I thought that I was dreamin' Then I saw the first flames gleamin' And heard the sound of children screamin' Coming through the smoke And something's burning somewhere Does anybody care? Oh it was the fire that made America famous The sirens wailed and the firemen stumbled sleepy from their homes And when the plumber yelled: "Come on let's go!" They saw what was burning and said: "Take it slow Let'em sweat a little, they'll never know And besides, we just cleaned the chrome" Said the plumber: "then I'm going alone" Well, he rolled on up in the fire truck And raised the ladder to the ledge Where me and my girl and a couple of kids Were clinging like bats to the edge We staggered to salvation Collapsed on the street And I never thought that a fat man's face Would ever look so sweet I shook his hand in the scene that made America famous And a smile from the heart that made America great We spent the rest of that night in the home of this man That we'd never known before It's funny when you get that close, it's kind of hard to hate I went to sleep with the hope that made America famous I had the kind of a dream that maybe they're still trying to teach in school Of the America that made America famous... And of the people who just might understand That how together yes we can Create a country better than The one we have made of this land We have the choice to make each man Who dares to dream, reaching out his hand A prophet or just a crazy, damn dreamer of a fool Yes a crazy fool And something burnin' somewhere Does anybody care? Is anybody there? Is anybody there?