Downtown L.A.

Downtown L.A. is a depressing place You can see young men with deep lines in their face They could all be something if somebody cared But nobody knows they're even down there Old woman walking with a sack on her back Picking up garbage people put out back Men down there trying to walk the line Trading their soul for a bottle of wine In the inner city, it ain't no good It's a long, long way from Hollywood Bad kind of people got a hold of the street They got something that the poor people need At two in the morning, they bust your head Fair chance, walking, you'll end up dead It's the law of the jungle with a gun and a knife If you stay long enough, you lose your life A man down there, he couldn't be lying He was sleeping in the street, he couldn't keep from crying Said he'd been there for 21 years Through the bars and the brawls and the blues and the tears Prop up the front, the back falls down All around the canyons of L.A. town When he asked for a dollar, I looked him in his face Downtown L.A. is a depressing place