Hollywood Park

A73-581 was the number, they burned it in my brain I could feel it in my veins We could run We could run We could run We were running away And the fourteen dollars I made on the bus ride from Chino I laid it on the third He was due, and I was due For a change For a change I'm tired of living a lie And they were writing their names up in the sky And we would watch them as they brought the horses by And I felt like I was ready to die When the bell went off and the races would start at Hollywood Park For fifteen years I had lived in a room with my heart on my sleeve And my throat dry from heaving the words You can change You can change If you're ready to try And we would laugh as the horses thundered by And I would tip my brand new hat up to the sky And nothing could come between you and I As the horses ran wild through the dark at Hollywood Park And when they tore it down, there was a wrecking sound And it rattled through my bones And then a cry went out through the streets that night 'Cause we knew we'd lost our home And there's only the wreckage and this dirt still on my hands And the roar of their ghosts as they stood up in the stands Where do we go? Who are all of these voices I've never heard? And what becomes of us now? Buried in concrete and broken earth As I stare out from the highway at these miles and miles of graves Under convenience stores and corner malls All the countless roads they paved Yeah, I wonder if it's lucky, or if you just forget the cost Or the price of the admission for all endless bets you lost In fifty years, I will dream of this moment from a bed Tired from lifting my legs, tired from drifting around Through the dust Through the dust In all the time that I would spend But I never claimed I knew how this would end Or the order of the horses at the bend All I knew is I would be back again And we'd stand here as the world fell apart At Hollywood Park