Sleep like a baby,
my little lady
Dream 'till the sunrise, creeps into your eyes,
dream 'till the sunrise turns on the day
In the avenues and alleyways,
while you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Abel and his brother, fighting one another,
in and out of every dive
The avenues and alleyways
Where the strong and the quick alone can survive,
look around the jungle, see the rough and tumble,
listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later, in the morning paper,
read about the way he died
Wake up my pretty,
go to the city
Stay through the daytime, safe in the sunshine,
stay 'till the daytime turns into night
The avenues and alleyways
Where a man's gotta' workout which side he's on
Anyway he chooses, chances are he loses,
no-one get's to live too long
The avenues and alleyways
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy,
everybody wheelin', everbody dealin',
all of the low are living a high
Every city's got 'em, can we ever stop 'em ?
Some of us are gonna' try