================================================================================ TRACK 111 - THE CITY SPEAKS ================================================================================ [INTRO] (*siren, far off*) You want to know what Fontana thinks? Fontana don't think. Fontana remembers. Listen. [HOOK 1] The city don't sleep and the city don't cry, The city just watches and the city asks why Every kid on the corner got a reason to die And the city keeps the secret and the city don't lie [VERSE 1] I'm the smoke off the asphalt at a hundred and four, I'm the tag on the overpass that nobody claims anymore; I'm the crack in the windshield of a car that never ran, I'm the name in the concrete where they poured it over a man. I'm the taco truck at midnight and the church with a leaky roof, I'm the kid with the scholarship that the neighborhood couldn't use; I'm the paper mill whistle that they shut down in the fall, I'm the ghost of a thousand jobs and the silence after the call. I don't love nobody, I don't hate nobody either - I just hold what's left of everything and I never turn the meter; I'm the reason that they tell you not to walk that way at night, And I'm the reason that they tell you that the stories aren't right. [BRIDGE 1] (*no drums, just wind and a far siren*) They call me the Inland Empire. There's no empire. There's no emperor. There's just us, and the heat, and the wait. [HOOK 2] The city don't sleep and the city don't cry, The city just watches and the city asks why Every kid on the corner got a reason to die And the city keeps the secret and the city don't lie [VERSE 2] I've watched a hundred thousand mornings that nobody wrote down, I've held the weight of everybody who ever left this town; I've buried sons and I've buried fathers and I've buried the sound Of a mother screaming at a casket and I never made a sound. I've seen the good ones go to church and I've seen the bad ones go to church, And I've watched 'em both come out the same and neither one get worse; I've seen the money come and go and the houses fall to rack, And I've seen the ones who made it out and never once came back. So don't tell me that I'm a backdrop, don't tell me I'm a stage, I'm the only thing that's left when everybody turns the page; I'm the ground that keeps on holding, I'm the wall that keeps the rage - And I'm the last one standing when the story's off the page. [BRIDGE 2] (*spoken, flat*) You want to make a song about me? Everybody does. Nobody stays. [HOOK 3] The city don't sleep and the city don't cry, The city just watches and the city asks why Every kid on the corner got a reason to die And the city keeps the secret and the city don't lie [VERSE 3] (*first-person eruption, aggressive*) I-am-the-heat-I-am-the-hate-I-am-the-late-night-call I-am-the-reason-that-your-son-is-scared-to-walk-the-hall I-am-the-lot-I-am-the-loss-I-am-the-cost-of-it-all And-I'm-the-only-thing-that's-here-when-everything-else-falls; I-am-the-dirt-I-am-the-debt-I-am-the-unpaid-rent I-am-the-name-they-carve-when-there's-no-money-left-to-spend I-am-the-start-I-am-the-end-I-am-the-amen-in-the-sin And-I'll-be-here-when-you're-gone-and-you-will-not-be-here-again. So write your little song, put your little city in a rhyme, Put me on a cover, put me on a shirt, do your time - But understand the only thing that's permanent is me, And the paper crown you're wearing is a paper crown I see. [OUTRO] The city speaks. You just weren't listening. Track one-eleven.
