Lancaster Avenue Blues

Forget our faces
Don’t you know they’ve never been too good with names?
Call it like they see it
Wring the blood out of the rocks of real estate
I was walking east on Fairmount, up to Broad
How far the “Art Museum Area” tag has gone
And I wanna ask the neighbors
If that’s how the agents pitched the place they bought

Long before the chains were wrapped around the block
They were sellin’ us it’s something that it’s not
Long before the taxes and the rents went up
They were stretching out the posts and taking shots

“This is where we live, this ain’t your ground to stomp,”
We shout against your roaring
But it’s a game of names, and once it’s underway
That is our early warning

40 ounces, Hoagie City, east on 30, from the woods
I was raised up in West Philly by a pack of crazy wolves
You got your wreckin’ balls and eminent domain
You got your buildings where we work, and used to play
But we knew the night was over when Univer-City banners came

From the dealers to the punks to pioneers
Into boxes where the students slam their beers
It’s an investment, not a place we live no more
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this real bad joke before

“This is where we live, this ain’t your ground to stomp,”
We shout against your roaring
But it’s a game of names, and once it’s underway
That is our early warning
This is where we rolled, into a parking lot
I think you know the story
First they draw the bounds then come the hare and hounds
And then the land is foreign

They were lining up at tables, for the meals in the parks
Others signing, trying to shut ‘em down and out of their back yards
They say it’s dignity, not “out of sight and mind”
They say it’s cleanliness, not tourists walkin’ by
It’s not displacement or an exile down on Main
It’s not dispossession, just a change of name

Forget our faces
Don’t you know they’ve never been too good with names?

“This is where we live, this ain’t your ground to stomp,”
We shout against your roaring
But it’s a game of names, and once it’s underway
That is our early warning
This is your early warning