old women who look like men, meekly working in their gardens
as the world seeps sadly by in the wink of a weathered eye
out in front of the labor station, like a scene from an alien nation
work today and get your pay, amble off and drink the blues away
it's another day on hampton avenue
where the rich and the poor make do
where life is hard and o so easy
full of sweetness and human misery....forever...
the fine victorian homes, the soft allure of well cut lawns
their world is framed in stained glass, that cuts into a sheltered past
where textile magnates ruled the town now it's lawyers and investment clowns
with perfect wives and perfect senses, engaged, enraged behind their picket fences
repeat
we can be like buildings and be restored, be like vagrants and be ignored
we can care for those a world away but forget those a block away
this place is mad and so well torn of that i know you've all been warned
of cold steel and things unreal, what you see you know you can't conceal
repeat
hampton avenue
words and music by william bates
t21 music 2009
Hampton Avenue (acoustic demo)
