Papa hit him mama kissed him

Made him go to Catechism

 

With the sisters in their black and white

 

And all the time those city streets

 

Were teaching him another kind of wisdom

 

When to run and when to fight

 

Up at the playground after school

 

Listening to tales of the prison system

 

And those lawless avenues

 

Dawn on a half darkened street

 

A child's footsteps repeat

 

And something there turns them

Down those lawless avenues

 

Silent Joe went down so bad

 

He was the strongest fighter the avenues had

 

Stabbed in the chest he went down swinging

 

Someone from some other part of town

No one even seen the coming down

 

And we don't hear no church bells ringing

 

And in the violent night the police light

Sweeps across the lots and the yards

Following those lawless avenues

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Lord

 

Down on a half darkened street

 

Armies advance and retreat

 

Struggle to take control

 

From those lawless avenues

 

Manuelito's sister Rosa

 

Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa

Manuelito cuida a Rosa

 

Hay mira como estan las cosas

But who could blame her after she saw

Every boy die who could have gotten

Rosa es joven u solo quiere

 

Ay ver la belleza del mundo

That were see

You gotta fight for what you want in this life

Just before they shipped him overseas to 'Nam

Otra guerra sin razon

 

Otra guerra sin fin sin honor

She was fighting to understand

 

When they shipped Manuelito's body home

All she heard was one more shot

 

Echoing down lawless avenues

 

Hoy amigo tal igual como ayer

La lucha en el barrio no cambia

 

Nuestros hijos son los que han de crecer

Por ley de la calle viviendo entre abrazos

 

Y chingazos

 

Down on a half darkened street

 

Fathers' and sons' fibes repeat

 

The something there turns them

Down those lawless avenues

 

Down on a half darkened street

En el calor de la calle

Down on a half darkened street

Buscan valor en la calle

Down on a half darkened street

Hasta final de la calle

Down on a half darkened street

Woo woo

 

Hey hey hey hey hey hey yeah yeah yeah yeah