Prodigal Son

Intro: In a place where outlaws are banned from the range On a day that mountains have fallen to foe In a land where boys are forbidden to grow And metal is the only master Where the highway ends and the desert breaks And buildings are bent from great earthquakes Statesmen crawl on their bellies like snakes And feed off the public hunger In a land where skyscrapers scratch the sky And delinquent daughters to their mothers still lie Papa stands on the corner he wants to beat the drum Welcome home my prodigal son When rivers run raging through city streets And great eagles have fallen from their lofty peaks And policemen moonlight as sideshow freaks Before the final crime is committed When presidents ride in Ford Mustangs And the black man releases his Cadillac fangs And you're checked out in bad as the landlord bangs The young girl next door for the rent Where telegraph wires are attached to your mind Delinquent daughters to their mothers still lie Papa stands on the corner waiting to beat the drum Welcome home my prodigal son When the telephone rings and falls off the hook And your legs have been stolen from some defense department crook And you're starting to think about writing a book But now you won't pledge allegiance to anything And the maid comes in with coffee and cake And a low-cut dress she wore just for your sake You explain you're not dead, she takes it as a compliment Sticks out her tongue and asks for requests In a land where skyscrapers scratch the sky And delinquent daughters to their mothers still lie Papa stands on the corner waiting to beat the drum Welcome home my prodigal son And the mercury men with hydraulic joints They bribe with a smile and hold you up in the alley at pen point They ask you to bend over that they may anoint You with the holy water of your profession When the line between love and hate gets so thin And your body takes over when your mind gives in And your lady lover demands that you pin her to the floor But it's too late, your reflexes are shot And the man on the corner with the nervous twitch Whispers,"Hey, how'd you like to buy a nice bitch? She's a thirty-eight and I got her loaded in all six" He keeps talking and you just keep walking And you reach for the sky and get stuck on a steeple You reach out for love but you get lost in the people You run through the canyon screaming like an eagle And you fall face first in the mud In a land where skyscrapers scratch the sky And delinquent daughters have their own children who lie Papa stands on the corner watching the parade he wants to beat the drum Welcome home, welcome home my prodigal son Welcome home my prodigal son