King Heroin - James Brown

Ladies and Gentlemen

Fellow Americans

Lady Americans

This is James Brown

I wanna talk to you about one of our

Most deadly

Killers in the country today

I had a dream the other night, and I

Was sitting in my living room

Dozed off to sleep

So I start to dreaming

I dreamed I walked in a place and

I saw a real strange, weird object

Standing up talking to the people

And I found out it was heroin

That deadly drug that go in your veins

He said:

I came to this country without a passport

Ever since then I’ve been hunted and sought

My little white grains are nothing but waste

Soft and deadly and bitter to taste

I’m a world of power and all know it’s true

Use me once and you’ll know it, too

I can make a mere schoolboy forget his books

I can make a world-famous beauty neglect her looks

I can make a good man forsake his wife

Send a greedy man to prison for the rest of his life

I can make a man forsake his country and flag

Make a girl sell her body for a five-dollar bag

Some think my adventure’s a joy and a thrill

But I’ll put a gun in your hand and make you kill

In cellophane bags I’ve found my way

To heads of state and children at play

I’m financed in China, ran in Japan

I’m respected in Turkey and I’m legal in Siam

I take my addicts and make 'em steal, borrow, beg

Then they search for a vein in their arm or their leg

So, be you Italian, Jewish, Black or Mex

I can make the most virile of men forget their sex

So now, now my man, you must do your best

To keep up your habit until your arrest

Now the police have taken you from under my wing

Do you think they dare defy me, I who am king?

Now, you must lie in that county jail

Where I can’t get to you by visit or mail

So squirm — with discomfort — wiggle and cough

Six days of madness, hah, and you might throw me off

Curse me in name, defy me in speech

But you’d pick me up right now if I were in your reach

All through your sentence you’ve become resolved to your fate

Hear now, young man and woman, I’ll be waiting at the gate

Don’t be afraid, don’t run, I’m not chased

Sure my name is Heroin, you’ll be back for a taste

Behold, you’re hooked

Your foot is in the stirrup

And make -- haste

Mount the steed and ride him well

For the white horse of heroin will ride you to Hell

To Hell

Will ride you to Hell

Until you are dead

Dead, brother, Dead

This is a revolution of the mind

Get your mind together

And get away from drugs

That’s the man

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