Bayonne Blues - Janis Ian

I was raised in New York City, where the money grows on trees

And the flowers all look gritty and the people look diseased

Come up from New Jersey where I sung the Bayonne Blues

I watched the roller derby on the seven-thirty news

I thought I’d be a folksinger

I went down to Macdougal Street

And Bleeker where the stars got stoned

But the union hall was closed

And the stars out on the road

Making money singing anti-money songs

I went back up to Broadway.

I took the IRT

An old man in a raincoat parked his body next to me

«Do you want to make some money fast?»

And then he grabbed me by the ass

I got derailed on Forty-Second street

I asked somebody for the time

She asked me to her room

She said «I've got a water bed»

I said «I've got the flu

«You look just like a friend of mine

«I never liked too well

«She sold picture postcards

«Of the crack in the Liberty Bell»

I went into the Taco Bell to get myself some lunch

They rushed me to the hospital to have my stomach pumped

Run over on the corner by a wheelchair with no horn

I fell into a manhole and was baptized and re-born

I moved out to Long Island

Bought a color TV

I watch the doctor shows

I’m a soap opera queen

I think I got pneumonia

I’m sure I’ve got TB

It may not be a hell of a life

But it’s life enough for me