Sleep like a baby, my little lady
Dream till the sunrise creeps into your eyes
Dream till the sunrise turns on the dayIn the avenues and alleyways
While you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Able and his brother, fighting one another in and out of every diveThe avenues and alleyways
Where the strong and the quick alone can survive
Look around the jungle, see the rough and tumble, listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later in the morning paper read about the way he diedWake up, my pretty, go to the city
Stay through the daytime safe in the sunshine
Stay till the daytime turns into nightIn the avenues and alleyways
Where a man's gotta work out which side he's on
Any way he chooses chances are he loses, no one gets to live too longThe avenues and alleyways
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy
Everybody's wheeling, everybody's steeling, all the low are living high
Every city's got 'em, can we ever stop 'em? Some of us are gonna try