42nd Street (G. Kooymans/E.H. Roelfzema) 1999 Paradise In Distress

Spiralling leapers wearing Nike sneakers, some of them laugh, some of them sing
Some of them don’t do a goddamn thing
Trip-skipping drifters, grafters and lifters, chicks with big tits, school boys with zits
Moonlight circus of earthly delight, pimpmobile cruising the soft velvet night
Deals are going down, midnight in town

Down into the subway, the underground tunnel, a musician is playing, a drunk man stumble
Out in the park it’s scary with fright, somebody shot out all the streetlight

Hookers and boozers, bookies and floozies, all kind of misfits, perverts and losers
Out of the limo that looks like a boat, the pimp steps out in a mink fur coat
Sporting a Fedora creating it’s own aura, a ruby-tooth grin, a diamond stick pin
Deals are going down this side of town

Well people walk on fleet feet on the way down to 42nd
Except for the bums down for the count, that one’s dead, but no one’s found out
And look at the bitch with her dress up her ass, she’s gotta move real fast

Cop with a nightstick checking around, a neon lit junkie sliding to the ground
Here comes a flasher, a jogger and a punk, check out that guy, he is drunk as a skunk
Blinking, reflecting, lights melt in the rain, the sidewalks are empty, nothing’s the same
4 A.M. people are crashing
Where the hookers are huddled, coloured raindrops are splashing
The deals have gone down, the bimbo’s split town
Burned from the hustle, burned from the hype
But under the lights I’m feeling alright, on 42nd Street, it’s just another night