Look out, kid

Johnny's in the basement
mixin' up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinkin' about the government
The man in the trench coat,
badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid,
it's something you did
God knows when but
you're doing it again
You better duck down the alley-way,
Looking for a new friend,
The man in the coon-skin cap
by the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
they must bust in early May
Orders from the D.A.
Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip-toes
Don't try "No-Doz"
Better stay away from those
who carry 'round a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
watch the plainclothes
You don't need a weather man
to know which way the wind blows

Get sick get well
Hang around the ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army if you fail
Look out kid, you're gonna get hit
But users, cheaters,
six-time losers
hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Looking for a new fool
Don't follow leaders
watch the parking meters

Ah, get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin' and
they put you on the day shift
Look out kid,
they keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't want to be a bum,
you better chew gum
the pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles
---------------------------
["Subterranean Homesick Blues,"
Bringing It All Back Home,
1965. Columbia Records.]

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