Street War lyrics

You can see it on the TV (or in a magazine)

And you can read it in the headlines (it's bloody Halloween)

Behind the politics of freedom (and burning gasoline)

If we keep drivin' on this freeway, it's goodnight, Josephine.

Eyes ablaze with virtue, they raise the sword of state

But still I see no compromise, it's our heart upon the slate

We're driven to the ledges, just one step to the wire

We're under siege, it's face to face, one spark can start a fire.

Street war, they're burning in the ghetto

Street war, there's writing on the wall

Street war, you can't paint over anger

Street war, the rock's about to fall.

You can dial up a murder (you're watchin' 911)

Or you can tune into a psychic force, the mystery has just begun

And if you wanna see the kids at school, you'd better take a gun

There'll be a curfew in the dead of night until we see the risin' sun.

Crazy-eyed fanatics, militia man invades

Inspired by insanity to storm the barricades

Where diamonds buy election, the soul of freedom bleeds

For the martyr and the madman, it's the flame on which it feeds.

Street war, we're blinded by ambition

Street war, we turn the other cheek

Street war, the guilty stand convicted

Street war, by every word they speak.

Street war, we're blinded by ambition

Street war, we turn the other cheek

Street war, the guilty stand convicted

Street war, by every word they speak.

Street war, it's trial by oppression

Street war, we're strung out on a plate

Street war, for every dream you vaporize

Street war, you sow the seeds of hate.

• Artist:Emerson, Lake & Palmer
• Album:In The Hot Seat (1994)