7th Avenue

Top of the world ma!!

Verse One
Wish I was back!
Wish I was back with all them cats!
Tearing it up, man, just like we used to do.
All decked out like the Devil’s own
On Butane fumes and Bad cologne
And fleecing sheep along the avenue.

When every wheel had a dame
And every dame looked so fine
With painted eyes, and smoky blue perfume
Grab your tailored drapes and your lucky dice,
‘Cause man we going out tonight
They waitin’ for us along the avenue

We could be down at the diner, eating red beans and rice
Could be at the Coliseum, sippin’ Champagne on ice,
I’m a telling you man, there was no better place to be,
Than right then and right there, standin’ next to me!

Ah! The fine saloons and drinkin’ holes
The marquee lights and burlesque shows
Would open like a soft nocturnal bloom
And the jazz would fill the air
And curl like smoke and lick your ear
As it drifted down old Seventh Avenue

(Chorus)
And I say take me back
I say now won’t you take me back
Oh, take me back now,
Back to Seventh Avenue
And I say take me back
I say now won’t you take me back
Uh-huh

(Verse Two)

‘Cause man, we never worked a single day in our lives,
We were the biggest sports that this town ever knew
We turned a dollar for the revelry,
living out of lechery
Merchandise stigmatized with disrepute

We ran the sweetest operation
Had a piece of all the action
How the cops got wise, well, no one really knew
We stuck the books up in a toilet stall,
And let some sucker take the fall
Then disappeared down old Seventh Avenue

We could be down at the diner, eating red beans and rice
Could be at the Coliseum, sippin’ Champagne on ice,
Well, I’m a tellin’ you officer, there’s nothing you can pin on me!
I got witnesses that say, they was standin’ next to me!

And in the event of my demise,
Call up my favorite chorus line
Let my requiem be a music hall revue.
By one and all let it be said
That while alive I surely lived
Then lay bones to rest on Seventh Avenue

(Chorus)

Call it business, call it criminal
Distinctions are political
You take your seat and you play the hand that’s dealt you
Lay your trump and take your trick
And know that only hypocrites
Will say they’re lookin’ out for number two

And while the cowards clung to Mama’s hem
And all the Statute laws of men
We breathe the musk of every last taboo
And with every single scandal spent
And nothing left to rebel against
We still holed up on Seventh Avenue

We could be down at the diner, eating red beans and rice
Could be at the Coliseum, sippin’ Champagne on ice,
I’m a telling you man, there was on better place to be,
Than right then and right there, and standin’ next to me!

And could it be that it was true
That this silent, awe-struck moon
That lit the night, shone for other mortals too?
Or could it be that we were blessed
And he existed just for us,
Transfixed on the spectacle of Seventh Avenue?

Chorus

Lay me down on the Avenue!