American Gangster Time

One, two, three, four

Somewhere downtown a pretty girl kneels

Offers her soft lips and a handful of pills

Peels off her dress and then the rest of her skills

It buys what she wants and the rest she just steals

He speaks between deep swallows of rum

While her head is beating like a big bass drum

And she wishes he were mute and not just dumb

When the trick asked her quick, "Did you come?"

It's a drag

Saluting that starry rag

I'd rather go blind

For speaking my mind

Or use it just like a gag

So raise it in anger

Just let it hang

American Gangster Time

He sits back and starts to invent

All about some Saigon correspondent

"'Til the carbine fell silent and spent

I never knew it could be so eloquent"

Next week there'll be some fashionable new sin

For each harlot and each Puritan

Pull off their wings stick them on a pin

And just watch the money roll in

It's a drag

Saluting that starry rag

I'd rather go blind

For speaking my mind

Or use it just like a gag

So raise it in anger

Just let it hang

American Gangster Time

What you got hidden up your sleeve?

The tracks of the train that were bidding you to leave

When they say that you should flatter to deceive

Don't count on any reprieve

The hands of the helpless are raised

Your dead little secrets are praised

The people stand dumbstruck and dazed

By the inches that you have erased

It's a drag

Saluting that starry rag

I'd rather go blind

For speaking my mind

Or use it just like a gag

So raise it in anger

Just let it hang

American gangster time

Committing the perfect crime

In American Gangster Time

Here we go

Bye bye

American Gangster Time