Riot on Broad Street

My father once told this to me Boston city's gritty history Another ruthless battle In a useless holy war Handed down discrepancies And tensions that will never ease One early afternoon on Broad Street It blew up down there for sure Broad Street 's just not broad enough And you just don't love God enough And if that isn't odd enough We've taken too much crap You've pushed us 'round the sod enough We've scrapped and rapped and jawed enough You poke, provoke, and prod enough Something's gonna snap. The Boston fire-fighting volunteers On their way to fight a fire somewhere Met with a funeral procession Proceeding way too slow A brownstone burns out of control We need to lay to rest this soul Loggerheads on Broad Street Eye to eye and toe to toe Broad Street 's just not broad enough And you just don't love God enough And if that isn't odd enough We've taken too much crap You've pushed us 'round the sod enough We've scrapped and rapped and jawed enough You poke, provoke, and prod enough Something's gonna snap Riot down on Broad Street Hand me a brick, a stick, a picket Bottle, axe or cobblestone Riot down on Broad Street If I'm going down Hell, I'm not going down alone I won't go down alone. When the fight was over They retired to the Clover Silver Dollar, Thirsty Scholar Whatever pubs they had back then The brownstone was in ashes Broken bones and bloody gashes A casket sat on Broad Street til the sun came up again Broad Street's just not broad enough And you just don't love God enough And if that isn't odd enough We've taken too much crap You've pushed us 'round the sod enough We've scrapped and rapped and jawed enough You poke, provoke, and prod enough Something's gonna snap Riot down on Broad Street Hand me a brick, a stick, a picket Bottle, axe or cobblestone Riot down on Broad Street If I'm going down Hell, I'm not going down alone. Riot down on Broad Street.