America The Ugly

There was a man came to see the USA from a foreign land

To photograph the progress of dear old Uncle Sam

He got off the boat in New York went down to the Bowery

I know what the man went to photograph and to see

There were hopeless hungry living dead

Winos who sell their souls for a bottle of a cheapest red

That's the picture that he wanted

And that's what he got they say America the ugly today

He went to the Appalachians and he saw what we all have seen

Where people live on bread and soup fat back and pinto beans

He saw the hungry children and he photographed the ragged clothes

I guess we're gonna try to tell him that it ain't so

There were good men standin' around with nothing to do

Pregnant young women who didn't even have a pair of shoes

The man got his pictures and what are we going to say America the ugly today

Then he went to the medicare centers and he saw the old people there

It seems that the young generation just didn't want 'em in their hair

He saw the poor man workin' it out while the mighty rich lives high

And my friend that brings a gleam to the enemy's eyes

There were some folks had plenty and some had none at all

The enemy knows when a heart gets hard the country is bound to fall

If we get heads and hearts together we won't have to hear them say

America the ugly today America the ugly today