Gates of the West - The Clash

(strummer/jones)

I would love to be the lucky one on chill

Avenue

Who could keep your heart warm when ice has turned it blue

But with the beggin' sleeping losers as they turn in for the night

I'm looking back for home and I can see the lights

I should be jumpin' shoutin' that I made it all this way

From camden town station to 44th and 8th

Not many make it this far and many say we're great

But just like them we walk on an' we can't escape our fate

Can't you hear the sighing

Eastside jimmy and southside sue

Both say they needed something new

So I'm standing at the gates of the west

I burn money at the lights of the sign

The city casts a shadow of the perfect crime

I'm standing at the gates of the east

I take my pulse and the pulse of my friend

The city casts a shadow, will I see you again?

The immigrants an' remnants of all the glory years

Are clustered around the bar again for another round of beers

Little richard's in the kitchen playing spoons and plates

He's telling the waitress he's great

Ah say I know somewhere back'n'forth in time

Out on the dustbowls, deep in the roulette mine

Or in a ghetto cellar only yesterday

There's a move into the future for the usa.

I hear them crying

Eastside jimmy and southside sue

Both said they needed something new

Standing at the gates of the west

In the shadow again

I'm standing at the gates of the west

In the shadow again