This is called The Vulture And a lot of people think it's a poem And after they hear me sing it they're sure it's a poem But, uh We're gonna take a shot at it anyway Remember this is a feel like thing Do whatever you feel like If you feel like clapping your hands You can do that Standing in the ruins Oh, of another black man's life Or flying through the valley There, separating day and night "I am death", cried the vulture "Yes, for the people of the light" Charon brought his raft Then came from a sea that sails on souls I saw the scavenger departing Oh, taking warm hearts to the cold He knew the ghetto was a haven For the meanest creature ever known In a wilderness of heartbreak Yes and a desert of despair Evil's clarion of justice Oh, shrieks a cry of naked terror He's taking babies from their mamas And leaving grief beyond compare You see the vulture coming And he's flying circles in your mind There'll be no escaping For he will follow close behind Only promised me a battle Yeah, a battle for your soul and mine Your soul and mine He's taking babies from their mamas And he's leaving Leaving Leaving Leaving Leaving Thank you, that's called The Vulture

And from the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims And to the buffalos who one ruled the plain Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds Looking for the rain Looking for the rain Just like the cities staggered on the coastline Livin' in a nation that just can't take much more Like the forest buried beneath the highway Never had a chance to grow Never had a chance to grow And now It's winter Seem like winter in America The time when all of the healers done been killed Or they been betrayed But the people know All of the them know it's winter Seem like winter in America And ain't nobody fighting, Because nobody knows what to save Save your soul Lord know it's winter in America The Constitution, a noble piece of paper would free society, It struggled but then died in vain And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner Hoping for rain It's been hoping for some rain And I see the robins perched in barren treetops They're watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor And may peace sign that vanished in our dreams Never had a chance to grow Never had a chance to grow And somebody won't know till it's winter It's cold as like winter in America This the time when all of the healers done been killed Or they been betrayed People know, all the people know it's winter Yeah, it feel like winter in America The truth is there ain't nobody fighting Because nobody know what to save Winter in America It's winter, It's cold as like winter in America This the time when all of the healers done been killed Or they been betrayed People know, some know It's winter Yeah, it seem like winter in America The truth is there ain't nobody fighting, Because nobody know what to save Nobody fighting, nobody fighting Nobody knows, nobody knows What to do, what to do The truth is there ain't nobody fighting, Because nobody knows what to save

Thank you for the song, for your accomodation capital The accomodation that we come throughout a song it's called, Washington D.C. And just as you think, you heard it all that come with a little bit force When you hear this, soon i'll keep improve, say Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight Overlords escape their evening with brothers of the night Morning come and bring the tourists, craning rubber necks Catch a glimpse of the cowboy making the world a nervous wreck It's a mass of irony for all the world to see It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. (Mmmh) May not have the glitter or the glamour of L.A. May not have the history or the intrigue of Pompeii But when it comes to making music, and sure enough making news People who just don't make sense and people making do It's a ball of contradictions, pulling different ways Between the folks who come and go, and one's who've got to stay It's a mass of irony for all the world to see It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, it's Washington D.C. Seems to me, it's still in light time people knifed up on 14th street Makes me feel it's always the right time for them people Showing up and coming clean Did make the one seem kind of numb Again, it's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, it's Washington D.C. (Mmh) Symbols of democracy, pinned up against the coast Outhouse of bureaucracy, surrounded by a moat Citizens of poverty are barely out of sight Overlords escape here in the brothers of the night Morning come and bring the tourists, craning rubber necks Catch a glimpse of the cowboy making the world a nervous wreck It's a mass of irony for all the world to see It's the nation's capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, it's Washington D.C. It's the nation's capital I'm talking about the capital, feel anything the capital It's Washington D.C. It's the biggest capital, sure and I'm sing it's the capital The punishment is capital in Washington D.C. Say, somebody say, somebody say Where you going?, what you do? It's the nation's capital, sure you don't feel the capital? I'm talking about the capital, a-aha-aha Say, yeah, go about but, I don't care but Washington D.C. Thank very much, thank you, thank you very much appreciated

Because I always feel like running Not away because there's no such place Because if there was, I would've found it by now Because it's easier to run Easier than staying and finding out You're the only one who didn't run Because running will be the way Your life and mine will be described As in "the long run" Or as in having given someone a "run for his money" Or as in "running out of time" Because running makes me look like everyone else Though I hope there will never be cause for that Because I will be running in the other direction Not running for cover Because if I knew where cover was I would stay there and never have to run for it Not running for my life Because I have to be running for something of more value To be running and not in fear Because the thing I fear cannot be escaped Eluded, avoided, hidden from, protected from, gotten away from Not without showing the fear as I see it now Because closer, clearer, no sir, nearer Because of you and because of that nice That you quietly, quickly be causing And because you're going to see me run soon And because you're going to know why I'm running then You'll know then Because I'm not going to tell you now

His eyes half-closed revealed his world of nod A world of lonely men and no love, no god His life of seeming nonchalance can't hide The pain and fear that in his mind reside From dawn till dawn, his body houses hurt And none of us can truly aid his search We sit outside and sing cliches, the fool It's always easy to forecast other's doom The savage beast that once so soothed his brain Has reared it's ugly head and staked its claim Call Yama, here sits one more soul That he will have to add to sorrows toll These men, still men, would be like you and me But when the world reached out they chose to flee