The Message (12" Single Version)

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

Broken glass everywhere

People pissing on the stage, you know they just don't care

I can't take the smell, can't take the noise

Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice

Rats in the front room, broke dudes in the back

Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat

I tried to get away but I couldn't get far

'Cause the man with the judge repossessed my car

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge

I'm tryin' not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

Standing on the front stool, hanging out the window

Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow

A crazy lady, livin' in the bag, eating out of garbage pales, used to be a fag

Searchin' has to tangle, skip the life and dangle

'Cause you're gon' print to sing they lost us so soon

Down at the peep show, watching all the creeps

So she can tell the stories to the girls back home

She went to the city and got so, so, so dizzy

She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge

I'm tryin' not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

My brother's doin' best on my mother's TV

Says she watches too much, it's just not healthy

All my children in the daytime, Dallas at night

Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray Fight

The bill collectors that ring my phone

And scare my wife when I'm not home

Got a flunk education, double-digit inflation

Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station

Neon King Kong standing on my back

Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac

Mid-range migraine, cancered membranes

Sometimes I think I'm goin' insane, I swear I might hijack a plane

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge

I'm tryin' not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

My son said, "Daddy, I don't wanna go to school"

'Cause the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool

And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper

If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper

Dance to the beat, shuffle my feet

Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps

'Cause it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny

You've got to have a car in this land of milk and honey

They pushed that girl in front of the train

Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again

Stabbed that man right in his heart

Gave him a transplant for a brand new start

I can't walk through the park 'cause it's crazy after dark

Keep my hand on my gun 'cause they got me on the run

I feel like an outlaw, broke my last last jaw

Hear them say: "You want some more?" Living on a see-saw

Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge

I'm tryin' not to lose my head

Say what?

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

A child is born with no state of mind

Blind to the ways of mankind

God is smiling on you, but he's frowning too

Because only God knows what you gon' do

You'll grow in the ghetto, living second rate

And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate

The places you play and where you stay

Looks like one great big alleyway

You'll admire all the number booktakers

Those pencil pushers and the big moneymakers

Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens

And you wanna grow up to be just like them

Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers

Pickpocket peddlers, even panhandlers

You say I'm cool, I'm no fool

But then you wind up dropping out of high school

Now you're unemployed, all null and void

Walking 'round like you're pretty boy Floyd

Turned stick-up kid, but look what you done did

God sent up for an eight year bid

Now your man who mistook in you, and make time

Spend the next two years as an undercover fag

Being used and abused to serve like hell

'Til one day you will find him dead in a cell

It was plain to see that your life was lost

'Cause you was cold and your body swung back and forth

But now yeah, I sing the sad, sad song

Of how you live so fast and die so young

So don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge

I'm tryin' not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under

Yo Mel, you see that girl there? (Yeah man)

Yo, that sound like cowboy man, that's not cool

Yo, wassup money? (Yo)

Where's fieldin' and right here, man

They upstairs coolin' out

So what's up for the night, y'all?

Yo, we could go down the field

Let's go check out Juniper, man

Hey yo, do you know that girl Betty? (Yeah man)

Her mom's got robbed, man (what, not again?)

I heard (when did this happen, when did this happen?)

Alright freeze, don't nobody move nothin', y'all know what this is

Get 'em up man (we're Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, man)

Shut up, I don't wanna hear y'all now

Officer, officer, what's the problem?

You the problem

Yo, you ain't gotta push him, man

Get in the car, get in the- guys, I said get in the car