pregnant teens on the barton street bus homeless people living off crust and there s a beat up town car it s starting to rust hard soles are kicking up dust half a million people living in the corpse of the brown brick 50 s to the north all the small town outcasts are now the big city bourgeoisie all the boys in the halfway houses wave to the girls of emerald street our calloused fingers blood red on the brick but we hold on we ll never falter though they want us to slip we hold on the desperate downtown stealing bikes drunks in the village are picking fights so police line the streets to read them their rights no controlling hot summer nights the sun goes down on the edge of town at the end of everyday we sit and watch the stack on fire to the east across the bay all the boys in the halfway houses wave to the girls of emerald street our calloused fingers blood red on the brick but we hold on we ll never falter though they want us to slip we hold on there s something in the church belfry at the corner of victoria and king and it screams out into the night it sings this city s plight all the boys in the halfway houses wave to the girl on emerald street our calloused fingers blood red on the brick but we hold on we ll never falter though they want us to slip we hold on 